Respecting others on these forums means respecting others in real life

Beginner Questions
1

Hello traders

and a happy new year to you all!

I have been struggling with trying to make consistent profits from trading since starting in September 2012, and I have posted about this plenty of times on BabyPips; however I have also been very active on BabyPips and more recently I received a t-shirt (the one that features on my profile photo) from the BabyPips team by post as a thank you for being such an active member.

I have met two other BabyPips in the city where I live, this was now last year (2018), and realised then how much distortion there can be in only interacting with people online: when you meet someone and look them in the eye, sit down with them for a chat, show each other your trading charts, etc. it all becomes so much more straightforward, so it really does have a different dimension.

What is more, and here I come to the point of my thread, it makes it impossible to just throw abuse and insults at someone who disagrees with you, because suddenly they have a face, they are sitting there looking at you, and there is nowhere to hide after throwing those insults.

I am writing this because a former member on BabyPips has been posting a lot of insults about me on Twitter, unbeknown to me: there was no alert, or notification, and had I not found out by chance about it yesterday then I would never have known.

I wrote to the person in question and asked him why he turned on me like this, without cause or reason, and I hope that he will write back, realising that his insults have no basis.

Unfortunately, wearing the BabyPips t-shirt in the profile makes me somehow a sort of employee for the site, a member of the staff, of the ‘institution’: this false idea entitles some people to throw abuse at me, because they think that if a ‘failed trader’ represents BabyPips in some way then the whole website must be a scam. This makes these people feel entitled to throw insults and use vile language as they want to somehow put me down and cast me as a villain.

This incident makes me ever more determined to be nice and respectful to users on this site, because no matter how removed someone may be from you, and how safe you may feel when typing insults behind a screen, those users are real people, just like those whom I met in my city, and they should be afforded basic civility even when disagreeing with them.

So I wish everyone here a happy new year with the hope that we can all get along, and that in these troubled times we may stand above the most objectionable bullying and language that we sometimes see in public media from institutional figures, or on forums.

Peace, respect, and prosperity to you all.

Happy trading
PipMeHappy

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I just can’t believe that anyone could find anything about you to be negative about, PMH. You are perhaps the most openly genuine and hardworking individual that we have here. You have a long and loyal track record here and have put an enormous amount of work into your postings here - both concerning direct trading issues and other allied areas of interest. You are always fair and tolerant of others and welcome other views even when they are contradictory to your own.

These negative tweets…they didn’t happen to originate from a certain President of a large country notorious for his grandiose style of personal repartee? If so, be proud, you are in a grand and fast-growing Hall of Fame! :joy:

But you are totally correct, abusing people on forums demonstrates a very low level of wit from people who seem to think it makes them somehow look clever. It is a very mistaken belief that they are somehow admired for it.

It is a similar phenomena to the behaviour amongst certain car drivers, insulated inside their cars. One would not normally act and gesticulate the same way whilst walking alongside others along the pavement?

So keep up the good work, PMH, and be reassured that anyone who matters and who knows you will only laugh at such comments - if they even ever got to see them! Anyone who wastes their time with such gutter trash, either reading or writing it, is to be pitied rather than concerned about.

A very happy New Year to you, too, PMH. :smiley:

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Happy new Year PipMeHappy (funny nickname!)

Nice read. Disrespecting people is a difficult topic. But in my experience when it is obvious unrelated and for purpose to make someone feel bad, I just ignore it. Social skills is a very difficult topic. Keep in mind the more freedom you have the higher the chance social behaving pattern would not fit to each other and then you end up with misunderstanding and no understanding to other peoples behavior. I just write this because this is a trading forum. You can disagree with everything you want. But go trading and disagree with the market and see what happens. This happens nearly all the time. Every trade is a “disagreement”.
I am new here and I joined this forum as I liked the polite conversations I read here. I would not spend bad energy to users who insulted me. Just ignore them. It helps you nothing putting thoughts to a person you don’t even know in real life. I would focus in an internet forum to users who contribute respectfully and with value.

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@PipMeHappy don’t let it get to you. This is a journey and everyone is at different parts and taking different paths in this journey.

The person you are talking about is just sad and pathetic. To spend 6 months on Twitter throwing temper tantrums like a 4 year old says a lot about that persons maturity and mental state. I pitty them more than anything.

You can’t make people change but you can choose to let it get to you or not. Choose not to. You will be a lot happier for it.

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@krugman25 @anon46773462 @tukan @Trendswithbenefits

Hello all,

thank you for your thoughtful replies.

I appreciate that I am trying too hard to get to the bottom of something for which there may be no easy fix, but I believe that not engaging with someone who professes to hate you can be missing out on an opportunity for change, for both the person doing the hating and that who is the target of it.

