. . . If that's is the case, the T2W team probably has some theories for why the traffic is slowing - would T2W be able to share their thoughts on this?
Hi George,
Happily! There are three main reasons that I'm aware of (there may be more) - for the drop off in numbers and activity. . .
1.Social Media
As
kinrinseditson rightly says, other social media - principally Twitter and Facebook - have become the default modus operandi for many people. They weren't around when community forums first appeared fifteen plus years ago. The only competition T2W had back then was from other specialist trading forums such as Elite.
2. Mobiles
With the advances in technology, more and more people just use their mobiles to access social media - and the reliance on desktop and laptops has dwindled. This has impacted forums like T2W heavily because the vBulletin software (that T2W uses) was created before smart phones and apps were around. This means that where we were once cutting edge - we're now playing catch-up. As you may have noticed, T2W isn't exactly mobile friendly!
3. It's All Been Said
The third reason is that ten to fifteen years ago, sites like T2W and Elite were the only places to go to interact with other people about trading. The questions people asked and the threads they started were new and couldn't (easily) be found elsewhere. For example, take this one of mine from 2004:
A Trading Plan - You MUST Have One! This is the first paragraph of my OP:
"On the 'General Trading Chat' forum there is a thread started by sun123 entitled 'Lost Trading'. In it, dbphoenix stressed the importance of having a trading plan. A quick search doesn't throw up any threads devoted to this important topic, so I thought I'd start one." (Note emphasis.) Back then, there were no trading plans. Now, there are any number of them to be found at every turn. The point being that 90% of what can be said about trading has been said here and elsewhere - often more than once. It's rare to see a new thread with an idea or approach that hasn't been discussed - often many times - before.
The above three factors combined have taken their toll on all community forums - not just T2W. However, we're still here, we still have much to offer and I hope we'll be around for a long time to come.
Tim.
PS. Forex!
Just thought of a 4th reason why T2W has witnessed a slow down in recent times: forex.
We've always been the place for new traders to start and, as such, we've deliberately never aligned ourselves to a particular market or style of trading, as that would not be in the members best interests. I've no idea what the stat's are for novices entering the market, but I wouldn't be surprised if upwards of 50% of them make a beeline for forex - without even considering indices, commodities and equities etc. With that (bad) decision made, these novice traders head straight for the likes of Forex Factory and Babypips - without ever giving T2W a look-in. Their loss - and ours - unfortunately.
