Elite Trader is not IB

Magna,

Good idea. Elitetrader of course has a right to restrict the content of our postings for their own interests, but I just don't think it's fair to prohibit us from posting threads relating to IB simply because many of us happen to be IB users. We never intended to use Elitetrader as a site for IB support issues. With due respect to ET, we are willing to accomodate for the continued use of this website.

stock
 
The suggestion to make a "broker" section on ET seems to fix the problem to me. I wonder whether ET "looking like an IB site" is really the problem, however. Seems like Baron wants some bucks in his pocket.

Personally, I think Def posting here adds great value to the site, and attracts more users. But Baron's the king so he will do what he wants. No problem. Other places to go.

Wet
 
I've made a proposal to IB that I think would be beneficial for everybody. Def has said he will present the proposal to the steering committee either tomorrow or the first of next week. The outcome of that will determine how things move forward.

I've corresponded with def and he's said several times that "I do believe you were in no way out of line to make your posting." So the fact is that we are both on the same side of this problem and we are working to get this resolved in the quickest way possible.

Def also made it clear that running around between the message boards of various sites is "out of the question" for him. He enjoys the community here at Elite Trader and this is where he prefers to stay. I don't blame him because I think everyone would agree that this site is beneficial and unique in many ways.

One thing to keep in mind is that there are three very distinct and unique needs that must be met at all times for this site to function:

1) Elite Trader must function as a profitable business
2) The community must be able to express their ideas and opinions in the most open way possible.
3) Advertisers must be provided with an environment that enables them to effectively deliver their messages

If any one of those three needs are focused on too heavily, problems will undoubtedly occur.

1) If we focus too much on Elite Trader making money, the community aspect of the site will deteriorate (e.g. there are plenty of message boards out there that are dead simply because you have to be a paid member to access them).

2) If the community is allowed to say anything it wants, then you eventually end up with nothing less than a bunch of content filled with flames, spam, self-promotion, and other worthless info. Elite Trader could not possibly function as a profitable business without moderating the forum posts in a way that makes the content useful to members and advertisers alike.

3) If the needs of the advertisers are focused on too heavily, the community voice gets too constrained, and the site ends up with ad-heavy pages that are slow-loading and difficult to navigate. (eg. thestreet.com. They run 14 to 20+ ads per page. Message board eventually evaporated.)

It's a difficult task keeping all of those needs in balance with one another at all times, but myself and the volunteer moderators are doing the best we can to meet the challenge.

I appreciate everyone's opinion on this issue. It's never easy making a decision on something like this. I'll keep everyone posted as to how things progress with IB over next week or so.
 
Baron,

OK it's clear that you want to see some dough now, there's in itself nothing wrong with that (don't we all), but if it is going to mean that ET indeed does become IB's helpdesk - which some say it already has, but I disagree on that although it's close to it sometimes - then I think the community idea will suffer greatly.
The main idea of def's presence here has been to pass feedback on to IB, feedback that most most of us would otherwise keep to ourselves. It was never intended to act as a helpdesk although it is unavoidable that you get very basic questions as well. It's hard to draw the line.
Neither do I think that def has ever done any "hyping" of IB, nor bashing other brokers.

Once IB need to pay for def's "services" at ET, I believe the whole situation becomes entirely different. It will be much harder then for him to avoid basic questions, indeed making him into a secondary helpdesk. Just what we do not want. It would from then on also be expected that he promotes his firm in a much more active way than he has ever done in the past. Also something we do not want.
Both of these things would be bad for ET's community.

If you can find an agreement that would avoid this, we all will owe you even more respect.
Make the best of it.
 
Well,

IB "Management" responded to my email from yesterday (see previous post) and the reply follows:

"Thank you.
I hope that Def, whoever he is, will do something about it."

Gee, any wonder we use ET to get informed replies to our concerns? Whether that be other TWS users and IB clients, or IB reps like def.

Baron, i respect your judgement. And, i sure hope you and IB can cut a deal that will open this forum back up!

regards/greg
 
We should be able to ask questions and get answers about IB and start new thread about IB. First of all I would think Def has always been active on this website as a private individual and not as an IB employee on duty. So ET is not used as support for IB customers. The fact is this must upset some who are affiliated to other brokerages. However people should refrain to ask questions specifically to Def as he 's not here to answer everybody's questions. Secondly and this is especially for all new ET members: don't be lazy and use the search function please. There are way too many threads on IB and I agree it is becoming ridiculous.
 
Originally posted by Kicking
..The fact is this must upset some who are affiliated to other brokerages...
More...

If this upsets those from other brokerages, let them send out their liaison to troubleshoot and take requests on their customers' behalf. Interactive I'm sure is partly successful because they communicate with customers.

Who wants to go to the IB chat board (if it existed) and make IB posts to the trading community? Nobody would show up to see them because of the one dimensional discussion, thus making that idea impossible. But here at Elitetrader it's one stop shopping with trading ideas, brokerage opinions, network outage alerts, bad fills, software opinions... If you start eliminating pieces of this one stop shopping, pretty soon it will all collapse and everyone will go where an open Elitetrader type forum is provided.

I don't see what the big deal is with IB Questions popping up on the home page. There are plenty of misposted, and silly posts on there every day, and since the most popular rise to the top, the strong topics naturally survive and the weak fall away.

As Confucius I believe once said , "If you squeeze your chicken too tight the head falls off."
 
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