The Five Commandments of Aussie Stock Forums

[SirRumpole]

If the presence of GC was driving people away, then it's absence from the recent forum posts and the effort required to find GC should bring back those interested in stocks.

Personally I'm not interested in day to day stock trading so I have nothing to contribute there. I think individuals are being sucked in by high frequency traders that have instant access to price/volume data etc.

Long term value trading is where I should be I think, but maybe that's not as sexy as day trading and certainly doesn't generate as much interest on a forum like this as the owner would want.

Due to complaints about GC I'm going to *try* to limit my posts there to out of stock market hours.

Apart from the Folau thread (which I probably regret starting now) there are lots of interesting threads that bear on the financial markets in some way, the Electricity thread for one, electric cars etc but which don't fit into any other category but GC. It would be a pity if these disappeared.

Like it or not, international politics has direct relevance to financial markets. The US/China issue, Brexit etc affect us either directly or indirectly. Dismissing it as "just politics" is to ignore it's obvious relevance to our welfare. The same argument can be made about local politics, taxation policy etc. I don't see how this issue can be ignored either.

 

[Joe Blow]

If the presence of GC was driving people away, then it's absence from the recent forum posts and the effort required to find GC should bring back those interested in stocks.

I hope so.

Long term value trading is where I should be I think, but maybe that's not as sexy as day trading and certainly doesn't generate as much interest on a forum like this as the owner would want.

You may be surprised.

Due to complaints about GC I'm going to *try* to limit my posts there to out of stock market hours.

A good alternative to the General Chat forum is the Business, Investment and Economics forum. Lots of interesting threads in there on topics that verge on general but also have business or economic angles. The national and global economies are topics of vital importance that deserve robust discussion and debate.

Apart from the Folau thread (which I probably regret starting now) there are lots of interesting threads that bear on the financial markets in some way, the Electricity thread for one, electric cars etc but which don't fit into any other category but GC. It would be a pity if these disappeared.

There are many more in the Business, Investment and Economics forum.

 

[HelloU]

comment:
i nearly always look as a guest to see what "new posts" have been made ...... i never scroll down on the home page but just hit the big green button to see what is new ........ that means as a "casual looker" i am unaware that some recent posts even exist ........ and i do not understand how that is an advantage to the site for those posts to not even be visible in the list.

 

[HelloU]

comment:
i nearly always look as a guest to see what "new posts" have been made ...... i never scroll down on the home page but just hit the big green button to see what is new ........ that means as a "casual looker" i am unaware that some recent posts even exist ........ and i do not understand how that is an advantage to the site for those posts to not even be visible in the list.

soz peeps,
that was meant to go into that other thread about forum changes as a comment for Joe .......
(i sorta wondered why the post did not show up there .... and just convinced myself that i did not actually post it - i gotta drink less - and that drink comment of course was to screw with greggles )
@Joe Blow

 

[Joe Blow]

that means as a "casual looker" i am unaware that some recent posts even exist ........ and i do not understand how that is an advantage to the site for those posts to not even be visible in the list.

ASF gets a lot of search engine traffic from people searching on Google for stock market related terms. Many may also be looking for a stock market discussion venue and are potential new members. To arrive here and be confronted with threads on Islam, Jordan Petersen and gay marriage probably turns a lot off.

If the General Chat threads are to remain it seems prudent to sweep them under the carpet so that newcomers only see stock market related content. After all, that's probably what they are looking for.

 

[tech/a]

Nailed it agin in my opinion Joe

Back to basics

 

[HelloU]

ASF gets a lot of search engine traffic from people searching on Google for stock market related terms. Many may also be looking for a stock market discussion venue and are potential new members. To arrive here and be confronted with threads on Islam, Jordan Petersen and gay marriage probably turns a lot off.

If the General Chat threads are to remain it seems prudent to sweep them under the carpet so that newcomers only see stock market related content. After all, that's probably what they are looking for.

only commented cos u said "re-design" and i thought how i did not even know till yesty that the tech chart thing, and another thread had been put into use again (due to how i do not scroll down the home page but just hit the green button as a guest) ... but then i also use 150% windows scale so i am not sure what that "cuts-off" the viewing window of the home page ...

(probably 2 too many probably in urs)

 

[Joe Blow]

only commented cos u said "re-design" and i thought how i did not even know till yesty that the tech chart thing had been put into use again

Sorry I misunderstood.

This is because tech/a's thread is in the private members forum and isn't visible to those who aren't registered and logged in. Tick the checkbox that says "Stay logged in" when you log in and you won't get logged out again until you log out manually. I only ever log out if there is a reason for it and that happens very rarely.

 

[Zaxon]

This is because tech/a's thread is in the private members forum and isn't visible to those who aren't registered and logged in.

You may have inadvertently provided a solution. General Chat goes private, so not accessible to search engines. Sign up as a member to access it.

 

[jbocker]

You may have inadvertently provided a solution. General Chat goes private, so not accessible to search engines. Sign up as a member to access it.

