Discussions and Messages

Updated Aug 25, 2026

There are three places conversation happens in the community, and they behave differently on purpose.

A comment thread lives exactly as long as the thing it is attached to. If a share is unshared or narrowed, its comments stop being visible with it.

Starting a discussion

Open a group's Discussions tab and choose Create. A discussion gets a full page and a real editor, because its opening post is the one everybody answering has to read.

Posts cannot be edited after they are made. Say it once, properly, and add anything else as a reply.

What you can put in a post

• Formatted text, in discussions and comments.

• Attachments.

• Replies to a specific earlier message, so a busy thread stays followable.

• Mentions. Type an @ and a handle, and that member is notified.

• Shared work. Pick a backtest, report, bot or track record in the composer rather than pasting a link, and it arrives as a card. What the reader can actually open still depends on the audience of that share.

• Reactions, from a fixed set of emoji.

• Polls.

Polls

A poll takes a question, a set of options, and whether members can pick one answer or several. It runs for a duration you choose, from an hour up to two weeks, and closes itself when the time is up.

Research questions

Any discussion can be turned into an open research question. That gives it three things an ordinary thread does not have:

• A maintained header. The question and the plan sit on the thread itself rather than in the opening post, so they can be kept current as the work moves. Posts stay immutable.

• An evidence rail, assembled from the backtests and reports the argument already cites, so the supporting work is beside the discussion rather than scattered through it.

• A conclusion. When the question is answered, it is marked concluded and the answer is recorded, which turns a thread that would otherwise scroll away into something members can look up later.

The author of the question and the group's moderators can edit the header and conclude it. Everyone else takes part by posting, as normal. A group's Discussions tab can be filtered down to these, and subscribers are notified when one is concluded.

Following a thread

Threads you take part in are followed for you, so replies reach your notifications. Reading the thread clears them.

Deleting your own post

You can delete a post you made. The conversation keeps its shape: a marker stays where the post was, so replies to it still make sense. Moderators keep a record of what was there, because "why did that vanish" is a question they are the ones who have to answer.

Direct messages

Direct messages are one to one.

You can start a conversation with a member you mutually follow or who is in a private group with you. A trader's profile carries a Message button wherever that is true. Once a conversation exists it stays open even if the follow later lapses, because a lapsed follow should not erase a history.

Blocking silences a conversation in both directions without erasing it.

Your inbox lists only conversations something was actually said in, most recent first, so opening a Message button and changing your mind leaves nothing behind.

Privacy of direct messages

Moderators do not read direct messages. There is one exception, and it exists so that harassment can be acted on: if a participant reports a conversation, moderators can view that conversation in order to review the report. Reporting it is the only thing that opens it, and it never gives a moderator a way to take part.

Reporting

Any post, message or member can be reported. Reasons are spam, harassment, misleading performance claims, impersonation, or something else you describe. Moderators review reports and act on them, and depending on severity and history that can mean a warning, content removal, a temporary mute, or losing community access.