To flout: to treat with contemptuous disregard
On FLOUTING THE RULES and OFF-TOPIC posts
Over the last three months off-topic as well as junk posts have increased exponentially, placing a burden on Saul, the assistant board managers and the Fool. What is worse, despite requests to stop off-topic threads, posters gleefully introduce their effrontery, see the examples below:
“Sorry to put my 2 cents worth in Saul, but the thread will no doubt be pulled, so I figure we’re even.”
“Since Saul asked to stop posting, and I am clearly not respecting the ask, please delete my post if needed. This board is fantastic.”
No, disrespecting a request doesn’t make it even and Saul’s board will not stay fantastic if people show total LACK OF RESPECT of the rules, of ignoring requests to stop adding to off-topic threads, of wasting Saul’s and the assistant board managers’ time and efforts to keep discussions on topic. It also wastes TMF resources. I find the attitude displayed quite disheartening. This is Saul’s place, his rules. Accept it! Suppose you invite people to your place, alerting them that you do not allow smoking inside you home. Now, one of your guests enters, greets you with a big grin, then pulls out a stinky cigar, lights it and blows the stench right in your face. When you object, this individual tells you that you will have to air out your house at the end of the party anyway–so what’s the fuss? Would you invite this disrespectful individual again? I know I wouldn’t.
This is an appeal to RESPECT Saul’s Rules.
• If you need to mark your post OT, don’t post it on Saul’s board. There are many boards where you can air your investing angst and trepidations without violating rules. If you are inexperienced, it pays to subscribe to the Fool where more handholding and guidance is possible, see below.
• Think before posting and don’t waste digital space using 3 or more consecutive posts, each about a minute apart. This isn’t twitter.
• USE THE THREADED MODE to see what has been posted before. It cuts down on unnecessary threads, such as 3 or 4 threads on the same earning report of a company.
• The threaded mode will allow you to respect any requests to stop adding to an OT-thread. For those whose feckless parents did not teach them the importance of respect, here is a helpful article, https://blog.cognifit.com/respect/ and an appeal, www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FOUqQt3Kg0.
Dear Newcomers and Oldtimers,
welcome to our board, Saul’s Investing Discussions! This is NOT TWITTER, or FACEBOOK or YAHOO or a chat room. Each of the aforementioned has its own rules as does The Motley Fool (TMF). We urge you to read The Motley Fool’s Community Posting Guidelines, https://www.fool.com/community/posting-guidelines/ and study the links provided below.
There have been a number of off-topic questions and posts regarding TMF Discussion Board Basics. We recommend using a computer and not a smartphone as TMF does not have a functional mobile app, making navigating the website difficult and frustrating. This link will lead you to articles on how to write a post https://support.fool.com/hc/en-us/sections/360005717094-Disc…, including an article on FORMATTING, https://support.fool.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000244288-How-….
If you are new to investing, we strongly recommend subscribing to one or two of the Fool’s paid services specializing in high growth companies where basic investment questions are welcome and handled by paid staff.
Stock Advisor, https://www.fool.com/premium/stock-advisor
Rule Breakers, https://www.fool.com/premium/rule-breakers
Saul’s board has the singular focus of analyzing and discussing individual, rapidly growing, disruptive companies. That means that certain topics and basic questions that are acceptable on other boards are not appropriate here. We are trying to keep our discussions as advanced and detailed as possible and encourage you to chime in, provided your comments are on-topic and within the guidelines outlined in the Monday Morning Rules of the Board below.
Saul’s board has grown tremendously in recent years, and Saul has had to establish rules, published every Monday morning, to keep off-topic and non-contributing posts to a minimum. Thank you notes to Saul are best incorporated into posts discussing our rapidly growing companies instead of a separate, one-line post.
Saul has also engaged several assistant board managers, who will remind posters when they veer off topic, and stop off-topic threads from continuing. The names of the Assistant Board Managers, and the DO’S and DONT’S for this board are found here:
Monday Morning Rules of the Board
Long version: https://discussion.fool.com/mon-morning-rules-of-the-board-on-su…
Short version: https://discussion.fool.com/monday-morning-rules-of-the-board-34…
Please remember that these ARE the rules of the board. If you are unhappy with them, or feel that they are too restrictive for you, no one is keeping you on the board. You can leave whenever you want. You should know though that this board has been very successful, and is a real treasure, for a great number of people.
To profit most from this highly focused board, we suggest reviewing the links below to Saul’s investing approach and philosophy, especially the KnowledgeBase many of us have read and reread several times. The knowledge contained therein is priceless, and for many of us here, it has been literally life-changing. Since this board has attracted many well-informed, analytical minds, including industry insiders, we also found a review of several months worth of prior posts extremely helpful. All of this valuable information is given generously and freely to help us be better investors.
