Has BabyPips turned sterile?

I wrote a reply to this thread which turned into a rant about —

• grey text on a white background
• “trust levels” and “badges”, and all that silly stuff
• the heavy-handed moderation of so-called “bad” language, and
• the removal of posts critical of certain elite members and their threads.

I have decided not to post my rant.

The people who run this show would probably delete it, anyway.

Instead, I will let my new avatar express my opinion of this new forum.

Like most of the discussions on this forum, my Offshore Broker thread appears to have died. I hope it’s just stunned, and not really dead — because I think it has served a useful purpose over the past 7 years, and can continue to be a useful resource in the future.

So, I will try to adopt a positive attitude toward this new forum.

And I will try to rally the participants on my thread to return to the forum, to ignore the forum features we can’t change, to find work-arounds for the features we can finesse, and to continue to pressure the powers-that-be to fix the worst features of this new forum.

I’ve rendered this entire post in bold type to try to make it readable (unlike other posts on this new forum). Bold-type for everything is one work-around we can use, until the people in charge fix the grey-type problem.

Infinite scroll is only one of the many things that have changed. The Forums on it’s own is a brand new system. We literally started from the ground up at every corner, with brand new hardware, software and design. As I stated previously, infinite scroll is a core component of the forums platform that we use. And getting feedback on the other changes is vital to knowing where we need to focus our efforts at changing something for the better.

Can you point me in the direction of the thread you’re referring to?

The purpose of this thread and the entire Community Feedback category is to do just that - give the community members a way to voice feedback, concerns, questions, comments, etc. Now does that mean we will agree with every request made or reverse every decision that hits an impasse with some members, no. But it gives us a place for constructive, civil discussion.

As for the moderation on inappropriate language, two posts were flagged. Neither were deleted. No warnings were given, No infractions were given. No bans, temporary or permanent were handed out. A simple request was made to change 4 words in _bob’s post, which he changed to another string of inappropriate words, and one word in tommor’s post. No other changes were requested.

We live and operate in a global community, so we have to be mindful of different cultures. And while what is said may not offend us, or you, or even maybe the majority of the rest of the members, if what one says does offend a minority, we have to respect that in the same way if another member says something that offends you.

We’re already working on several fixes and changes to things that seem out of place or different, and all we ask for is patience and a willing to try something new.

This might be true, but you don’t do this for the love of it. The site has to pay it’s bills - like any other business. And as a business you have a target audience to sell your market offering to. I.E 23 to 48 year old white English speaking males. So don’t run this polony (political correct term used) past us. The global community is telling the world (particularly in politics) there is no room for right wing conservative views.

The minority is not always right, tolerance is a dirty word and we don’t need to bend to their demands.

Again, if these people are offended by very, very minor level “inappropriate” language then they have no business speculating in the first place. They should be told to put up and shut up.

And thats the bottom line cause stone cold _Bob said so

I’ve tried recently to post about Dodd Frank versus FATCA in the Offshore Broker forum, but new rules prevented me from posting. “We’re sorry, but new users are temporarily limited to 3 replies in the same topic.” I have been a member for years, although do not post often. I’d wager the lack of activity stems from the less than intuitive new interface and, more importantly, the new rules stopping many of us from posting. Fortunately, neither issue need be permanent.

Leaving aside what others have said so far, I will comment on my lack of visits lately. I used to visit numerous times a day.

1. Something happened in the past where the browser wouldn’t accept my login. I had to use Firefox in order to log in. Chrome or Explorer wouldn’t allow me to log in so I couldn’t post. So, that annoyance meant I wouldn’t visit as much.
2. I stopped getting the daily thread updates from ones I subscribed to like I used to get. Another thing that used to prompt me to visit.
3. There doesn’t seem to be a healthy mix of newbs vs. those honing their skills vs pros.
4. The names I used to follow also stopped coming as frequently.

I still periodically visit because it is bookmarked but now I also have to get used to the new format and badges and stuff. The entire internet refers to this site for the Education/School section. So we’re inundated with people looking to learn. We just don’t seem to filter those people into honers and pros who end up staying as well.

EJ

There are a couple of different things going on here. With the move away from vBulletin to Discourse, we needed a way to map a member’s user group/permission profile to our new system’s user group/permission profile. We had to decide what level of activity constituted being moved into a higher Trust Level, automatically giving a member a broader set of permissions on the new system without actually having to do that things what would normally get you there. If you received the message “We’re sorry, but new users are temporarily limited to 3 replies in the same topic.”, and you were on the old website, you were designated a New User at the time of the switchover. The new system recognized that your account didn’t meet the thresholds needed to automatically move you into the next Trust Level.

