A discussion between thousands

First order of business – I want to praise the silent majority who respect the board and care about it deeply! Since my last post (https://discussion.fool.com/if-you-care-about-this-board-3497584…), my inbox has been filled by so many who have offered:

  1. appreciation for the board managers,
  2. support of the opinion that we’ve had simply too many posts to read lately
  3. suggestions (which I appreciate, but I’m sorry, I just can’t respond to them all individually)

Thank you all for your support, but just as much, thank you to those I didn’t hear from by email, but who either don’t post, or don’t post unless you have something truly unique to add! It’s weird to thank people for not posting because on one hand I wish everyone would do what Jon Wayne, StockNovice, Pavlos, ExponentialDAve, CMFMonkey, and several others did: write a unique, well edited post explaining your thoughts and actions. But I haven’t posted about Upstart myself, and Saul hasn’t either…because (at least for my part) Jon Wayne, StockNovice, Pavlos, ExponentialDAve, CMFMonkey, or someone else has already said most of what we want to say. So why not add to the “most of” it? Because unless you are some kind of savant, I defy anyone on the board to even remember everything that’s been said about Upstart in the last 3 days.

So on the other hand, when the board is especially busy (like during earnings reactions), we can’t all post our thoughts. There are thousands of people reading this board, so even if we all took the time to do a post as good as the folks I listed above, it would be impossible to read. Yes, truly: Sometimes we need to keep our thoughts to ourselves. I know this sounds silly…we’re here to DISCUSS for heaven’s sake – it’s in the name of the board! And there is a time for that – namely, when the board is a little more quiet. But it’s also ok to see a post, think “I completely disagree with that,” and then do nothing. Not every opinion needs to be discussed. (Incidentally, this answers a question I got about off topic posts: how to respond. Please do not respond, even to helpfully point out they are off topic. Just wait, and the board managers will have the post deleted.) So…

Request 1) LET’S COOL IT ON UPSTART FOR A BIT. (Unless Saul wants to share his thoughts – he always has carte blanche, obviously.) But we simply need to make space for other things, for now. For example, MajorFool’s awesome portfolio/watchlist earnings review (https://discussion.fool.com/majorfool39s-earnings-thoughts-34977…).

Request 2) Do not even post a question without attempting to answer it! Questions have to be, SHOULD be, ignored. But if you offer a thoughtful answer to your own question, someone might address your thoughts. With a “discussion” among thousands of people, not everyone will get to speak. Some who read this board have gladly accepted a role as listeners. Some have stepped up as brilliant orators. And others, I firmly believe, will rise to become the next generation of leaders of the board. But the first task is to learn that sometimes it is better to refrain from posting. The group I listed above wrote great posts, but got some questions and didn’t always respond. This is as it should be!

I always feel like such a killjoy when I make a post like this. But my last one was overwhelmingly supported, because people DO care about this board. Deeply. So I will continue to be the killjoy in my efforts to keep this board amazing.

Bear

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Thanks for all your contributions to this board. I’m sum what of a lurker as I am one of the orignal board members four or five years ago. I can’t remember exactly when we started. At 91 years of age I’m starting to lose it a little. I tried to contribute some in the beginning but I realized that there were a lot more people aboard that know more than I ever would so I slowed down. There’s a lot of you guys that you already mentioned that makes this board so outstanding. They combined, helped me have life changing returns in my portfolio.
Thanks again to you all.

Gayle

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