Cthulhu said:
When someone asks whether a certain person or group of people is a fraud and you do the research and offer your opinions is alright.
When nobody asks, and you actively go about digging into people's past on your own and then put it up unsolicited, that isn't so hot.
If Joe Blow asks if Joe Schmoe is legit and you find out otherwise and report this, fine.
If Joe Blow signs up for the board and you go snooping into his affairs for no reason, and by all appearances for the sole purpose of 'digging up' stuff, that isn't fine.
It isn't the 'fraud busting' that's the issue. It's the manner in which it is carried out.
Thank you for taking the time to differentiate between true fraud busting, and martial talk poster smearing. Fraud busting serves its purposes. If a poster wants to go to a seminar, and hasn't heard anything about the instructor, and asks a question on MT and gets sound advice, based on experience, that is one thing. It's win-win.
But when a poster comes to MT and wants to contribute, and his background becomes a battleground for all that want to slam him, then there are some who wouldn't call that "fraud busting". Smearing might be a better term. Hard to argue that it's all that friendly.
Some people seem genuinely threatened by those that claim high rank. It is interesting. Some systems dole out rank at an alarming rate, and not just western ones, but Okinawan and Japanese as well.
In Japan, there have been young high dans. One example is Shogo Kuniba who reached 7th dan at 31 (
http://www.kunibakai.org/history_of_shogo_kuniba.htm). Eizo Shimabukuro, headmaster of Shobayashi Shorin Ryu, was promoted to 10th dan at 34 by Kanken Toyama. (
http://www.okinawankarateclub.com/Shorin_Ryu.htm). Oyata was a 7th dan by the time he was 36.
In the US, there are hundreds of people still active that began training in the arts in the 60s, and thousands that began training in the 70s. For those in systems that award rank, that translates into thousands of individuals with 5th degree and above. And many of these long time practitioners are from systems with no affiliation with Japan or Okinawa and are found across North and South America, Europe, and the Middle East.
MT has become a soapbox for self-appointed fraud-busters that claim they can look at a jpeg of a diploma and then accurately judge the legitimacy and effectiveness of a system. Yet some of these same individuals have made claims that to truly understand a system, you have to train in it for years.
There are some who would like to share on MT without having to undergo an exhaustive review of their backgrounds, particularly when the review is likely to include ridicule of the system one has chosen to train in.
There are some who would like to use MT to share information about seminars, and share jpegs of training without each picture receiving a negative critique on whether a particular stance is appropriate and or hand position effective, or whether the art is a legitimate one.
There are some who would like to share all sorts of information in a friendly forum free from ridicule and verbal abuse. The past three months have shown a remarkable slide away from the friendly, as ever more emboldened individuals use the forum to denigrate those they dislike.
Is it there going to be an renewed effort at a friendly forum, or should we expect more of the same?
X10
