if you want to see a real bear, just look at the chart of nikkei.. parabolic acceleration (just like nasdaq), major correction (what some wrongfully call the bear) which just ended in september, and probably the first leg up of the real bear (we are in now). the nikkei chart is a good example of what could happen (including the first leg up by the way). sure, the fundamental reasons are very different (beside the bubble) so nikkei and nasdaq can't be fundamentally compared. but I am a technician, and on that front, one should better study and learn that nikkei chart and implications. if not for your trading (I understand that) but for your IRA or long term investments that you ought to have regardless of your short term trading. back to the point, the nikkei is a real bear. for nyse too they were periods of market going nowhere (not just down) for a long time. I am not saying that's what happening now. I don't have a better crystal ball than others. I say it is possible we are in that scenario. And I really dislike some silly comments on TV saying the bull market restarted in october. That's bull.. alright. tntneo
Although we have several volunteer moderators, nobody expects a moderator to read every word of every single post, which is why the kill function exists. If you see a post that you think is inappropriate, all you have to do is click on the word kill at the bottom right hand corner of the post. We implemented this feature to give members a direct and simple method of reporting undesirable posts/threads in an effort to maintain discussion quality. I can't think of a better method of moderation than distributing it among the user base. 99 percent of the time we take action immediately when we receive a request to delete/edit an annoying post. I've been doing this since 97 so I know a little bit about this game. From experience, I can tell you with certainty that conversation goes in cycles just like the market. There are periods where every thread seems to be interesting, and periods where nothing at all seems appealing. That's just the nature of the beast and the way an open community works, especially a community like this where everbody is at different levels of experience, knowledge, and skill. If candletrader or anybody else thinks they can moderate the forum better, all they have to do is step up to the plate and volunteer to be a moderator of one of the forums. The invitation is always open. But with that said, I'll be going through the forums with a fine tooth comb over the next 24 hours to assess the situation and come up with an appropriate solution. That may entail deleting certain threads, creating a new forum, or perhaps something else. But no matter what, the goal as always will be to maintain discussion quality while appealing to as many serious traders as possible.
The only thing I can think of to get rid of some of the spam is to prohibit members from posting links to other websites (or email addresses) until they have a certain # of posts--say 25 or so. That's only a partial solution, but it will discourage vendors from popping up all the time. If I'm trying to promote my website, I'll be more hesitant to spam if all I can do is give the website address out, without a link that people can just click on and go to there directly. And I may not want to take the time to create 25 posts in order to get out an advertisement.
I think that the ability of members to post under multiple names is not helpful to the site except that it may boost slightly the number of members that belong to Elite Trader. One site (non trading related) that I have seen puts the IP address underneath the login name in every post. That may help show some of the people who have multiple login names under one IP address. Of course, not everyone uses a static IP address like myself. Not to mention the fact that you can hide your IP address by going through another server. I don't know if listing a members address would pose any problems for the member. It may cut down on some of the multiple listings. Baron, do you have any idea of how many names you have found under a single IP address? rpc
I second MJT's idea. No mention of sites. Any search engine will give you a plethora of them. There's no reason to mention them here.
Baron, My Candletrader nick seems to be banned from posting... silencing active members who want to see Elitetrader improved and free of spam is NOT the way to progress. Maybe unbanning Candletrader and banning the spammers would be a better solution... I never sold anything but my opinions, and was most certainly not a snake-oil merchant... sounds to me like a case of 'kill the messenger'. Regardless of whether you wish to unban me or not, I wish Elitetrader only good wishes, and I hope a solution can be found re: cleaning up the spammers and bringing back the Trading Forum to what it used to be. Assuming I am re-activated, I will be of use in the moderation of Elitetrader... I have a good nose for who is using multiple nicks to market stuff... I will use that KILL button to bring dubious activities to your attention, and I urge others to do so too. Candle (aka silentreader)
I am surprised members are complaining about the posts and don't use the kill the function. I moderate the futures forum with wareagle, and I don't read get enough requests to kill posts in my opinion. Surely, I don't wait for these requests if I see something not following the forum policy (and usually receive nasty comments afterward). It is a thin line between information and advertising. the link feature is tricky in that sense but I would like to keep it. Members do point to interesting stuff. But obviously it is going to far when members posts url, name of contact and phone number and address !!! come on !!! Recently I killed a couple of threads and edited some messages (leaving the url and deleting phone number and address) and reminded the policy. I don't mind being the bad guy afterward. It's not fair but trading isn't either I want to be stricter now that I do read members don't like too much commercials in the middle of their posts. tntneo