Give me your suggestions, complaints and feedback!

[Joe Blow]

Hi Everyone!

It's astonishing how fast ASF is growing. Lately even I've been finding it difficult keeping up with all the threads and posts, especially as I juggle running this site with my day job. It occurred to me today that even though I feel things are going okay that feeling might not be shared by ASF members and lurkers (yes, I even care what our unregistered visitors think... although you will have to register to tell me your views! ).

It's difficult striking a balance between free speech and creating a place that is enjoyable for all to visit. I try my best but often wonder if I am getting it right. I know it's impossible to please everyone, but I'd like to please as many of you as I can. I don't want to be seen as a totalitarian ogre, but at the same time I don't want to let standards slip by tolerating abuse/personal attacks, spam and scammers. I'm not about to let ASF go down the same road that many of the unmoderated or barely moderated stockmarket forums have.

So I thought I'd ask you guys/gals how you feel things are going and your views on what you think will make ASF a better forum for all concerned. As the thread title says, I want your suggestions, complaints/criticisms and feedback. Your views are important to me, so please don't hesitate to give me your honest opinions!

 

[Smurf1976]

Keep up the good work Joe. It's fine as it is - the last thing I would want to see is for ASF to become like a certain forum with the heated metal. (You know which one I mean ).

I think the main thing to keep out is spam, abuse etc. I can live with the occasional overexcited post and they do keep it lively. It's good to have the broad range of discussion from technicals and trading to fundamentals and off-topic.

Would be good if a few of those lurkers made a post or two...

 

[Julia]

Hi Joe,

Like Smurf, I think it's fine as it is. One of the things I appreciate is that you do in fact check in with members every so often to ask if we do have any suggestions.

I like that the "General Discussion" area can accommodate a wide variety of topics. We all should have lives ouside of the stock market and it's interesting to gradually form a picture of members from reading their views about a variety of topics.

I was pleased that you gave Reichstag several "warnings" before shafting him.
He just would not participate in the forum and just posting other people's comments is of little value, so it was time for him to go.

ASF is much appreciated by this member - didn't this start as "just a hobby" for you Joe?!!!

Best wishes

Julia

 

[ob1kenobi]

I agree with Julia Joe! Keep up the great work, it's fine as is.

 

[Milk Man]

Joe,

Do you want us to tell you if we see anything we don't like or don't think fits the code of conduct? Sometimes I don't bother because I think it might annoy you.

One thing I hate is obvious free advertising of products (not you Moneytree: you might entice people to do your course by posting but contrbute to the forum at least ). I'm glad to see these cheapskates are taken care of very promptly.

Great work Joe: no need to change a thing.

 

[Happy]

Forum is nice, orderly and it is pleasure to open the pages.

Hope task of overseeing the Site is not going to be too bigger task.

You could give couple of pages to Tech/a to moderate, that could ease your load a bit, but Tech/a might have too much on his plate already.

And if you are desperate to change something, you could move: General Chat to the bottom of your page, after all it is side menu, Forum is Aussie Stocks.

But quite often I find that people talk about weekends and holidays at work and about work during the BBQ, beats me.
(So you could even move it up a notch).

 

[Joe Blow]

Thanks for all your kind words, suggestions and feeback! Keep them coming!

There are a couple of issues that I want to get everyone's views on. The first is ramping. I will deal with the other issue in another post a little later in this thread.

There are those who find it necessary to post in threads of stocks that they own every day (or most days) simply to bump the thread and keep it near the top of the first page, in an attempt to attract people's attention to it. I scan a lot of the other stockmarket forums around the place and find that these particular individuals are often cutting and pasting the same information into posts on many sites. This behaviour seems to me to be indicative of an addiction or compulsion. They seem to be driven by a need to do it. As soon as they sell the stock the thread falls deathly quiet and they start up in another thread as soon as they buy into a new company.

I have a problem with this for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it makes a thread unneccesarily longer and tedious to read through, especially since much of the information is either repetitious or is delivered in a ramping style complete with huge price targets and promises of BIG announcements to come. Secondly, the posts are clearly self-serving and are not posted in the best interests of ASF members. They are posted to convince others to buy into the stock and drive the price higher so they can sell out at a profit. Frankly, I feel that there are other forums for this sort of blatant ramping and I would like to get the views of ASF members about what should be done to those who ramp in this way.

