I have an Account at 3 very different brokers. One of which is IB. I have been reading elitetrader since the beginning and have been responsible for many of other posters (word of mouth). I even purchased Baron's tutorial just to support him and his site. I hate what has happened here, all the spamming and flat out lying. Ultimately a community message board should not be an advertising forum. If it continues I don't what to take part in it. I am even willing to SUPPORT another location for free thinking. If anyone is interested in creating a forum on a rented server I will do my share. It may not matter to anyone but me, but I am disappointed in this "new" policy of information control. Baron if you don't what the traffic, and are worried about "bandwidth" please censor away.
Baron I agree with you 100%. It seems like most people dont know the difference between free enterprise and a free_loader!!! STerling P.S By the way Baron, i submitted my review of the software program called Trade Prospector not once, not twice but three times. I made sure i clicked submit. But, it didnt show up. Can u tell me what went wrong?????
I agree with Baron's position 100%, and not because I am a moderator here at Elite. If I stopped being a moderator tomorrow I would still agree with his position -- all the discussion in the world between members regarding IB is just fine, but Elite should not be providing free IB tech support via an IB employee.
I really don't see the big deal with asking Def not to post too much about IB. Maybe some of how it was handled could have been done in a better manner, but thats not the point. I for one think that this would be a better site for everyone if no one is able to post a link to an external web site -advertiser or not. Over the last several months the quality of the posts on this site has gone to hell. Its become all about you suck, he sucks, they suck, they dont, yes they do, no they dont, THEY ALL SUCK! and very very little useful information for traders has been found on this board in the last few months. So, if Baron wants to say no more advertising in posts unless you want to pay for it, I think in the end we will all be a lot happier with the quality of the information we get here. Anyway, thats just my half a cent, maybe it counts for less since Im something of an oily snake..or so Ive been told. Brandon Ps, I dont advertise here, and unless or until I do, I will never again mention my site on the boards here, and if I do advertise, the link will come only from that.
def, I wanted you to know that I always found your contribution to be priceless. I wish there were more firms that gave the kind of support you did. Moreover, it is not often that a firm has a great talent like yourself who can both handle very tough questions, adversity, competition, etc., yet be sincere and honest about everything. And ... the number one reason I liked your contribution is because it came from the heart. It never felt like you were doing a job rather than having fun on the board. In short, you are a true class act, and although I am not an IB customer (Terra Nova is the Broker Dealer I use), I have learned a lot (I'm sure others have as well) from your numerous posts on this site. You will be missed. Baron, I completely understand where you are coming from. I can see the conflict of interest while having a paid service and publicizing it on the board. In fact, I said my good-bye well before I released my pay service just to avoid being in this situation. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=4132 Dear Forum Members, When you choose to become a member of ET, you accept the membership rules and guidelines. It says there in bold letters: "Advertisements are strictly prohibited. You warrant that you will not solicit our members through your posts." Although I'm not suggesting that def has broken this rule, this rule gets broken on a daily basis. I am probably guilty of breaking this rule myself (although I never considered the few bucks I make on a book a motive for a post. Also, the Oz Scanner is a RealTick product and they are a sponsor on this site). But 24% of the members thought that I abuse the rules. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=3032 Although I will be using Hitman as an example (Hitman this is not a personal attack) to illustrate the following point, others may feel the same way he does. When Hitman says, "The reason that up until now Baron have not touched me is simply because, well, he knows that my trading journals, whether people consider it quality content or not, are the most consistent traffic producer and possibly the biggest draws to his board. That is a fact." He says nothing more than, "Since I bring value to this site, I shall not have to obey the RULES and GUIDELINES that all other members agree to when they join this site." This is wrong! We all, myself included, must be subject to the same rules. We can never forget that we are only able to use this site, because posters before us provided content that generated traffic and consequently paid for the existence of ET. In other words, you couldn't possibly be today's star if someone did not pave the way for you. It takes more than just class to understand that. As one of the original members of this website, I can certainly remember many Forum Members that were yesterday's stars who are long-forgotten now. In other words, "Hitman, you can leave tomorrow, Elite will do just fine without you." Or why not try this, "Tony Oz, you can leave tomorrow, ET will do just fine without you." In short, the overall content in this site is better than a contribution by a single person no matter who he is! So please don't think that you (anyone) are bigger than that. Good Trading Everyone and good-bye until next time, Sincerely, Tony Oz
wirelessbull: âLocking out def was definitely not the way to go IMO. It was also rude.â Absolutely. def: âI do think I should have been given a bit more respect given my contributions to the site and at a minimum rec'd an e-mail before finding my user name locked out.â Absolutely.
TYMJR and tony oz. I agree with you two 100%. You both expressed my thoughts on paper. Def, without your help I am positive IB will lose at least the profits from several hundred customers, me included in the next years.
I am not an IB user, so I have no opinion on that matter. The deletion of posts are weak actions. There are much better ways to achieve your final goal. And saying that a board is too long when you have other motives is obviously not beneficial to your credibility. Yet you have created something really special here. You must know that. And you definitely deserve to be compensated for the obvious endless hours you have spent. The only qualm I have is with the blatant censorship of the posts. I must admit that I have noticed a correlation with certain, recent advertisers and the number of deleted posts. When there is a flame, accusation (or slander for that matter), wouldn't the best course of action to be a strong defense by the accused, or the test of time against angry posters? Even Tony has been pelted with the rotten tomatoes, and most definitely Don (why try people? there is no one more persistent than Don.) But posts that address real questions of credibility seem certainly acceptable to me. The way def was handled was shady at best, but the underlying question is the continuing moderation of future posts. So I have this question: If someone questions your advertisers' integrity or value, can I assume that you will delete those posts? If so, great. If not, then you are a man of honor. I just think it would be beneficial to all to state that policy very clearly on the board so that all the newcomers (which will be numerous) will know what they are being dealt. Think about when you started Baron. What kind of message board would you like to have learned from? Well wishes and continued success
Wireless Advertisers should be happy - they're getting a lot of eye balls looking at their ads. Subscriber growth at Elite Trader benefits the advertisers even more. I opened another broker account and bought books, like many others here I'm sure, because of what I saw here.
"If someone questions your advertisers' integrity or value, can I assume that you will delete those posts?" Perhaps an amendment to the terms of service agreement is in order.