Let the users decided by participating in the thread. A good thread will be active with lots of replies that bump the thread to the top of the list, which then attracts more viewers. A poor thread will be inactive and quickly sink out of view. BUT ..... Sometimes the "natural selection" of quality threads is abused and the thread starter will constantly bump his own thread numerous times to bring his thread back to the top of the list. More info: ET should ban the practice of bumping your own thread
I like this feature/idea alot. There should be some way to link/verify your trading performance with each forum account....i don't want to make this a dick measuring contest or anything -- but this is a good/important feature. Account size. % profit margin. etc etc optional trading/investing details.
Although I agree... it just doesn't take me that long to lose interest in a thread without someone else having to moderate it for me. If I see the OP keep replying to his own thread... I just don't read it anymore and it takes me seconds to arrive at this conclusion and click on the button to stop following the thread.
My post was of course in jest. There is absolutely no way that this could be verified, and the best traders simply don't care to be actually highlighted as being the best. Someone else posted about a monthly trading contest, which would be cool, but once again, who would bother if they know how to trade? Why waste your time if you're making 5k to 10k a day? Their ego is stroked well enough by the amount of real money flowing into their account already.
Reflecting on ET as a system, is in many ways similar to looking at the market. Both are complex systems, so I would encourage you to look at your business as a set of inter dependent processes rather than as a collection of features and buttons. Some observations and suggestions: 1. Lack of complaints does not mean lack of complaints: You are equating the lack of complaints from members via the complaint button as an indication that 'Moderation' is all well and good, because members are indicating that there is nothing that needs to be moderated upon. When faced with vitriol, people will often choose the passive route and simply disengage.This has been happening steadily for a long time now (Money Trust is just one vocal example of it. Most are unheard from again). You are not going to see this behavior in your complaint metrics. None of this has anything to do with how 'tough' one's skin is. In fact, those with tougher skin may be the ones who are simply walking away. 2. Sub Optimal use of site real estate: You have had some great content over the years. Much of it remains covered and in the past. You say that the 'HOF' thread has been created and so that takes care of promoting good content. But I would argue that content promotion is a shadow of what it could be. Currently, a large part of your site is full of underutilized space. The vast majority of sub categories like 'ETF', 'Wall St New', etc are redundant. Cut all of it out. Open up the space to promote quality content. 3. Lack of integrated strategy: You responded to my earlier post by saying that most of the suggestions are either not needed or have already been incorporated. Yes, you have been taking steps to improve the site by experimenting with design and new features. I do appreciate that. The issue is that these introductions seem to have a piecemeal quality to them. A well thought out integrated strategy seems to be lacking. ET has to be about content. Quality content arises from a willingness to share. Willingness to share has to be nurtured by discouraging forces that destroy community and encouraging forces that build community. What is harmful or what is helpful has to be based on well thought out founding principles. Thank you for the site.
I'm sorry.... how much money are you raking in every day to be able to make this assessment? Oh that's right... you just bought online a trading course to learn how to trade! (no offense to Al Brooks of course) And the charts I posted were 5 second charts.... learn to read. And if you don't find them useful, I'm not telling you to use them! If you've been around for over 10 years and still learning how to trade, maybe you need to start looking at things differently.
@Baron Might as well weigh in, you can't know what you don't read/hear. After a looong week, I finally had time to look around a couple of threads, and I must say I like what I saw. Perhaps it's because 1) my expectations are modest, and 2) I force myself to keep an open mind, to which end you can see how many I've put on ignore in all my time here. I'm here for sharing and discussion, the social part of social media. If I want to interact only with those who agree with me, I'll talk to myself. Discussion means people will disagree. People should learn to accept that, rather than get their knickers in a twist. This never ending stuff about people not wanting to deal with disagreement or vigorous discussion is getting old. If they want to live in a world where women faint and men go "'Pon my soul" every time there is disagreement, they can go to BMT. ET is real world stuff, and BS gets called out pretty fast. No need to apologise for it, it's a plus. I would like to make a suggestion as a way to resolve the great debate we are having. Rather than consider revolting stuff like self-moderated threads, or new forum rules, new moderation standards, would you like to consider a new forum, or sub-forum? The most contentious ground seems to be pro/anti TA. Either as another sub-forum alongside TA, or as a completely separate forum, how about something like Technically Speaking, with a different set of rules? Technically Speaking could encompass TA, Systems, Programming, anything technical. We have different rules for P&R, so same thing here. In this forum, discussion is to be purely on the technicalities of the subject of the thread. There is to be no discussion about whether it is good or bad, works or not. So as an example, I come across CCI and I want general discussion, I'll post it in Technical Analysis. Along with those who can tell me good stuff, Surf will come along and tell me CCI stands for Complete Crap Involved, or something like that. Then the PA crowd will come by and tell me all indicators are lagging. Fine, I'm getting a 360 view. Now if for example I've been playing around with various settings on MACD, and I want to discuss that and have no interest in anyone telling me Price Action is superior, or TA is a waste of time, I post it in Technically Speaking. Rules there forbid not just Surf, but the PA is superior crowd coming in and laying waste to MACD. You either discuss MACD settings or stay away. Just commonly agreed boundaries. Yes, I know there are people who bitch and moan about P&R so it's bound to happen here, just tell them to piss off.
My friend, i have been trading both professionally (institutional) and for myself for close to twenty years on and off. I have had many excellent profitable years and many losing (small) years. If you can read, there was a reason as to why i purchased Brook's course - see the answer i gave to Surf. As for your sub minute chart analyses, I can tell you that even Brooks wouldn't look at a 15 second or even worse a 5 sec chart. I don't tell you this to be malicious, but free advice from someone who has been in the game a long time - it is not the way to make money.
Thanks for the reply and much better tone. I tend to reply in similar fashion so when someone bites me by telling me I need to grow up... I bite back! As for the 5 sec charts, I'm not trying to look for major trends here, or levels of S or R... but I will say with certainty that when you open up a 1 min bar, at a key level, certain reversal patterns start to pop up. Of course this is something you can see on the 1 min chart as well, but unless you're watching actively in real time, you miss these things. Those guys who use T&S, and do so successfully, are technically even looking at a "chart" that would be faster than a 5 sec. I don't want to say that reading tape, effectively watching the T&S is the same thing as using a fast chart, but I think similarities start to overlap. I personally think that watching the DOM is crazy... the numbers move too fast, and I have no idea how to use it. But others swear by it and can make a killing, so who am I to say. All that matters is if watching something in a certain way gives you an edge.