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Guidelines for Posts

The Open Arena is an open e-emporium where investment professionals and lay investors can come together to barter views and information. The objective is to create an environment in which participants can derive mutual benefits from discussions and feedback on financial investment and related issues. To ensure discourses are conducted in a seemly manner, we have some guidelines for participants to follow.

User names: your real name or a nickname but NO

  • racist names
  • religious or religion orientated names
  • profane or obscene names or names associated with variations of profanity or obscenity
  • names meant to mimic the name of another member
  • state, copyright, trade or brand names or initials e.g. EDB, MAS, Raffles etc
  • names associated with or would ridicule prominent personalities

Conduct: NO

  • profane or obscene language
  • personal attacks on other participants
  • defamatory, obscene, violent, abusive, threatening and harassing comments
  • impersonation of other participants or public personalities
  • advertising of any kind
  • material covered by copyright
  • oversize fonts.

What is OK

  • bold or colored fonts to emphasize your points
  • hyperlinks to quotes from external sources containing copyright material
  • references relating to your own skills or expertise

Last but not least, don't stray from the topic!
Now the grounds have been set, let's begin.

How To Participate

The following tips aim to help you maximise your experience at The Open Arena:
  • Reply to posts
  • Reply to topics
    At the moment the beta-site allows only "Reply to Topic" although an icon on the right side of the post says "Reply to Post". The beta 2.0 version will be refined to allow a user to join the discussion by replying to other users before him if he wishes to, instead of having his reply directed to the topic or its creator. .
  • Comment or pose a question
    Users are encouraged to comment on the features provided by the site or ask questions about them by using the Feedback or Contact Us links at the bottom of the webpage. The preferred channel for feedback is through the Feedback Arena (click on Discussion Boards, then click on Feedback Arena).
  • Create a new topic
    Users are encouraged to create a new topic by clicking on the "Create new topic" button found on the top right of the main page of every discussion board and all the pages where discussions are taking place.
  • Create a new board
    Currently, this can be done only by the site's administrator. Users are encouraged to suggest a new board if they find existing ones don't meet their needs. Such recommendations may be made through all the available feedback channels or, preferably, by clicking on the "recommend" link found at the end of the Discussion Boards' page.
  • Best-rated and most-read contributor
    This may be, but need not be, synonomous. The best-rated contributors are those who have users proactively rating their postings. The most-read contributors are those who enjoy the most "click throughs" which are automatically tallied by the system.
    To encourage high standards in posting, users should rate a post by clicking on the "Rate Post" icon found on the menu to the right of every post. The rating runs from one star to five stars. However, to encourage all users to post, a base-rating of at least 2.5 stars are given to every post at the start.
  • Specify your favourite authors and boards
    At the moment, users can only add or ignore authors from the posts' page whereas the specification for favourite boards has to be made through the Preferences tab. We are studying whether it would be useful to allow users to specify their favourite boards along with their favourite authors. Your feedback on this will be most helpful and welcome.
  • Look into the portfolios of open funds for ideas
    New to discussion boards and looking for inspiration on what to write about? Or new to financial investing altogether?
    If so, may we suggest that you make a bee-line for the Fund Managers Arena to see what stocks they are buying and the reasons for their selection. Eavesdrop on their discussions and when you are comfortable, join the talk, if you wish.
    With the experience gained, you will be better placed to decide whether you should follow their recommendations or buy into the funds their manage. Or continue to be an onlooker.
  • Send in a complaint if someone isn’t playing by the rules
    Please let us know if any post or topic isn't up to your expectations or is, in your opinion, downright offensive.
    If your complaint is against a specific post, just click on the "Complain" icon to the right of the post to access a pre-prepared list of objections and click on which complaint in the list best expresses your complaint. You are welcome to add comments.
    Alternatively, our Feedback Arena and Feedback link are always open to receive your complaints.

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