Dis us?
Time to move to … FB? Twitter? Something else?
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To be honest, I come here by googling “brk.b fool.com board” and never noticed there were active boards for things like:
Arts, Travel & Entertainment
Computers Phones & Internet
Hobbies & Interests
Education, Jobs & Professions
Sports
Health & Fitness
Fun & Games
Food & Drink
Automotive
Relationships
Religion
Political stuff
I just navigated to very-obviously-financial boards like “financial Planning” “Motley Fool Inside Value” and “Financial Products & Services” I can confirm that the notice we see above in our Berkshire board is on all those pages too, so it’s not indicative that a particular board you’re visiting is closing down.
There are lots of other forums for whatever interest you can think of out there, and some allow pictures gasp. But I’ve found this one the best for Berkshire Hathaway discussions. Even the pay-to-post, but not to read posts forum I will not mention isn’t as good as this one.
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If it does close (unlikely), we can all join Bogleheads!
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Dis us?
Why should it close? Sometimes instead of chatting about Elon’s personality or whether Bill Gates is a criminal, about global warming, or about living and drinking wine in France/Monaco this board clearly is about Financials. I’ve heard sometimes it’s even about a company named Berkshire Hathaway.
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An interesting question for me: Why closing non-financial boards?
The only reason I can think of: Money. Optimizing.
How does TMF makes money? By paid subscriptions. Subscriptions for financial services. Those subscriptions naturally are coming mostly from people frequenting financial boards, not from the ones on boards about eating, philosophy, dancing etc.
That alone still is no reason to close those boards as “some” of the people coming to TMF are coming because they are attracted by those boards and then find the financial services interesting and subscribe.
But each board needs not only nowadays neglectable Server space and computing power but also paid Moderator(s). Those are probably the real costs and maybe the ruling Gods came to the conclusion the balance between them having to pay those Moderators and the few subscriptions those boards bring in is negative.
Pure speculation of course but in our capitalistic world I can’t think of another reason than money. IF that’s correct I’d like to point out to the TMF God’s that SHOULD they still make enough money to have a good life from it maybe they should think about a hopefully little loss as the price of a great contribution to the world.
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An interesting question for me: Why closing non-financial boards?
The only reason I can think of: Money. Optimizing.
I’m sure it has to do with money, one way or another.
It takes time to do even minimal moderation, and that costs money.
Another speculation:
Possible upcoming rules on moderation and responsibility for content.
Given the company’s mission, it’s an off-topic distraction with concrete and potentially rising costs, no obvious benefit, and potential liability.
Jim
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https://discussion.fool.com/no-our-board-is-not-closing-35091104…
Probably not closing this board.
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I’m a very long time lurker here on Berkshire Hathaway.
Since these are some uncertain times, I want to take the opportunity to tell yall all that I really appreciate you and your POVs.
I view BRK as a financial board, therefore I think this yacht will not be dry docked.
Please know that I appreciate you.
ralph
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An interesting question for me: Why closing non-financial boards?
The only reason I can think of: Money. Optimizing.
I’m sure it has to do with money, one way or another.
It takes time to do even minimal moderation, and that costs money.
Another speculation:
Possible upcoming rules on moderation and responsibility for content.
Given the company’s mission, it’s an off-topic distraction with concrete and potentially rising costs, no obvious benefit, and potential liability.
I would guess mungo has one of those “approximately right” explanations, but I’d go a bit further.
We know the Fool is migrating software to a new platform, so that’s likely the impetus but not the root cause. They’re holding on to some boards, and even making the dead boards available in read-only mode so it can’t be that this is some Herculean task.
No, I’d guess it’s about “focus”: the Fool has gone through many iterations, from the early days of AOL to the migration to the web, from disdaining mutual funds to having one of their own, from “pay fee” to use the boards and back to free, from promising people the can “do it themselves” to offering newsletters with tips on hot stocks, from a newspaper column and radio show and more, the Fool is a living organism.
Unfortunately these boards are not growing (I think we all see that) and more to the point, are largely irrelevant to the mission. (Not this one, but we’re an outlier.) Let’s face it, these Fool boards are not going to be Facebook, or Instagram, or even Seeking Alpha. A handful of the boards have value to the goal, but the majority probably do not. Having “social” boards may have at one time seemed a worthy path (particularly as they drained the more legitimate boards of the political flame wars and other distractions), but they have turned out not to be.
They’re not awful, of course. I have heard many times that they are not profitable, but they are not horribly unprofitable either, and that they may serve as a gateway to some people as introduction to the Fool, who may then someday become customers. (Whew, that’s a long sentence, and a long process, which explains why it’s not successful anymore, if it ever was.)
Wikipedia, the font of all accurate knowledge on the planet (!) says the Fool has 300 employees worldwide. That’s a pretty hefty crew and they have been successful supporting it with the paid newsletters, you know, the ones that hit you with “THE MOST AMAZING COMPANY IN 50 YEARS!” headlines we all snicker about, but apparently it works pretty darn well. These boards? They don’t.
So they’re pulling back on the irrelevant and bringing the company back to “focus.” Just my surmise, of course, I’m not privilege to any inside info. I’m just a user, a leech who has contributing nothing (monetarily) and enjoyed the cloistered environment that’s mostly free of yahooligans and the like. But to quote the great philosopher George Harrison: “All Things Must Change”, so here we go.
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Sorry for the non investment post…but since OP is not about investment, must show the real name for the song/album –
‘All Things Must Pass’, George Harrison’s mega hit, not Change. He’s my favorite Beatle.
https://www.amazon.com/All-Things-Must-Pass-Deluxe/dp/B096TL…
I never cared for the Beatles (when they were new, in the 1960s), but I loved Harrison and Lennon on their own. I saw Harrison with Ravi Shankar in concert in Atlanta, 1974.
–Linda
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Looks like they just stopped displaying the archived boards for the closed paid services. Hiding the evidence. I still miss the old Hidden Gems service. There were some very good picks there when Bill Mann was there.
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