Traders - Warning !

[wrbtrader]

actually FF is a forum that is pretty much dedicated to noobs in my eyes (just take a look at their most followed thread "how i made 100K from 1K in one week" - LOL )
wouldn't care too much about them.

maybe you're right and you suggested something that the admins didn't like. My first account was banned by elitetrader (!) because I advised some guy who asked for a good forex broker to to open an account with exness. Exness is a great broker which I regularly use for FX trading because it has the lowest spread (0.6 pip on EUR/USD), it's fully licensed and I never had any problems with it. So it is a good and legit broker. Yet I was banned for recommending Exness (that's what the admins actually admitted). Sounds crazy? Obviously exness isn't a sponsor of ET.

That's a "spam broker". What that means is a bunch of different newly registered user names begin spamming that broker. I've seen that broker also banned at other forums for doing exactly the same multiple message spamming. It's just a big red flag when folks (many different new user names) show up about the same time and say "use our service..." and "we provide..."

Yeah, I remember those multiple user name spammers. However, there was a few other members that recommended the service and few other that gave bad reviews...their posts still remains and those members are still here. That's because they did not say "use our service" or "we provide".

Also, ET management usually ONLY ban someone after getting complaints from other members because most of the time...ET management do not see the spam until other members notify them. Just as important, if a particular member continue mentioning a particular service in almost all of their message posts...that's a red flag too especially if nobody solicited them for the recommendation.

My point...maybe when you made your recommendation...it must have occurred about the same time those multiple user name spammers showed up or you made a mistake of also using the "our" or "we" word in your recommendation reply to that member that asked about a good broker.

Trick around the above problem for legitimate recommendations...if someone ask for a recommendation...send the information to the member via private message.

 

[cariddi74]

I mainly lurk at the forum now but all of my favorite posters (about 30 of them) are still members of FF (not banned or membership revoked). Yet, most of them are slowly becoming more active on stocktwits and twitter.

In the past, I've asked about at least a dozen members that have been banned suddenly without any public explanation although the member seemed like a quality member. I've been given answers for every one that ranged from something like rules violation, copyright protection violation complaint, harassment in private message, spamming, scam, using another forum to attack FF, trolling, mass banned because the questionable members were associated (affiliated) secretly with each other, member or his/her associates were directing FF members to their own forum, member is a commercial vendor and didn't identify himself as such (failing to be transparent) while discussing his/her method.

I think the latter above had the most reasons for sudden banning without any public explanations.

Too bad FF doesn't provide a public ban list with the reason for the ban for those curious about such.

You post is very equilibrated and savvy. The problem is always the same when such "companies" arrogate the right to decide about important things, like banning a member, or even worst accusing a member to be a scammer (libelling him in a public place...a PENAL crime, if accusation not prooved in court!). They wanna be investigator, lawyer and jury all in once (and you can't do it WHATEVER your website policies say, cause it's anticostitutional)... and this arises serious doubts about who controls this kind of "super-controller" with all powers in its hands.
As i suggested in an infamous thread on FF before being banned...the scammers hunt has to be passed to the authorities, if really the managment thinks there are the extremes. But of course, they don't do it cause, it could lead to a shutdown of the site, a public police investigation etc....and their business (and their sponsors' business) would not be so "happy" about this.

Regarding the bolded: yes it would be good for everybody (police too) to check that such a list for avoiding abuses by the managment too...and this is the very reason cause they will never do it.
Transparency/decent regulation is actually a DREAM for the world of forex...for the world of brokers for sure, but also all for things related like big forums (that, maybe it's a case... have brokers like main sponsors...)

 

[cariddi74]

forum members have a tendency to over estimate their contribution and their value,

when they get banned, they can't see why even though it might be justified

Very cyinic indeed..so if we are so selfish and dumb in judgment why not helping us poor cretins to understabd our "mistakes", giving us a MOTIVATION for the banning? (even emails...many emails requesting this simple thing, UNREPLIED).
Maybe cause, we then have a weapon against them, stating the fact many of the banned members i know are SURE they have done nothing wrong? Maybe cause this will lead the public opinion to think who the real scammers/dictators/non trasparent people are? Think about it.

They don't wanna give us answers, but they will one way or another, be sure. For starting we are making all the traders community aware of this kind of conduct by them (the n.1 forex related forum..not a little private forum!)..and it's only the beginning.

 

[ExperiencedJoe]

Very cyinic indeed..so if we are so selfish and dumb in judgment why not helping us poor cretins to understabd our "mistakes", giving us a MOTIVATION for the banning? (even emails...many emails requesting this simple thing, UNREPLIED).
Maybe cause, we then have a weapon against them, stating the fact many of the banned members i know are SURE they have done nothing wrong? Maybe cause this will lead the public opinion to think who the real scammers/dictators/non trasparent people are? Think about it.

They don't wanna give us answers, but they will one way or another, be sure. For starting we are making all the traders community aware of this kind of conduct by them (the n.1 forex related forum..not a little private forum!)..and it's only the beginning.

