Recruiting- What have you done lately?

[geezer]

Traditional martial arts are struggling in a lot of areas these days. So if you love what you do, whether you are an instructor or a new student, you will want to help recruit new people into your group. After all, word of mouth coming from a trusted friend, is the best advertising there is, right?

Speaking of which, what have you done lately to recruit new people to MA Talk? Things have been slowing down noticeably of late, and if you like hanging out and discussing stuff here as much as I do, maybe you can do something about that. Invite a friend to log in and post an opinion, or at least start a new thread and promote some fresh discussion. What'ya say???

 

[geezer]

OK, I'll start this off. I haven't brought anybody new on board in a while, but I know a couple of students who might enjoy this forum and I will mention it to them after class tomorrow night.

Also, since things were pretty dead this last couple of weeks down in the Wing Chun forum, I started a couple of threads down there. I was really pleased to see some of our old regulars re-appeared and posted some great responses. Score a brownie-point for the Geez!!!

OK, your turn. Report back when you've done something. I dare ya!

 

[Deleted member 39746]

Never you mind that.

 

[skribs]

I don't really try to bring new members on. I don't peg anyone at my dojang as the type to spend a lot of time on a forum.

 

[dvcochran]

I don't really try to bring new members on. I don't peg anyone at my dojang as the type to spend a lot of time on a forum.

Yea, that is not helping.

 

[dvcochran]

I very much enjoy reading posts and seeing they have been a member here for 10-20 years. Perspective is something we all lose from time to time and it is great to read other people's to help reel our own mind back in place. Of course we have to take the time to reflect and really hear what they are saying.
If I have not already said this, I very much appreciate the work that goes on to keep this site going. It is top notch compared the others I visit. They all have merit but there is much more diversity here.
An example:
@JowGaWolf has a recent post about a low kick and many of us have chimed in discussing differences in how we may do shin/oblique kicks. That is a very good thing and hopefully we are all big minded enough to learn from others here.
The Martial Arts, like nearly everything in our instant/fast food world has expanded, contracted, and consolidated. As much as anything else it is a lead, follow, or get out of the way lifestyle and this forum is a good example of that.
The Do, that has been much discussed here, is in dire need of deeper understanding by most, some more than others. It doesn't matter how physically gifted you are, that WILL fade. If we do not hone our mental capacity to offset this fact of life we will end up at best being marginal at our craft, disillusioned and bitter.
To put the cookies on the bottom shelf, we come out of the womb kicking and screaming because that is all we know. Over time we are supposed learn how to control our emotions and become able to interact with others without loosing our composure. Isn't that a great example of "The Way"?

Thank you for the motivation to invite others. I have already sent three messages to 3 MA friends.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Not much, sadly. Beyond directly inviting people from the studio I train at, I'm at a loss of what else to do. The only thing I can think of is posting on other forums, or creating a FB page/group for martialtalk, with a link to the website in the description, but the first of those ideas feels super scummy, and i dont feel like the second would be too effective.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

what have you done lately to recruit new people to MA Talk?

I have started a thread "MA strategy". There is not much respond so far. If we can share 10 person MA strategies each, among 100 members, we can collect 1,000 useful MA strategies.

I still remember there was a Hong Kong MA magazine (called New MA) that shared "personal favor combo" every week that I loved it very much. For example:

- Groin kick.
- Face punch.
- Pull your opponent's blocking arm and punch with another hand.

If we can share 10 person combos each then among 100 members, we can collect 1,000 useful combos.

We can use this forum as a database and collect useful information. What do you guys think?

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I have started a thread "MA strategy". There is not much respond so far. If we can share 10 person MA strategies each, among 100 members, we can collect 1,000 useful MA strategies.

I still remember there was a Hong Kong MA magazine called (New MA) that shared "personal favor combo" every week that I loved it very much. For example:

- Groin kick.
- Face punch.
- Pull your opponent's blocking arm and punch with another hand.

If we can share 10 person combos each then among 100 members, we can collect useful 1,000 combos.

