I used to read all the posts on this board. There’s lots of really useful information and some great investing analysis and philosophy here.
But now I just can’t keep up anymore because it takes too much of my time, and there are A LOT more posts per day than there were a year ago. So that means that I have to choose which posts to click on and which ones to ignore. I’m sure that some other people are feel the same way.
Here’s how you can help:
If you want to thank someone for a post or some information, do you think that 100 or 200 people need to see that in a new post on this board? It’s a huge waste of time that really adds no value. Just give their post a rec. And if you feel the need to thank them, just uncheck the box that posts your thank you to the board and instead check the box that sends the person a private thank you email.
If you decide to add to your stock position and you and not Saul, do you really need to announce that you bought or sold. Most people really won’t care or base their own investment decision on whether or not you bought or sold. Sure, if you have something useful to say in the post and you want to include that you bought or sold that’s fine.
If you have a new topic to discuss that’s not in the title of the post, you might want to create a new thread. Otherwise, people who are not interested in the previous thread might miss your post.
Also, I will apologize in advance for not responding to questions directed to me in posts that have a low number of recs. It probably just means that I didn’t see the post with the question.
I used to read all the posts on this board. There’s lots of really useful information and some great investing analysis and philosophy here. But now I just can’t keep up anymore because it takes too much of my time, and there are A LOT more posts per day than there were a year ago. So that means that I have to choose which posts to click on and which ones to ignore. I’m sure that some other people are feel the same way.
I agree completely with Chris (and coincidently my post just before his (#14186) was on the same theme, but let me clarify a little what Chris said:
If you have something to present as far as analysis of a new stock, with some facts about the company, please don’t hesitate to post it. That’s what this board is about. It doesn’t have to be about one of my stocks. If other people also get interested and add to the discussion it may become a stock regularly discussed on the board. And I may take a position in it. (That’s how I learned about INBK, LGIH, and PRAA, to mention a few).
We don’t want to inhibit you about posting on the board, but posts should remain focussed on fundamental analysis, with technical analysis kept to a minimum, and politics totally avoided as they are divisive and can kill a good board. An occasional personal incident post from a regular member is appropriate, but long off-topic threads fill up the board and make others look elsewhere for their stock news and analysis. The board is meant for discussion of stocks after all.
I also agree - there was a time when I read every post, I just don’t have the time anymore. I have no systematic way of deciding what to read and what pass. I’m sure I’ve missed some really worthwhile posts.
I don’t want to get too rigorous but possibly we could come up with a brief list of key words to put in the subject line. What I mean is that some posts introduce a new company for comment and analysis, others provide new info or links to stocks that we pay a lot of attention to (these tend to be stocks that are or recently have been in Saul’s portfolio). Others introduce a tool, the 1YPEG spreadsheet for example, or some graphing s/w, etc. Others are more illuminating with respect to general investing strategy, philosophy, analysis, etc. and so on.
There are probably fewer than 20 broad topics, we could assign a key word for each of them. I’m not suggesting that we make it mandatory or anything like that, just a helpful way to help guide the readers of the board for those who chose to implement it. I don’t know how you get a message to appear on the right side of the message area, but I assume we could put the key word list in the right margin if it weren’t too long - or maybe a link to the list with explanations of each key word. Something to make it easy for readers and posters to reference.
I don’t want to get too rigorous but possibly we could come up with a brief list of key words to put in the subject line. What I mean is that some posts introduce a new company for comment and analysis, others provide new info or links to stocks that we pay a lot of attention to (these tend to be stocks that are or recently have been in Saul’s portfolio). Others introduce a tool, the 1YPEG spreadsheet for example, or some graphing s/w, etc. Others are more illuminating with respect to general investing strategy, philosophy, analysis, etc. and so on.
Nice thought, Brittlerock, but I’m afraid that unfortunately that would be too rigid, and too complicated, and too restrictive.
For example, consider the recent threads on Skyworks. Each was clearly marked with the name of the company and then what the post was about. That’s enough, I think.
Skyworks (SWKS) mid-quarter review (clear, I hope) SWKS: PMC Sierra terminates merger agreement (very clear) SWKS: cha ching! (okay, supposed to be the sound of a cash register indicating they got paid. Not fully clear, but if you are interested in Skyworks you’d look) SWKS: Apple suppliers and growth (doesn’t tell you what the thesis is, but certainly tells you what it’s about).
I think that making it clear what the post is about, in this fashion, is adequate, and we really don’t need key words for the title. But thanks for the suggestion and best wishes,
Also, I will apologize in advance for not responding to questions directed to me in posts that have a low number of recs. It probably just means that I didn’t see the post with the question.
If only there were a “replies to your posts” feature under, say, a “Favorites and Replies” tab… facepalm
Most of your complaints are easily handled via features of the website. You should learn to use them. Seriously. That’s far easier than asking EVERYONE ELSE TO CHANGE FOR YOUR BENEFIT. Just sayin’.
Hey Chris, I completely understand the desire for efficiency and if you choose to skim the board, or only read the most rec posts, that is cool.
But, please don’t discourage new members and shy members and non-regular members from posting or especially, asking questions. A larger community means more brains at the table and that’s a good thing. I think Saul has made this a place for learning and more learners is an exciting thing.
Not every post is going to ring every person’s bell. Not every post is going to go deep. Skimming is totally OK and I encourage you to do that rather than to discourage anyone from full and active participation here!
You have great posts and I hope you continue to enjoy the community.
Putting this here so I don’t have to make a new thread and it’s somewhat related. I’m new to MF community boards in general. What I’d like to do is be able to search something and see all the posts that had this text in there title.
For example, I want to see every post on ELLI in Saul’s investing guides. Is there a way I can search “ELLI” in a search bar somewhere and it scans all of the threads in this community board and shows them to me? I know Saul owned ELLI at one point and now he has sold it but I want to find his analysis.
I’ll reply here under the under the guise of investment tools. I hope we can move this request to a more general board where MF would consider improving their site.
brennanadler:
What I’d like to do is be able to search something and see all the posts that had this text in there title.
Correct. You should not have to read all the posts. It shouldn’t limit the search to the title, but that would be a nice option.
RHinCT:
The closest I know how to come to that is putting the following into Google:
Exactly! Search the content of the boards. I assume that MF has not implemented general search capabilities due to challenges of limiting results to boards that the searcher has subscribed to or are “free”. That is a bit of a technical challenge, but it has been solved by others (e.g use ACLs to filter search results). It would be a major upgrade for MF to unleash the valuable information contained in these boards.