But as you said, it’s not a permanent state of being. For one, if somebody replies to you in the topic where you receive the “3 post” notice, you get another 3 posts in that same thread. Every time somebody replies, your 3 posts reset. Again, this is only for New Users, and it’s done because it’s very easy for a new user to come in and ruin a single thread by simply posting in it over and over. Just create a new account, be super argumentative, reply to every single person that replies to you at great noisy length, telling them just how wrong they are, and… destruction of the thread ensues. So the new system puts limitations on what new users can do.

How do you get that limitation removed? Become a Basic Member (Trust Level 1)

#New Users can get to Trust Level 1 by:

• entering at least 10 topics/threads
• reading at least 50 posts
• spend a total of 15 minutes reading posts

#Users at Trust Level 1 can…

• use all core Discourse functions
• Upload images and attachments if enabled
• Edit wiki posts
• Flag posts
• have all new user restrictions removed

So as you can see, promotion to the next Trust Level is about more than just post count or even how long you’ve been a member. The system records what threads and posts you read, calculates a read time, and applies that read time, along with other factors, in deciding when you move up to a new permission level. This system requires that brand new users, who legitimately want to be here, stick around a bit to gain those new permissions. And at the same time, it creates a larger barrier of entry for spammers to be able to post. I can see the inconvenience in not being able to post immediately, especially after being here for years, and we’re sorry for that. But with a fundamental change in how access is granted, he had to fit old-system activity metrics into the new system, resulting in some former members needing to start from scratch. That’s probably more detail that you wanted, but hopefully explains a bit of what’s going on behind the scenes.

3 posts were split to a new topic: Website feedback

Bob only said what the few who are still here were all thinking.

Even a free phpBB forum installation’s more user-friendly than this. By far.

What really comes across is that all the problems that caused the forum’s demise ultimately stemmed from the same, single root cause: it didn’t value or respect its members.

Especially the ones it most needed.

Looking back, it seems they were all saying so pretty clearly for a long time, too.

No forum can survive that.

I agree with you. Apparently I can’t say more because the post i made earlier in this thread, offering a relative newcomer’s perspective, has been deleted.

Some opinions are apparently more welcome here than others.

Thanks for the feedback.

This is easily accomplished right from the forums homepage. Click the icon for Unread, which is a collection of threads you are watching or tracking with unread posts.

forums-latest-new-unread.png1021×187 13.2 KB

And also remember that if you reenter a thread that you’ve visited in the past, you are automatically taken back to the post that you last read/first unread post.[quote=“Xanaphlaxes, post:42, topic:105305”]
As others have pointed out, it’s also important to keep the key contributors around and encourage constructive posts.

Much extremely valuable data has been posted and much of it by a handful of users. Its important to continue to provide an effective space for them to contribute.
[/quote]

We completely agree. We’re listening and doing our best to accommodate many of those requests. Thanks for your patience.[quote=“LaughingCharlie, post:43, topic:105305”]
I agree with you. Apparently I can’t say more because the post i made earlier in this thread, offering a relative newcomer’s perspective, has been deleted.
[/quote]

Sorry about that. That was removed by mistake. Restored. We’re all for respectful and constructive criticism. Speaking your mind is not a problem as long as it’s in line with our Guidelines and Forum Policy.

This is exactly what i was thinking about. I visit this site almost everyday more than 10 times before site renewed.

I really loved to read Pipsology thing and i had learning schedule.

But someday, i turned PC on and checked site, all layout was gone.

This is my first time here and just starting to explore Babypips forum. I came across this question and inappropriate language is swearing, name calling, just to start. Every one has a viewpoint and if you disagree play what you see.

Given all the comments I see in discussions here about the forum’s history of censoring the posts of valued members who contributed a lot of high quality stuff, while protecting those so obviously posting just to promote their websites and services, it comes across at least “suspiciously” if posts like that are removed, but thank you for reinstating it, which I admit I didn’t expect.

Yes I agree totally with what you all are saying. It seem like the forum is not responsivel

ok sure…@RISKonFX

Changes are in the works. Progress tracking is also returning. So thanks for your patience while we get those updates out to you.

Well I was still doing the school and after the update it’s lost track of my education.

School progress feature was removed but it will be coming back very soon.

So what has happened to the OP of this thread (Bob).

Has he been banned or is there a system fault - apparently he posted 1 day ago, but no sign of such a post?

Bob, are you out there or have they taken away your voice?

Even a whisper will do

Gday bro. Yeah Bob was sent to detention for having a bad attitude. ( We are at school After all). But they’ve let me out. Just have to remember to speak the queens english not australian bogan slang.

And no more telling people to get mummy to change their panties when they sulk.