I was just about to type the same thing. Great (quicker) thinking Zaxon. Maybe extend that to other sites that might be marginal. Joe can you just open up stock threads and other Finance threads that show up on Gooogle. Long time since I joined but new members given a check box list of what they want to turn on; General Chat can be off by default.

 

[Joe Blow]

You may have inadvertently provided a solution. General Chat goes private, so not accessible to search engines. Sign up as a member to access it.

Unfortunately that would kill a lot of ASF's search engine traffic and page impressions. A little known fact is that we rank very well for search terms like "dead rat in wall cavity", "passionfruit problem" and "msg kills cats".

It might not be the most relevant traffic but does provide a lot of page impressions and surprisingly, clicks on ads.

It's a really tricky balance to get right, but I need to keep traffic levels up because page impressions equal revenue. Even if I had closed General Chat I would have left it open to search engines. There's some really useful information in some of the threads in there.

 

[SirRumpole]

Unfortunately that would kill a lot of ASF's search engine traffic and page impressions. A little known fact is that we rank very well for search terms like "dead rat in wall cavity", "passionfruit problem" and "msg kills cats".

It might not be the most relevant traffic but does provide a lot of page impressions and surprisingly, clicks on ads.

Haha what a hoot.

ASF came in second for "dead rat in wall cavity" search.

I wonder how it goes for "Horror: Lesbians assaulted by vampires in Martin Place".

See, I told you there is no such thing as bad publicity.

 

[Joe Blow]

Haha what a hoot.

ASF came in second for "dead rat in wall cavity" search.

I wonder how it goes for "Horror: Lesbians assaulted by vampires in Martin Place".

See, I told you there is no such thing as bad publicity.

The largest day of traffic in ASF's history was thanks to Pauline Hanson. I think we still rank fairly well for "Pauline Hanson nudes".

 

[Joules MM1]

The largest day of traffic in ASF's history was thanks to Pauline Hanson. I think we still rank fairly well for "Pauline Hanson nudes".

lol
fortunately the lonwinded bear market is all-but over and out the window goes the garbage

proactive positivity always becomes tangible in the middle of an upleg (as we see in this thread)

hello, xjo

 

[jbocker]

The largest day of traffic in ASF's history was thanks to Pauline Hanson. I think we still rank fairly well for "Pauline Hanson nudes".

There may have been a few of them searching for the above nude (shudder) and ended up on the ASF. May have found ASC and bought a shipload of shares.

 

[Smurf1976]

Thinking about all this, I think Joe’s solution is the right one but we can all help too.

In terms of the “why?” aspect of General Chat I think at least some of it comes down to this being one of the few places where you’ll find a group of intelligent and generally civil individuals. The knowledge, balance of views and general conduct on this forum leaves many others and the mainstream media for dead.

On the other hand it has something in common with a workplace. Ultimately we all (presumably) came here to make money. There might be exceptions hut not many are going to do a search for “stock market forum”, find ASF and sign up if they’re not intending to make a profit from investing. Likewise Joe is running a business not a charity.

As with any workplace, a bit of idle chatter can bring benefits via team building and so on but ultimately it’s not getting the work done and isn’t making money. There’s a limit to the volume of it beyond which it becomes a major problem.

So I suggest that in addition to the changes to the forum which Joe is looking after, the rest of us note that Monday marks the start of a new business week, a new month and a new financial year too. That seems like a perfect opportunity to make an effort at shifting the focus.

My personal view is that it’s politics and religion which are the problem with GC. There is after all a limit to how many travel photos, recipes and photos of their pet snail anyone can sensibly post so that sort of thing ought to be self limiting in volume. Plus nobody’s likely to be offended by it.

With the political threads I also think the missing detail is the investment implications. Next time there’s an election somewhere, surely the most obvious focus is what implications a win by party x has for our investments?

 

[Zaxon]

@Joe Blow, I've never seen you post about investing. So I'm curious, is it that you feel you don't have something to contribute? Or is it a strategic decision to stay purely administrative and not join in with finance posts, even though you'd actually like to?

 

[SirRumpole]

With the political threads I also think the missing detail is the investment implications. Next time there’s an election somewhere, surely the most obvious focus is what implications a win by party x has for our investments?

Indeed so. Sometimes the investment connections are a bit loose though.

eg the story that industry super funds want to invest in nuclear energy. Should we be concerned about this ? Does it threaten the security of members of those super funds ? Given the costs involved in nuclear energy, is this a wise investment ?

etc.

 

[Joe Blow]

Or is it a strategic decision to stay purely administrative and not join in with finance posts, even though you'd actually like to.

This is the reason. I've only ever made a handful of posts here outside my role as administrator. Most of them are in the travel photos thread.

I chose my role when I started the forum. It makes sense to me that I keep it that way. I've participated on other forums as a regular member, but here I'm the administrator. I like to keep things simple and uncomplicated. If I mixed my roles it would cease to be that.

 

[explod]

The big silent issue here is climate change. It is starting to effect business enormously and though few here, including our Captain do not want it discussed how can we stop it creeping in more and more.

There is a lot of good stuff on alternatives and perhaps if there was more acceptance of the reality we could turn it into the sites favour.