Do we really need to see photo-evidence to verify every belt-grade? Will not a verified coach or trainingpartner do? I'm all for higher belts providing photo evidence (It would be strange for a blackbelt to omit a promotion-photo in this day and age), but not everyone is into sharing photos of everything they do.

It’s called BeltChecker for a reason. Give enough evidence to get “checked” and then you will receive votes

People can add what they feel is enough and see if it gets them verified. Thats the great part of a community of voters who all have their own criteria

Do we really need to see photo-evidence to verify every belt-grade? Will not a verified coach or trainingpartner do?

If the person who said they promoted them was on here and verified, that would be good enough for me personally

On the other hand, ignoring the standard set by an existing community while attempting to join seems to be a poor way to get notice of the people you're walking into the home of, isn't it? You wipe your feet at the door and bow before you step on the mat, after all. When I go through the page of Profiles needing Votes (here: https://www.beltchecker.c[...]dvotes.php ) - All I can think is how goddamn lazy some people are. They'd rather argue over someone's comment to add more information when they voted to dispute... than just actually adding the information into the profile in the first place. 'Here's a random instagram page for my gym,' in response to a vote dispute isn't exactly reading the room where the default is that the onus is on the person creating the profile to provide the necessary evidence to have their rank verified. (Now, I'd probably suggest to Christian that the little photo icon under each belt rank itself on profiles could be more obvious, but when someone is editing their promotion history to include the belt, the area to upload photos for each belt is *right there* in the exact same spot.) It's really not that hard to provide the necessary information and despite that... some people here went above and beyond to verify other peoples' profiles for them. They, however, cannot upload the necessary photos to the profiles for them. If someone isn't providing an upload of their certificate or a promotion photo because they're not into 'sharing photos of everything they do,' then why sign up? That is the explicit purpose of this site.

I suggested this back in the early days when getting verified was more difficult and got shot down. Especially at blue belt it seems like a verified instructor claiming you would be good enough and would at least get you started. IIRC the reasoning for not allowing this was because part of the purpose of belt checker is to verify your belt if you have a falling out with your instructor. If that happened and they pulled their vote it wouldn't fulfill that purpose as it is supposed to.

I suggested this back in the early days when getting verified was more difficult and got shot down. Especially at blue belt it seems like a verified instructor claiming you would be good enough and would at least get you started. IIRC the reasoning for not allowing this was because part of the purpose of belt checker is to verify your belt if you have a falling out with your instructor. If that happened and they pulled their vote it wouldn't fulfill that purpose as it is supposed to.

Fair enough. I have an issue whereby my promoting instructor is quite literally on the other side of the world and there isn't a higher belt in our lineage that can promote me, so we'll have to figure out what evidence I can offer!

Fair enough. I have an issue whereby my promoting instructor is quite literally on the other side of the world and there isn't a higher belt in our lineage that can promote me, so we'll have to figure out what evidence I can offer!

I would have thought there are enough black belts in the BJJ Globetrotter network near you that would be happy to evaluate you, if that's what you wanted? E.g., I would, as I know you pretty well and have watched you progress over the years.

Detailed profiles with overwhelming evidence or bust.

Show me a guy who wouldn’t take a pic of his promotion because he is ”not into sharing photos of everything he does” but also feels the need to get his jiu jitsu belt verified by people on the internet 😂

Haha, yeah I can see how that phrase did not help make the point. My concern is simply that the point of entry for lowerbelts is a bit high in some cases. Downvoting is not needed when an absent vote will do the job, in my opinion. But everyone has their own criteria, and the platform will be made up of those who care the most about theirs.

Show me a guy who wouldn’t take a pic of his promotion because he is ”not into sharing photos of everything he does” but also feels the need to get his jiu jitsu belt verified by people on the internet 😂

Show me a guy who wouldn’t take a pic of his promotion because he is ”not into sharing photos of everything he does” but also feels the need to get his jiu jitsu belt verified by people on the internet 😂

I do see your point. Personally I don’t downvote anyone’s profile unless something is clearly fraudulent. I will leave them a message suggesting they add more evidence to speed up the verification process. I disagree with downvoting people based on lack of photos, because if you stop using the site for whatever reason, your downvote will permanently be on their profile long after the requested evidence was uploaded.

I suggested this back in the early days when getting verified was more difficult and got shot down. Especially at blue belt it seems like a verified instructor claiming you would be good enough and would at least get you started. IIRC the reasoning for not allowing this was because part of the purpose of belt checker is to verify your belt if you have a falling out with your instructor. If that happened and they pulled their vote it wouldn't fulfill that purpose as it is supposed to.

Downvoting is not needed when an absent vote will do the job, in my opinion.

Sucks to be me who had zero social media presence between 2000 and 2014 aside from work related stuff and still hates posting anything on insta/Facebook 🤣 Zero photographic evidence of my only promotion. I don't think my students care, too busy having fun.

I sure hope you wont promote any students to colored belts while you're a blue belt anyways, so is a verification of your own degree really a priority right now? You can just remove the info on one of your belts (I think you can even remove the white belt, with your starting date) and you'll basically have access to everything on Belt checker anyways. You just can't up vote anyone. You can always go for the verification at a later date, when you have made sure to get good evidence for purple and perhaps brown. With good evidence for higher belts, the blue belt evidence doesn't really need to be a deal breaker.

I don't promote as we do no gi and MMA. Although we are now putting the gi on now and then. I have no issues as to my ability as a coach and have student from another club training with us who is under a great purple belt and it was the purple that contacted me to have the student train with us. I've been coaching since 2005 so really have nothing to prove. I filled out my profile today at work while bored and suffering from toothache just to pass the time and because we are a globetrotter affiliate club. I don't expect anyone to verify me 😁

I would recommend making the profile unvoteable then, by removing an earlier belt. Voteable profiles without evidence will forever scream for attention in the needing votes section, so at least I make sure to mark them with negative points so they don't steal attention from profiles deserving of a quick verification.

I am actually waiting from a response from people I know on here who may be able to start my verification if they see fit. Down voting a profile for existing is a tad harsh, and not what I would see as healthy. Especially as I literally created it a few hours ago 🤣 these things take time, and I am a patient human.