The fact you are so obsessed with their forum suggests you must be deriving great benefits from them. This reason alone should be enough to get you banned.

You are now using this forum as a tool to attack another. This will make a good reason to have you banned here as well.

 

[wrbtrader]

You post is very equilibrated and savvy. The problem is always the same when such "companies" arrogate the right to decide about important things, like banning a member, or even worst accusing a member to be a scammer (libelling him in a public place...a PENAL crime, if accusation not prooved in court!). They wanna be investigator, lawyer and jury all in once (and you can't do it WHATEVER your website policies say, cause it's anticostitutional)... and this arises serious doubts about who controls this kind of "super-controller" with all powers in its hands.
As i suggested in an infamous thread on FF before being banned...the scammers hunt has to be passed to the authorities, if really the managment thinks there are the extremes. But of course, they don't do it cause, it could lead to a shutdown of the site, a public police investigation etc....and their business (and their sponsors' business) would not be so "happy" about this.

Regarding the bolded: yes it would be good for everybody (police too) to check that such a list for avoiding abuses by the managment too...and this is the very reason cause they will never do it.
Transparency/decent regulation is actually a DREAM for the world of forex...for the world of brokers for sure, but also all for things related like big forums (that, maybe it's a case... have brokers like main sponsors...)

cariddi74,

Yeah, that's exactly what I was implying because if there was a "transparent" public ban list so that members can see why other members were banned or membership evoked...we could then determine if management of the forum are applying their own "terms of use" policy fairly to all members.

Then again, most forums don't do such (including Elitetrader.com). Yet, I've seen other forums put a one to two word phrase under the user name to explain why the member has been banned (e.g. spamming, multiple aliases, private message harassment, scammer).

It's better than not saying anything or not responding to questions by the banned member.

Yet, these forums are privately owned (usually). The owner or management can banned, revoke membership of whomever they want...without reason or via a reason we may see as not valid. FF seems to be getting around the issue you raised involved stating publicly why someone is banned...avoiding possible litigation. In that case, I then can understand why they don't publicly reveal the reasons for their bans and why they don't respond to questions by banned members about the reason for the banning. They just don't want any legal problems.

Forums hanging around today are a lot more liberal. Yeah, still censoring but just not in a way they use to in the past that scares away members in the masses.

Heck, take a look here at Elitetrader.com about its liberal policies. For example, the thread starter gg53 is a member of this forum and a member of ForexFactory. gg53 mentioned that had he known FF whois was "private"...he would have not joined that forum even though he seems to not be aware that FF forum has its office address listed in its about webpage statement along with pictures and Google map direction. Therefore, they are not trying to be private via some hidden agenda.

In contrast, this forum where gg53 is posting...has very liberal policies. We have open racists that openly discuss their opinions about such, we have porn threads approved by management considering they have posted in the threads and openly stated its OK, we have political threads mainly full of personal attacks/threats/abusive language and just about everything else that most may or may not agree should be at a "trader forum". Heck, this forum even had members sharing child porn in private message while appearing as useful traders in the public area until one of them started posting the info in the public. Yeah, management then got rid of the person while others escape quietly back to the private area.

I'm not saying FF is better. I'm saying no forum is perfect and we really do not know what really is going on when members are being banned for what seems like not violating any "terms of use" rules in the public but maybe something is going on in the private that we don't know about...something management/owners of the forum just don't want to talk about because its just not worth discussing it because it may open them up to litigation. Just the same, there are some forums that are unfairly getting rid of some members to protect their own interests (e.g. a sponsor losing to much business because a member is freely posting similar like information)...that's their rights to protect their business model regardless if we agree with it or not.

 

[cariddi74]

The fact you are so obsessed with their forum suggests you must be deriving great benefits from them. This reason alone should be enough to get you banned.

You are now using this forum as a tool to attack another. This will make a good reason to have you banned here as well.

You AGAIN show to understand really a little (if any) of my words and to try to twist them for your strange way to interpret things...welll...
Is there a way to put people on ignore list here? If so you will be my first. Compliments! Gold medal

 

[ExperiencedJoe]

You AGAIN show to understand really a little (if any) of my words and to try to twist them for your strange way to interpret things...welll...
Is there a way to put people on ignore list here? If so you will be my first. Compliments! Gold medal

How dare you ignore me. I am probably one of the number 1 posters around here. I might have to go start a thread to say bad things about your thread.

 

[cariddi74]

cariddi74,

Yeah, that's exactly what I was implying because if there was a "transparent" public ban list so that members can see why other members were banned or membership evoked...we could then determine if management of the forum are applying their own "terms of use" policy fairly to all members.

Then again, most forums don't do such (including Elitetrader.com). Yet, I've seen other forums put a one to two word phrase under the user name to explain why the member has been banned (e.g. spamming, multiple aliases, private message harassment, scammer).

It's better than not saying anything or not responding to questions by the banned member.

