Commercialization

Perhaps only Members who have waited through a 3 month probation period should be allowed to post. It's not a perfect solution but will improve the probability of having one person have one account and one vote.

 

ron2368
The broker and software ratings areas have become a joke.

About 3 weeks ago 3 different names posted 3 broker ratings in the space of 10 minutes. It was obviously bogus and someone pointed that out. NOW I notice the timestamp of when the rating was posted has been removed.

greydeath101
Perhaps only Members who have waited through a 3 month probation period should be allowed to post. It's not a perfect solution but will improve the probability of having one person have one account and one vote.

Ron, it may be unfortunate, but it takes quite abit of cynicism to read most of what is on the internet, and thats the way it is. However you can still gleam a gem of information here now and than.

grey, limiting posters, especially in a high turnover environment as this, isn't going to stoke the fires that run this engine,

 

As a new advertiser to the site, I would like to give my perspective on things. First of all, I very much see what you all are saying. When I came across this site a few weeks ago and read through some threads, I really got the feel that this was a place where real professionals spent time and exchanged ideas, and I still feel that way. But as I have gotten deeper into reading threads and contributing ideas, I have become frustrated by the numerous threads that appear to be started by firms so that discussions will be had about them. An example are the numerous Bright vs. Echo threads. Sometimes these firm vs. firm battles begin in the Trading forum. I thought those were about trading?

As an advertiser, this site has no value unless real traders use it to exchange real information and to learn something. That is the type of site I want this to be. I hope the other advertisers agree, otherwise I think they're just wasting their money. And yes, I do want professional traders to know who Van Buren is, but I will do it through my advertising not through anonymous threads. That is why I have always attached my title and my firm name under my messages, because I see no reason to hide who I am.

One of the Broker evaluation firms that you speak of above was Van Buren. Let me explain. Someone started a thread about my firm and made a comment that we were not on the Broker rating page and why not. Well, at the time I did not know what the broker rating page was but, after finding out, I asked some VB traders if they would mind rating us. Three traders did, all around the same time, giving the look that they were made by the same person. I have not received any ratings since. There really was no foul play here guys.

 

I can only speak for myself, as a reader and independent trader. I find discussions with my peers interesting and entertaining. We have different levels of experience but we all have something in common, most of us trade full-time.
Discussions between vendors and newbie potential customers are boring to me because I don't have anything in common with either one of them. This is definitely an efficient forum for them to get together though so I guess a purpose is served.
There IS something interesting here for me every once in a while though, but less and less all the time.

 

patefern,

That's the point. The industry may have a high turnover but more seasoned traders will have more valuable advice than a newbie of 1 or 2 months. Sure we may get fewer posts but not as much noise from the newborns.

 

grey
That's the point. The industry may have a high turnover but more seasoned traders will have more valuable advice than a newbie of 1 or 2 months. Sure we may get fewer posts but not as much noise from the newborns.

Let me put it another way, this board doesn't care what thread you start, or its pearls of wisdom, just views, lots of page views. As to marketing products here, the newborns are the eager buyers and lifeblood of the chatrooms, schools, classes, advisors/trainers ect. offered here and in no way will THEY be hindered.

 

I'm sure posts on ratings can be regulated to some degree without hurting this websites pageview rate and revenue stream. Sure, Baron can let the flood gates open to all who are willing (to post multiple ratings) but then the integreedy and credibility of this site would be put into question... more some may feel. This may hurt page views.

 

Baron,

Although I realize this is somewhat like the proverbial dog biting the proverbial hand, I think there has to be some perspective. There may not be a substantial difference between 1 million and 1.5 million page views per month but, come on, there =has= to be a difference between 1 million and 1 =thousand=, right? I mean, who would be paying to advertise on this site if there were 100 members who, perhaps, checked in once a week?

 

Geez...all I was doing was pointing out that an enjoyable business can sometimes provide a better life than trading.

I don't care about the ads. Advertise away.

Maybe, however, we could get rid of the broker ratings page? It seems to me that most of the posts are staged.

As far as people posting about false gurus and scams, what's wrong with that? IMHO, it would be better to either allow them all, or disallow them all, as opposed to creating even more friction by keeping some and deleting others. I've noticed the posts about certain gurus, i.e. J Bernstein and L Williams survive, whereas posts about other gurus (not going to mention names to prevent this post from being deleted as well) get deleted right away.

In all honesty, though, any post about a guru that is not substantiated is technically slander and should be deleted anyway. We're all grownups here (well, some of us are). Go to yahoo messageboards if you want to talk smack.