So, basically the boards are now a sales pitch.
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I prefer to see the TMF Community as a forum to answer questions and share information.
Fuskie
Who is sorry if you felt he was pitching premium service subscriptions…
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So, basically the boards are now a sales pitch.
Certainly not the TMF of 20 years ago.
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"I prefer to see the TMF Community as a forum to answer questions and share information.
Fuskie
Who is sorry if you felt he was pitching premium service subscriptions…"
Sorry to throw in this qualifier - but only approved questions and only information
TMF allows.
Howie52
While these stipulations are the always the discretion of the owner/operator of a site,
the limitation is just that - a limitation. The limitation makes the site less diverse
and less interesting to folks who have interests beyond investing.
Hope this does not offend.
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My experience, both from the position asking and answering, is that you can ask anything you want, and nobody has ever told me what I can answer, or how to answer, though admittedly there has been an occasion when I have learned of a new service prior to the public and kept it confidential until the official release.
Fuskie
Whose responses across the TMF Community have always represented his personal views, and while his views have been influenced by 20+ years of Foolishness, nobody has ever put words in his fingertips…
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My experience, both from the position asking and answering, is that you can ask anything you want,
Not any more. You want to ask people’s opinions of the political topic of the day? Sorry, Charlie. That’s no longer allowed.
or how to answer,
Nope again. Someone ask a question that involves a political answer? Sorry, can’t answer that one at TMF any more. Here’s one: Why are dividends taxed differently from wages? You can give a simple answer of “because that’s the way the tax laws were written.” But that is an extremely unsatisfying answer. As a 2 year old, you didn’t settle for mom’s “because” as a response, and you shouldn’t have to settle for this grown up version of “because” as an adult. But that’s about all we’re allowed to say because the answer is inherently political. It was political machinations that resulted in the current law - political solutions to perceived issues of the day (when the law was written).
Want to discuss macroeconomic issues? That’s fine. But better not discuss solutions to macroeconomic problems. That almost certainly involves more politics than is allowed.
I’m far from a believer that everything involves politics. But there are political components to many things of import to investors. Whenever you want to discuss the future of a company, political issues can become part of that future. How will the makers of “plan b” pills react to a very recent supreme court decision? Politics. Will there be legislative changes because of this decision, and how likely is it that those potential legislative changes would be enacted? Politics. How will large medical providers be affected? Politics. How will the travel industry be affected? Politics.
What politicians do now and in the future can have an impact on how our investments perform. But those politics are now off-limits.
To be clear, I understand that this is TMF’s playground, so TMF gets to set the rules. But don’t complain when TMF sees the results that follow from these rule changes. I know that my participation has already changed, and will likely change further. Whether that’s good or bad for TMF is up to TMF to decide. And one user more or less is, frankly, insignificant. But users will go where the discussions are that they want to participate in. If that is somewhere other than TMF, then the discussion that TMF might still want will follow those users. If a user switches platforms, they’re probably going to switch all of their participation to that new platform.
–Peter
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What you can ask is, “How do I join the Motley Fool Stock Advisor?”
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And one user more or less is, frankly, insignificant. But users will go where the discussions are that they want to participate in. - ptheland
Exactly…
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My family doesn’t even allow political questions at the dinner table.
Yes, TMF has decided that partisan posts are not within the terms of service unless related to investing or specific companies. Otherwise, such posts simply are too divisive to contribute to civil discussion in the TMF Community. Even well meaning posts always seem to devolve into tribal battery. You can be upset or you can accept it, but it’s not going to change.
Fuskie
Who thinks Fools who simply want to shout at each other have plenty of other places to go…
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Fuskie
Who thinks Fools who simply want to shout at each other have plenty of other places to go…
You are making a false equivalency between political discussion and "simply wanting to shout at each other.’
True, there is some shouting that shouldn’t be but there also is exposure to new and useful information and perspective inherent in the discussion.
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My family doesn’t even allow political questions at the dinner table.
Too bad. If you can’t discuss politics in a civil and respectful way with your family, who can you have such conversations with? Granted, it’s possible that one person is responsible for such a policy. And with family, it may be necessary to take such steps because you don’t want to exclude a family member.
With a discussion board, disruptive and uncivil posters can be banned from participation. I would have preferred that TMF took that route. But it’s their boards and their decision, not mine.
My main contention here is that it is perfectly possible to have respectful and civil political discussions. Even on the internet. But to do so requires a lot of work by the board sponsors. The sponsors may prefer not to spend money on such an effort. Again, that is their choice.
You can be upset or you can accept it,
Let me be perfectly clear: I am not upset, and I have accepted it. But the policy will make the discussions here less useful for investing.
That is because people will be less inclined to bring up the subject in a way that might be acceptable to TMF. And some people will choose to stop there participation here - enough so that the quality of the remaining discussions drop.
You can be upset about that, or you can accept it.
–Peter
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You are making a false equivalency between political discussion and "simply wanting to shout at each other.’
There are a lot of things about which I do not agree with BHM. But this is a point of clear agreement. You got it exactly right.
–Peter
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The problem is that people cannot have a civil political discussion anymore. It always devolves into partisan bickering and attacks, which violate the Fool Terms of Service. Every time. And the back and forth vitriol pushes other Fools into not posting out of fear of being attacked themselves. They don’t participate because there is no oxygen.
I think when Fools contribute constructively to a conversation, there is always room for them. The quality of that conversation is enhanced when the same Fools are not simply posting your wrong, no you’re wrong, no you’re wrong.
Fuskie
Politics on the boards does not improve the Fool; it makes community impossible…
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The problem is that people cannot have a civil political discussion anymore. It always devolves into partisan bickering and attacks, which violate the Fool Terms of Service. Every time.
That is a very dangerous thing to say. I only have to find a single counter example to prove this statement wrong.
Do you care to rephrase it?
—Peter
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Do you care to rephrase it?
May I enhance on the phrase you quoted, maybe? "*The anonymity of the web devolves humans into things that are abhorred...*" - PL
[ww.GBF.pl/btw.Itotallyagree/](http://ww.GBF.pl/btw.Itotallyagree/)
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less interesting to folks who have interests beyond investing.
But, TMF is in the business of providing a resource for investing, not in the business of providing resources for diverse unspecified interests.
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True, there is some shouting that shouldn’t be
In theory, one could have reasonable conversations about various political perspectives and actions and even relate them to investing issues. In practice, such discussions degrade into shouting matches on forums such as these. It isn’t that the relevance is not understood, but just that the disruption is predictable and detrimental.
My main contention here is that it is perfectly possible to have respectful and civil political discussions. Even on the internet. But to do so requires a lot of work by the board sponsors. - theland
Not really, TMF set themselves to expend a lot of energy because of the FA button. With a good set of tools, the posters themselves can shield themselves from content or posters that they found offensive.
The FA button was just too attractive to certain personality types who self appointed themselves as board nannies whose mission was to “protect” others from content they felt others should not see.
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Just because I find a specific utterance of a person offensive, doesn’t mean that I think everything they ever say should be ignored. For this reason I find the ignore button not useful.
And the back and forth vitriol pushes other Fools into not posting out of fear of being attacked themselves. - Fuskie
Can someone be so weak and timid so as to be afraid to post because they might receive criticism or even ridicule from anonymous posters on a message board? There may be a few, a tiny tiny minority and I feel sorry for them and their disorder.
See something that offends you, hit next. Have a poster that insults you, hit Ignore poster. Withdraw and curl up into the fetal position??? Sheesh.
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