michaelc
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Post by michaelc on Mar 1, 2018 16:13:44 GMT
This topic was briefly brought up in another thread in another context so I thought it warranted its own thread.
Background: I have invested what for me is a moderate sum in COL. I heard about COL through this forum and generally got a good impression about it. My choice was 100% mine and I do not and can not blame anyone or the board for my choices. In general the board is a good thing - communication is always a good thing.
I suspect there might be others as daft as I that seeing a P2P site listed as a main board here gives it some kind of legitimacy. I wonder if we can try even harder to ensure nobody falls into the trap I did.
It made me wonder about whether we could do be better presenting the platforms and in particular, about presenting some platforms more prominently than others. I'm have a couple of simple ideas below but I bet there are betters ones. What I do ask is that we who have an interest in this board being successful, think carefully about it because with hindsight, I think it is a more important topic than it was.
The current system is a bit self-fulfilling. You put a platform up there, it gets some interest, its views/hits/engagement go up and so it stays there.
Some random ideas: A flat list of any FCA fully authorized sites in alphabetic order or ordered by size of the platform (turnover or some other quantifiable measure - I'm not an accountant). Perhaps a lower list of those with interim permission and a blacklist of those with no permission.
Or something totally different but not what we have right now.
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archie
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Post by archie on Mar 1, 2018 17:54:21 GMT
Only issue would be in a situation like Collateral where they lost permissions. At that point they would have been listed incorrectly as nobody was aware of it.
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beh
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Post by beh on Mar 1, 2018 19:01:42 GMT
Seems pretty clear to me.
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michaelc
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Post by michaelc on Mar 1, 2018 20:04:06 GMT
Seems pretty clear to me. So it seems at least one administrator is happy with the status quo and perhaps doesn't think this is an issue worth revisiting. It was a real issue that affected me. Hence why I thought I'd raise it. Oh well, it was worth a try!
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registerme
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Post by registerme on Mar 1, 2018 21:08:37 GMT
I think it's a discussion worth having, but equally understand that we have a very, very delicate line to tread. I'm also not sure that right now is the best time to think about it. Some things that any replacement approach would need to address:-
* Full FCA permissions only on the main board? Lendy gets demoted. That would not represent either the importance of Lendy, or the interest the forum population have in it.
* Anything other than "data based" means that somebody is making a subjective decision. The staff are going to be >>extremely<< reluctant to take a position which might be construed as advice, or approval.
* The staff already get hit with accusations of bias from a number of different platforms (which, if anything, should confirm the lack of bias, but go figure - for the record, for different reasons, I've gone into bat against at least seven platforms when they've complained about how the forum is managed, though it doesn't always happen in public) - as above re subjectivity.
* Neither do the staff want to get in a fight with a wave of forumite support for platform x - vis some of the recent (pre-administration) staff posts on the Collateral board. At the time staff comment was perceived as being extremely negative.
* Mundane, but real, some of the decisions / structure are simply down to how things work on different devices.
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Post by solicitorious on Mar 1, 2018 22:01:26 GMT
Maybe there's a technical solution?
Is it not possible for code somehow to allow users to self-select the sites [up to 10] that they wish to have easy access to on the main page?
Kind of "pinning" their preferred sites?
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registerme
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Post by registerme on Mar 1, 2018 22:12:39 GMT
Maybe there's a technical solution? Is it not possible for code somehow to allow users to self-select the sites [up to 10] that they wish to have easy access to on the main page? Kind of "pinning" their preferred sites? That's a good idea, but I don't think that ProBoards supports it (though I am happy to be corrected!). Just as locutus likes to be able to ignore certain posters, it would be good to be able to "ignore" certain forums. Unfortunately (and again, happy to be corrected!) I think ProBoards, being a touch grey haired in these things, relies on a structure that is managed. Semi-off topic, a year or so back I did, for reasons completely unrelated to p2p, grub about for a forum-like facility. I tried google groups but it really didn't work (partly because of the participants), but anyway, I failed to find anything that was a "better forum than a forum", and I failed to find a better free hosted forum site than ProBoards. No doubt there's a snapchat or instagram thingamajig that would be better for millenials, but I am not one  .
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Post by mememe on Mar 1, 2018 22:15:22 GMT
I for one support the current approach. The ones on the front page should be the ones people are most interested in (whether or not they are good or bad). It's not for a forum to start promoting different platforms based on its own subjective views.
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Post by solicitorious on Mar 1, 2018 22:31:57 GMT
I for one support the current approach. The ones on the front page should be the ones people are most interested in (whether or not they are good or bad). It's not for a forum to start promoting different platforms based on its own subjective views. But it's an arbitrary list of 10 based entirely on alleged "clicks" on a public forum... I was not aware of this myself until yesterday, and I consider myself a long-standing forum user and P2P investor. I had not really thought about it deeply, but "assumed" it was based somehow on real-world "size" of the platform or somesuch. As the OP states, people could be mislead into believing these are the "Top 10" P2P platforms by some supposedly useful, credible, verifiable benchmark. They're the Top 10 of nothing very tangible at all, as it turns out...
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archie
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Post by archie on Mar 2, 2018 5:51:01 GMT
On the basis that a platform is less likely to lose full FCA permissions (*), I'd suggest keeping it as now but flag the full FCA platforms.
* Assumption.
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elliotn
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Post by elliotn on Mar 2, 2018 6:29:06 GMT
Maybe there's a technical solution? Is it not possible for code somehow to allow users to self-select the sites [up to 10] that they wish to have easy access to on the main page? Kind of "pinning" their preferred sites? I self-select fora and only review Unread posts of interest with tapatalk app. Please note that there is security discussion around using logins on forum aggregators.
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