Yet, these forums are privately owned (usually). The owner or management can banned, revoke membership of whomever they want...without reason or via a reason we may see as not valid. FF seems to be getting around the issue you raised involved stating publicly why someone is banned...avoiding possible litigation. In that case, I then can understand why they don't publicly reveal the reasons for their bans and why they don't respond to questions by banned members about the reason for the banning. They just don't want any legal problems.

Forums hanging around today are a lot more liberal. Yeah, still censoring but just not in a way they use to in the past that scares away members in the masses.

Heck, take a look here at Elitetrader.com about its liberal policies. For example, the thread starter gg53 is a member of this forum and a member of ForexFactory. gg53 mentioned that had he known FF whois was "private"...he would have not joined that forum even though he seems to not be aware that FF forum has its office address listed in its about webpage statement along with pictures and Google map direction. Therefore, they are not trying to be private via some hidden agenda.

In contrast, this forum where gg53 is posting...has very liberal policies. We have open racists that openly discuss their opinions about such, we have porn threads approved by management considering they have posted in the threads and openly stated its OK, we have political threads mainly full of personal attacks/threats/abusive language and just about everything else that most may or may not agree should be at a "trader forum". Heck, this forum even had members sharing child porn in private message while appearing as useful traders in the public area until one of them started posting the info in the public. Yeah, management then got rid of the person while others escape quietly back to the private area.

I'm not saying FF is better. I'm saying no forum is perfect and we really do not know what really is going on when members are being banned for what seems like not violating any "terms of use" rules in the public but maybe something is going on in the private that we don't know about...something management/owners of the forum just don't want to talk about because its just not worth discussing it because it may open them up to litigation. Just the same, there are some forums that are unfairly getting rid of some members to protect their own interests (e.g. a sponsor losing to much business because a member is freely posting similar like information)...that's their rights to protect their business model regardless if we agree with it or not.

I agree with most of your sentence (again i like your way of posting..while others just don't understand a inch of my words and already accused me in just a couple of post of being a members stealer and shill and do not know what more...)
But about a couple i cannot agree. You can open legal litigation even without a public reason for a ban...furthermore when it happens in mass without attached motivation, this is really the heaven for also some kind of sensationalistic journalism. So, in essence, if your motivation for a ban are CONCRETE and within the law, it's always better, IMHO, to be transparent about those.
Different speech of course if your motivations are pretentious, false, discriminatory etc...

Also i cannot agree to the bolded. Otherwise if you can go ANYWAY, over the law to protect your interests, we would be still in the barbarian age (or middle age, or wild west..whatever).

 

[NoBias]

It's a forum, you approved their Terms of service (TOS) during the registration process. (had you spent the time to read the agreement you would realize this).

Common TOS is "Reserve the right to terminate membership at any time upon their discretion" No reason is necessary, no explanation required, you aren't entitled to anything. That is the nature of forums.

Either abide or get banned, pretty simple really.

10 posts on this forum, all related to whining about the FF site. If you posted similarly on their site it comes as no surprise you were banned.

Get over it.

No need to reply, added to ignore list

 

[wrbtrader]

Most forum agreements, TOU or use statements clearly state that commentary by members do not represent the views of owners or administrators. We as members imply we understand and agree to such via our use of the forum. If we don't agree, its our responsibility to not join the forum or don't use the forum after learning about the TOU statement.

http://www.forexfactory.com/legal.php#terms_of_service

http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?help/terms

Can a member sue another member for commentary at a discussion forum and then win such a lawsuit ?

I'm no legal expert but it has already been proven such has not occur except in situations where a member has used his/her real name as their user name along with their business and the negative commentary (later proven to be false) caused the real name member financial loss. I believe it involved a home building forum where a member used his business name as his user name as a sponsor and false comments were made by several members towards the business of the sponsor. Thus, the real name member sued those making the commentary...he didn't sue the forum owner due to the similar like above agreements I mentioned via the links.

Here's another example of forum behavior consequences. There was a forum that listed full book downloads of copyright protected books (nothing related to trading). They were threaten with lawsuits by authors. Instead, Google and many search engines removed the forum from their search results, DMOS and other Google services that Google owned (e.g. Youtube)...essentially making the forum invisible. So yeah, the forum essentially got blacklisted and went out of business but it was never actually sued nor seized by the police.

Once again, take a look at this forum Elitetrader.com

Weekly racist commentary, pornography threads, members making threats upon other members and many other possible "so called" libelous commentary...every week, every year by its members. Yet, the fact remains, this forum is still here because forum owners/administrators are not responsible for commentary made by its members...maybe that's why forum owners/administrators themselves do not publicly make libelous commentary beyond just saying "you're banned" or they do not give reasons for the ban/membership revoked to avoid litigation towards them.

Makes sense to me from a legal perspective but still would be nice to know the specific reason why someone is banned for transparency reasons considering if a member did something wrong...obvious he/she is not going to admit such.