Of the boards on my list: Altria, Conoco Phillips, Total SA, Transocean, United Tech.
Steve
I am guessing they are getting rid of as many boards as possible that are not represented in the Fool kingdom before they transition us to a new, improved discussion forum. Personally I canāt wait.
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Looks like the UTX board not only was closed, but all postings after 2018 were wipedā¦ Closed with a vengeance it seemsā¦
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Iāve been hanging around the Motley Fool since shortly after it got going and have always appreciated the boards. Iām sad that they are closing down so many of them.
Is it that they are going more and more to the money-making side (Stock Advisor, et al)? Though Iām not sure why that would make it advantageous to close so many boards.
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Looks like the UTX board not only was closed, but all postings after 2018 were wipedā¦ Closed with a vengeance it seems.
Closed with extreme prejudice?
DB2
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Iām sad that they are closing down so many of them.
There isnāt any traffic on them anymore. Most of the company boards closed have not seen a post since 2020. Even Microsoft is a ghosttown, though not closed, yet.
Steve
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In the early days TMF ran on an advertising supported business plan. The more eyeballs they attracted the more advertising income generated. That proved inadequate for their needs.
The early posters were mostly non-financial professionals who wanted to learn investing. Many went away when TMF started charging for access.
Eventually they learned that premium services were attractive to a wider range of users. That is the current business model.
The public boards are traditional but are an expense that doesnāt contribute profits except for advertising. Monitoring boards and especially FAed posts requires manpower. Cutting out politics is a method of cost cutting.
Notice that the boards are more active when stock prices are rising. Cost cutting could be TMF preparing to weather a bear market.
I am guessing they are getting rid of as many boards as possible that are not represented in the Fool kingdom ā¦
Let me fix that for you.
I am guessing they are getting rid of as many boards as possible that are not represented in the paid Fool subscriber boards.
Management at TMF is changing. One of the founders has basically retired, the other is likely preparing to do so as well. New folks are beginning to run the show. I donāt expect TMF to remain much like it used to be.
āPeter
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The public boards are traditional but are an expense that doesnāt contribute profits except for advertising.
UN-moderated boards cost practically nothing to run. The expense is having a person monitoring the FAs. All the people bitching about this, that, and the other are costly.
Years ago I considered adding a comment section to my blog but decided against to avoid the hassle.
The Captain
New folks are beginning to run the show. I donāt expect TMF to remain much like it used to be.
Translation, the Fool is now in the hands of āprofessional managersā.
Steve
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Translation, the Fool is now in the hands of āprofessional managersā.
Gardner was an English Major and writer. Promoting the boards was part of his educational mentality. The āprofessional managersā are more interested in MBA flow charts and corporate algorithms.
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Management at TMF is changing. One of the founders has basically retired, the other is likely preparing to do so as well. New folks are beginning to run the show. I donāt expect TMF to remain much like it used to be.
Funny how ānew managementā in many enterprises comes in thinking they are going to shake things up and make it better, but instead just kill the business.
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Funny how ānew managementā in many enterprises comes in thinking they are going to shake things up and make it better, but instead just kill the business.
I was running a very successful business in Pittsburgh (successful before I got there, also after I left) and one of the front line people directly responsible for that success said to me: āManagers are like dogs. They all come in and have to pee on the bush. They need to mark the territory and say āSee? I did that.ā
He was/is right, and he lived through more than a dozen managers. (That may or may not have anything to do with the Fool, itās a generic comment.)
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Regarding the āpurgingā of boards earlier this week, it was just closing inactive boardsā¦and they were all company boards that, with the exception of two, hadnāt had any new posts since last year, many not having any new posts since 2018 or 2019. The Fool has always periodically reviewed the activity on the boards and closed inactive boards but because itās a low-priority task, it just hadnāt been done for a few yearsā¦Iām playing catch-up and started with these boards. There are still 167 company boards to go on the premium side so itās not just here. (Iām actually surprised anyone noticed we closed a few of them given how long it had been since they had any posts)
Now, the two that did have recent activity, when the activity on the remaining boards was reviewed, the more recent posts on those two were not related to the respective company and were basically partisan political posts - remove those and they fit the parameters for closing so thatās what happened.
I donāt anticipate closing any more boards, unless another one gets completely taken over by partisan politics.
Jen Roberts
Boards Manager
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When an angel of the gods in charge explains what is going on and will be required in such simple rational terms as Jen used the only appropriate reaction is twofold
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I have heard what you said and will do my utmost to comply (e.g. work to keep METAR from being taken over by political shriekings with neglible macroeconomic content)
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thanks for your illuminative visit!!!
david fb
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