Elite only for ALL downloads?

September 5th, 2011, 04:57 PM

My only concern would be the minimum post requirement. I myself am an elite member, but I rarely post. However, I can tell you I've ready close to 90% of all the threads on this board to learn as much as I possibly can. I'll ask a question here and there, but I'm trying to soak up as much information as a beginner as possible. This is the only downside I can see about minimum post requirements.

September 5th, 2011, 05:00 PM

Big Mike

All,

I am contemplating a major / drastic change to the behavior of all downloads on the site. The change would be to make all downloads Elite Only. I mean all downloads, in posts, threads, downloads section, everywhere globally. The only exclusion would be images (screen shots), but all other file types would be available only to Elite Members.

I have mixed feelings on this, so wanted to get some feedback from the users to consider as well before making any decisions. The main reason for the desire to change is to protect the work and to protect the value of the community.

Right now, too many "bots" are downloading our indicators and posting them on other sites as their own. Right now, too many real people register "fake" accounts because they can't even be bothered to spend 30 seconds to type in correct info when they register, all because all they want is to download something and likely never participate further in the site.

I previously tried enforcing a 10 post minimum for downloads, but all that did was have people create 10 junk posts. So that isn't going to work.

It seems the best way to protect the collection of downloads the users have worked very hard on, is to restrict access to only those who are serious about trading.

It certainly doesn't have to be Elite only, but the only other realistic option to implement is the minimum post requirement. If I change it to say 50 (instead of what we tried before, 10) then maybe it would prevent people from creating 50 spam posts just to download something, but still allow people who are serious about trading - but for whatever reason aren't Elite members - to still download. But the problem is, 50 posts is far, far more than what most people have (unfortunately), so such a requirement is likely to just piss off a lot of people.

The desire to change is not about increasing Elite sign ups. In fact, lately I have been wondering if futures.io (formerly BMT) is getting "too big" as we've started to attract some of the trolls from other sites and sometimes some of the posts are getting unfriendly lately. I am fighting this very hard as I am sure you are as well. We all want futures.io (formerly BMT) to remain a unique place, a place where everyone is truly here to help, and not start arguments, call each other names, or other troll like behavior. So this might mean making futures.io (formerly BMT) a more exclusive place where only serious traders are welcome.

Now obviously, just because someone pays for Elite membership does not automatically mean they are a serious trader. But they are probably far less likely to be a trouble maker while paying for the privilege to be here.

So a move of making all downloads Elite only might stunt our growth in terms of new user sign ups to the site, but that is fine with me if it means that what growth we have is of a higher quality and caliber user. I don't want to make the requirement solely based on post count, because there are far, far too many people who do not post much but are still working very hard to improve their trading. These people have signed up for Elite status to help support the site, and I think that entitles them to receive the downloads without a minimum post requirement.

Anyway, so there it is. Some of my many thoughts on the matter. Please share yours. I'm hoping to get a good mix of replies from both Elite Members and non-Elite Members.

Mike

I started as a commun member, and after paying to convert myself in a Elite member my commitment with the forum changed
Took some time to post things, as I came from TradeStation Easy language coding, and the forum helped me A LOT to learn to code for Ninja Trader

I suggest that downloads should come from Elite Members

September 5th, 2011, 05:00 PM

Big Mike

All,

I am contemplating a major / drastic change to the behavior of all downloads on the site. The change would be to make all downloads Elite Only. I mean all downloads, in posts, threads, downloads section, everywhere globally. The only exclusion would be images (screen shots), but all other file types would be available only to Elite Members.

...
Mike

I am wholeheartedly in favor of giving the rewards of the futures.io (formerly BMT) Forum to those who have earned it.

September 5th, 2011, 05:01 PM

Tiberius

IMHO, I say open the threads to all; in the spirit of learning. You need an Elite membership to download indicators. If you want to play, you have to pay.

I agree with the above. Downloads should be limited to elite members.

Regards,
John

September 5th, 2011, 05:05 PM

My opinion is to make all of the downloads elite. I feel having people pay for elite membership causes them to not only take advantage of it, but have enough respect to become part of it.

I love futures.io (formerly BMT) and I would like to see the quality of posts remain the same (or even go up). I think making people pay for downloads would attract those who are more serious about trading and hopefully slow down the growing amount of useless/garbage posts by filtering out those who aren't so serious. I think it may also help turn away the naysayers and those who would otherwise bring less than a decent attitude towards others on the forums.

Although this probably won’t solve the problem completely, but is there a solution that works 100%? As we well know, you’d have to keep searching for the Holy Grail.

<sarcasm> As far as the post count goes…maybe you could do a walk forward optimization and find a number between one and 50 that only allows those in who you really want? </sarcasm>

I do not believe a post count would help, no matter what the count is.

September 5th, 2011, 05:05 PM

You have my vote. I originally became an Elite member so I could download the GOMI ladder. I
had a different perspective of the site after that.

September 5th, 2011, 05:06 PM

@Big Mike,

I think that is a good idea. Thanks for the effort.

September 5th, 2011, 05:06 PM

I agree with the majority as well Mike-- make it elite.

September 5th, 2011, 05:07 PM

I do believe that it should be for Elites only. There is alot of work and time goes into creating a workable download, I have tried an just giveup so thank's to the ones that are able to do this and keep it away from those who will not put in the time .

September 5th, 2011, 05:08 PM

Agree. I became an Elite member almost immediately after realizing the value offered on this website. I have benefited from the downloads here and my programming skill set, by way of download and subsequent modification and incorporation of various code ideas into my strats, has improved greatly. Significantly, and because I am a firm believer of giving value in return for value received, as I have separately promised Big Mik, I intend to post at least of one of my finalized strats for others to benefit from, as a way to contribute to the futures.io (formerly BMT) community. But I would be more inclined to post more finalized code if I felt that the pool of users here were ones that were also contributing (at a minimum, through the Elite membership fee) and eventually through sharing. (Note that futures.io (formerly BMT) is more than a blog like forexfactory.com; the webinars, downloads are a great resource and to maintain this site for all our benefit, for serious users, the Elite membership fee is a bargain at 10 times the price). As an aside, I'm more inclined to freely and liberally post finalized code for users that do contribute.

For anyone that understands the value in the downloads of this site, there should be no legitimate and/or reasonable opposition to the proposal by Big Mike.

Elite only for ALL downloads?

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Elite only for ALL downloads?