Recruiting- What have you done lately?

[pdg]

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.

So how is it supposed to help?

All my MA 'friends' are either here or at the dojang. Other friends have zero MA interest anyway.

The ones at the dojang I'm sure wouldn't have much interest (and I have spoken to a few about it).


How about you - have you mentioned it to everyone in your school(s)? Put up posters?

 

[dvcochran]

So how is it supposed to help?

All my MA 'friends' are either here or at the dojang. Other friends have zero MA interest anyway.

The ones at the dojang I'm sure wouldn't have much interest (and I have spoken to a few about it).


How about you - have you mentioned it to everyone in your school(s)? Put up posters?

Posters, no of course not. I have boosted it to some BB's but I have not encouraged any color belts. Not sure why. Maybe it is the dark side of the forum keeping me back.

 

[dvcochran]

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).

1 thru 5 - I fully Agree.
I just wanted to put it out there for the value of the explanations. It is good to hear the how & why of the inner workings of things. For me anyway.
No frills is a bit of an overstatement but I like the simplicity of the site. It minimizes distractions and does what it can to keep posts on topic without internal manipulation. People really get to speak there mind here. That is strongest point your reply makes.
If I thought there was censorship of my post here I would have been gone some time ago.
I hope everyone else see's it the same way and respectfully sees the self responsibility needed to have this freedom.

 

[pdg]

Posters, no of course not. I have boosted it to some BB's but I have not encouraged any color belts. Not sure why. Maybe it is the dark side of the forum keeping me back.

Maybe it's a subconscious assessment of their personalities?

Most of the colour belts I know I wouldn't think to be open enough (or have enough interest) to get anything out of a multidiscipline environment such as this.

I was 4th kup when I joined, but I'd already been looking for something similar when I found this - history and development is an interest that I discovered...

There's maybe one or two people at the dojang who I'd consider that may be interested, but I don't see them often.

 

[pdg]

1 thru 5 - I fully Agree.
I just wanted to put it out there for the value of the explanations. It is good to hear the how & why of the inner workings of things. For me anyway.
No frills is a bit of an overstatement but I like the simplicity of the site. It minimizes distractions and does what it can to keep posts on topic without internal manipulation. People really get to speak there mind here. That is strongest point your reply makes.
If I thought there was censorship of my post here I would have been gone some time ago.
I hope everyone else see's it the same way and respectfully sees the self responsibility needed to have this freedom.

I actually find it quite restrictive here with what I can say on certain topics, so I try to stay out of them...

I'm quite sure it's a cultural thing though - this forum is very US centric and I really do have to work on making sure I self censor sufficiently (I don't always succeed )

Anything remotely political (I'm still struggling with what actually constitutes politics in the eyes of the site admin, and have asked for guidance which hasn't appeared so there are still plenty of slips) or religious for instance - it's the same in other forums I've used before that the US based ones tend to get way carried away and easily offended compared to UK ones where we can natter for ages with conflicting viewpoints and opinions and still be friends and chat on other subjects with no spillover because it's far from overridingly important to us.

Still, that sort of stuff is usually a small enough part of the forum that I can usually ignore it and not miss it if it's pointed out...

 

[dvcochran]

I actually find it quite restrictive here with what I can say on certain topics, so I try to stay out of them...

I'm quite sure it's a cultural thing though - this forum is very US centric and I really do have to work on making sure I self censor sufficiently (I don't always succeed )

Anything remotely political (I'm still struggling with what actually constitutes politics in the eyes of the site admin, and have asked for guidance which hasn't appeared so there are still plenty of slips) or religious for instance - it's the same in other forums I've used before that the US based ones tend to get way carried away and easily offended compared to UK ones where we can natter for ages with conflicting viewpoints and opinions and still be friends and chat on other subjects with no spillover because it's far from overridingly important to us.

Still, that sort of stuff is usually a small enough part of the forum that I can usually ignore it and not miss it if it's pointed out...

I consider myself a pretty open book. I was raised on southern US manners in the bible belt, which I am very thankful for, but I think I get where you are coming from. I am not at all liberal but I also do not worry too much about what I say on any forum. There is a certain amount of elegance to the anonymity. That said, I am not going to be a jerk unless someone invokes it, then I have no problem being a dxxk. There is a value to both sides in that.

 

[Buka]

I told some folks about MT. How do they actually sign up to join?

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I told some folks about MT. How do they actually sign up to join?

At the top right, where you see alerts, there should be an option saying log in or sign up. Click on that, and one of the questions is do you have an account? Click "no create an account now" and follow prompts