Let's broach the subject of Saul's board

[buynholdisdead]

@PhoolishPhilip

I believe that the Saul board has some connection to the paid Rule Breaker board in terms of its origins, and that, perhaps, it was seen as a mechanism for generating paying customers on the free boards. It is the largest board in terms of views, by far, and would be a perfect conduit for new lurking eyeballs to morph into new paying eyeballs. Other than that, I’m not sure what would motivate the exceptionalism.

Well you would be wrong. He started it from scratch and told a bunch of us what he was doing. We just went to his board because we enjoyed talking about growth investing. It used to be about finding great growth companies and bringing them up so we all could find the best of the best.

Andy

[ptheland]

Andy,
I appreciate your replies, but I really want to hear directly from someone at TMF about this. Unless you were directly involved in the process, you only know things in a hearsay manner. That’s not to say you are wrong - I actually believe you. But you are not the person I am asking to respond.

I also want to address this part specifically:

@buynholdisdead

Sitting on the boards posting your concerns is not the same as calling TMF and talking to the heads about your concerns. Saul was in contact with TMF through the whole process. If someone from those boards would have done the same then they could have had the same results. Before saying you didn’t know you could do that, well either did Saul but he still cared enough to get it done.

From this side of the fence, what you are writing comes across as blaming the victim. And it’s not like nothing was attempted. Plenty of people asked plenty of questions. The answers were few and far between, but were very clear. Let me quote one of those.

In this thread: Short question re the new boards system mungofitch, aka Jim of the BRK and Mechanical Investing boards, asked a very direct question.

After the switch to the new boards system, will the currently active public boards still retain access to ALL old messages permanently/indefinitely?
e.g., Berkshire Hathaway, Mechanical Investing, etc.

Or is some/all of the older history going to be wiped after a short while?

The reply from CMFMints (aka Jen) was also very clear.

Ok, so, the currently active boards will have posts from this year migrated to the new platform

Jen very easily could have added: except for Saul’s board where all of the posts will be migrated. But she didn’t. If she knew about this exception and didn’t say anything, she lied by omission. If she wasn’t aware, the events you describe must have happened pretty quickly. This response from Jen was on Sept 20. The old boards shut down 3 days later, on Sept 23.

Let me add (or perhaps reiterate) a couple of thoughts.

In some sense, I don’t really care that the old posts from Saul’s board were migrated. It’s up to TMF what they want to do. What I do care about is the pretty clear attempt to hide the truth from board participants at large. I don’t like being lied to. And it sure feels like TMF lied to me and to all other board participants when Jen said what I quoted above.

I also don’t care if there is some special relationship between Saul and TMF. It sure feels like TMF is trying to hide any relationship that might be there. Again, I just want the truth. If there is a special relationship, just say so. If Saul forked over a payment to get those old posts transferred, acknowledge that. If it was just a favor to a board that drives a significant portion of the traffic on the free side, that’s fine, too. As long as it’s the truth.

All of this hiding sure makes it feel like there is something more nefarious going on. I rather doubt that, but the prolonged silence sure raises suspicions. As I said at the top of the thread, all I’m asking for is honesty and openness. At the very least, someone could acknowledge the question and say they’re not going to respond. That is at least honesty about the lack of openness.

I also don’t like the condescending attitude that comes across in your replies. Well, if you cared enough, you could have called and talked to the honchos. Umm. No, I couldn’t. I could try. But the honchos at TMF aren’t going to take my call. They don’t know me. They might know Jim from all of his very valuable contributions to actual investing discussions over the years. I’ve never received any indication that anyone at TMF knows I exist. I occasionally dabble in the basics of investing, like many others here. I have a bit of expertise in taxation which I’ve shared for the last 22 years. But that’s not really investing. So while I suppose I could have picked up the phone and made a call, no one at TMF has any reason to take my call. I do not add value where TMF wants the value to be added. Could I still have called anyway? Of course. But I’m not into wasting my time and the time of others. So I (and many others) posted our requests on the boards where those requests could filter up to the honchos. And I’m reasonably sure they did. And the requests were rejected.

Lastly, @CMFMints I’m tagging you to make sure you are notified of my post and have a chance to respond. I owe it to you to make sure you are aware of this post.

–Peter

[Goofyhoofy]

Hey look this is pretty simple.

All the animals in the barnyard are equal, but some are more equal than others.

It’s that way in fiction, it’s that way in real life, and it’s that way at the Fool. If you’re not used to that by now, I don’t know what to tell you.

[buynholdisdead]

@ptheland

From this side of the fence, what you are writing comes across as blaming the victim. And it’s not like nothing was attempted. Plenty of people asked plenty of questions. The answers were few and far between, but were very clear. Let me quote one of those.

Peter I am not blaming you or anyone else. I am just acknowledging the trouble Saul went through to make sure his board stayed intact. But you are correct it is all hearsay because I was not involved in the process.

Andy

[buynholdisdead]

@ptheland

Jen very easily could have added: except for Saul’s board where all of the posts will be migrated. But she didn’t. If she knew about this exception and didn’t say anything, she lied by omission.

@ptheland

I also don’t like the condescending attitude that comes across in your replies. Well, if you cared enough, you could have called and talked to the honchos. Umm. No, I couldn’t. I could try. But the honchos at TMF aren’t going to take my call. They don’t know me. They might know Jim from all of his very valuable contributions to actual investing discussions over the years. I’ve never received any indication that anyone at TMF knows I exist. I occasionally dabble in the basics of investing, like many others here. I have a bit of expertise in taxation which I’ve shared for the last 22 years. But that’s not really investing. So while I suppose I could have picked up the phone and made a call, no one at TMF has any reason to take my call. I do not add value where TMF wants the value to be added. Could I still have called anyway? Of course. But I’m not into wasting my time and the time of others. So I (and many others) posted our requests on the boards where those requests could filter up to the honchos. And I’m reasonably sure they did. And the requests were rejected.

Peter,

I think you are letting your emotions get the better of you. If anything I wrote made it seem I was being condescending says more about your state of mind.

Andy

[PhoolishPhilip]

@buynholdisdead

He started it from scratch and told a bunch of us what he was doing.

Yes, he started it from scratch on the free platform. But from whence he came?

[RHinCT]

@PhoolishPhilip

But from whence he came?

Saul was active on the Paid side going back quite a while, longer than search would return.

I searched the Premium side. His last post I found was September of 2018. I scrolled back through the years, reaching July 2012 before the search engine told me to narrow my search. I didn’t try to count things, but 430+ of the messages that were returned are now categorized under Premium Central. I saw a small number of SA and RB posts.