I hope to get better at trading, it is not easy but I will only know if I am any good at it when I, well, when I know it! Until then, if anyone said to me “Just give it up, you are hopeless”, I would listen but I would need to be sure myself: that time has not yet come, thus I am unable to say what I will decide with regard to whether trading is a possible source of investment for me in the future.

Good luck all, and happy new year.

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@PipMeHappy you are clearly a very kind person. That is one of your great traits and one of the things us BabyPipper’s love seeing in the forum.

It’s good to extend grace to someone, but if they reject it just make sure you don’t become their doormat. That is no good for you or them.

Let’s have a great 2019 full of green on the trading screen :sunglasses::grin:

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Top post my friend, if everyone in the world thought as you, what a world it would be.
Be proud to wear the shirt, you earned it, as for the trading, well like I was told it will all come to you, hopefully before we go broke.
I to have struggled, blown nearly 40% of my balance in eight months.
With a lot more reading and suggestions from others, I might be in for a change of fortune.I have recently started trying a new (probably old) indicator, I have at present for the day four winners straight with a possible fifth quite probable. I can not say that this indicator is responsible for the turn around, maybe different mind set, do not know, but I am happy that I am in front for now.
I will gladly share the indicator with you, maybe all you need to kick start profits.
It is Absolute Strength Histogram. I am a new user, so I am not allowed to upload the Zip file.
Happy Trading
Willedo

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You didn’t mention whether this former BP member has just left or was actually banned. But I assume it is the latter, otherwise there would be no reason for such behaviour off-site.

If this person is in fact banned then I think you answer lies in your quote above.

It sounds like you are just a pawn in the game and that the real issue behind all this is a deep bitterness and frustration against BP as a site and not really against you as an individual. Seems you are just being used (especially with the T-shirt) as a personification of Babypips because it is easier to criticise a person and associate that person with the site than to try and just criticise the impersonal site direct (which would be very boring!).

If that is the case, then you can do nothing except ignore it and wait for the person concerned to run out of steam and move on in their life!

We have a saying up here in the North: “There is no such thing as bad weather, there’s just bad clothing”. In the face of adversity, just wrap yourself up in the real and important things like family, friends, work and your trading development and shut out the cold.

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Hey Pip!

I want a t-shirt like that!!
Seriously.

Well, anyway. I look up to you bro. I don’t care what anyone else would say. That just won’t change. I appreciate your character.

Mike

P.S. - Tell you when I come up with my own ‘BabyPips’ T-shirt.

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when some people see potential in you, they want to take it away,do whatever they can to throw you off your game or upset you. It’s important to recognize those type of people and stay away from them. I just mind my business most of the time, and focus on myself

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@tukan @Willedo @justshell @krugman25 @zaramary @anon46773462 @CarlosRay @Penelopip @MikeWolski @Pipstradamus

Thank you all for your supportive messages, I probably over-reacted but it hit me because when you think that you know someone and then they do something hurtful to you, especially behind your back, it shakes your trust in people enough to make you less trusting the next time.

I have tried entering into some kind of dialogue with the person in question but it has not gone anywhere - not as I had hoped.

Happy new year to you all,
and yes, i am proud to be wearing my t-shirt.

PipMeHappy

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Also, a thank you to:

@FOREX.com @Maximus_martins @xfowokan @Barrigan @Ananais @Pipzilla @Trendswithbenefits @eddieb @MrDE @ria_rose and everyone else who has made this journey valuable, enjoyable, or even just bearable!

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Finally, last but not least, a thank you also to:

@SimonTemplar @peterma @Falstaff @emeraldorc

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I’ve been thinking about this and in fact have typed a couple of replies, but the issue of Internet communication and the emotional attachment we get towards or against others - is another of “those issues” our 20,000 year out of date psychology is just not capable of “doing intuitively”

I am as I type arranging the funeral of my 90 somthing year old mother and when I look at the lives of my children (@PipMeHappy generation) , myself and her - our childhoods and therefore the way we view the world have just been so different - for the one “politeness and respect” are essential. For myself - the resolution of disagreements using fisticuffs was the norm and people were reticent to intervene as between husband and wife - as often they would BOTH - turn and attack the “Rescuer” - But as I struggle with the words of this eulogy, I am minded that as a baby girl, my mum’s dad was newly returned from the wars - having been gassed twice - shelled continuously on both the Somme and at Ypres, but somehow made it home to continue the primal instruction of the human race (to procreate) despite carrying masses of shrapnel in his body, legs and his head !

THAT was her DAD ! And he carried that metal until he died.

