Reinvigorate ASF as a stock forum

[gordon2007]

To me, this is hardly a stock forum at all. It's more a place where people who have an interest in the stock market come to have a moan and groan about everyday life, with the occasional banter of a company and what their value should be.

Yes, other forums may use language of a pump & dump, but at least there is a consistency of stock market chatter as opposed to here where it is mostly conversations of one's personal views on general life with the odd bit of share news thrown in.

This site to me, is now the equivalent of going to a cooking forum, where all the members of said forum enjoy cooking, but instead of everyone sharing recipes, everyone is too busy talking about sports and the government.

Bit of a shame really, but hey, the only constant in life is change. Some things change for the better, some not so much.

Cheers.
Gordon

 

[McLovin]

ASF is not much more than the general chat forum these days. Most of the posters who I used to interact with in the "S" part of ASF have stopped posting, which means I've stopped checking in all that regularly. It's a shame, this place used to be great and had some fantastic posters, now it's more like the comments section of a tabloid newspaper. That seems to have been a conscious decision, so I guess it's worked well. Unfortunately, the decline in the stock chat seems to have hit terminal decline now.

 

[Gringotts Bank]

HC has the market cornered on stock commentary.

Maybe ASF could carve its niche by focusing on systems, technical analysis and trade diaries, regardless of instrument.

 

[gordon2007]

HC has the market cornered on stock commentary.

Too true. Whether Joe, other admins and the general population on here want to admit it or not, hotcopper has won this battle. This site is a victim of what they opposed the most, endless ramping with no substance, except in this case the ramping was about this forum. The admins here stopped ramping of posts about shares, but were more than too happy to let endless ramps of how good this site was continue unabashedly. Far too often I saw post after post bagging other forums whilst pumping this site up for no other reason than to feel good about themselves without offering any solid ideas on how to improve this forum.

Short term fixes may have won the ratings in 2007, but a lack of foresight and not believing in the credibility of other forums may have doomed this site.

One could hope for a rebound for asf, but I don't see it happen.

Regards,
Gordon

 

[Wysiwyg]

HC has the market cornered on stock commentary.

For 10 years I refused to join HC due to the mindless ramping, narkiness and personal attacks I read as a guest. I joined this year and my third post about a particular stock I received a good spray from some turkey. Being unsurprised nowadays they make me laugh and I replied politely asserting that I will post my piece on whatever stock I choose.

Maybe ASF could carve its niche by focusing on systems, technical analysis and trade diaries, regardless of instrument.

I am okay with personal trade (minus account details of course) diaries but if someone has unique systems and T.A. like quants should be developing these days they are probably not going to reveal it on the internet. Everyone is looking for an edge and why would you give away one that has taken countless hours and money to create.

 

[tech/a]

What do you want out of a Stock site that ASF doesn't give?
What does Hot copper give that ASF doesn't?

 

[PZ99]

^Nothing. Last time I checked hotcopper has more political fanbois than ASF.

Can't really compare ASF with hotcopper. Unlike ASF, hotcopper isn't a community. It's an ASX listed company with a prime directive to make profits. ASF is not.

 

[McLovin]

For 10 years I refused to join HC due to the mindless ramping, narkiness and personal attacks I read as a guest. I joined this year and my third post about a particular stock I received a good spray from some turkey. Being unsurprised nowadays they make me laugh and I replied politely asserting that I will post my piece on whatever stock I choose.

HC has some reasonable posters, but they get drowned out by the type of cr@p you mention. Most of the time it's just a circle jerk of holders talking to themselves about how many boats they're going to buy when bots/shorters/downrampers etc stop manipulating the stock price. The quality of post is about the same as five day old fish.

 

[Gringotts Bank]

What do you want out of a Stock site that ASF doesn't give?
What does Hot copper give that ASF doesn't?

I'd never trade a speccy without checking HC. Due to the numbers, there will always be someone who has flagged an upcoming capital raising, for example.

Popularity. I don't know how you create that. Some restaurants are full, others are empty. Sometimes it's the food, sometimes the staff, sometimes the vibe/decor/location, sometimes it just happens.

My guess: Admin should look at the popular threads because that tells you what people want to view. If everyone is buying your soufle and no one is buying the roast, then you focus on providing a good soufle to stay afloat, right? You also have to look at who's complaining, because they may want something that is not worth your time providing. Want a roast? Go to 'Roasts Are Us'. Or vice versa for soufle.

 

[Gringotts Bank]

Having said that, if business success was easy, everyone would do it.

Knowing what sort of service you want to provide, and knowing what people want to use, then creating the overlap. Sounds easy!

