We all realise baron is out for webhits, but would someone answer this, what happens when all of the sponsors realize that the only people posting on this site are a bunch of clueless idiots like TSGANN or thunderdog?? Honestly, you can not tell me that these trading companies who are paying for sponsorship are paying to watch a bunch of 2 year olds like TSGANN walk around, dont they atleast have some desire to get QUALITY leads, or is it literally "tic for tac" and they honestly dont give a shit who is posting or wandering as long as some helpless idiot is?? At some point this site becomes so goddamn helpless that even the sponsors will realise that all it is, is a bunch of highschool kids in a pissing contest. Does something like that not happen at some point, i really think that point is fast approaching.
Oh come on. You must be joking. This is not pay-site, but one that is free. You can't expect anything serious on a free-site. The truly serious sites where traders come to learn, observe and interact are those in which you pay. You put up your cash to demonstrate you are serious. Successful traders with million dollar books looking to find quality posts on a free site? That is too funny. Too funny...
I say allow a lock statement on a thread. lock(mythread) { lots of posts self moderated; } But I think you must release the lock in order to acquire another lock. So allow only one thread to be self-moderated at once per user. I don't require this feature because frankly the ignore feature works for me and is quite painless, but I follow the golden rule, the customer is always right, and it seems lots of people are requesting it. Besides, if it turns into something that is being used for covertness of some sort, just disable the feature for the offender and ultimately for everyone if it turns into a disaster. So it's success will depend on it's honorable use. Imo the most important feature that probably needs to be implemented if this one is passed is, allow ignore on entire threads by a poster so they don't show up on your top five list etc of threads with new posts per section. Also, I think you should have to submit to the moderator a request for a lock. It should not be "free" to everyone, and the same moderator can take it away for any reason at any time. Finally, a little lock icon should appear next to threads that are self-moderated, next to the document icon for a new post.
EricP and others: If you'd like, I could create a private forum where you and other serious traders could interact with each other without newbies and trolls disrupting the conversation. Users would have to be added manually, and their access to the forum would be dependent on their past post history on ET. If their past is questionable, or they have no past history at all, a.k.a. a new user, they don't get in...period. What do you think?
Personally, I think the newbies are a critical aspect of this or any similar site. They stimulate questions and discussion. I already have a circle of very close and very successful trader friends with whom I interact daily, so a 'private forum' would not add much for me. Instead, a forum of some sort (I would think the Journals section, but a new section would be fine, such as the Self Moderated Forum, or whatever), where newbies would be free to roam and ask serious questions to the more experienced and successful traders would be great. The only missing piece is the ability to shutdown and lockout those that are not interested in intelligent discussion, but are only interested in immature flaming. Without a way to prevent the few immature morons among us from polluting a thread or making ongoing harrassing posts, the threads would be of little interest for me to actively contribute in. It's fine with me, whatever the decision. As austinp and I, among others have already mentioned, this site is a business and the business P&L is the most important aspect for the owner (as any trader would agree with).
No, SI was free for quite a while. You post is very much what I was pointing at. A post that offers nothing of value. And I note you're apparently new here, unless it's just another new ID/alias. 18 posts in 3 days is impressive. Bottom line is the quality of posts and traders here on ET has declined significantly. And it's highly correlated with the influx of Yahoo type posters. I certainly don't need ET to be a successful trader. I've been at it 13+ years. But it's nice to have a place to engage in serious discussion with other traders who have similar goals.
It would not work. EricP wants an audience, but does not want the audience to respond negatively to his commentary. Basically, he wants to be on the center stage, but does not want any negative feedback. Its obvious. Most are not here to chit-chat with other traders and find ideas, but want to take center stage so they can impress their knowledge upon us all. Ericp/Austin/etc, if you want to take center stage, then you better be prepared to receive negative feedback that comes with being on that stage. Thats how the real world operates. Take the stage and be ready to answer to others who have hard questions. If you want to further reinforce your ideas, your ego and not want to receive critical commentary, then go to a private forum with your friends. It seems ludicrous that you want the administration of this board to get rid of those who offer different viewpoints and bring critical critiscism down upon your theories. Why not just respond back to them and address their different viewpoints? It seems quite weak to eliminate the persons with different ideas just so you can further strengthen your ideaology and theories. In fact, eliminating the detractors only serves to deeply weaken your viewpoint... Those who seem like trolls or "flamers" are really not that. They are simply aggressive people who have a different viewpoint and demand answers when they see flaws in the theories you publicize on this site. If you cant handle a critical commentary of the work you publish, then please, by all means, go to a private forum. Please...but do not, **do not**, criticize the administrators of this site because they are not willing to eliminate those from the site who are critical on your flawed theories.