I’ve been here 20 years, and have gotten a lot more from the boards than I’ve given, many thanks to TMF and even more so to fellow posters.
So now, TMF is making changes, for no doubt a variety of reasons, many valid, but their treatment of the community during this process has been shabby and cavalier. More changes are in the works. I don’t know what the end game is (transparency is lacking), but I wouldn’t be surprised to find the boards eventually phased out altogether. The current gradual weaning is probably merciful, but strikes me as death by a thousand cuts.
It feels disingenuous for me to claim that TMF is destroying the community, or at the very least taking it for granted, whilst continuing to contribute to what’s left of it.
So I feel a boycott is appropriate, but “boycott” implies a temporary absence, where return is conditional on the other party’s actions. TMF has acted unilaterally, and has done so often enough in the past (sometimes backtracking a bit after the fact, but consistently failing to anticipate reactions or just not caring) that I’m confident their core decision-making process, which takes me personally into account not at all, will continue. So I guess it’s GBF.
I think you may have something here. "G" didn't find how we use it here... yes, very interesting!
[ww.GBF.YewGuise.pl/stillhere/](http://ww.GBF.YewGuise.pl/stillhere/)
I would say that the decision to leave the TMF Community completely is unnecessary. There will still be freemium communities in which Fools can converse and gain value from one another. Even if a particular board is gone, there will be opportunities to continue sharing and exchanging ideas on a variety of topics. While the TMF Community is changing, it is not ending. That is important to remember.
Fuskie
Who is expressing his hope and expectation, not any official Foolish policy or promise…
Premium Home Fool: Ask me a Foolish Question, I’ll give you a Foolish Response! Ticker Guide: The Walt Disney Company (DIS), Intuit (INTU), Live Nation (LYV), CME Group (CME), MongoDB (MDB), Trip Advisor (TRIP), Vivendi SA (VIVHY), Mimecast (MIME), Virgin Galactic (SPCE), Axon Technologies (AXON), 51Jobs (JOBS) Disclaimer: This post is non-professional and should not be construed as direct, individual or accurate advice Disassociation: The views and statements of this post are Fuskie’s and are not intended to represent those of The Motley Fool or any other sane body Disclosure: May own shares of some, many or all of the companies mentioned in this post: https://tinyurl.com/FuskieDisclosure Fool Code of Conduct:https://www.fool.com/legal/the-motley-fools-rules.aspx#Condu… Invitation: You are invited to interactively watch Motley Fool Live online television: https://www.fool.com/premium/live/ Call to Action: If you like this or any other post, Rec it. Better yet, reply to it. Even better, start your own thread. This is YOUR TMF Community!
I think the issue, Fuskie, is that clearly there are some people … we don’t know the percentages … who consider their participation in various social boards to be a significant part of their motivation for participation in TMF generally. If someone’s only interest is non-financial boards, then losing them as a participant is not much of a loss except for possible ad revenue for those who have failed to use AdBlock Plus or the like. So, the question is what is the possible loss of participation of those with mixed participation on financial and social boards who may be less motivated to come here if the social boards are gone? I certainly am not going to quit coming, but others might.
I would say that the decision to leave the TMF Community completely is unnecessary. There will still be freemium communities in which Fools can converse and gain value from one another. Even if a particular board is gone, there will be opportunities to continue sharing and exchanging ideas on a variety of topics. While the TMF Community is changing, it is not ending. That is important to remember.
I know that you’re expressing hope and not policy…but if TMF actually wants the community to stick around rather than leave, they’re certainly not doing anything to communicate that desire.
From jump, the change to the Boards has been framed as a closure, not an upgrade. There’s been no guidance on what the boundaries of the new Board policies will be on the ‘variety of topics’ that will be permitted. Even in your own posting, you’ve been very vigorous in pointing out that there are a plethora of platforms and communities other than TMF for getting information on a lot of topics - including some rather personal finance and macroeconomic -adjacent topics.
Everything TMF is doing signals that they expect that the freemium boards are going to go away. The handful of purely financial boards (METAR and Saul’s and maybe one or two others) will probably linger for a while, but everything else is expected to go.
Which is TMF’s prerogative, of course. But if they want something different than that to happen, there’s things that they could have done (and perhaps still could do) in communicating and guiding their users through this change. The failure to do any of that means that your ‘hope’ isn’t really what TMF is planning to happen.
And, of course, maybe a day or two’s notice before the actual closing would have been nice as well. You know, maybe a heads up that last call would be Monday at 11:00 a.m. or something.
And, of course, maybe a day or two’s notice before the actual closing would have been nice as well. You know, maybe a heads up that last call would be Monday at 11:00 a.m. or something.
Fuskie, There will still be freemium communities in which Fools can converse and gain value from one another. Even if a particular board is gone, there will be opportunities to continue sharing
I don’t see that, at all.
All the boards I contributed to have been closed. there is no longer a board associated with the TMF Premium Boards to give another opinion.
Having subscribed to several Premium Services, I found the recommendations often to be too late. Not invalid, but if the Fool said 'buy at 50’by the time I logged in, the price was more like 57. I attribute this this to Bot trading, not individual traders. Even when I was on a midnight shift, home before 7AM I saw this.
I see a big change ahead, the Gardners have created a good investing site and are willing (or have) sold off some part of a Private Company. The elder Gardener is over 70, the younger, my age, is thinking about fishing, vacations in the Bahamas and not going to the office. So a transition has to be made.
I requested a notification of any new boards created. No news so far.
I will miss a lot of Fools who posted or emailed with me, but it appears TMF has been bought by a Corporation who . just doesn’t care.
jC