What is the strategy called?

[Alex McLeod]

It appears as if a kung fu strategy is being applied to the discussion forum, in an attempt to generate a more lively discussion. My questions are thus: is there a strategy being applied (as opposed to just the appearance of one), which strategy is it, and is it effective and appropriate to the situation?

[drunken boxer]

My answers:
- Yes it looks like there is a strategy being applied, which probably has been discussed between Sifu and the instructors
- Don't know the name of the strategy. Multiple attack maybe!
- Is it appropriate, yes. Is it effective, we will see. Lots of people seem to use facebook for kungfu chat these days, I guess there is more activity there and less here. But personally I still prefer the forum

[Andrew]

I'd like to answer your (very good) questions with a couple of my own:

- If you had to define a strategy to liven up the discussion forum, what would that be and what would you call it?
- How would you measure the efficacy of such a strategy?
- How would you modify the strategy if it proved less effective than desired?
- Which appropriate Kung Fu skills would be key in successful implementation?

[Andrew]

Lots of people seem to use facebook for kungfu chat these days, I guess there is more activity there and less here. But personally I still prefer the forum

https://www.wongkiewkit.com/forum/sh...Forum&p=138795 would be happy to receive your thoughts on this

[drunken boxer]

https://www.wongkiewkit.com/forum/sh...Forum&p=138795 would be happy to receive your thoughts on this

My thoughts are not too well-formed on this so far Siheng, but I will certainly add them yes!

[Alex McLeod]

I'd like to answer your (very good) questions with a couple of my own:

- If you had to define a strategy to liven up the discussion forum, what would that be and what would you call it?
- How would you measure the efficacy of such a strategy?
- How would you modify the strategy if it proved less effective than desired?
- Which appropriate Kung Fu skills would be key in successful implementation?

Thought provoking questions, Siheng.
I'll start with the easiest question and work backwards.

Measuring the efficacy is as simple as getting some analytics software to track relevant data points. You could do that by hand daily in an excel sheet, but software is more reliable usually. Data I would track: posts per day, separated by section, visitors per day, posts per day by top posters, new member sign ups and perhaps most importantly, replies per thread, because if no one is replying, it must not be a conversation.

If my strategy weren't as successful as desired, I would change one variable at a time until it works.

Possible strategies should both bring more conversants in, and get them talking more. Starting with the easiest tweak, I'd suggest that the banner for the discussion forum be much higher up on the page. Perhaps even linking directly on every page, like with the intensive courses. In addition to that, I'd suggest that instructors and course organizers make it known that more information can be found in the forum. To increase participation, I'd suggest looking at the most popular topics of all time to see why they were popular, and attempt to create new topics with those attributes. If I were feeling particularly spirited, I might suggest that an instructor or senior student take on an alternative forum account and get them to spar with the others by claiming things in opposition to what Sifu teaches. That way the opponent has the necessary clarity to be a challenge. You could call it the Jackie Chun strategy, named for Master Roshi's strategy to get Goku to improve by making him think someone other than Roshi was that much better than him.

Necessary skills might include clarity, signalling left and attacking right, and continuous attack.

[Andrew]

Nice thoughts and suggestions. Interestingly, most of them have been topic of discussion between instructors in the past. Maybe the time has come to start implementing some of them?

[drunken boxer]

Such a big topic. I would make a couple of divisions to sort it in my mind. Are we talking about strategies:
1. Strategies to attract more guests, potential new students, general web traffic etc; and/or:
2. Strategies to encourage existing students and forum members to participate more?

For number 1, I would make another division. Though we are sure of our content and know our arts are complete and contain both chi kung and kungfu (including taijiquan) I think in terms of marketing there is a division between the sorts of people who are usually attracted to martial arts, and the sorts who are usually attracted to healing and "wellness" arts for want of a better term.

A. In terms of arts like yoga, pilates, reiki and other forms of chi kung I guess it would involve study of other successful schools (in terms of marketing, popular classes and websites).

B. In terms of martial arts, I think the best advertisement is demonstration of combat ability in competitions, but that is hard and there are already efforts and initiatives being made towards that - I would be better to practise my sequence another 30 times and find another opponent to practise it on that I would to talk much further on it here I guess! Just two further suggestions to the Warrior Project, 30 opponents and 10 Tiger initiatives:
- Sifu has announced that there will be categories like "Practitioner" and "Protector" of the arts. Maybe there should be a category like "Standard Bearer" or "Warrior" with a lot of prestige in the school for those who take part and win in competitions.
- Maybe we need some "gamification" where people post when they spar with other people, earn points, appear on a leaderboard etc.

For number 2:
I don't really know! Maybe gamification again, or just outright coercion!

[Alex McLeod]

Nice thoughts and suggestions. Interestingly, most of them have been topic of discussion between instructors in the past. Maybe the time has come to start implementing some of them?

I think the forum is doing much better than it was for a while. I don't know that I would change the current strategy until it starts to fail or becomes unnecessary due to fulfilling its objective. To be honest, I just thought this topic would be thought provoking. Although the Jackie Chun strategy is intriguing to me. That could easily become a game of "guess whether this new opponent is a Wahnam member in disguise".

[Andrew]

the Jackie Chun strategy is intriguing to me.

Feel free to give it a try

[Alex McLeod]

Doing so now would reveal the ruse, I believe. Perhaps in 6 months or so, when it appears I've forgotten.

[Andrew]

No it wouldn't



.... I probably should've posted that under a different name