separate forum for real bankers

I second that, perhaps the new forum should be called "On the job [insert funny phrase here]". That still would probably not solve the problem, since I think most people use the Recent Posts page as their gateway to WSO. Relevant topics would still end up being pushed down. Perhaps someone else can weigh in with another suggestion

It's also worth noting that if there was a 'real banker' forum, it would soon be inundated with questions from prospective monkeys looking to get their questions answered by those bankers.

There's nothing wrong with funneling as many people as possible into one forum like this, which rides the line between investment banking and "general discussion." The more people that are in one place the easier it is to acheive the true goal of the forum, which is for older, more experienced individuals to help less-experienced individuals. As soon as you start actively splitting people up, the result is less overall posts, with people checking the forums less, and eventually leaving altogether.

Again, there was never a technical question that I had in banking that couldn't be more effectively answered by asking someone in my group rather than posting on this forum.

I agree with GameTheory - leave the forums as they are.

i guess technical questions is a bad example; but like, questions regarding recruiting for HFs, etc? eh, i don't know exactly; i guess it is annoying that no one really responds to questions in HFs and PE forums either, maybe that's the issue i'm hitting. i think that is where my mind went when posing this

in any case, just a thought

Maybe a forum where only the Certified Users can post and others can only read and not post. I enjoy all the insight, stories, and discussion on these boards and wouldn't have an issue with a separate read only forum. Content definitely seems to be waning recently. Id rather keep users like GameTheory, dosk, Genghis who will probably disappear or at least be less frequent with all these BS posts... and give up the posting privileges/contributing my comments, for a better quality forum.

just an idea.

i totally agree with elan

You're right, those questions do belong in the HF forum. Logically speaking, splitting up this forum into yet another forum is going to just further divide the constintuency base and result in even fewer questions being answered. I don't spend much time in the HF forum, but I feel like there are 4 or 5 users frequently trolling the PE forum to help people (the recruiting question has been discussed many times, try the search). And as I always like to reiterate when it comes to recruiting, your fellow analysts and the analysts above you (who have gone through the process) are the best resources.

but sometimes it's tough to talk to them about this stuff, depending on where you are

you should be allowed to tag threads; conversely, users should be allowed to choose tags they are interested in; for instance:

if i am interested in "hedge fund" "girlfriend" and "JP Morgan", i will get threads regarding those topics served to me upon login, if i choose to look at a personal news feed; now something like this, COMBINED with some way of other people tagging threads and designating whether a topic is more relevant for a certain type of user/reader would be an unquestionably huge value add.

in this case, the user is more often than not, going to get threads and topics that are of interest to him/her. on the flipside, he/she will still check out the discussion boards (i know i would) just to see what the most recent chatter is, or if there is anything else interesting that is going on.

wallstreetoasis wins, with more highly targeted ads (although how much better can you target ads on this site with additional info? not sure)

i'm sure something like this is prob in the works, but a good idea either way

Increasing the number of forums will decrease the number of responses to both good and not-so-good forum topics, so I don't think it's a viable solution.

I like Gametheory's suggestion of "locking" the most worthless topics, although there could be issues around what is or is not deemed worthless. Obviously the decision is a subjective one, but at least for the most worthless forum topics this should be obvious.

I think another issue may be... and Im not sure, that additional moderators dont seem to be practical since the most SR/well-respected members on here are all working in IB/PE and have little time to post answers much less filter BS posts. I dont even know how Patrick keeps up with all this...

Well if it's completely irrelevant to banking we can move it appropriately (even to "Monkeying Around" if necessary). If it's worthless, I think it'll be pretty self-evident. If it's a redundant topic, I think the best thing to do is use the search function to provide the answer, link it in a post, then lock it.

I agree, people are busy (unlike me today, obviously...alot of senior guys are at the Masters), but generally speaking there's enough moderators to catch something glaring within a few hours, and this isn't a fast enough moving forum to make that a threat to legitimate posts.

I know of at least 7 partners at my fund that are out of the office and at the Masters right now.

Must be nice.

Not complaining, I have a (hopefully) short meeting with a banker at 4:30 and then I'm off to the bar.

I suggested to Patrick a forum that only Certified Users can post and view. I feel that there are some things to discuss that I as a Certified User would be hesitant to post on the regular forum because it more easily identifies me but would be more comfortable with putting up if there was a smaller community who could read it. I agree, it would dilute the value of the other forums (to what degree I am not sure) but it would significantly increase the utility of this site for the rest of us certified users.

Even the good discussion threads inevitably get sidetracked with some nonsensical question or comment. And there would still be enough people to answer the "which bank is best" threads.

I'll assume when you talk about threads getting sidetracked that you're referring to random discussions of the Masters.

Fair enough.

Ha.

Immelman!?

My proposed solution to this is to do what i have done to the traders forum. What I did was move everything that is not related to the monkeying around or get a job forum. The Ibanking forum is so much larger its overwhelming to move the threads to the other forums.

Some of you are mods and can move them, when you read a thread thats in the wrong forum it takes 3 clicks to move it.

"Oh - the ladies ever tell you that you look like a fucking optical illusion?"

What about bank/fund specific forums. So bankers from ML, GS, CS, BofA, BX etc... could talk about stuff with each other that is specific to the bank they work at.