Hi Jeroen :) Good question, Greetings from Denmark

Lets get the ball rolling! :)

Verification should be voted on by a board of reviewers not the entire community. The entire community should only vote if the persons credentials and evidence aren’t enough to verify. Relying on a community that may or may not log into this website for all is just too broad of a system like my sensei isn’t in this system he’s been in judo since the 70s and holds a valid rokudan in all the major orginizations like I guess my complaint is outside of club rank most judo ranks are already verified and I doubt the voting system will ever pick up if it stays this broad.

Is this not something that the local grading (belt test), the IJF and the Kodokan already do ?

Judochecker seems to be something different. But the community on Judochecker is still small and not as regular as other forums.

That’s my point. Is if the ranks are already verified by a board and promotion committee why is it necessary for people to vote for the validity of that rank here?

In the end, I suppose none of this is actually necessary. Your local governing board should already be objective enough to grade you appropriately.

This type of verification system is more appropriate for bjj, as we don't have a panel/board, but rather, traditionally, a lineage that is very important.

Regardless, I like having my profile on here as it helps serve as something like a CV/resume, and it helps me keep track of my achievements which will theoretically count toward my next rank.

For example, when I was applying for my shodan, I just sent a link to my judochecker profile, and, along with the appropriate signatures from a higher rank judoka, my paperwork was easily approved.

Without a doubt I see this as having the potential to be an amazing tool and I agree that voting on rank verification can be an amazing asset but there should just be a regular verification method for those with verified rank that would streamline the process and create a larger pool of voters by recognizing that their rank is already verified my ranks for example date all the way back to 2014 across 3 governing bodies usa judo, usja and atja now i could see voting being necessary to validate say my club rank of shodan(just saying in general club ranks can be valid without holding the verification standards of a governing body) but the site needs that large pool of easily verified voters to achieve this goal. I found this site and felt it was a great idea and had potential which is why I made an account. But my sensei would never waste his time making an account here because the only thing for him they matters is the national governing bodies. This could be an amazing tool for people like myself who don’t like the governing bodies for about half of my training I boycotted the ngb and only accepted club rank because I disagreed with the restrictions placed on fighters. Like not allowing seniors to use shime waza choking techniques. So I can see this being a very valid tool but how many people have been verified in the past year? I think 3 or 4 if I read the site correctly.

Take coach spartan here for example his certificates and visual proof are quite solid but 7 months later he’s still pending. And each time you rank up it resets? While I get it and understand why it just seems like it would take years to be verified every time.

The problem is that Judochecker did not catch on like beltchecker did for BJJ. Whatever (and there are so many) the reason for belt checker to go viral and accepted by the mass community (its not just lineage its also the feel of the roll), the same can't be applied to Judo because of the way Judo international bodies seem to be structured (and I don't mean national ones).

Simple example: in UK the syllabus for a yellow belt (6th kyu), is vastly different from the one in Pakistan as a yellow belt (9th kyu) and greatly different from a few other countries. Not only is the curriculum different, the grading requirements are also different.

But I agree with Mr. McMasters, a community forum here definitely helps validate effort and rank when going to the panel/board.

Besides, Judochecker (nor beltchecker) isn't only about verifying rank. You can also track trainings, tournaments, seminars etc etc and build an entire resume for your sport.

And... share thoughts on a forum :-)