As this is a significant milestone for ASF, I thought I would take the opportunity to say a few words and address a few issues at the same time. Bet you weren’t expecting this, were you? 
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ASF has been quite the rollercoaster ride since its inception in late May 2004. In the last two years I’ve had legal letters from the CEO of an ASX listed company demanding that posts deemed to be ‘defamatory’ be removed, hate mail and harrassment from a banned member, one offer to merge ASF with another ASX based forum and two offers to buy ASF outright. Plus, of course, the usual daily dramas and heachaches that go along with running a forum. But I’m still having a good time and I plan on sticking around to watch this place grow.
There were three main points I wanted to briefly touch on:
Peace and Harmony at ASF
I have noticed that the larger ASF has gotten the more likely it has become for conflicts between members to occur, creating a sense of disharmony on the forums. I realise that some conflicts on a forum with this many members is inevitable, but I would hope that we can keep it to a minimum. In order for this to be achievable I need the co-operation of all ASF members. I need people to be proactive about avoiding conflict on the forums and to report troublemakers to me or one of the moderators as soon as possible.
If you find the posts of another member annoying or irritiating then I strongly urge you to place them on your ignore list. I have noticed that some members refuse to do this and I am mystified as to the reasons why. It is without a doubt the best method of avoiding the posts of someone who rubs you the wrong way and is a proactive step in avoiding conflicts with others. On forums, as in life, we will inevitable encounter others we find annoying and irritating. The larger the community ASF becomes the more likely it is that there will be several people who meet this criteria. Two suggestions I can make that will make your life far less stressful are:
1) Put them on your ignore list, or;
2) As tempting as it may be, do not respond to their posts. Ever.
I understand how easy it is to be drawn into conflict with others on the forum. With no body language to observe and being reliant solely on language to convey your thoughts it is easy for words to be occasionally misconstrued. If you are in doubt about what somebody meant, just send them a quick PM and ask them. That way, if they did mean to insult you, you can fight via PM and keep it off the forums.
If you feel you are being baited by someone then please contact me by PM and I can take the appropriate action. (No crowbars necessary! )
A few friendly reminders about posting
Please title your thread as accurately at possible. The thread title is the only clue other members have to the content of your thread so please take a moment to consider the title carefully and try and be as precise as you can.
Please be aware of your spelling and grammar for the sake of readability. I don’t expect everyone to be perfect but please just have a quick read through your post before you click on the ‘Submit Post’ button. It only takes a minute and you will be surprised at how many inadvertant errors you will discover… and hopefully correct!
Don’t forget to use the ‘Report a post’ feature to report posts that you feel violate the ASF code of conduct is some way. The faster a post is reported the faster it can be dealt with by myself or one of the moderators. To report a post just click on the ‘
‘ icon that appears in the top right of the offending post.
Please keep your signatures to within the defined limits. Remember, you are only allowed two single spaced lines of text and one link. If you have smilies in your signature that make it more than two single spaced lines please remove it or replace it with another, smaller one. Signatures that are outside of these limits will be edited. If signatures become too much of an issue in the future I may consider eliminating links from them altogether.
Ramping is bad. Don’t do it. So is posting while drunk… I won’t mention any names.
The Future
I’m very fond of the community we’ve created here and I would like to see it continue to grow and mature and the body of knowledge that is contained within the 2,900 odd threads here can be continuously built upon and expanded for the benefit of all. ASF has been a full time job for me for some time now. I left full time employment earlier in the year to devote all my energies to the management and administration of the forums. In terms of revenue it’s not full time for me yet but I believe that it eventually will be. So please, if you have found ASF to be valuable or if you have enjoyed your time here and found it to be worthwhile please consider supporting some of the advertisers or buying your investment books and software through the ASF Investment Shop. Every little bit helps and is sincerely appreciated by me.
Over the next few months you may see me experimenting with the placement of the ads as I attempt to optimise things. My aim with the ads is to make them as unobstrusive as possible while still getting them seen. As you can imagine it is a difficult balance so please bear with me until I find the system that works best.
Now for some quick thank you’s
Thank you to all those who have so generously donated money to ASF. Your contributions are always very sincerely appreciated.
Thank you to ASF’s moderators RichKid and WayneL (and now ctp6360) who I know got more than they bargained for when they agreed to give their time to keep a watchful eye over the forums. Please always show them respect they deserve as volunteers. Being a moderator can be a thankless job at times and I know they do it because they care about the site.
And thanks to everyone else as well for contributing to the forums and for coming back and visiting ASF as often as you do. We are more than twice as busy this month as we were in December. It’s good to see so many people determined to maintain the high standards we have set for ourselves here. Lets all try and keep ASF a cut above the rest!
This was my first post on ASF, made in the ASX Stock Chat forum on May 28, 2004:
I hope that if anything, we have maintained the spirit and purpose of that first post – 50,000 posts and a little more than two years later.
Thanks for sticking around everyone. See you all at 100,000 posts!
Cheers!
Joe
P.S. Don’t forget, if you have any ideas, criticisms or suggestions feel free to post them in the Suggestion Box. Or you can always PM them to me if you prefer.
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