Monday Morning Rules of The Board
In the first six months of 2018 our board has exploded with new posters whose very well intentioned excitement has led to a lot of superfluous posts. The number of posts has grown to over 1500 posts a month, many of them Off-Topic because new posters are unaware of the Rules of the Board, and some are Off-Topic because we older board members are careless and post very off-topic posts at times.
But that’s a ridiculous number of posts. No one can read 1500 posts a month, and that kind of dilution will eventually kill the board as serious board members will drift away rather than wade through all that. The reason our board has become so popular is that it has been extremely useful to many people (me included). Let’s not destroy it with a lot of rambling posts.
I will try to post this description of what the board is about each Monday morning. The hope is that new members will read it and profit from it, and that it will remind older board members what is expected. It will only add four posts a month, and hopefully it will help reduce that 1500 posts by several hundreds each month. The idea of posting this is to help us all cooperate to keep our great board great. Here goes:
This board is for the discussion and analyzing of individual growth stocks in a cooperative and courteous manner and, secondarily, the philosophy around investing in them.
That means that there are subjects that are Off-Topic for this board. There’s nothing wrong with them as topics. There are other boards where they are welcome, or even the chief topic of conversation. These include politics, which however quickly spins out of control and ends up with people, who had been amiably working together discussing a stock, suddenly viciously arguing. Political posts will be immediately deleted.
Some examples of investing subjects that are off topic include technical analysis, or option trading subjects, value investing, turn-around investing, dividend or income investing, market-timing, what Investors Business Daily says the market is going to do next week, etc. Repeated posts of what long lists of stocks have done in the past week don’t belong. Basic investing questions like “What does EV/S ratio mean?” should simply be Googled, rather than filling up the board.
Responding to someone with anger because they disagree with you about a stock is simply not done on our board.
Non-investing subjects like how to cultivate apple orchards, or private humorous conversations, can be fun but don’t belong here after one or two posts. That’s just a few, but you get the idea.
This all may sound intimidating, but think of it this way, if you were on a board about French cooking you wouldn’t paste about Mexican tortillas or Chinese spring rolls, and certainly not about politics, or option trading, either. You’d post about French cooking. Well, our board is about rapidly growing growth stocks. It’s as simple as that.
Remember that you can take conversations off-board. It’s easy! Just check the little box on the reply window that says, “Email this Reply to the Author” and un-check the box that says, “Post this Reply to the Boards.”
I’m not sure what to tell you about appreciations. People who make an especially good post deserve rec’s certainly, but post after post that just say “Great post, Joe!” just fill up the board. I guess if you have something special to say about the post or poster, go ahead: “Thanks Joe, your grasp of this field is amazing and I always learn so much from your posts on these stocks, because you clarify issues about xxx that I can’t figure out myself.” That’s different because you are saying something. I know that I do sometimes break this rule, but I feel that, as host of the board, I should try to always recognize and thank someone who makes an especially helpful and valuable post. I’m sure I miss some.
Ask yourself if your post is adding anything of value to the discussion. One-line posts rarely add anything significant to a stock discussion but fill up the board.
Finally, if you are new to the board I strongly urge you to read the Knowledgebase, which is linked to in the right panel on every board post, and also below my signature below. It is divided into three parts and it is crammed full of information about the philosophy of the board and about investing. Many have read it two or three times.
Let’s all try to keep our board focused on analyzing and discussing growth stocks, and useful to us. We have created something great here and let’s not kill it with a lot of extraneous stuff.
Best
Saul
For Knowledgebase for this board,
please go to Post #17774, 17775 and 17776.
We had to post it in three parts this time.
A link to the Knowledgebase is also at the top of the Announcements column that is on the right side of every page on this board