An Introduction to Saul’s Investing Philosophy
A superb introduction to Saul’s development as an investor is his letter to his daughter, followed by the first five references, posted on the right panel on any post on this board, under “Announcements.” If the announcements panel does not show up on the right, click “unthreaded” and it will. You can shift back to “threaded” and the panel should remain, at least until next time.
In addition, Saul’s End of Month Summaries provide insight into each of his investing decisions. Several other investors provide extremely useful end of month summaries as well.
1. An investing primer for my daughter, https://discussion.fool.com/an-investing-primer-for-my-daughter-…
2. KnowledgeBase in three parts, is Saul’s compilation of his basic investing philosophy:
Part 1 - https://discussion.fool.com/knowledgebase-2019-part-1-34381924.a…
Part 2 - https://discussion.fool.com/knowledgebase-2019-part-2-34381931.a…
Part 3 - https://discussion.fool.com/knowledgebase-2019-part-3-34381943.a…
Saul has picked several of his classic posts to aid you. Here they are:
3. How I pick a company to invest in, https://discussion.fool.com/how-i-pick-a-company-to-invest-in-33…
4. Why my investing criteria have changed, https://discussion.fool.com/why-my-investing-criteria-have-chang…
5. Why it Really is Different – (SaaS companies and subscription software), https://discussion.fool.com/oh-this-time-it8217s-different-33123…
6. Category Crushers, https://discussion.fool.com/category-crushers-and-my-portfolio-3…
7. Here is a recent example of how Saul evaluates and follows a stock:
part 1, https://discussion.fool.com/zscaler-a-deep-dive-into-my-notes-pa…
part 2, https://discussion.fool.com/zscaler-a-deep-dive-into-my-notes-pa…
You will also find many, many excellent deep dives by other investors on the board.
8. Saul’s End of Month Portfolio Summaries, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yF_lLGs3pI4SPcYOfIvpO5FY…
A compilation of the portfolio holdings of about 20 posters is found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15WYEG7cX2mdErck42Im4….
In addition to reading all of the above links, the following links may be helpful in finding your way around this board:
1. CMF_muji’s Distilling Knowledge, a summary of accumulated wisdom from many of this board’s members, outlining the investing criteria for hypergrowth stocks, https://discussion.fool.com/distilling-knowledge-34529397.aspx.
2. How to present a new growth stock in a format that will generate lots of engagement. Tossing out a simple “What do you think about XYZ” onto this board won’t cut it. You have to tell us about the company, what it does, and why you like it. Here are a few examples of SaaS companies and other fast-growing companies currently not the focus of this board:
2.1 Discussion of SaaS-type companies currently the focus of this board:
a. Introductions to a Stock, examples:
• PagerDuty (PD), https://discussion.fool.com/pagerdutypd-a-deep-dive-34191497.asp…, and
• Slack (WORK) IPO, https://discussion.fool.com/slack-ipo-a-first-look-34208321.aspx…
b. Earnings Follow-up Notes, examples:
• Alteryx (AYX), https://discussion.fool.com/alteryx-q120-and-its-new-apa-platfor…, and
• MongoDB (MDB), https://discussion.fool.com/mdb-quick-and-dirty-34223901.aspx?so…
2.2 Fast-growing companies not currently the focus of this board but welcome if presented as follows:
a. Introduction to a New Stock
• Peleton (PTON), https://discussion.fool.com/introduction-to-pton-34527814.aspx?s…
• CarGurus (CARG), https://discussion.fool.com/cargurus-carg-a-2017-ipo-winner-3401…
b. Earnings Follow-up Notes
• DocuSign (DOCU), https://discussion.fool.com/docu-q2-34609983.aspx
• Carvana (CVNA), https://discussion.fool.com/my-ongoing-case-for-cavana-34213744…
3. How to find out if a stock has already been discussed, see the search tools below, also to be found on the right-hand panel:
3.1. Datahelper Search (Mark’s multi-board Search), http://www.datahelper.com/mi/search.phtml
3.22. Easy Stock Search (Greg, sarksnz, Board Member’s Saul-only Search), https://easystocknumbers.com/search.html
5. If you are an investing novice and you are looking for basic information, we have prepared a list of good references for you. It is posted on another board so as to not clutter up this board. I have linked to it here: https://discussion.fool.com/for-investing-novices-34193680.aspx
6. List of Discussion Boards for Topics not suitable for Saul’s Discussions, https://discussion.fool.com/i-thought-it-might-be-useful-to-prov…
4. How to send an EMAIL off-board
Hit the “post reply” button, un-check the box "Post this Reply to the Boards,” then check the box “Email this Reply to the author.” The boxes are beneath the text field. Note that when you send such a private reply, the other person will then have your e-mail address.
We hope that this was of help,
Saul and Assistant Board Managers