There is an easy workaround. Start both a journal and a private thread. When you post something to your private thread, post an announcement of having done so in your journal and invite anyone who wants to respond to contact you. You can then screen those who want to participate.
Is this silly? Yes. But it's the best you're going to be able to do at ET.
Maybe its silly enough that its one of the reasons why some members choose to post their journals elsewhere or maybe it has nothing to do with the reasons why many choose to post their journals elsewhere ?
In the other thread, many mention specific features they would like to see...I've only seen "a few" of those suggestions adopted (implemented). Although a few features I wanted to see were adopted (download thread or export thread). Others were not.
There's also the issue raised a few years back...some
brokers themselves are
now starting their own forum for their clients. Although I'm not sure how this will impact ET but as soon as they get smart about encouraging their clients to start "journals" or figure out a way to connect the accounts to a journal at the forum...other brokers will catch on quickly because these days of declining traders in the markets...there's competition between the brokers to retain their clients.
In fact, I see a little of that competition here at ET among some of the sponsors.
Charting vendors doing the same thing too. In fact, I see more people using the forums by these vendors for more than just talking about trading. For example, they're using them for customer support, file sharing, embedding Youtube videos and other stuff.
Although they have low numbers of members but they are
slowly growing in members and post activity (most have low post activity).
Yet, I think their registration process for the forum should be setup so that all clients are
automatically setup for the forums. Thus, to log in...you would only need to input your client ID/password. May be a good way to prevent or minimize the trolling ?
My point is this. Maybe the issue really isn't about "journals" elsewhere by ET members. Maybe its just about forum membership in general ? Also, its possible that because ET was one of the first forums out there...others are now realizing they can do something similar for their own clients.
P.S. One of my data vendors has its own "chat rooms" embedded in the software...very active too. Never used the chat rooms but it did make me think about how brokers and charting vendors are becoming more competitive in retaining their clients "on site" sort'uv speak.