 

[gordon2007]

What do you want out of a Stock site that ASF doesn't give? What does Hot copper give that ASF doesn't?

Hi Tech,
I understand you question. But I don't have the answers. I'm not here barracking for hc, I've never even posted on there. In fact I wouldn't even call myself an active member on this forum any more either.
I just happened to see this post and it intrigued me enough to put up an answer.

I can only comment on the facts, and the fact is hc is now the most predominant forum for shares. Membership there is rising, and whilst I don't really know the facts for this forum, it certainly appears to be a bit stagnant. Hence, this thread on how to reinvigorate this forum.

Perhaps look at this way, maybe Joe and the likes are great at investing and very clever people. But, maybe they don't fully understand the new age of social media. And social media, whether we want to admit it or not, is the way of the future.

I still believe this site, when there is talk about particular shares, provides more advanced and informative discussions. But, sadly, there is not a lot of talk about shares on here any more. Which again, is why this particular thread was created.

Maybe it's not good enough to ask people on here what they want, perhaps that is akin to preaching to the choir. If Joe is happy with the way this site is currently, then why change? But, if he wants it to move forward and gain membership, then maybe hiring a specialist in social media may be a way to help get a better grasp of how to move this forum forward so it's more appealing and to gain new membership.

Hope this hopes.

 

[Wysiwyg]

forum
ˈfɔːrəm/
noun
noun: forum; plural noun: forums; plural noun: fora
1.
a meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged.

Ideas, views and information. There is less disagreement when information alone is shared.

 

[systematic]

I'll ask this one, because it'll be helpful to Joe as well.

"Do any of you guys belong to a stock market related facebook group?"

I'm an old fella in internet years, so I still like forums. But I recently visited a health forum I used to frequent, and found that they are now all interacting on the website's facebook group.

The demographics of stock market investing are always an older crowd, and just wondered how many of you belong to a stock market related facebook group? I don't.

 

[Logique]

I don't think it's about comparing the delivery vehicle or method , whether ASF, HC, Facebook or a forum.

It's just a different kind of stock market now, and peopled by more sophisticated and less gullible investors. If there's less stock content these days on ASF, the quality of the contributions has skyrocketed.

In earlier times, we collectively ran from motor home builders to uranium miners, to Coal Seam Methane, to rare earths, to gold stocks and iron ore - and plenty of speculators got burnt and won't be back.

I don't like Hot Copper, and I wouldn't go anywhere near a Facebook stock forum.

I do not mind for one minute the General Chat threads, and constantly marvel at Joe's tolerance of them.

 

[tech/a]

Hi Gordon
Been a while

What would get you back to posting
Your one of the best chartists I know.

I really like your idea re the expert
I have just employed a marketing business builder
She is a masters graduate and been with two major networks in Adelaide

I’ve given her complete access
WOW
Two weeks in and I’m seeing huge potential
Small % on big numbers really boost the bottom line.

But even more
Perhaps the members need to feel more well a member
Appreciated
Without them what is there

If there is one thing I’ve found in 35 yrs of business
Find experts and take advantage of their expertise
Can be life changing

 

[UMike]

I must admit, this describes me to quite a degree.

I check the home page, probably a couple of times a day still. But as I'm not into the 'General Chat,' that means I'm not interested in 90%(?) of threads. I'll open a stock related thread if it seems interesting. But I think I've started getting so used to not posting / interacting that there are now times where, like you said above, I don't bother contributing as much anymore, even when I have something to say.....

Same here.
Although I don't so much read the squabbles much.

I like the on the topic based discussions here and ramp free environment.

 

[UMike]

HC has some reasonable posters, but they get drowned out by the type of cr@p you mention. ....

Why can't we get them to post here then?

 

[Joe Blow]

First we got whinging cuthroat traders not liking whining general discussion whiners but somewhat tolerate them.

It's gone beyond whinging to a very real exodus I'm afraid. Either ASF gets its stock market focus back or this place is history. I'm not joking. We are well and truly at the tipping point.

 

[Darc Knight]

I'm guessing you can't temporarily stop posts in the General Chat section or you would've done that.
I'm gonna put General Chat on ignore, hopefully that'll stop me contributing to the problem.

 

[luutzu]

It's gone beyond whinging to a very real exodus I'm afraid. Either ASF gets its stock market focus back or this place is history. I'm not joking. We are well and truly at the tipping point.

Sorry to hear that Joe.

This is a great site. I don't really have any great ideas beyond what you and other members have suggested.

One thing I noticed on Hotcopper a while back is that they purchase corporate announcements and generate that as a separate thread.

I guess that keep the company pages fresh. Member usually read the announcements and some might comment on its impact.