It would be nice if this site was consistent in their regulating their terms. FatRat continuously promotes Automated Championships. It is not a charity, but a business. It is sponsored by businesses. I challenged him on this, and he said it was not advertising, but "bringing things of interest to the ET community." Isn't that the same thing that advertisers would say? I reported this to ET using Complain, but they ignored this. Why do you have a button available for us to report things like TOS, and you then ignore it? Why is he held to a different standard than other spammers? His main reason for being here is to constantly solicit for this, and ET takes no action. Are some businesss allowed to get free publicity, but not others? If Robbins World Cup started posting about their championship, would this be tolerated? If TimerTrac showed up and solicited business, would you permit it? Collective2? Futures magazine? Larry Williams? I don't see Sponsor under his name! You should either follow your TOS or not. Why is there a TOS then? It is hardly fair to others who get their posts deleted or get banned or to your sponsors who pay for the privilege. Can you give a reasonable and not an evasive answer? WTF?
I have put the user on a ban until I can look into his account in detail. I would suggest emailing messages of this nature to support@EliteTrader.com to prevent unwanted reprisal from such members.
It would just inspire more confidence if ET would not ignore someone using the Complain button to report someone who obviously is violating TOS. I have used Complain on quite a few occasions for those who are obvious spammers. But I would say near half of these reports are ignored, as the spammers often continue on unfettered, even under the same user ID. So you start wondering, "what is the point of trying to help?" Anyone who used to be on misc.invest.futures (the most active futures usenet (now Google) group) years ago, know how it descended into a worthless spamfest a few years ago. All the regular posters left.