Since today is not April 1, I will assume this is a serious announcement and not a joke.
There is a lot more to life than just finances. These boards have become a community over the last 20+ years. A successful on-line community needs more than just financial topics to survive. Eliminating non-financial topics will also eliminate financial topics. Good contributors to financial topics will leave without the more personal connections made in the non-financial topic boards.
Alternatively, because people crave being part of a community AND because being a community involves more than just one facet of life, if there are no boards for non-financial topics, those topics will creep into the financial boards, diluting the usefulness of those boards. There will be more off-topic posts. If you start actively managing the boards and eliminating off-topic posts, you will again drive away posters and readers. And that will reduce the quality of the financial posts.
And what is a non-financial topic? Letās take just one. Caring for parents involves financial issues. How to pay for their care. How to manage the parentās money when they canāt. How to find ways to pay for the care when the parents canāt. So is caring for parents a financial or a non-financial board?
Let me state the obvious. This is a bad idea. A horribly bad idea.
Who else can remember when the fool only allowed boards with a stock symbol name? Somebody started a board called NADA. NADA quickly became one of the most posted-to boards. The Fool relented and NADA became Land of Off-Topic Posts. LOOTP was the most popular board for a long time. It eventually died when the creator and his cronies puled out and went to Yahoo.
And what is a non-financial topic? Letās take just one. Caring for parents involves financial issues. How to pay for their care. How to manage the parentās money when they canāt. How to find ways to pay for the care when the parents canāt. So is caring for parents a financial or a non-financial board?
My guess is that any board that TMF doesnāt require a paid subscription to access is a ānon-financialā board, because no revenue => non-financial. So now you will have to buy a subscription to one of the advisory services to get access to any board where you can have a discussion.
To TMF: Why are you bothering with additional community features? You have become your own worst fool, with a little f.
Sadly if the above is true, weāll lose many helpful, and the ability to help many others. So much for the āCommunityā listed up topā¦
At one time Yahoo, aka, the Yahoo Zoo, was useful, until the trolls ruined it, then some of us went to Raging Bull, now gone, Might be a way to set up a Facebook Group, safely, but many, many will never set foot in thereā¦
Pretty crazyā¦ Iāll still peek at the various stock boards, but I see a lot more lost than gained by the aboveā¦
This makes me very sad. Although I have rarely posted until recently, I have been reading the community boards since way back when (I believe on AOL?), originally under a different user name, back when you had to pay.
I have learned so much from many of the boards and so many brilliant posters. I rarely posted because I could usually find answers to my questions without asking.
Thanks to the community boards, I budgeted and invested wisely and saved for retirement. I fixed things in my own home and enjoyed my pets. I was able to live below my means and move out of the fast lane from a tech job to a more fulfilling self-employed position that did not pay as well but brought me a lot of satisfaction. I learned about applying for a mortgage as a self-employed individual. I was able to close that business and retire early when my father became terminally ill so I could focus on his care. Now I am serving as his executor and sharing as much as I can about the difficulties of settling an estate.
I am grateful to everyone who has posted and I am very sad. Most of life is impacted by finances. Please reconsider.
Am very sad, Iāve made so many friends here and learned so much from all of you. I donāt know why this decision however I really didnāt think it was a burden for them to keep it vibrant and openā¦???
Neither do I but having been in IT since 1960 and having developed a bunch of websites I have my hunches.
First of all, TMF search has been non-functional from day one. My best guess is that the database was not designed to be searchable.
After some three decades TMF website is terribly out of date. All new websites are being designed to work on smartPhones (I hate the idea but no one is asking me).
The work to transfer old data to the new site is HUGE and not worth the effort financially. The old boards will continue working with the old code. The financial and worthwhile investing boards will be transited to the new design.
Writing new code is easy, transferring old data in hard, really hard.
This board is NOT closing, nor is any board in the Your Money column on the main board page (https://discussion.fool.com/ ), including ones about Help with this Stupid Computer, Home/Car Ownership, Personal Finance and giving the Fool feedback. The boards in Your Life column are closing though for a myriad of reasons.
Denny is right on a few thingsā¦these boards are terribly out of date and new boards are in the works (where the search function works!) This board will be transitioned over to those when the time comes.
There will be plenty of places on the remaining boards to receive help on wiring an electric outlet (definitely part of home ownership) or rebooting a PC or Living Below Your Means or Retirement questions. Those will all still be around.
How about reconsidering the removal of the Taking Care of Parents board?
And what is a non-financial topic? Letās take just one. Caring for parents involves financial issues. How to pay for their care. How to manage the parentās money when they canāt. How to find ways to pay for the care when the parents canāt. So is caring for parents a financial or a non-financial board?
Caring for parents involves financial issues. How to pay for their care. How to manage the parentās money when they canāt. How to find ways to pay for the care when the parents canāt. So is caring for parents a financial or a non-financial board?
Great point. I am on the board āTaking Care of Parentsā. It is one where financial matters are discussed, as well as logistics and health.
TMF will lose a lot of traffic from me if they go ahead with this. I donāt need to visit a stock board, or Saulās board, every day. A couple of times a week would be adequate. And, as you say, part of the motivation for visiting the finance boards is a sense of community.
Interesting. I see that the CampFIRE and RELE are under the Your Money column. So those now-political boards are staying? But PA is not?
Donāt trust anything you see on the Boards Home page. CampFIRE and RELE are in the Politics and Current Events folder and have been for a few years. They will die since the folder is in the My Life column.
Donāt trust anything you see on the Boards Home page.
I actually know that. But Jen keeps repeating the mantra of looking at the boards home page to see what is and isnāt closing.
Iām trying to play that old-fashioned role of the court jester, poking fun at the king (or in this case, the kingās emissary) to show their foibles and errors. I got this idea from somewhere. If I could only remember the source.
Let me state the obvious. This is a bad idea. A horribly bad idea.
Gotta concur! What, the "pay-2-play" fiasco didn't teach them something? ANYTHING? Oh, I forgot... that was a long time ago and things have changed. **NO THEY HAVE NOT!** This will be the death-nell of TMF. Since they are wanting to be a $$$ only board, a lesson will need to be taught, yet again.
Heck for this matter, they should go back to a "pay-2-play" format. Be a monoculture and don't diversify! Yea, that's the ticket!!!
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Gotta concur! What, the āpay-2-playā fiasco didnāt teach them something?
Compared to this, the pay-2-play event was a stubbed toe. Continuing the metaphor, this is going to be like an amputated foot. Stubbed toes hurt, but heal. This wonāt heal, it will leave scars and wounds. The boards will be different after TMFthanos snaps his fingers.
