New Forum Structure

[The Leopard]

I think it's OK. GTC was handy, but its existence was probably throttling a lot of the other forums. So maybe the change will be positive.

 

[Steve]

Have you noticed how the question about onetwotrade has been dodged for days?

I promised to answer this, it has already been answered elsewhere but in case you missed it, the answer is no, I am told we did not send a partner offer for this firm.

Steve

 

[new_trader]

From Monday you are going to see some changes to the way the forums are laid out. This work is long overdue and we are really grateful for all the feedback you have given us in recent times both publicly and privately.

Tim (timsk) has been managing this project and has been working very hard behind the scenes to produce a much sharper and relevant list.In addition to your feedback, we have looked at the approach taken by other communities and also thoroughly investigated 'best practice' in this area.

The new layout not only makes the site more streamlined, it gets rid of dead sub forums, brings everything up to date and unites members that were once split into smaller groups. We hope you agree that the new layout is leaner, crisper and altogether better.

To save you waiting to see what is done as next week unfolds, I've included a pdf showing the new list in full.

Inevitably, there will be a few forums that are misplaced. If you spot any obvious ones, please PM Tim or put a link to them on this thread and he’ll move them.

This is the first of many changes that will be made in the coming months and my thanks once again to those of you who have taken the time to suggest some of these. Please keep them coming and i'll make sure all ideas are given the proper consideration.

Please bear with me though, there's a lot to do!

Steve

I think you've done a brilliant job with rationalising the forum. It was about time the ‘'General Trading Chat'’ section lost top billing, it was mostly garbage anyway yet it was the first section anyone who visited would see. Now all you need to do is reinstate SOCRATES and job done!

 

[new_trader]

'Subscribe to This Forum'

a) Is this a new feature? Does 'subscribing' mean that you will be notified of any new post in a thread within that forum?

b) When will you reinstate SOCRATES?

 

[ybfjax]

So where do metatrader 4/5 folks put their indicators or expert advisors? Forex discussion is one option, but tools of the trade (trading software) would seem to be another. Perhaps for tools, there should be sub-forums for popular platforms?

 

[timsk]

So where do metatrader 4/5 folks put their indicators or expert advisors? Forex discussion is one option, but tools of the trade (trading software) would seem to be another. Perhaps for tools, there should be sub-forums for popular platforms?

Hi ybfjax,
Thanks for your post.

What was the old Metatrader sub-forum is now a part of the Trading Software forum. That said, most EAs are used by forex traders so, as you suggest, posting in the Forex Discussion forum will be equally appropriate in many cases. So, 10/10 with your assessment; please use your discretion and post in whichever of the two forums you feel to be the most applicable!

With regard to your suggestion of a bespoke sub-forum for Metatrader users and other popular platforms, this is something we've tried hard to get away from with the new forum structure. There are three main reasons for this:

1. Sub-forums result in the site being splintered into lots of small pockets and the sense of community is lost.
2. Members focus on one or two small niches and miss out on other discussions which might be of interest and of benefit to them.
3. All the while the site gets ever more labyrinthine in structure and harder to navigate.

Therefore, there are no plans to re-introduce sub-forums unless there's very compelling reasons for doing so.
Tim.

 

[ybfjax]

Hi ybfjax,
Thanks for your post.

What was the old Metatrader sub-forum is now a part of the Trading Software forum. That said, most EAs are used by forex traders so, as you suggest, posting in the Forex Discussion forum will be equally appropriate in many cases. So, 10/10 with your assessment; please use your discretion and post in whichever of the two forums you feel to be the most applicable!

With regard to your suggestion of a bespoke sub-forum for Metatrader users and other popular platforms, this is something we've tried hard to get away from with the new forum structure. There are three main reasons for this:

1. Sub-forums result in the site being splintered into lots of small pockets and the sense of community is lost.
2. Members focus on one or two small niches and miss out on other discussions which might be of interest and of benefit to them.
3. All the while the site gets ever more labyrinthine in structure and harder to navigate.

Therefore, there are no plans to re-introduce sub-forums unless there's very compelling reasons for doing so.
Tim.

Can you at least put 2-3 sentence descriptions next to the main forum titles? Like for "trading software", you can put "this includes expert advisors, algos, scripts, indicators, and all charting packages software." This will help people determine the best forums to participate in.

I do respect that you are attempting. It's much easier for a forum like forexfactory to "segment" properly because the focus is already more exclusively on forex. EliteTrader does suffer a bit from fragmentation, but did a better job from the start having major categories.

 

[FringFX]

Can you at least put 2-3 sentence descriptions next to the main forum titles? Like for "trading software", you can put "this includes expert advisors, algos, scripts, indicators, and all charting packages software." This will help people determine the best forums to participate in

that is a good idea. this will demystify any forum specially for new traders and really get them up to speed in terms of which forums they need to go to.

 

[timsk]

Can you at least put 2-3 sentence descriptions next to the main forum titles? Like for "trading software", you can put "this includes expert advisors, algos, scripts, indicators, and all charting packages software." This will help people determine the best forums to participate in.

Hi ybfjax & FringFX,
Thank you for the suggestion and we'll certainly keep it in mind. The old forum structure did have descriptors and we debated long and hard as to whether we should keep them or dispense with them in the restructure. In the end, we decided to try and do without them.

The reasons for this are:
1. Most forums are self-explanatory and don't need descriptors. Of the few that might benefit from them, we felt that members would soon get a feel for what that forum is all about by reading the threads in it. So, not having descriptors actually encourages users to look inside that forum and, hopefully, contribute to discussions in it.
2. Descriptors can be as misleading as they are helpful because they are - by necessity - very short. It's not feasible to list all the topics that are suitable for discussion in that forum. The consequence of this is that general terms get used that are open to interpretation which then negates the need for the descriptors in the first place!
3. Not having descriptors is in keeping with the new slimmed down minimalist look. Restricting information to what is absolutely essential enables users to go straight to the forum of interest to them without being distracted by extraneous content.
4. If the lack of descriptors results in numerous requests such as yours, along with members starting threads in the wrong forums, we always have the option to introduce them in the future. So, we felt that it's well worth seeing how everyone manages to get on without them.

It's still early days but, so far, there doesn't appear to be a problem and members have adjusted to the new structure quite quickly. That said, thanks again for the feed back and we'll certainly consider the suggestion if this becomes an issue in the future.
Tim.

 

[NVP]

guys

are you considering some kind of newbie probation posting system ? (like a newbie thread area) ......we are wasting time with a lot of rubbish as we have to type into new posts first to see what is being said.....

N

 

[timsk]

Hi NVP,

are you considering some kind of newbie probation posting system ? (like a newbie thread area)

Yes, we're in the process of conducting a root 'n branch review regarding newbies.

......we are wasting time with a lot of rubbish as we have to type into new posts first to see what is being said.....

Sorry NVP - I don't understand what you mean?
Tim.