Then as a young teenager, it all happened AGAIN those just a few years older than her were commandeered by the UK Govt and sent off to be shot at, for reasons they really did not know - except “They said so” - She would routinely go to the end f the garden and sleep in the “Air raid shelter” lest “They” came in the night and many of those she knew or was related to were killed in Europe - or by being bombed at home. She used to tell me about “Doodlebugs” - If the engine stopped above your head, you were safe - because they would hit the ground further away, but if it stopped before it got to you - then you were NOT safe !

She married my dad and they had me shortly after WW 2 ended - so I’m a “Boomer” - In some ways, because I have only been in genuine fear of my life a very few times, in comparison with them - I feel a bit of a fraud !

At the end of the day @PipMeHappy, I can’t offer you much solace - I have been subject to “Bullying” in the past and you basically have two choices - run away from it or stand and fight ! - A bloody nose sometimes converts a “bully” into a “friend” - but in days when even penknives are banned by the same “Govt” who demanded your grandfather to go and get shot at, I don’t know what to say - @anon46773462 advice to retreat into the bosom of your family is certainly the “Peacekeeping” option ! and has it’s merit.

One thing I would say tho’ is that you are NOT a “Failed trader” - until YOU say you are ! - I don’t remember who said that ? Napoleon Hill or Alexander Elder - or Marty Schartz ? but it’s true

My second trade was a BUY ! of ÂŁ10,000 in a company called Marconi at 22 pence (they had been over ÂŁ6 ! ) - Then a little later as a "super bargain at 6 pence, I bought another ÂŁ5,000 ! :smiley:

A few weeks later I’m thinking - "If I’m going to do this - I better learn to do it “RIGHT” ! :rofl:

£15,000 “lesson” ?

What people don’t take on board tho’ is that life is a never ending series of “Gambles” and all we need to do is to get MORE RIGHT, than we get Wrong ! - At the same tme I was trading Marconi - I was buying houses ! :wink:

Okay the tax man and my ex have had a bit of a party at my expense - so what - I’m still here and ready to find the next challenge !

Stick with it mate - you’re gonna do fine ! :sunglasses:

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Does his name start with ‘b’ and end with ‘b’ - I think you all need to toughen up and deal with the disagreements, that’s life. Especially in this game, it is what it is - there’s some big personalities out there, so just enjoy it. This is a money focused game, nothing else, it attracts the worst of ego’s.

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Happy to know that new babies are trying to acquire trading ideas and obtain trading knowledge from this prestigious forums. And without doubt, experts are providing guidance so that naive traders can receive an overview of the basic ideas of forex in a trouble-free manner.

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@BaconSandwich That is one view: that this is somehow a pit-trading environment; but another view is that when we regularly exchange ideas with the same people, we start placing trust in them, and this is especially true when we only have the words they write as a measure of their attitude to others.

In short: as we type what we think, we have time to consider our words carefully, unlike being in a trading pit. The fact that some people still like to type insults, even having the choice to edit those words before clicking on the reply button, meams that they have fully intended to offend… That means that it is less forgiveable than an off-the-cuff comment in the heat of a live situation, like a sporting match.

This is not a boxing ring, a trading pit, etc.: this is an online forum with a varied public, so it pays handsomely to always think twice before assuming that what you type will not be insulting to or humiliating someone.

THINK BEFORE YOU SEND.

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There is actually a saying: “Think what you say in order that you say what you think”

BUt I thought this issue was actually not about forum posting but about postings in that great black hole of networks called “social media”.

Forums, to a greater or lesser extent are moderated, but social media comment is almost completely unregulated except at the more serious levels approaching criminal activity.

It is in this area that one is almost totally unable to intervene or counter remarks. The only solution at this level is to totally ignore it and it will go away. This is not “peacekeeping” it is just realism. Nor is this transient virtual world even important at this level. One just concentrates instead on one’s real life and one trading, or whatever else one does, and let it wash by. Don’t seek it, monitor it or even bless it with your concerns about it. :+1:

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@anon46773462 Agreed. Twitter is mostly unregulated, even though more effort have been made to stem abusive language of a more severe kind.

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And usually those that assume (as you are doing here) make an arse out of themselves too?

I can see why you’re annoyed and why I may have ruffled some feathers, it’s always going to be a touchy subject, especially when you’re also on Bob’s Twitter feed Krugman?

I don’t know his intentions, but just rise above it - that’s how I was bought up, rather than sounding like a wet lettuce.

Moving onto the above lovely extract from yourself, would you be so kind to point out where this has taken place, or do you use slander to get most of your points across?

Edit: why would you flag this as an inappropriate post?