Are you trying to annoy me?
Here's a piece of my daily life. I get an email (or several) like this on a semi-regular basis, and thankfully not all at once. (All bold highlights are mine and spelling mistakes are the sender's) and I seriously wonder if someone is out there yanking my chain:
Email received by yours truly:
On **/**/07, ************ <*********@yahoo.com.my> wrote:
I have read through your website. I understood that you have trial lessons available. Please provide me further information. I am interested in combat arts that uses "sticks" and of course, pratical self defence. Please provide me a list of your classess, fees breakdown and time tables. As you mentioned in your website, students do enjoy other benefits as well. What are the benefits? Please reply. I do hope to start in August 07. Thanks
(name withheld)
My reply:
Hi
You can come in for 4 trial classes which are valid for any classes during a week.
Eg. You can try classes on Monday - Saturday (for a total of any 4 classes)
We don't train in anything which involves weapons, sticks, knives, etc.
You can see the classes provided in the website, fees and timetable.
I am no longer providing any benefits or discounts for college/uni students.
Thank you
Vince
to which the reply:
Thanks
********************
And so on and so on.
Logic dictates that if you start at Point A, follow any accompanying instructions, the written words will lead to you Point B, C, and so on.
To reiterate, "I have read through your website" leads me to believe that the writer has actually made the effort to do just that before writing that sentence. " Please provide me a list of your classess, fees breakdown and time tables" leaves me puzzled and confused. Did the website leave out all this important information to help with the reader's decision making process? Is someone yanking my chain???
"Please tell me what type of martial arts are you offering now?" I suppose the writer should feel honoured as I usually send this type of email to the trash folder. Not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed as they say.
If the reader had indeed read the website in its entirety, failing a total lack of reading comprehension (and I have met many of those), I don't understand how one can miss the programs being offered. Is the website vague or misleading? Is it not providing the information in a clear-cut manner? I'd love to hear from you about the website. I've received many positive comments about its layout, professional look (I used to be a pro website designer after all) and colour usage, etc. from people all over the world, but apparantly I have failed to read across to this one particular reader which has me perplexed!
Click on it. Read the contents. See if any of the information is missing, lacking or misleading. Is the choice of language and words too obtuse or vague? Let me know. Please.
Email received by yours truly:
On **/**/07, ************ <*********@yahoo.com.my> wrote:
I have read through your website. I understood that you have trial lessons available. Please provide me further information. I am interested in combat arts that uses "sticks" and of course, pratical self defence. Please provide me a list of your classess, fees breakdown and time tables. As you mentioned in your website, students do enjoy other benefits as well. What are the benefits? Please reply. I do hope to start in August 07. Thanks
(name withheld)
My reply:
Hi
You can come in for 4 trial classes which are valid for any classes during a week.
Eg. You can try classes on Monday - Saturday (for a total of any 4 classes)
We don't train in anything which involves weapons, sticks, knives, etc.
You can see the classes provided in the website, fees and timetable.
I am no longer providing any benefits or discounts for college/uni students.
Thank you
Vince
to which the reply:
A big thank you for replying. I have browse through your web. I dont really understand your program. Please tell me what type of martial arts are you offering now?
And list the training day so I may visit it.
********************
And so on and so on.
Logic dictates that if you start at Point A, follow any accompanying instructions, the written words will lead to you Point B, C, and so on.
To reiterate, "I have read through your website" leads me to believe that the writer has actually made the effort to do just that before writing that sentence. " Please provide me a list of your classess, fees breakdown and time tables" leaves me puzzled and confused. Did the website leave out all this important information to help with the reader's decision making process? Is someone yanking my chain???
"Please tell me what type of martial arts are you offering now?" I suppose the writer should feel honoured as I usually send this type of email to the trash folder. Not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed as they say.
If the reader had indeed read the website in its entirety, failing a total lack of reading comprehension (and I have met many of those), I don't understand how one can miss the programs being offered. Is the website vague or misleading? Is it not providing the information in a clear-cut manner? I'd love to hear from you about the website. I've received many positive comments about its layout, professional look (I used to be a pro website designer after all) and colour usage, etc. from people all over the world, but apparantly I have failed to read across to this one particular reader which has me perplexed!