Should their accounts be suspended for a period of time.... should some of the posts simply be deleted... or do you have another suggestion?

Most importantly, is this particular behaviour a source of annoyance for you?

Please let me know what your thoughts are on this issue. As ASF grows and gets bigger I get the feeling we are going to see it happening more often and I would like to get a feeling for what most people are thinking.

Thanks!

 

[Julia]

Hi Joe,

I think your suggestion of simply deleting these posts is the best. That would surely frustrate and deter the ramper more than any other measure.
There is some appalling rubbish and rumour spread about on other forums and I for one would absolutely support whatever measure you feel you can take to keep ASF free of this pollution.

All the best
Julia

 

[Happy]

Joe,
You have to look after yourself too.

Deleting Krisbary posts, I assume that you refer to him - but being polite you don’t mention any names, is going to be time consuming for you.

As everything else ramps are getting more sophisticated too, so you’ll end up fighting with yourself and your feelings trying to be fair and allow freedom of speech and democratic right to express and many other bigger than life issues.

Solution, should be simpler, so you can get on with what you do and not spend endless hours sifting through mountains of rubbish and agonising what is right thing to do.

It could be:
1. At the first hint of ramping – warning + delete posts
2. Second suspend for week, month
3. Deregister

 

[tech/a]

Heated arguement is healthy and can be productive.

However when discussion turns to personal attack then a line should be drawn.I get as much as anyone and have even had emails from people who wish to continue abusing me way after being banned from the site where it all started.
Some of it (Which I never reply to) has become fanatical.
So serious that the CIB in Adelaide have an open investigation with regard to some.

My veiw (Joe) is that personal attacks and posts with little or no reference to the topic should be deleted---these posts have no place in a public forum nor in private mails which is another source for abusive tactics.

To anyone who becomes a target of these fanatics I urge you to keep everything---notify the police---they can trace and monitor these people far better than we can.The penalties for harrasment are far greater than I imagined--and rightly so.

 

[Kauri]

Why not make the ramping fun. You could have a competition to pick the next stock... LVL featured first, now BTV... place your bets on the next one. but seriously what I find annoying is if you have a genuine interest in one of these stocks you have to wade through reams of :swear: looking for anything of value. Also, if the reputation of this forum, like some others, becomes tarnished , genuine posters will avoid it, which would be a great loss. This is a great Forum, lets keep it that way.
From an ex-lurker.

 

[Smurf1976]

Agreed with tech/a that heated debate is good provided that it doesn't get personal.

As far as I am concerned, I would much rather have a drawn out, thorough debate and sort out whatever it is that's being discussed. Both sides often learn something that way since the truth quite often is somewhere between opposing views.

But personal attacks are another matter. They are not on IMO. Fair enough if the "what would you do in this situation" question is raised but others must accept that each individual has a right to their views regardless of how "moral" others may think them to be. It's not for me or anyone else to decide that someone relentlessly pursuing profit at any cost is better or worse than an ethically motivated investor. Fair enough to state one's disagreement, but that's as far as it should go. The other person does have a right do their views.

As for deleting posts, fair enough but I do think that someone whose post is deleted should be informed of this (are they now?). This could just be a standard message to save Joe from spending too much time on it. I really have no idea if any of my posts have been deleted.

Also, regarding the "ignore" function I think it would be reasonable for everyone to know if others are choosing to ignore them since that would send a pretty strong message. There's certainly no need to identify who is choosing to ignore someone, but a simple "ASF has X members, 10 of them have chosen to ignore you" would be useful and fair to know IMO. It might work in a sort of self policing role if it becomes clear to those posting the inappropriate messages that they are increasingly being ignored. That said, personally I have never used the ignore function.

 

[Joe Blow]

However when discussion turns to personal attack then a line should be drawn.

I agree 100%. Personal attacks or abuse will not be tolerated under any circumstances. To police this effectively the moderators and I need the help of of other forum members. At the top of each post you will see this symbol '

'. Clicking on this will enable you to report a post that you feel steps over the line or is unacceptable in some way. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the ASF members that already do this. Your assistance is valuable and appreciated! As the forums grow it will become even more valuable. As soon as you report a post an email is dispatched to myself and ALL moderators, ensuring that swift action will be taken!

This is a great Forum, lets keep it that way.
From an ex-lurker.

