Moderate Self Regulation Forums

[fxmarkets]

Right had an idea re all the do this do that difficulties of threads forums and behaviour,.

What about a self regulation standard that each member chooses for him/herself.

ie, green. highest standards wanted and given (basic manners really)

amber middle

red. member doesn't mind rucks etc.

now when a member starts a thread he nominates what level the thread is open to ie green, only, amber and green or all.

members who have chosen (for themselves remember) greens can populate all threads, amber amber/reds/open to all and reds, reds only reds or open to all.



obviously when members choosing for themselves the level there would be a box highlighting whats reuired for each level .

people who dont mind rucks can have a ruck, people who want to discuss and make progress can , almost like chosing which neighbourhood you want to live in...

I mean people ,get this,will have to make the choice of where they want to live..... easy. I'm chosing this.........

cant we give them the choice ?

mods could then moderate the levels and not the threads.

 

[LION63]

FXmarkets,

That is a very good proposal and it should/would solve 95% of the problems on the Boards. It is quite simple really, if I choose to live in a very rough neighbourhood (post on a thread with a red light), I am likely to get mugged or have my property vandalised (receive serious abuse, have my integrity and sanity questioned). If I plump for the middle of the road option, I might get told not to be silly and that will be it. Now, if I opt for the suburbs (green threads) I know that they will be populated by the Ladies and Gentlemen - No mudslinging, lots of back slapping and warm respect.

Brilliant idea that I think T2W should adopt as an easy way of solving all the woes. Those that stray from their comfort zones (the green threads), might receive an ear bashing or two and will soon learn that mixing with the riff raff is not such a good idea. On the other hand, the hooligans will be extremely bored by the gentile nature of the toffs in the suburbs (green threads) and quickly leave.

 

[fxmarkets]

Yeah I think so, but it would also put people in the position of consciously thinking and chosing for themselves, taking ownership if you like of, where and what kind of interaction they find themselves suited to, for whatever reasons.

Maybe members who perhaps get sick of red etc, can apply to move up via a mod etc. but put it on an time system maybe 5 days after request etc.

 

[LION63]

It seems that I did not fully grasp the original concept. Are you suggesting that one has to apply for a particular type of membership? If that is the case, which of the categories would enable one to move from one group to another?

I thought that the proposal was for the threads to be colour coded and members could then decide which categories they wanted to participate in as they went along. As an example - I might post on 1 green, 2 yellow an I red at the same time. Or would that not be possible?

 

[fxmarkets]

yes when you compose a new thread, you would select what level of members it went out to,

green only, open to all etc.....

if you consider yourself to be a green, discuss with manners then you can access all threads...

if you had a serious topic etc and didnt want the members who dont mind rucking mindset to participate then mark it for green/ambers or just greens.

 

[commanderco]

T2W = trade to win.
Either your mindset is to trade for a profit or to learn to trade for a profit or it is not.

The most difficult part of trading is the psychological aspect and the discipline required
and it is obvious when reading posts, who has it and who has yet to acquire it.

The knowledge of Traders like all knowledge, is several layers deep. Many layers deep in the case of a few who post their thoughts and opinions here.
And then there are those who will attack these Traders and thoughtful people armed to the teeth with their weapon of choice ... ignorance!

Well, I say welcome to the world.

To those genuine Posters, I say "do not allow yourself to be overwhelmed by underwhelming people"
To those Posters who cannot / willnot contain their posts to the betterment of Trading for a Profit, I say "slap your money in the markets. Do not spread it too far, but contain it to EC, JY, ER2 & YM for a start. If you are unsure of what months to trade, PM me and I will tell you. I will also tell what time of day to place your trades so you dont waste your money on strangers. Throw in your day job for good measure. This way you can take pride in the fact that you are doing something useful for a change.

Before posting to T2W, we should all pause and ask ourselves on question.
"Am I a full time Trader, who trades for a profit and a living"
If the answer is NO, then have respect for the people who are a YES. Use your brains and figure out how to draw the information out of these people. I am not referring to the answers to your questions, rather I am referring to the questions that you dont even know to ask.

If the answer is YES, then you as a Trader should not be allowing yourself to be drawn into an emotional puddle. You do not allow it in your Trading day so why allow it in T2W

 

[fxmarkets]

yeah I see you point and I am happy to go with the flow, but what can happen is that when a thread gets going you may get 1 or 2 posts blast in then snowballs into disruption and the piece of work gets scribbled on....... through pure sillyness. people calling for mods and discussion loses its place in the inter squabbling of often late comers.

