Announcing InvestChat (previously known as InvestEd)

At the end of the day, on a busy forum there is typically more content that you can consume anyway - so you need to be selective about what you read.

If you aren't into microcap stocks, stay away from the microcap threads. The moderators can help keep the traders from taking investment threads off track.

If there are people whose opinions you simply have no time for, you just use the ignore feature and problem solved

FWIW, I already removed the "Trading" section of the new site the other day before we even started this discussion - as I said, I have no intention of turning the site into another share trading forum, there's plenty of those already.

If you think there is content which crosses the line as to what is reasonable, feel free to use the "report" feature to bring it to my attention so I can assess what action might be necessary.

 

In general I would prefer to see individual threads about a specific LIC, which would make it easy for new people to catch up on the discussion to date and browse through content to find what they are looking for.

It's also easier for people to find content that's relevant to them - since it's more obvious to read the "ARG" thread than to try and read through 50+ pages of a "LIC" thread.

That's not something I'll enforce - just what I'd encourage. If someone on InvestChat started a new thread about a specific LIC and the discussion started moving towards a different LIC, I'd typically split the thread to keep it on topic. If you think that should happen with any thread (here or on InvestChat), just use the Report function to bring it to my attention.

Unless people really want me to - I don't intend to do anything with the current LIC thread. It's not ideal to have discussion in two places, but I'm also not here to stop people having conversations - I'm here to try and encourage more (and better) conversation.

That being said - I do think the current single thread about all LICs is too long and too difficult for new people to keep track of.

What I'd love to see is some new (perhaps individual LIC specific) discussion start up on InvestChat to try and kick start things over there - and I'd love as many of our PropertyChat contributors who are passionate (or keen to learn) to join us over there as well.

It's only day two for the new site, so it's going to take a while to find its feet - and there's still a lot of cleanup I have left. We have a great community here on PropertyChat, I'd like to try and rebuild InvestChat to be just as strong with meaningful, respectful conversation.

I'm always keen for feedback and suggestions on how to improve things - so please do let me know your thoughts (in private if necessary, or in the help and feedback forums), and I'll be glad to discuss it with you.

 

If you feel a thread is being taken off topic - just report it and let the moderators deal with it. That's what they're here for.

Just to reiterate points I made earlier - I see the "trading vs investing" argument to be largely the same kind of thing as the "cashflow vs capital growth" or the "buy and hold vs buy/add-value/sell" arguments we have here on PropertyChat.

There's room for both on the site and unless the thread is about "which approach is better?", generally there should be no reason for the traders to pollute an investing thread. If you feel the traders are derailing threads, just report it and I'll deal with it.

 

Not really anymore. Very few sites make good money out of advertising alone. There's a reason why "old media" is going out of business. With the right niche (and high traffic volumes) you can make good money out of advertising - but it's fickle and consumer demands are changing.

 

You don't make money by "launching" a forum, you make money by building a community and a website which gets a lot of traffic (or niche content people are willing to pay to access).

PropertyChat only grew as fast as it did because I was able to take over the well established community on Somersoft when that site was archived - and it took 15 years to build Somersoft to the level it was at that point. InvestEd/InvestChat has been operating for 11 years now and while we made some good money from it in the early days, it has struggled in the post-GFC era with low traffic and advertising revenue dropping.

It doesn't cost much to launch a forum (which is why there are thousands of them out there), but it takes a lot of time and effort to build a successful community. Most of the forums that get started by people never grow much.