As mentioned here by Baron in this thread: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=168825 âEricP 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?â May I ask what ever happened to this idea? As one of the professional traders that have been disappointed with ET over the last year or so, I would like to see something implemented that would attempt to keep quality traders here. I realize that self moderation, charging money, and reducing stupid posts wonât work but that doesnât mean you canât do anything at all. My one biggest complaint is that the obvious trolls are allowed to push away the quality traders. I can think of many members who left out of simple frustration when their addition to the site was quite substantial.
I actualy thought about this sometime ago. The subforum would be accessable for everyone (thus pagecount could be still high) but the quality would not suffer due to idiots participating. Yes, posters should be added manually based on previous participation. Best idea for the last 5 years on this site....
if you cant beat them, troll them back. after tiring of reading the same bullshit crap from the same 3% addicts => 50% posters who are all without exception no-trader trolls, time to shove their weaknesses back down their throats. an elevated service sub-room would be most welcome indeed. leave the infantile trash to their cat-littered sandboxes whilst serious traders talk shop. excellent idea. bravo!
Should also be limited to those with some minimum of posts. There is something about spammers and having less than 50-100 posts. Maybe require some minimal form of verification for this (paypal, a non-free email ID (like comcast or verizon), credit card, whatever..., or else cold/c-kid/jasonn will wash ashore with another alias and "You are all ants and I will show you how to trade successfully..." Also, no "Jews/gays/evangelicals/blacks/USA/women/college majors/whatever are low lifes/stupid because" commentary... People should be screened on their perceived trading knowledge, not what country, religion, race, gender they happen to be. This is the 21st century. And the subforum should focus on trading-related topics, not P&R or shock titles.
I think most of us agree this is a good idea, so it would just be a question of how exactly it is implemented. Baron, Do you still consider your idea viable?
And yet, here you are, hiding behind an alias and afraid to use your prior anonymous handle as you essentially troll every single thread you have visited thus far with your current user name. What you say about trolls is accurate. However, you fail to recognize your place among them. Baron, please sample his posts and judge for yourself. And then kindly do the necessary. (While you're at it, how about that Mandelbrotset, eh?)
The problem would be that the trolls would read the thread, and start a counter thread in the public area which would get more posts and reads, eventually suplanting the restricted thread and defeating the purpose of the restriction by shifting the conversation to the public arena. Also, I presume (but do not know) a high percentage of read counts are due to trolls refreshing to see if they've caught any responses which need immediate response. The restricted thread would not get that count.
kettle + pot = thunderdog how does it feel to be on the other side of coin? how many years ago was your last constructive post about trading?
Quite to the contrary. Actually, look at it as an advantage. What does Baron want? High pagecount. What do decent posters want? Intelligent discussions. What you described above fullfills BOTH wishes, the owner gets the traffic and the readers get a subforum, where they don't have to worry about morons. Problem solved.... The need for such a forum is obvious, the only question is in the details, who decides who can post there, etc....