Moving Forward: Your Opinion of ET

[EPrado]

"And down the stretch they come in the 2013 Lunatic Derby....Jack Hershey who had an 18 length lead at the turn for home is now being challenged by the on rush of the fast closing Marketsurfer....it's going to be close......they hit the wire....IT"S A PHOTO FINISH !!!!"

The winning poster will be receiving a straight jacket in the winner's circle.

Quote from denner:

You? or he?

You are no longer Dave?

I hope you realize how batshit crazy you sound.

 

[EPrado]

Who are these new aliases? These guys are making valid points. These are regular posters. Just because they agree with my idea doesn't mean it's all me posting. Seriously man. You are acting like a paranoid lunatic.

Quote from marketsurfer:

When everyone does, then it's cool. One "real" name being challenged by aliases isn't exactly fair.

I'm just waiting to take Eprado's $50 as the self moderation/mini mob rules suggestions will never be implemented. Just look at the "new aliases" and post history of those suggesting it--- it's surreal. surf

 

[EPrado]

I'm just going to donate it to a local charity I give to from time to time. I feel guilty about using winnings from a bet I can't possibly lose on myself....

I'm just hoping I don't get one of these from him:


http://images.search.yahoo.com/imag...igi=1289ljdgd&.crumb=AWyXmfqTvRx&fr=yfp-t-901

Quote from drownpruf:

Maybe we can take up a collection for you. Every little bit helps.

 

[Jack_Larkin]

Quote from denner:

You? or he?

You are no longer Dave?

I hope you realize how batshit crazy you sound.

Probably one of two things:

He didn't log into his R. King alias (notice there was no "-surf" at the end of his post?)

-or-

He sees the writing on the wall and is distancing himself from his marketsurfer persona by insisting it was all "theater" and just a "character." To reinforce this, he is starting to write about his real person as if surf and Dave are separate people.

 

[sheda]

HA HA HA ~ just busted him self more than yesterday when he admitted he was a troll!!!!!

Quote from denner:

You? or he?

You are no longer Dave?

I hope you realize how batshit crazy you sound.

 

[R. Raskolnikov]

This is the FIRST thing I noticed. A clear tell that he made a mistake while posting. As if it wasn't obvious beforehand, this is just more evidence to add to the pile.

Quote from Jack_Larkin:

Probably one of two things:

He didn't log into his R. King alias (notice there was no "-surf" at the end of his post?)

-or-

 

[Jack_Larkin]

Quote from marketsurfer:

I have been warned about any further promotion of websites ----Just remember, I ghostwrite for several financial media types, etc. that's all I am saying on this matter, as its not relevant nor any of your business.

You've been warned multiple times yet still do it as if you think eventually you'll get away with it. Even recently...

You might say you have ET and the community here in mind when you make suggestions, but your actions demonstrate that you're only interested in yourself, your "personas" and "characters", and advancing your brand by riding the coat tails of better men.

Did you ever stop to wonder why this entire thread only references YOU when we talk about the need to filter out the garbage from our threads?

 

[drownpruf]

ET needs marketsurfer just as Catholicism needs the devil.

 

[brownsfan019]

Quote from brownsfan019:

I just want a WYSIWYG editor already.

And direct links to posts for easy linking.

 

[EricP]

Quote from Baron:

I am cool with it and will implement it. End of story.

I believe that the current ET is good but it's flawed in many ways, which prohibits it from ultimately being great. That's the reason I started this thread to begin with. But I want to make it great, and I know that every person in this thread feels the same way or you wouldn't be contributing your two cents.

IN THEORY, the current model of allowing users to hit the complain link on inappropriate posts seems like it should work well, but I'm learning that it really doesn't work all that great for a variety of reasons, especially on a busy site. Without getting into the details, the important takeaway is that idiots will ALWAYS be present on any site that gathers more than a few people, so the real question is how do you efficiently manage problematic posts? In other words, how do you make the junk posts disappear in a more real-time manner? Well, the best idea I've heard so far is giving the thread starter that control so that each thread already has a built-in moderator with vested interest in keeping it clean.

Now with that said, I don't believe that type of moderation is best for every type of forum. I think that forums which are essentially nothing but right-or-left matters of opinion like the P&R forum are best served as being a free-for-all unless things just get seriously out of control, in which case a designated mod like what we already have could step in and address the problem. But that's chasing rabbits... so enough of the digression.

The bottom line is that change is needed and it will be implemented. The only reason why it has taken so long to get to this point is that I really didn't want to deal with the inevitable downtime and/or speed bumps that comes with such an upgrade on an existing active site, especially after having had an epic fail at a similar attempt back in February. But I can't let that stop the progression, and I've got to come to grips that there are going to be growing pains in trying to get to the next level, even if that comes at the at the expense of losing some members and advertisers along the way. On the positive side, there really isn't better time than now to get the wheels of change going given that the site could be way busier, and therefore way more painful to upgrade, if the market volumes were anywhere near what they were a few years ago.

I think this is the right decision, Baron, and hope that you follow through to make it a reality.

I disagree, however, with your comment that the only reason why it wasn't done earlier was due to upgrade headaches. As you recall, this exact feature was extensively discussed over four years ago in the thread "Attn Baron, Upgrade your software to allow self moderation of threads!" http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=168825

At that time, what you said was:

Quote from Baron:

What message board allows moderating your own thread? I've never even seen that ability on any message board.

Furthermore, here are some of the reasons why such a feature won't be implemented:

1. Every thread started will essentially have a different moderator, each with his own standard of what's acceptable and what isn't. You think the standards are all over the map with the handful of moderators we have now? Wait til' everybody is a moderator!

2. The capability of mass post deletion, meaning that if a user has a popular thread and then later decides to leave the site for good because he blew out his trading account or whatever, he may decide to also delete his threads or the replies of others, which will leave a LOT of people very pissed off.

3. Conflict of interest. I don't think you can have your own thread and be a very objective moderator at the same time. Some people are power hungry, egotistical, thin-skinned, etc., which makes them poorly suited to moderate the posts of other people.

I'd be interested to know what changed your view on the topic, as you made it clear in your many posts on that thread that you were 100% against the idea. The only thing that I can imagine is that you've finally realized that trolls and flamers were ruining your site in the long run (even while possibly increasing page views in the short run).

I'm not convinced that the site can be saved and brought back to the quality of old at this point, as the market has turned dead and the natural audience has declined. I wish you luck, however, as a better run and successful EliteTrader can be a good resource for trader interaction.

FWIW, I'd suggest reading through the above thread, as it contains some very good discussion on the topic.