If you can't find useful info on ET you will not find it anywhere else, and you can take that to the bank. Money Trust is a Prima Donna, the sole purpose of this thread is to bring attention to himself. The "Good Bye ET" thread has been done before and it will be done again - most unfortunately return to ET.
Although I completely sympathize with the OP, working through the garbage sometimes is no different than working through "noise" in the markets. You simply wait for the best setups (message threads), and then get involved in those (place a trade). I have myself used the complain button in the past whenever a member swore at me or was vulgar, and I found that action was swift and the posts cleaned up. If there is a thread someone doesn't like, simply stop reading it. If you find nothing useful to read, then you have more time to do something else. It usually takes two people to have a shouting match, so if you stop replying to their messages, its usually problem solved. I know that many times that I've said the same thing over and over again its because I wanted to be right.... I wanted to convince the other person to see it my way. What a silly goal. Trolls only operate because they are fed posts to feed off of, so not replying to them is a wonderful and easy tactic. I've been called a troll a few times, and although I of course don't agree with this label, that poster is free to label me as such and we can both go our own separate ways. What's wonderful about ET is that everyone is given a voice. I much more prefer less moderation and more hunting on my part for something good, rather than a message board that seems completely free of any bickering, which would make me wonder about heavy moderation and hidden agenda. To the OP, why not start a journal and show us your trades since you have something good now? Lord knows what what we need more of around here is actual trading discussion, and there is no better way to bring about the change you seek than by leading by example.
I that Surf is entitled to his viewpoint. If you disagree with it, just show him evidence that he is incorrect.
1. I agree with you completely. I'm going to do that. 2. Moderators aren't a problem. In fact, we stay on top of all reported posts quite easily. I don't know if it's that our members have really tough skin or what, but we just don't get very many complaints about individual posts like you would think, despite making the complaining process one click away for any given post. 3. I'm not sure about this one because we have a feedback forum and people use it all the time for communicating various issues. I can't say that I'm lacking on quality feedback, that's for sure. 4. Already doing that. That's why we have the hall of fame list of threads that's displayed before any of the main discussion forums on the homepage.
This is a pretty good site for traders. There's not that many out there, or good one's anyway. DayTrader.com use to exists, but it's been offline for some time. Trade2Win.com/boards/ is a good site too, but it's mainly for the international Forex traders community. I wish I entered this 'game' during the 90's -- i'm relatively new to this world.
I think just 5-10 years ago would have been enough. At that time, online trading seemed to have been getting to be the norm, and lots of guys were sharing. I do wonder why, as of late, there is this feeling that the quality has gone down hill and that most of the good posters are gone. Perhaps as I'm reading, many haven't been able to adapt in this new environment, but since I know of no other trading environment, I have nothing to compare to. Several members have mentioned that learning to trade now in this environment is extremely tough, so it must follow that many who were making money with just so-so methods just weren't doing as well anymore and forced to move onto other things.
The HoF list is a mixed bag. It's mostly just one guy's opinion. Some high quality threads are being excluded largely because they aren't "popular". When did good become synonymous with popular? We're not talking about the Grammies here, we're talking about threads that ideally carry content that's useful to present and future traders.
How do you suggest that Baron rate which threads are good? If they say that to make the most money in the markets, you have to think differently than everyone else, then does it not stand to reason that if most people think something is good, most might be wrong? I would like to see Baron institute some way to rate the trading ability of every poster (ya.. I know.. good luck here... LOL). Maybe some little icon with dollar signs... if you're killing it... bright green... its your a consistent loser like me... bright red! LOL
There is no easy way about it, the only people that survive in this game are the ones that understand that there has to be a learning curve, nobody in their right mind will share a very profitable method, so you are left to do your own research.