The Aikido Forum on this bulletin board is a serious forum for academic discussion on topics relevant to aikido. Since aikido developed from other arts like ju-jutsu and certain sword arts, it is inevitable that there will be some overlap. However, in E-Budo.com there are other forums for discussing these arts individually, for koryu as a whole, and for gendai budo as a whole, and the moderators will move threads that we consider more relevant to these others forums than to aikido.

Certain themes tend to be interesting to everybody. Nevertheless, some of these themes have been gone over so many times, with the contents more or less repeated, that it is at the least boring to see them again. Then there are themes used mainly by two groups of people: (1) Some people have a hobby of raising questions, usually rhetorical, and of using these questions as a means of pursuing a particular viewpoint, impervious to any other opinions; (2) people (called trolls) who simply raise questions to entice other users to enter into a dialogue which ultimately turns out to be meaningless, or to goad other posters into making angry responses. These threads are best left alone.

Well-Worn Threads

These include discussions about KI; about the effectiveness of aikido as a martial art, especially in the street, or in regard to other martial arts like Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu; about the place of weapons practice in aikido training; about comparisons of different aikido "styles"-especially in respect of quality or effectiveness...these are topics that generate passion and all too often degenerate into ad hominem squabbles. Research these topics, either in the E-Budo archives, or in your own area of expertise, before restarting them- and be prepared to support what you state with new and/or hard evidence.

To New Members

Welcome to E-Budo and to the Aikido Forum. One of the strengths of E-Budo is the vast breadth of experience displayed, over the entire martial arts spectrum. There are people participating in this and other forums who have many decades of experience under their belts, who can walk their talk, and whose talk in any case makes a whole lot of sense.

It is sometimes really irritating to see posts asking the same questions and regurgitating the same discussions that have been gone over in other threads in the same forum. So, new users, take a moment and look at the opening Aikido forum screen. You will see a line saying:

Showing threads 1 to x of x, sorted by (choose) in (choose) order, from (another choice).

These choices allow you to see all the archived topics going right back to the start of the forum. Please use this feature to browse the topics and get a feel for what has been discussed already.

Also, on the same opening page, you will see a Search this forum option. You can and should use this option to research the topic before you post your topic or question because if it is a 'usual' topic, many thousands of words will probably have been written already.

Moderator

Members should be aware, however, that this is a discussion forum and is thus rather different from a dojo. It is quite possible to argue quite strongly with other members, but still show the mutual respect necessary in a dojo. As moderators we are here to see that this happens as far as possible. Thus we will not tolerate any flame wars in this forum.

This forum has one moderator. He is a long-term resident of Japan, with a general academic interest in the language and culture, who has trained in aikido for 45+ years and is the chief instructor in a local Aikikai dojo in Hiroshima. The moderator is also part-owner of the site and also has the function of a site administrator.

With best regards to all (and apologies and thanks to Messrs Nathan Scott for material freely borrowed)

Peter Goldsbury