Reinvigorate ASF as a stock forum

[trainspotter]

Maybe have two menus on the home page. One for "Stocks" and one for "General Chat". This way the stocks column relevant to those who are more inclined can follow and vice versa for the general discussion type people.

Just a suggestion. Personally I like the diversity and the opinions of my fellow ASFers as well as enthusiastically watch the stock threads when there is great detail and explanations as to WHY such and such stock did this or that. Some of the posters in here are dead set legends in this field and I have watched their detailed analysis turn into good results.

The other good thing is that the majority of us in here are like minded people and understand profit and risk tactics. Birds of a feather flock together kind of thing. We all have opinions that sometimes do not agree with others. This is healthy and when it isn't the mod squad do their thing. No biggy IMO.

Jike Joe said "IF everyone pitches in things can be ramped up fairly quickly"

 

[sinner]

Speaking from my own experience in starting a thread on trading the ASX20, two moderators immediately messaged me very nicely saying if there were any trolls or ****fights to contact them and they would sort it out.

Like I said, very nice of the mods, but it should have been a warning sign for me off the bat that there was a problem on ASF in this regards!

There are definitely only a few archetypes of poster on ASF and only some of those are causing the issue. On review of the thread I broke it down to

1. The contributor: person or persons bringing new information/knowledge to the thread, no strings attached, for comment, discussion and didactic.
2. The empty cup: person or persons who may only have questions but nothing to contribute. These gain the most of everyone, and if they learn well, often will stick around to contribute in the future. This is the future user base of ASF.
3. The pro: successful trader who doesn't really contribute but wanders around nonetheless proffering their opinion of "how it should be done". This would be fine but generally "the pros" don't want to spoon feed anyone so all the empty cups get are useless cryptic one liners or even worse passive-aggressive short paragraphs. Just look at this thread of someone who already has their own experience of trading, asking for a small piece of advice, was treated by "the pros" of this forum
https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=569855

I actually wrote a response here, answering the actual question of the poster, and the mods deleted it! But the people who did not read the question properly, and gave rubbish rude responses to the poster, are considered the respected members of this forum. They even ridiculed him and said "show me one person who uses this method to make money" I showed one, and the mods deleted it because "the one" was <<removed by mods>>
4. The troll: You can look on wikipedia for definition of a troll. There are plenty here on ASF and they like to "come out of the woodwork" - they don't just hang around on every and any thread.

This breakdown is from my own experience, so it may be different for other people, but I would say from my observations that generally it is the same across the forum. In my case, even though the mods offered to take care of it, after I spent hours writing page-long responses to the "empty cups" only to spend twice as long being harassed by trolls and dealing with pro statements like "that won't work, but I won't say why" or just telling me I am out and out wrong on some demonstration that actually ended up being profitable.

It quickly became apparent to me that the reason mods messaged me so quickly, was because they had already dealt with this issue repeatedly!

Why would I bother to contribute in that regards? More and more these days, even in the General subforums, I find myself writing long posts and deleting them as soon as I click "Submit" because I know in advance the reaction and response it will bring. I want an intellectual grade discussion with mutual respect. Not to be treated as an idiot by those who purport to know more than me, nor to get into schoolyard arguments about topics the other schoolboy/girl is not even really interested in!

As the poster in the above linked thread noted "this does not seem to be the place for meaningful transfer of ideas" well first impressions last and I can't blame him. I remember when I joined in 2008, people ridiculed me for claiming "gold is money" saying you can't buy a loaf of bread with a bar of gold yet I see articles this year on Mike Shedlocks blog about counties in US using gold and silver for daily transactions. From the perspective of a new poster who wants to be a contributor, or from a new poster who is an empty cup, after being bitten once or twice, what possible reason would they have to return after receiving nothing short of scorn?

Do you know how this forum is perceived on other forums? On ForexFactory, ASF is well known as a forum full of arrogant grumpy old men who don't want to listen to anyone but want to tell everyone how it is. I received vitriol just for trying to dispute this perception.

 

[Wysiwyg]

Do you know how this forum is perceived on other forums? On ForexFactory, ASF is well known as a forum full of arrogant grumpy old men who don't want to listen to anyone but want to tell everyone how it is. I received vitriol just for trying to dispute this perception.

I cruise and participate in other forums on the internet and have never seen such claims and if I did I would think exactly what I do now. You're full of *pause* yourself.

 

[explod]

I cruise and participate in other forums on the internet and have never seen such claims and if I did I would think exactly what I do now. You're full of *pause* yourself.

Good conclusion Wysiwyg, and I feel there are a lot of younger persons who do not want to know the truth as that often requires patience and that there are sometimes limits.

Saw a 1 year old at the supermarket the other day say(demand) to her Mother, "I want it now

 

[Sean K]

I like the balance at ASF.

It will ebb and flow along with the market I think, but there seems to be a pretty solid foundation of like minded members.

Thanks Joe!

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

I like the balance at ASF.

It will ebb and flow along with the market I think, but there seems to be a pretty solid foundation of like minded members.

Thanks Joe!

Agree totally Kennas. When the market tanks all the weaker players run for the hills.

The only other point I might like to add is that there are a lot of ****stirrers on ASF who like to get people agitated, to wake them from their eternal boring lives worrying about money and material things.