Society doesn;t say ohh thats ok, go with the flow ,its classed as unacceptable behaviour, why should it be different or less serious online society? Its how we want to shape it an interact within which creates it. That can be structured to a degree to allow discussion for all to bloom according to their own beliefs/standards.

 

[Sharky]

Thanks for the suggestion FXmarkets, it's an interesting idea.

However, I'm not enitrely convinced about it's viability. If I understand correctly it's essentially a filtering system, limiting what threads particular members can post to. Members would have to be honest with themselves and either decide on one extreme that they are green and very polite and well mannered or on the other, choose to be red - or let's say, rather colourful with their language and not frightened to vocally express their opinions. There then limiting themselves to what they can post to. The converse would be that when you created a thread, say a green one, you're saying I don't want anyone on this thread that's not going to be polite and well mannered. Then if someone who claims to be a green category, isn't complying presumabley they're warned and if they do it again the mods move them to an amber or red category, from which they can't change back up.

I just think it would all get too complicated, in my experience the systems that work tend to be the simplest to administer and the most intuitive. Plus technically it would be challenging to implement such a system, it's certainly not offered 'out of the box'.

All the same, I do like the idea of self-regulation - it would certainly take the pressure off the mods, it's just deciding how best to leverage the membership so that they can help positively influence how the forums are managed. I do have any idea about how this might be done - which came out of the discussion following on the moderation and guidelines polls - and I shall be discussing it with the mods this week.

 

[fxmarkets]

Hi sharky and yes I see your point, but the idea sprang to mind when another member expressed I dont mind having rucks. willing to tolerate it and defend or attack against it....... great, he or she would class themselves as red. but the funny thing is the members would choose for themselves. how they view themselves and be expected to conform because they choose that option .

In an ideal world all would be green but as some have pointed out they dont mind the "Bring it on"

good luck with it sharky, good site, just growing pains I expect.

FX.

 

[DaveJB]

Hello Paul,
it might be easier to do this if you had 2 categories - I want to operate under the prior rules where members were allowed/encouraged to argue/debate but kept it clean and civil, and a 'no holds barred, you knew the rules went out the window' version which would (hopefully) be very visibly annotated.

I still think anyone who can't argue a point without getting unduly personal is a retard, but assuming there's some sort of fetish that this supports then an X rated section of the site might be the way to go - perhaps you could simply (simply is probably the wrong word) have a 'protected' section of the site where the abusive threads were held, and you entered by typing in a password?

Don't envy you having to sort this, by the way, good luck to yourself and the mods...
Dave

 

[Racer]

It that a bit like asking a person how good a driver they are... most if not all would say they are better drivers than everyone else

 

[Sharky]

Thanks fxmarkets - the idea definitely has merit, so it's worth exploring further.

Dave, I'm not sure what you mean by the 'no holds barred, you knew the rules went out the window' version which would (hopefully) be very visibly annotated. Please elaborate. Raising the quality of the forums (both in terms of the participation by the members, and the management by the mods) definitely isn't a walk in the park. But at least we're openly engaging in a debate, something which not many forums would entertain, let alone encourage. We could have either an X-rated forum as you suggest, OR a zero-tolerance forum - but immediately there are some logisitical problems with that, in particular how members navigate the forums by category and then topic when were lumping non-related threads together in a single forum just based on the standards of moderation we apply to them.

I personally think there's no easy answers, no quick fixes (but if anyone thinks there is, I'll be the first who'd want to know!) What I think is required is a concerted and focussed effort to introduce a range of measures that help promote the aims of the forum (ie. to provide a professional, respectful environment).... then it's over to you guys.

 

[Racer]

There could also be legal issues for trade2win if that sort of no holds barred forums were allowed.

But is this a civilised debating forum or not? Surely there are other websites where the people can throw insults at each other without moderation! Why try to do the same here?

 

[fxmarkets]

It that a bit like asking a person how good a driver they are... most if not all would say they are better drivers than everyone else

yes, but a few have said they dont mind the offence, etc, you should be able to deal with that if you gonna make it as a trader etc... but im suggesting this so as people can at least be best placed to be able to make adult/civil conversation on the discussion front.

