The RU domain explains 95% of the reason Baron decided not to continue. It must be COM, very few exceptions.
I don't get it. People will pay a fee to join a site because it has less features than the current ET? If you don't like Chitchat or P&R, no one is forcing you to look at it. The only way a pay site works is if you have proprietary content.
No, you misunderstand me. Chit chat and P&R are great! It's the other 90% of the site that sucks. The entire trading forum gets 100 new threads a week calling for a top in the market. Now people are free to start whatever threads they want, but it's getting ridiculous. The quality of content on the "trading" threads has gone to hell. Yes, I would pay an enormous premium to not have to read that shit. The analogy is similar to websites that stream free music and video and they offer a premium version that removes the ads. A lot of people will pay that money to remove the ads because it's annoying.
There are four basic rules in brainstorming. 1.Focus on quantity: This rule is a means of enhancing divergent production, aiming to facilitate problem solving through the maxim quantity breeds quality. The assumption is that the greater the number of ideas generated, the greater the chance of producing a radical and effective solution. 2.Withhold criticism: In brainstorming, criticism of ideas generated should be put 'on hold'. Instead, participants should focus on extending or adding to ideas, reserving criticism for a later 'critical stage' of the process. By suspending judgment, participants will feel free to generate unusual ideas. 3.Welcome unusual ideas: To get a good and long list of ideas, unusual ideas are welcomed. They can be generated by looking from new perspectives and suspending assumptions. These new ways of thinking may provide better solutions. 4.Combine and improve ideas: Good ideas may be combined to form a single better good idea, as suggested by the slogan "1+1=3". It is believed to stimulate the building of ideas by a process of association..
Your assumption is that if someone PAYS...they are "less likely" to post messages that others may consider crap or not of value. That's false because I've seen a few pay sites (not related to trading) that people feel they have the RIGHT to post whatever they want including messages that others feel is nothing but crap. I've also seen a few membership or premium trading sites that people feel they have the RIGHT to post whatever they want. The point is a fee all by itself. You need to have a fee + exclusion (qualification) to be allowed to pay. That combo itself will work but it may take many years for it to become an active site although an active site is not the goal because the goal is to ensure that the content is crap via whatever you define as crap. You will also need to have something in place to EDUCATE members about the rules of posting (e.g. what's not tolerated). * Qualification to join (identify those you don't want to join even if they wanted to pay) * Fee to join * Signed agreement about the posting rules (removes all the problems associated with being anonymous) That's a tough pill to swallow because the main problem is that ET is already established as a free site with sponsors keeping it free. Thus, such a plan you suggest may work is when there's NOT an alternative. Simply, Baron would need to form an entirely different forum site that has NO CONNECTION to Elitetrader.com because if there's any kind'uv connection or similarities...people will shop and free is always better than a fee even if the free content sucks. Regardless, this stuff has been suggested dozens of times over the years. My only add to these suggestions of a premium pay forum is that those willing to pay must be able to see some sort'uv value PRIOR to payment to get in. The only way you can show value PRIOR to payment to encourage payment is that those "allowed in" have shown some sort'uv validation that there's merits to what they have to talk about and we already know what road that such is traveled (e.g. broker statements, real time trades, no anonymity and so on). As for your analogy via premium music/video sites to pay to not see ads... The problem is that ads don't debate with you nor challenge something you've said. Thus, lets pretend there was a fee-base trading forum...just because you've pay and qualified to become a member...it does not prevent another member from arguing with you, posting content you feel isn't useful. It only prevents the need to show ads. Mark