Any possibility that we could keep the thread titles of those threads in the politics and religion non-visible from the www.elitetrader.com/vb page? Even the titles are "not for the faint of heart". (I'd rather that whole area be eliminated altogether. It's off topic here and there are plenty of places for people to spread their hatred. This is just a lesser suggestion.) -Raystonn
If you use ET main link... http://www.elitetrader.com You will not see any Politics Religion threads nor Chit Chat threads shown on the right side in the section called "Discussion Topics with Recent Posts". However, to completely make those two forum sections invisible will cause a major problem. The problem will be that anyone that joins ET and then decides to post non-trading related info... It will end up in the trading forums and not in the Chit Chat forum...worst than we currently see happening. Also, this attempt to direct non-trading related stuff falls a little short. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=87304 That link is to the very first post at the top of ET. In my opinion, it should contain direct links to where traders can post commentary unrelated to trading. The same should be done via sending an occassional auto generated email to new members and once per month to existing members about stuff like this. Mark
What value does the Religion & Politics thread add to a site filled with elite traders? Is it a learning center for advanced trading? Positive reinforcement = support? Humorous and enlightening? Creates a happy, cheerful mood? Do the people it attracts and the clicks it generates add any value to sponsors? Is ET a better place for serious traders with that entire section present, or without it at all?
Hi austinp, Although I agree that those threads add to value other than help keep members returning to ET to get involved in the next heated debate... Which in turns helps keep Baron page views and visits up...numbers needed to attract advertisers. With that said, ET tried once (I remember it well) to go without those non-trading related areas. What happen was that those same conversations you currently see in Chit Chat and the Politics Religion threads was being posted all over ET in the trading threads. I remember one moderator telling me he didn't want to be a moderator any more because of those post being posted all over the place. It was an ugly test and when that happen... I didn't use ET for awhile because it made it difficult to weed through the junk to find the trading related threads. Simply, take away their island... All they will do is swim to the nearby islands for fear of drowning (not being able to vent under censorship). Mark
Here are some concrete suggestions that the administrators of the forums can use to help prevent chit-chat threads appearing elsewhere: 1) On the "Post New Thread" form - have a big flashing message next to the "Choose a forum to put your thread in" that expicitly reminds the thread starter to check they are putting it in the right place. 2) Change the feeble thread title: "Welcome to ET, a little reminder" to something that will encourage people to actually read it. For example "MUST READ THIS BEFORE POSTING" 3) Sticky thread icon - some users may be familiar with other forums where there is an icon to designate sticky threads such as the afore mentioned "must read" thread - this additional visual cue will help these threads to stand out. The "Newbie FAQ" thread would also benefit from this. SLIGHTLY RADICAL PROPOSAL: 4) Require approval of threads before they are published. All new threads started are initially put in a queue to be reviewed by moderators before being published to ensure they are in the right place. This may or may not be a significant change to software and/or burden on moderators but will help forums keep on topic and filter out spamming threads. EVEN MORE RADICAL PROPOSAL: 5) Delete all users that have not logged in to ET for X months after given e-mail reminders. Require credit card details for signing up to ET. A pre-auth can be done but no money charged. This can be viewed as a semi-robust age and ID authentication mechanism and should mitigate the multi-alias epidemic. Users will also most likely behave more sensibly. These steps should reveal the true ET membership which may or may not be in the interest of the forum administrators if advertising revenue is to be considered.
Excellent post and I like the radical proposals. Unfortunately, its been said before in the past a few times and look where we are at today. Mark
I am new to ET, but I have spent a lot of time on a couple of other forums devoted to very different topics, and I have found that just about any specialized forum will attract a certain number of assholes that like to hear themselves talk (or I should say they love to write many words thinking that someone is reading what they write) and it is helpful to provide a special forum called "religion and politics" where these folks can post to their hearts' content and others can avoid them.