That would be good for getting 1000 useful strategies. But wouldn't do much to getting the 100 members (or more, truthfully I'm not sure how many people are active in this forum) to the forum to begin with.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

That would be good for getting 1000 useful strategies. But wouldn't do much to getting the 100 members (or more, truthfully I'm not sure how many people are active in this forum) to the forum to begin with.

If people who train MA can find useful information in this forum, they will joint in this forum. We need something to attract new members.

 

[geezer]

I don't really try to bring new members on. I don't peg anyone at my dojang as the type to spend a lot of time on a forum.

That's equally true of a lot of people I know in the organization I belong to. Not because they are all so busy training and working that they don't have time to spend on a forum. It's more because they simply don't have the interest. Moreover, the head of our association cultivates what I see as essentially an authoritarian mindset. The rules and conventions of our system should be respected and followed, and not discussed and debated with outsiders in a public forum.

I, on the other hand, am a bit of a free-thinker. I enjoy discussions, try to keep an open mind, and have actually learned a lot over the many years I have been posting here, both from others, and even from myself. --that last bit may sound a little weird, but I've found that in having to ponder and logically explain in writing my otherwise rather vague and nebulous opinions regarding MA in general and my own styles of Wing Chun and Escrima has in helped me to understand what I do and believe more deeply.

Oh, and although it may not be al that apparent, I feel I've learned to write and express myself a little better in the process of cranking out some 6,000 plus posts over the last dozen years. At least I hope so!

So Skribs, you seem to enjoy posting here well enough (nearly 3,700 posts to date). You don't know anybody in your circle who would at least enjoy following you on this forum?

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

That's equally true of a lot of people I know in the organization I belong to. Not because they are all so busy training and working that they don't have time to spend on a forum. It's more because they simply don't have the interest. Moreover, the head of our association cultivates what I see as essentially an authoritarian mindset. The rules and conventions of our system should be respected and followed, and not discussed and debated with outsiders in a public forum.

I, on the other hand, am a bit of a free-thinker. I enjoy discussions, try to keep an open mind, and have actually learned a lot over the many years I have been posting here, both from others, and even from myself.

What I'm gathering from this-you are the qui-gon jinn while your org is like the jedi council? And you're looking for an obi-wan to join you here?

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Oh, and although it may not be al that apparent, I feel I've learned to write and express myself a little better in the process of cranking out some 6,000 plus posts over the last dozen years. At least I hope so!

So Skribs, you seem to enjoy posting here well enough (nearly 3,700 posts to date). You don't know anybody in your circle who would at least enjoy following you on this forum?

Also, this part made me look at my post count. Holy ****, I'm almost at 6k posts myself. I can't decide if that's a good or bad thing.

 

[pdg]

Also, this part made me look at my post count. Holy ****, I'm almost at 6k posts myself. I can't decide if that's a good or bad thing.

If it's bad, then mine is statistically worse...

 

[Buka]

OK, I'll start this off. I haven't brought anybody new on board in a while, but I know a couple of students who might enjoy this forum and I will mention it to them after class tomorrow night.

Also, since things were pretty dead this last couple of weeks down in the Wing Chun forum, I started a couple of threads down there. I was really pleased to see some of our old regulars re-appeared and posted some great responses. Score a brownie-point for the Geez!!!

OK, your turn. Report back when you've done something. I dare ya!

I would, but I don't actually know anyone who does Martial Arts.

I actually don't know anyone who does forums other than you guys. I mean, heck, I don't even do facebook. But let me harass a few people, tell them there's a forum waiting to tell them that they don't know sheet from tunafish.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

I haven't brought anybody new on board in a while,

Last time I tried to ask one of my friends to join in this forum, he asked me, "Why do you spend time in online discussion? What can you do if someone says something bad about you?" Even today, I still don't have a good answer for him.

A: You are a bad @#$%.
B: Tell me what you live and I'll %$#@.
A: &^%# ...
B: #$@& ...

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Last time I tried to ask one of my friends to join in this forum, he asked me, "Why do you spend time in online discussion? What can you do if someone says something bad about you?" Even today, I still don't have a good answer for him.

