TL getting more popular each month!

[brownsfan019]

Looks like people are hearing about TL...





So James, here's the question of the night - how do you plan to keep TL a great place to be, able to share ideas, and do so in a comfortable environment all the while continuing to grow the site? I'm sure we've all seen forums where it's nice while it's 'cozy' and things can turn sour quickly when there's too many fish in the pond; but you also want to grow the site, esp if building it as an additional business for James.

Don't get me wrong, growing is good, but I think you should be aware of the growth and all that comes with it as the site gets more and more popular. Please don't misread my statements here, I just think we all enjoy the TL environment b/c it is in fact different from most other trading boards and it would kind of suck to see TL turn into an ET down the road.

[Soultrader]

Thank you for the comments Brownsfan I have a few plans in mind at the moment in maintaining the atmosphere of TL even with further growth. I added a premium members forum which I plan to grow. I plan to make premium membership based on user activity, number of posts, quality of content, etc... This can provide a seperate forum section for those who prefer to interact in a smaller environement. I am also looking into possibilities of members able to open private discussion threads. So perhaps trader can enjoy interacting in various smaller groups.

I have a few other things in mind which I am working on at the moment. I am also open to suggestions as to features members would like to have on the boards. Just one thing I am scrict with the board is keeping it clean. I prefer it to be a good discussion board instead of a board focused on just shoutouts. While we have a few educators, brokers, analysts on board with us I try to avoid conflict with members interest. I am looking at a more educational point of view even with the member/sponsor/educator interaction.

[sudha78]

Soul

I too watched this exponential growth and felt similar too brownsfan019 in the same context. Every one knows uniqueness of TL and it shouldn't be jeopardized by spam and frivolous threads .

In my case I read a lot all the valuable threads but I don't post like you guys atleast for now(keep it clean!). So when you create premium group you may restrict posting to premium(elite) members but 'view only' access to other members/genuine active members.This is my humble request. My respects to your integrity and best wishes to TL!

(mistakenly I created a different user name for chat session -mitrader)

[Knyyt]

I second brownsfan,.. we dont need another ET.. stay strict.. no BS smart-a**'s here ....

[Kiwi]

I think the problem at sites is a little different to just the fighting. I love ET and reserve it for somewhere to have a scrap (unlike here or T2W, say).

IMO part of the fighting problem is caused by the mix of long time posters, long time traders (not always the same), arrogant newbs, and normal newbs, and I guess newbs who really don't know just how much they don't know. So you get newbs pretending (self-deception?) to know it all, long timers who've seen every question asked before (including the stupid ones) and bored traders just out for a bit of fun all mixed up together. Incendiary, a lot. Educational, not very. Entertaining, frequently.

Often the fights occur when experienced traders who still care about misinformation get into arguments with the arrogant newb types when they offer opinions/answers to other newbies that are just plain wrong. The experienced traders who don't care or just laugh a bit at the stupidity of it don't actually get involved.

A new board tends to get a honeymoon period where long term conflicts don't yet exist.

One challenge is to find a way so that your more experienced posters don't get bored with newbie trader questions and opinions. If they do, most will either leave or perhaps seek entertainment destructively (suggest ET for such games). Also, unless you've a specific reason for participating in a board they tend to become a little boring over time once repetition sets in. It will be interesting to see how the premium club works.

Another challenge is to detect long term conflicts and defuse the interaction of the sides (jack/grob and everyone who doesn't believe in him is a good example on et, trader28 and anyone else, me and anyone I think is an f'wit, etc etc). Strong action against both parties needs to be balanced with your desire to keep one or both sides still participating on the board. A laissez faire approach doesn't seem to work.

Having been a member of a lot of boards at one stage or another of my trading development I shall watch and participate with interest.

[brownsfan019]

Kiwi brings up great points. Once this board reaches the maturation stage, exactly how it proceeds forward can be tricky. If nothing else James, take our advice for what it's worth, but like Kiwi, I've seen great boards turn to either a b*tch fest (like ET) or abandoned (kinda like T2W).

Keeping an active trading board fresh so that the 'regulars' want to come back and keeping it interactive for all newbies (b/c there will always be newbies) is difficult. Perhaps trying to meet the demands of each group is simply not possible on one message board... Perhaps the thought process should be to be a 'niche' board vs. a 'jack of all trades' board. It's just like trading really - you can either attack the markets with a shotgun approach and see what you hit or you can finetune your strategies and become a sniper... Either you try to be all things to all people or realize that's simply not doable, so you move forward in one particular direction. We already know that a b*tch fest board exists, I think trade2win is rather dull and not active at all... so.... where will TL fit into the mix... only time will tell.

[Soultrader]

You bring up some good points Kiwi and Brownsfan. This is the first trading board I am a part of... I actually did not find out about ET until late 2006 and T2W until after I created this board. Ive seen a number of boards of different genre and did alot of research on them. There is definitely an atmosphere in each board. I think we have a good atmoshphere here at TL... the hardest will be trying to seek balance, maintaining the attitude, and yet keeping it educational. (like Kiwi pointed) I definitely want to create a private section for the veteran members on the board and perhaps make this either accessible based on user activity or even through referral only. The conflict between experienced vs new is definitely something I have in mind. It is not a problem UNTIL the experienced traders find themselves answering the same questions over and over again. So a seperate section where they can interact without repetitive arguements may be useful.

I monitor strictly on rants, fights, abuse, etc.. in the threads. If a member has nothing to contribute but just criticism and negativity... I tend to ban them without any warning. This is not to say I ban anyone who becomes heated. NO. A heated arguement is healthy in my opinion. But the obvious posts that attacks a poster for pure self satisfaction is something I do not tolerate. Whether experienced or new to trading, each opinion/post must be respected.

Any off-topic discussions should go into General Discussions. I also move any unrelated topics to the appropiate category or may even pm a member to try to stay on topic. Content should always be number one on this board. As the board grows, I am positive that I will encounter new problems and will need to come up with solutions accordingly.

If you have any suggestions feel free to let me know guys. I am pretty much going with the flow... just adjusting things as new problems appear. But I make sure any slight problem gets fixed asap.. its the little things that matter.

[torero]

Regarding the repetitiveness of the questions, I think this is inevitable, unless we have the search engine is sophisticated enough to find what the new users are looking for. This is one of first features I use when going to a new forum, looking for content that does not exist in other sites. If the search fails, they will ask over and over. So might want to spend time (and maybe a bit of money) on getting search and categorization tidied.

[TinGull]

I've found that this feature can be very helpful....






But really...Soul said it a little while ago. Quality breeds quality. It's a great idea to have a smaller community inside this community for veteran members, though I myself wouldn't want it to go unnoticed by other guys (n00bs). I think that having something like mitrader mentioned...where there is a restriction to posting but not a restriction to reading in that area, would be awesome. There's real quality stuff that goes on here and I'd hate for some of it to be unseen by new traders who could benefit from it.

[brownsfan019]

	Quote:	torero
	Regarding the repetitiveness of the questions, I think this is inevitable, unless we have the search engine is sophisticated enough to find what the new users are looking for. This is one of first features I use when going to a new forum, looking for content that does not exist in other sites. If the search fails, they will ask over and over. So might want to spend time (and maybe a bit of money) on getting search and categorization tidied.

Excellent points tor!! I don't know how all the programming and stuff works James, but I would start to categorize and organize now before you have to spend weeks doing it later.