actually you don't just casually 'click ' on chit chat forum, you have to scroll wayyy down and look for it.
all this has been said before but since your asking... there are too many worthless threads / posts to sift thru... we'd need some form of rating... of threads at a min, if not of posters / posts... eg threads with great informative content / leading edge stuff etc... a way to do this wld be for posters to hit the "Complain / Rate this thread/post" button, 1 to 3 scale (noteworthy, important, must know), and for the mods to make the final call as to whether posters' individual votes shld get reflected somehow on the board... merry Xmas ;-)
Looks like there is a close correlation between how the market is doing and ET's popularity: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=elitetrader.com So if you predict a good year for ET in 2007, you also have to expect an at least decent year for the markets....
There was a newspaper story back in 1999/2000 about how when the markets are doing good the number of investment books increases.
There have been suggestions on how to reduce spammers, bashers etc. Suggestions such as make it into a paid site (which I disagree). I would like to add my 2 cents. 1) The 1st post should never be in chit chat. (assuming that all newcomers 1st posts are now screened). This will avoid people just coming here to chit chat/ bash/ spam without meaning to contribute to trading or to learn trading. After all this is a trading forum 2) Posters that just continuously post bash/chatter away in forums (other than chit chat & politics/religion forums) without contributing anything on trading be it asking questions to learn/contributing trading knowledge/ starting journal etc should be warned to stop their behaviour or face ban.
Baron, how about going to a pay format?let's say $100 a year or something like that? 1)you would profit 2)the legitimacy of the site would improve 3)less posters will probably provide more usefull info in a professional type format. or, you can do a dual format. One for paying members exclusively. The other for paying and non paying members. Just a thought. blackguard
1. He would profit less. Less people, less clicks, less ads money. Site would lose easily 80% of viewers. 2. Legitimacy: yeah, once there WAS a popular trading site called ET. 3. Less posters means less useful posts... Otherwise it isn't such a bad idea...
Well, since we're helping my good friend Baron run his business, let's take your numbers. Lose 80%, keep 20%. 20%=13,000 13,000 x $100 = (wow, not bad, eh?). $1,300,000.00 He could then give "Premium Sponsors and overall Great Guys" rebates of previous marketing fees. Don