Are there any new features for AnalystForum that would better help you prepare for the CFA exams in 2011? Would a 40/60/80 benchmarking tool be useful for comparing your exam performance to others on AnalystForum? Have a great holiday season and thanks for making AnalystForum a great community! Chad
I would like to be able to post live links, and pictures. Thanks and happy holidays!
Chad- Performance comparison (for me) is not as big a concern, because I enjoy the social aspect of AF more than benchmarking my prep for the levels of the exam. +1 to posting live links. It’d be nice to link to news articles or other forum posts directly.
Being able to subscribe to posts and get emails, would be handy
I think something that you could anonymously post your exam results, or practice exam results, would be really cool. Some type of poll or something, ya know? It would clear that recurring debate of whether or not this forum has a sample of more dedicated and higher scoring candidates. Plus, if the pass results are positive compared to CFAI overall pass rates, it might get more people to the site…
> Being able to subscribe to posts and get emails, would be handy +1 I never thought of that but good idea. Happy holidays to you all!
Honestly, this forum has declined since I joined in December 2006 and has just fallen off in the last 12 months. I rarely read or post on this forum anymore because of it. I’ve also noticed that, at least on the general forum, there has been far less daily volume over the last 6-12 months as I believe many people have noticed the decline in the overall quality of topics and posters and are leaving for other sites. 1) The quality of posters has declined substantially, with a dozen or so raving liberals (even socialists) making up a disproportionate number of posts. They’re constantly making political posts and contributing little to the discussion of capitalism. The fact that a forum dedicated to finance is basically dominated by people who don’t believe in free market capitalism has really degraded the quality of discussion here. It also seems like fewer and fewer people have relevant work experience in the financial industry who post here; therefore, the quality of discussion and posts are poor overall (there are certainly exceptions). Overall, the quality of topics has just declined precipitously. 2) This site has seen virtually no evolution over the past 4 years. Competitors, like wallstreetoasis.com, have evolved substantially and are seeing extraordinarily high quality of topics, authors, materials, and overall viewing/site quality. For example, unless I’m mistaken, private messaging is still not possible on this site–I believe someone asks about this several times a month and has for years. I freely admit that your personal statistics might say something else, but this is my constructive feedback, a 4-year user.
I’ll agree with kkent that the quality has gone down of late, but I’m not sure exactly what can be done about that. I’m probably one of the “raving liberals” kkent talks about. Although I rarely initiate political posts, I often comment on them. I see a fair share of dogmatic position taking on both sides, so I don’t think it’s particularly skewed either way. I also think that in an environment in which macro-political-economic decisions are pretty relevant to expectations of asset performance, these are not irrelevant discussions. It’s just hard to separate discussions about what is likely to happen and what the political dynamics are likely to be from our own opinions about what should happen and what we would prefer. Markets are a great place to make money; but that doesn’t mean that all decisions that affect our lives should be decided by markets, and it doesn’t mean that things that laissez faire marketers disapprove of are all necessarily bad for the country (or even for long term economic performance).
>but I’m not sure exactly what can be done about that. < WSO was suffering from much of the same problem and hired several retired industry veterans to get the discussion going. It’s attracted higher quality people to the forum and the result is higher quality topics and discussions from users who are actually in the field. I understand analystforum has a pretty specific target–persons taking the CFA exam–but unless the forum evolves, it will continue to be a mediocre forum. However, if the goal is for this to remain a place where people simply come for help on the CFA exam, then the forum meets its goal. But if the purpose of the site is to grow and be a place for intelligent discussion of the financial industry, then, as-is, this place is dying and in a year will be merely a shell. There is fierce competition out there right now–adapt or die.
Accusations aside, I’m not sure what can be done regarding the decline of poster quality. I think at least four possible explanations exist. Which is most likely? A) There hasn’t been a significant quality decline, great discussions still occur in the test forums. It only seems to have declined because people like me haven’t been in the test forums for awhile. B) It has declined because the age of candidates has fallen considerably, scaring away more professional users. C) It has declined with the financial industry and will recover when the industry does. D) Decline in member quality is an ebb and flow that comes with being a website. E) None of the above.
I agree the quality of posters has gone downhill. Of course, the bad economy and horrible job market are significant factors, but there probably have been half a dozen posts in the last month that pretty much say: " I have 0 experience, 0 finance background, will the CFA L1 help me land the equity research job?? I have passion…"
I’ll propose an “other”: the general forum has been taken over by some real “crazies” who, on top of being angry, pushy and hateful, often have little relevant industry experience. I’m 100% serious–as a person who now has 3+ years of experience in municipal finance and commercial real estate finance, I started to see the decline in discussion that was being pushed by these “crazies” and I gave up–I went to reading a forum that was dominated by industry professionals. I think options C and D are cop outs because I’ve seen the quality of others sites increase exponentially over the last 12-24 months. I will agree with B to a certain degree.
My wish is for my team to make it to the championships of the AF Fantasy Football League. If the Bears can keep Adrian Peterson out of the endzone tonight, I believe my wish can be fulfilled.
i’m going to have to go with D. I’m quite sure there was a lull in the 2005-2007 period, I wasn’t a member then but I’m sure JDV, BChad, kkent or any of the older members could shine more light on this. My first couple of years on this forum were quite good, most of it being discussions on some somewhat elaborate topics with the likes of JDV, Bchad, kkent, numi, Black Swan, SkipE, compscikid, cfablackbelt, among a few others. the loss of JDV was a major blow the quality of posts on this site. even his funny stories were better than most i’ve read. I agree that as the older, more experienced, more educated members tend to avoid the forum due to the arrival of such members as JTLD, IHIHM (the member formally known as JTLD), qqqbee just to name a few of the more recently/memorable, the threads become much less exciting and less mentally stimulating. when the average thread goes from challenging financial or economic theory to asking advice on resumes, the brains of the more educated get bored and walk away. the only solution i can see is that the more experienced, more value-added contributors should be paid to stay and contribute, but in the real world of forums, this is not feasible. thus why my conclusion is ebb and flow and i predict there will be new members to replace the likes of Bchad, kkent, numi, Black Swan, SkipE, compscikid, cfablackbelt, … and MLA.
Messaging System (Private Message)
Agreed with Chuckrox8. Wasn’t there supposed to be a private messagiing feature at some point?
kkent Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > >but I’m not sure exactly what can be done about > that. < > > WSO was suffering from much of the same problem > and hired several retired industry veterans to get > the discussion going. It’s attracted higher > quality people to the forum and the result is > higher quality topics and discussions from users > who are actually in the field. I understand > analystforum has a pretty specific target–persons > taking the CFA exam–but unless the forum evolves, > it will continue to be a mediocre forum. However, > if the goal is for this to remain a place where > people simply come for help on the CFA exam, then > the forum meets its goal. But if the purpose of > the site is to grow and be a place for intelligent > discussion of the financial industry, then, as-is, > this place is dying and in a year will be merely a > shell. There is fierce competition out there right > now–adapt or die. I think hiring some people to be stimulators or commentators/facilitators of discussion can help. But I didn’t think this was a realistic option. If it actually is, I would certainly be behind it.
bchadwick Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think hiring some people to be stimulators or > commentators/facilitators of discussion can help. > But I didn’t think this was a realistic option. > If it actually is, I would certainly be behind it. Try to get on the payroll bchad.
Organize an AFers party
Here’s just one example of the sort of picture I would post given the capability: http://www.monkeysdoingstuff.com/2009/10/katy-perry-and-monkey-friend/ I have many like this.