Kauri, welcome to ASF and thank you for your kind words! I understand your frustration at having to wade through mountains of tripe at some other forums before finding anything of value. I am working hard to make sure that doesn't happen here and we can maintain a high level of discussion.

I sincerely hope you enjoy your time here at ASF! Now that you have registered, I think you will find this site even more useful. Particularly since you will now be able to see all the charts and download the attachments that people have attached to their posts!

I really have no idea if any of my posts have been deleted.

I don't often delete posts and I have definitely not deleted any of yours Smurf.

I will delete spam, abusive posts or posts that are simply over-the-top ramps... and that's about it. But you are right when you say that posters should be informed when their posts are deleted and told the reason for the deletion. I will personally see to it that this happens on every occasion that a post is removed from the forums!

Thanks everyone for your feedback! I sincerely appreciate it. Keep 'em coming!

 

[Joe Blow]

ASF is much appreciated by this member - didn't this start as "just a hobby" for you Joe?!!!

Julia, thanks for your kind words. It really does please me to know that you enjoy your time here!

Yes, it did start out as a hobby. More of a project actually. I had been involved in some forums as a participant and got myself addicted. I had been learning about HTML and building websites and put ASF together one night more than anything else as a challenge. Lots of beer can make you do strange things! : This site ended up being a stockmarket forum because of my personal interest in investing in shares.

Every day I am still in awe of that fact that it continues to grow and that ASF can now be counted amongst the busiest stock market forums in the country... although I will concede that this has less to do with me and more to do with the high quality of posters that have made this place their home!

 

[ghotib]

Thanks for all your kind words, suggestions and feedback! Keep them coming!

Voila!!! Some well-deserved kind and complimentary words. I find ASF easy to use, easy on the eye, and very informative.

There are a couple of issues that I want to get everyone's views on. The first is ramping...

I don't find the overexcitable / ramping posts and their associated enormous threads annoying. Some I've found very interesting, though not because of what they say about the stock - MUL f'rinstance. But I agree that it's a matter of balance: if I find that I ignore 99% of threads I probably won't bother coming back for the 1%, and if enough people feel the same way then there's no more forum.

I guess you're asking for opinions now because the forum is already reaching a point where you can't easily keep in close touch with everything? I think providing the report icon mechanism, which is a really easy way for members to let you know that they have a problem, is a great idea. It's now up to us to use it if necessary.

And FWIW, while Rozella continues posting on his dividend trading system, I ain't goin' nowhere.

Cheers,

Ghoti

 

[finnsk]

Hi Joe

I have been a member for a while, this is my first post, it has been very interesting, and i have enjoyed many of the post that your members have posted thanks to everybody.

Have never traded shares until i became a member, know I have traded with profit on "advice" from this forum, thanks guys.

The rampling that you guys are talking about does not bother me i just click on.
The personel attacks does not belong here.
Heated discussions only goes to show how passionate everybody is about there stocks.

Sorry for any spelling mistakes.

Keep up the great work.

finnsk

 

[bonkerrs]

Forum suggestion - character counter

Hi Mods.

Got a forum suggestion and I don't know where else to post it, I'll post it here, could a mod move it if needed.

In regards to typing a new post/thread. Would a character counter be hard to add somewhere on the screen? One where it ticks over as you type.

Anyway, just a thought!!

 

[Joe Blow]

Re: Forum suggestion - character counter

Hi Mods.

Got a forum suggestion and I don't know where else to post it, I'll post it here, could a mod move it if needed.

In regards to typing a new post/thread. Would a character counter be hard to add somewhere on the screen? One where it ticks over as you type.

Anyway, just a thought!!

Hi Bonkerrs,

Thanks for the suggestion.

I will make some enquiries and find out how simple or how complicated this would be to code and implement.

 

[TabJockey]

Hello! Just registered to say what an excellent forum this is. Been lurking here a few months I really love the kings ransom of information on here. Quite often you get to see multiple sides of the issue in the one thread which always points to a healthy community.

Have not seen any posts that struck me as detractive from the thread or the forum so keep up the good work!

 

[TabJockey]

One thing that ive seen done is a "Threads of the Week" or, "Threads of the Month". You have recent threads but it doesnt really sort anything out quality wise. Usually what happens is the administrator picks out a short list of what he/she thinks where the most insightful and worth reading threads of the week/month and posts them on the front page.

I always read these in a few forums because it saves you time wading through the trashier threads and you know your not missing anything really big.