Alright guys, I've really noticed that the forum has died out. There are times when posts won't come in for weeks. I believe that a strong way of communication, in this case a forum, is a great way to bring a community together.
I frequent on another Parkour forum and have gotten to know lots of people from around the US by just posting and reading threads everyday. But on WAPK I don't know anyone at all. If I've met you at the Parkour Visions gym before, I wouldn't know it. I can't connect people on the forum I've talked to, to the people I've met at jams. At the National Jam I met some people I knew through the other Parkour forum I used, and they were from the other side of the country. I even knew what they did in their local scene, how active it was, and what the lastest news was. All from an active forum and website. But on WAPK, I haven't heard anything. There are also times when visiting traceurs ask for some information and don't receive any. That's would suck if it was me expecting for some awesome jams, but didn't get a reply.
So as you can see, if we can bring back activity to these boards, we can strengthen the community. Everyone can help by just visiting the forum everyday, and posting too. Once discussion starts, activity increases, and a strong forum is created.
Brett and I have recently become moderators to help with managing the forum. We're here to improve the forum and bring the activity back.
Please, We want to know what ideas you have for improvements of the forum!
So let's brain storm ideas for making Washington Parkour more useful for the community (I'll add to the list if we think of anything!):
- Everyone starts posting or even viewing the forum again.
- Post, post, post! Don't spam, but actually POST instead of just reading a thread and walking away.
- Actually USE the forum! There are boards for everyday discussion, talking of parkour, talking of cool pictures and videos. Put up any cool picture or video you've found, share it with everyone!
- Use REAL NAMES on your forum account. If your name is "Killaking323", how will we know who you are in real life? How can we get to learn about the traceur side of you? Because this is the internet, you don't have to use your full name. I use "Matthew W". Since you can't change your forum account name, simply put your name in your signature or someplace we can see it.
- New forum boards? What kind of forums would you like to see on WAPK?
- Website improvements?
- Anything else you can add to the list?
Proposed improvements:
- Clear up the clutter of stickies and announcements on the boards. It's hard to find the simple things like rules and navigate with so many.
- Add another forum board for visiting traceurs. It should be where guests can post so they don't have to register. It will also allow the visiting traceur to get quick replies and for all of us to know there's someone visiting.
- A forum board for discussion of learning techniques and "moves". This will help un-clutter the forum.
- An FAQ forum.
- There are many out of date threads for jams, classes, and such. Update these threads.
It's going to take awhile for us to work together and really reorganize the forum. But over time, they'll all be made. Slow and steady wins the race.