Here's the answer: ignore it. Either don't respond to that person, or respond and just ignore whatever insults they say. They're online, it's not like they can do anything to you.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

A: You are a bad @#$%.
B: Tell me what you live and I'll %$#@.
A: &^%# ...
B: #$@& ...

Here's an example, based on yours.
A: You are a bad @#$%..
B: So C, how's your day?
C: It's pretty good.
A: @#$% you pay attention to me %^&
B: That's good to hear C, mine was good too.

 

[dvcochran]

Traditional martial arts are struggling in a lot of areas these days. So if you love what you do, whether you are an instructor or a new student, you will want to help recruit new people into your group. After all, word of mouth coming from a trusted friend, is the best advertising there is, right?

Speaking of which, what have you done lately to recruit new people to MA Talk? Things have been slowing down noticeably of late, and if you like hanging out and discussing stuff here as much as I do, maybe you can do something about that. Invite a friend to log in and post an opinion, or at least start a new thread and promote some fresh discussion. What'ya say???

I don't want to hijack this thread in any fashion but I do have an idea, a different angle at the goal. The time since the OP is short and hopefully more posts will come in, but so far there has not been overwhelming positive response from the users on the forum, so how about soliciting for ideas on what the forum owners can do so from a higher level.
Such as:

1. Does anyone think the site needs a "fresh new look"?
2. Is there any functionality on MT which is deficient to other forums (of any format)that would be beneficial to integrate?
3. Is there functionality on MT which is superior but not being promoted or exploited? If so, why not?
4. Should there be tighter monitoring (censorship)of discussion content going sideways during a thread?
5. Is there genuine concern that beginners are being affected by some of the remarks and off topic posts they are hearing?

I am sure the list can be grown by others, and if it is something the power that be wish to act on, I guess we go from there as far as figuring out the why/how/when stuff.

 

[pdg]

I don't want to hijack this thread in any fashion but I do have an idea, a different angle at the goal. The time since the OP is short and hopefully more posts will come in, but so far there has not been overwhelming positive response from the users on the forum, so how about soliciting for ideas on what the forum owners can do so from a higher level.
Such as:

1. Does anyone think the site needs a "fresh new look"?
2. Is there any functionality on MT which is deficient to other forums (of any format)that would be beneficial to integrate?
3. Is there functionality on MT which is superior but not being promoted or exploited? If so, why not?
4. Should there be tighter monitoring (censorship)of discussion content going sideways during a thread?
5. Is there genuine concern that beginners are being affected by some of the remarks and off topic posts they are hearing?

I am sure the list can be grown by others, and if it is something the power that be wish to act on, I guess we go from there as far as figuring out the why/how/when stuff.

All my opinions, others may vary.

1. No, not at all. I have it set up so it's simply posts on a plain background. The content is the aim, there's no need for flash and fluff as filler.

2 and 3. The forum runs xenforo, which is available to anyone. That means there's nothing unique about any of the functionality. There are plenty of functionality options that appear disabled, but I think that's a good thing because it makes the forum more usable.

4. Being able to drift on a topic keeps conversations alive. If everything posted had to strictly adhere to the confines of the original topic (as defined by who anyway?) then most of the 'discoveries' wouldn't happen half as easily. This post and yours that I'm replying to don't perfectly match the thread opening topic so do they belong at all? Some stuff is already overmoderated as it is, but not quite badly enough to make me leave and at the current level I can deal with it.

The rule about linking to YouTube videos is one I heartily disagree with, but it's not a killer.

A few years ago I was on staff on a forum that decided to premoderate every message - I quit the staff as soon as it was instituted because it meant ten times more work reading and approving every single post. It also made every conversation very confusing (multiple crossed replies, some referencing something that another mod decided shouldn't be shown) - it staggered on for a month or so before closing down because the majority of the older members stopped posting and the new members couldn't follow the threads.

5. Anything I've seen that actually offensive gets removed pretty quickly (the positive side of the moderation) and off topic isn't always bad - if someone "gets affected" by that then honestly they need to get a bit less snowflakey (if they found some of the forums I've seen they'd never visit the internet again).