The offending website is at: Click on it. Read the contents. See if any of the information is missing, lacking or misleading. Is the choice of language and words too obtuse or vague? Let me know. Please.
Comments
Best Wishes.
I have decided to post your comment without judgment. Perhaps Anonymous you may know me (or not). Doesn't matter.
I don't feel that I have belittled and humiliated the sender as I hid the identity of the sender. It may be something I made up entirely (who knows for sure?) but if it was my intention to send a verbal, virtual beat down on this person I would have done my best to highlight the person's name, photo, etc. but that is not my intention for this post.
You have obviously become judge and jury and decided that my post to be a power trip. Oh well.
If you read the ending comments on my post, you will notice that I ask for feedback on whether I have failed to communicate with the world at large via a poorly-worded choice of language (I have since updated the site with more localized lingo, from "Schedule" to "Timetable", "Join Us" instead of "Quickstart", "Our Location" instead of "Map", etc. on the current version of the website).
I take the blame entirely for this person's failure to understand my website, and it wasn't my intention to chide or poke fun at this person.
As such, the internet being faceless and expressionless, is ripe for all sorts of interpretations.
My bad. The post was not meant to be negative or otherwise....
Also, IMHO being a martial artist has nothing to do with the possession of high levels of thinking, egoless or attainment of highler intellect. The martial artist is just like anyone else, plumber, mechanic, golfer, etc. with the main difference being that s/he practices martial arts. I'm far from being a "true" martial artist :( and don't know many who can honestly claim that accolade.
In fact, I've met my share of many wonderful people, in possession of the virtues you identified who have nothing to do with martial arts.
Have a nice day, friend and keep smiling.
To Anonymous, the writer of this blog Vince has been my coach and friend over the last 6 years. He's also one of the most patience, tolerance and generous person I've ever met. Please read his posting with mindfulness before you make your "judgement" on someone you probably do not know.
There are all kinds of people in this world, some with lesser patience than others. People who keeps asking questions that are already addressed in the website are most likely to be in a hurry or too lazy to search for themselves. That's why forum moderators always ask their members to search if their questions have been posted before starting a new thread.
As for the website, Vince, now that you blogged about it; here are few suggestions:
1. Include an explanation on what is the Crazy Monkey Defense Program, including the history of it's development. And how it differs from the typical kickboxing styles. Or put clear words asking visitors to follow the CMDP links to know more.
2. Same applies to the BJJ program.
3. Clearly state we do not teach weapons: edge, blunt or firearms.
4. Perhaps optimised the website for IE. I need to change the text size to medium for the format to display in the right place.
Just my 2c.
Thanks for your vote of confidence but I'm sure it was simply a misunderstanding between Anonymous and I. No big deal.
Thanks for your feedback though. I've been avoiding IE for sometime now as it had so many issues with formatting, can cross browser compatibility, etc. that in the end I only use Firefox and very happy with it.
Good suggestions which I will implement however to make it clearer for site visitors to make that decision.
Yes, of course, a person who doesn’t practice martial arts could be a person of supreme spiritual nature. But surely you must agree that unlike other practices such as plumbing and mechanical work, a number of martial arts have strong roots is some kind of theory of self improvement. That self improvement is often manifest in a type of spiritualism or elevated sense of being in the person who practices the art. You came across as being that type of individual – it is for this reason that I felt such a comment in your Blog contrary to that state! Your friend Charles rightly said that some people incorrectly equate martial arts and spirituality as a rule. Yet, it is certainly not fair to say that Martial Arts is the Antithesis of spirituality. Yes, I’ve met some real mean guys training in all types of Martial Arts, but I have to say the majority have been some of the most profound people I’ve ever met.
If you feel I have judged you, forgive me. I love for others what I love for myself. I wish you the safest journey in the way of Martial Arts and hope that I can benefit from your experience on the mats one day.
Regards, Les in U.A.E. (AKA – Anonymous);)
And by the way your website is excellent. You couldn't make it clearer if you tried!
Nice of you to post again and follow up. No problems and thanks for the kind words.
I only wish to convey the correct message across to the site visitors. It probably annoys them as much as it does me when they don't "get" what I'm trying to say and with all you constructive comments I will make the needed changes to refine the site info.
Thanks and best training!