These stirrers try to motivate them to aspire to the important things like good cars, moving stocks, cigars, good liquor, travel, and of course frequent and short lasting relationships.

That really gets me upset.

gg

 

[Slipperz]

Well I'm doing my bit

Reinvigorating not stirring that is

Not really interested in banging on about politics and what not.

My interest here is making money from astute investing

 

[trainspotter]

Good conclusion Wysiwyg, and I feel there are a lot of younger persons who do not want to know the truth as that often requires patience and that there are sometimes limits.

Saw a 1 year old at the supermarket the other day say(demand) to her Mother, "I want it now

Are you suggesting that for one moment that ASF is for those with an educated palate? For an instance that it might be OK for a well informed investor to meet and greet like minded people? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh Nirvana.

 

[Timmy]

Do you know how this forum is perceived on other forums? On ForexFactory, ASF is well known as a forum full of arrogant grumpy old men who don't want to listen to anyone but want to tell everyone how it is. I received vitriol just for trying to dispute this perception.

Sinner is correct, there are comments of this nature on ForexFactory, they can be found with a Google search, as can sinner's defence of ASF.

The comments are in a thread about an FX broker and this broker's responses to various customer concerns posted on ASF. Sometimes when ASF is used as a vehicle for posting concerns about a product/service ASF itself ends up being attacked (shot messenger syndrome?).

Good on sinner for his defending ASF itself and the members of ASF.

 

[Logique]

There's a federal election on, a one in three year phenomenon.

Government spending and debt, inflation, a proposed new tax on our largest export industry; likelihood of senate balance of power for a party that wants to shut down our largest and cheapest power industry; small miners getting their advertising against the MRRT going again. Fiscal stimulus and interest rate movements.

How can you dissociate the immediate investment future in Australia from any of this?

Like it or not, politics and markets are particularly intertwined at present. Post election, and once the future is clearer, we'll no doubt cycle back into more of a stocks focus.

 

[yonnie]

I agree with sinner.

I was thinking about starting a thread about my penny world, but cant be bothered really.

I`m in my sixties and I`m not looking forward to fending off aggressive young bucks.

 

[nunthewiser]

I was thinking about starting a thread about my penny world, but cant be bothered really.

I`m in my sixties and I`m not looking forward to fending off aggressive young bucks.

Yes being questioned about your paper trading scenarios by people using real trading techniques would be a rather tiring excercise.

I totally understand.

 

[nioka]

How can you dissociate the immediate investment future in Australia from any of this?
.

You can associate your investments with the election. Some are held back pending the result and there are possibilities depending which party is in power at the end. There are plenty of stocks that are governed by the world situation and will not be affected by the results here.A bit of research and a bit of speculation could pay off. I am making some investment decisions based on a result either way. I believe it is a GOOD time to talk stocks.

 

[nioka]

I agree with sinner.

I was thinking about starting a thread about my penny world, but cant be bothered really.

I`m in my sixties and I`m not looking forward to fending off aggressive young bucks.

To me, 60 is a "young buck". You are only as old as you feel. (It has been said too that you are only as old as the one you feel.)

 

[Buckfont]

To me, 60 is a "young buck". You are only as old as you feel. (It has been said too that you are only as old as the one you feel.)

I feel like a 26yo, trouble is that i`ve had no takers and and I`m still waiting

 

[yonnie]

I feel like a 26yo, trouble is that i`ve had no takers and and I`m still waiting

and............you`re only 18!!!


to be fair to ASF, you have aggressive young bucks on every forum and there are worse than ASF.

yep Nioka.....spot on, still going strong and as long as I can take money from aggressive young bucks, I wont retire.

 

[Buckfont]

and............you`re only 18

In many respects I`m glad I`m not, knowing what I know now and what I didn`t then... and I`m more than happy just the way things are right this very minute.

Oh,.. I think we are meant to be talking stocks here.:

 

[yonnie]

nah, we`re only here to reinvigorate ASF:

if I talk about stocks, it got to be at least 100 characters and I`m pretty quiet by nature

 

[J&M]

I am very new to the share market
I got into this by buying investor mag
and read the David H stocks report I then joined the Eureka report
Where he made profit of 60% yep kinda go me hooked
But I wanted another point of view and found this forum by doing a web search.
To date I have learnt so much about stocks and companies by reading the stock page from page 1 to the end
I find the interaction between the posters very informative as each wants to state there point of view. Then you have to pick out the information that's relative to the stock going up or down. This is not an easy task for a learner.
There are some threads that have nothing to do with a stock. I do read some of these as you get to know the way a forum member thinks and always a funny remark from some of you
So I like it as it is
You don't have to read every thread
Glad I found this forum thanks to you All for all the help re shares

James

 

[Joe Blow]

What if perhaps the general chat threads weren't displayed in the recent threads, that way general chat wouldn't be so in the face but could still be found.

I have decided to implement this idea.

From now on General Chat threads will not be included in the "Recent Threads" module on the front page. Hopefully, this will keep the focus on threads related to the stock market and trading/investing while enabling those who wish to participate in General Chat threads to still do so.

Feedback on this decision, of course, is always welcome!