I mean these types say well if you cant deal with this in a discussion how you going to cope in the markets....... thats not the point, its in the interests of creating an environment whereby discussion is able to flourish for those who dont mind the shop floor down to earth talk and those who wish to elevate themselves.

you see you essentially get people who rather than rise up and advance, wish to bring others down to their level. how can we help both aspirants to achieve their ambitions on the communication/discussion front.


maybe closed archived green threads will be able for all to see, to indeed see if the level of discussion or communication is different from the shop floor stuff, if people wanted to participate in the green level then all they need do is learn to behave , not even learn, just behave. simple.

Its not about elitism its just about choice.

 

[dbphoenix]

Surely there are other websites where the people can throw insults at each other without moderation! Why try to do the same here?

If I may, this is one of the reasons why ET is what it is, the idea being that by allowing the "chat" forum what amounts to free rein, it will act as a sort of relief valve and keep the rest of the site civil.

It doesn't take a sociologist to figure out the most likely outcome of this misguided effort.

Rather than allow the rest of the site to go on about its business, the chat forum instead sets the tone for the entire site, and opening up a thread requires a willingness to subject oneself to abuse that is only marginally less than Yahoo, and contributing to a thread requires very nearly the same willingness.

What all the rules, regulations, guidelines and so on all come down to, essentially, is don't be an ass. Unfortunately, there are going to be those who simply have no idea what that means (see Richard's thread). Fortunately, there are so few of these (their number being extraordinarily out of proportion to their effect) that the solution is fairly simple. As I suggested elsewhere, perhaps those who get so wrapped up in the philosophy of it all that they can't make a decision should just focus on the effect of a given post. If there isn't any, leave it. If it disrupts the thread, then cut it, along with all the posts that are made as a result of it.

Not everyone knows what it means not to be an ass, much less how to behave professionally. However, T2W is no one's mother. If the member cannot learn after n reminders of what's expected, then he or she clearly has "special needs" which might better be met elsewhere.

 

[DaveJB]

Hi,
sorry - a bit of shorthand in there perhaps, but from the discussion on this and other threads the polarisation of views seems quite distinct to me, one bunch believe thread discussion should exclude personal attacks, another is arguing for no restriction of content - it just seems that the thread starter here identified a reasonable way to deal with this.

As I understand the rules members ought not indulge in personal attacks on other members, and a member so attacked should simply report the post which then leads to a ban on the offender. As has been clearly seen on threads similar to this one (and predating it) not all the members believe that is how it should operate, this thread carried a suggestion that offered these 'no holds barred' supporters a means to post what they liked without offending others, so I supported the idea as a way to avoiding further conflict of opinion between wimps like me (green, by earlier definition) and those who like to indulge in a full and frank exchange of views.

I'm not complaining about standards, I'm genuinely supporting a suggestion that provides those who feel it's okay to insult others to go into their own area to do so. I'm a bit baffled by it as it doesn't seem to improve trading any, but some members seem to want to do that so rather than just bitch about it I'm trying to offer suggestions on how to accomplish it.

 

[commanderco]

If you are going to come up with a set of pretty coloured lights, then you need to change the name of the website.

T2W is powerful and direct. It links two things together.... trading & winning.

If this site is to become a chat show it will need to be renamed, which I think is a great shame since it will become just another example of dumbing down and I will be gone.

Does T2W have a concise mission statement stating the purpose of it´s existence?

I have two buttons on my front end platform ... green = buy & red = sell.
I do not amber = chat

 

[dbphoenix]

Does T2W have a concise mission statement stating the purpose of it´s existence?

The following is reasonably concise:

Trade2Win.com ("T2W") is a professional trading resource that promotes mature, intelligent & respectful discussion in a positive & safe environment for everyone. T2W is dedicated to developing and maintaining a friendly online community, where members of all ages and trading ability feel relaxed and comfortable.

 

[fxmarkets]

here you go commanderco, the objectives, how best to achieve this, the purpose of the site..

The Objectives.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trade2Win (T2W) prides itself on being the leading community web site for active traders. Our aim is simple, we want to unite and support active traders across the globe. To this end we provide a range of facilities to enable our members to communciate with one another, share their knowledge and express their views. Furthermore we seek to provide educational and thought provoking content to help better educate our members in their trading lives.

 

[fxmarkets]

yeah maybe we ditch the amber, dunno just bouncing ideas as to how to create a good discussion learning environment to deliver on objectives, holding in mind that membership will continue to grow, 80k,100k+ looking ahead here ..