Should TMF reopen the “non-financial” but also non-political (e.g., “Great Movies” and “Television Banter” and “Photography”) Boards?
- Yes
- No
- Why not?
0 voters
I’ve already re-opened the “Great Movies” board.
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I voted yes. To me, it’s a no-brainer. It keeps the users happy and in the Motley Fool universe and I can’t see how much extra work it would impose on TMF. Of course, keeping the boards “non political” and polite could be a challenge, but I suppose that risk is also there with the “financial” boards as well, probably even more so. Examples:
The Apple stock board: “Joe: Apple can do no wrong! Fred: You’re a liberal Biden loving nut case!!”
The Great Movies board: “Sue: the Cohen brothers are cinematic geniuses! Barb: are you smoking crack?!”
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So I saw 
Technically, all these closed boards can be posted to by those who know the trick, but obviously, that’s not currently a sanctioned behavior and we risk poking TMF just one too many times. It may feel good to put one over on The Man, but it’s probably not wise to tempt fate.
And there’s no telling what will happen when they migrate to whatever new software they chose: will the closed boards be brought over, if only in read-only mode? Will they be left behind entirely? And if brought over, will they exclude posts after the official date of closing?
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It’s just a joke. Posted my last movie “review”. I’ve had my fun. I’ll soon be closing my TMF tab in my browser for the last time, as none of the open boards hold much appeal to moi.
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One has to wonder what brought you to TMF if none of the still existing financial boards is of interest.
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Can we add HURL to the list? …along with the following?
- Android Users
- Gardening and Landscaping
- Pandemic Disease
The above were still somewhat active and filled a need/niche in the community.
Many have also asked for the Apple (computer/phone tech support) to be reopened. If you’ve not considered this, please do. Another need to be filled… again, if there’s any value in “your community”.
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One has to wonder what brought you to TMF if none of the still existing financial boards is of interest.
I can’t speak for halco, but I joined in 2000 for the financial boards. Then I realized that I am not a stock picker.
What did happen, though, is that I got to know people virtually. I guess these boards were my social media, before social media blew up. I don’t Insta/Tweet/TikToc, I have limited FB. This was it.
I still follow some of the financial boards (LBYM, METAR) but most of the boards I followed were not financial boards. The people I met on the financial boards began sharing their lives outside those boards and I followed.
That’s my story. halco’s may be different, but what brought me here and why I stayed are different things.
B
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An understandable history, but one that defines you as not part of the target market of TMF. What incentive would they have to trying to keep you around?
An understandable history, but one that defines you as not part of the target market of TMF. What incentive would they have to trying to keep you around?
None. Which is why I probably won’t stick around.
I don’t want to be at a party where I’m not wanted.
B
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An understandable history, but one that defines you as not part of the target market of TMF. What incentive would they have to trying to keep you around?
Because, if someone is actually here reading SOMETHING, there’s a chance they might pay for a TMF service. If someone is not here AT ALL, there’s even less of a chance. I see no benefit to TMF to limit their audience. Advertising principal 101: get them in the store, and maybe, just maybe, they’ll buy something. Maintaining extra ostensibly “non-financial boards” requires little extra work on their part, and who knows, some stocks might even be discussed there, leading to someone checking out the relevant stock board.
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One has to wonder what brought you to TMF if none of the still existing financial boards is of interest.
That’s not the point to wonder about. Of course it was the financial boards—and perhaps the investment education as well–that brought halco here. As I’m sure is everyone’s reason for coming here. The issue is the motivation for remaining here. For a significant number of us, gradually discovering and participating in nonfinancial boards opened up a community of groups that was unique, and became extremely important in our lives. Some of us eventually became a lot less active on financial boards (for varying reasons, I’m sure), but remained active participants in our other groups. They have been very meaningful, and uniquely satisfying and supportive. And now they are gone.
If you cannot understand this, that does not mean we are inflating the importance of something that is actually fairly trivial. It simply means that you’re a different kind of person than we are. The fact that the nonfinancial boards are of negligible importance to you does not mean they are of negigible importance. Only that you personally do not connect with them.
=sheila
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I can’t speak for halco, but I joined in 2000 for the financial boards. Then I realized that I am not a stock picker.
What did happen, though, is that I got to know people virtually. I guess these boards were my social media, before social media blew up. I don’t Insta/Tweet/TikToc, I have limited FB. This was it. …The people I met on the financial boards began sharing their lives outside those boards and I followed.
I should have read your post first, instead of basically duplicating it!
=sheila
Advertising principal 101: get them in the store, and maybe, just maybe, they’ll buy something. Maintaining extra ostensibly “non-financial boards” requires little extra work on their part, and who knows, some stocks might even be discussed there, leading to someone checking out the relevant stock board.
I’ve slowly, but regretfully, come to the conclusion that those of us here using the “freemium” boards haven’t been relevant to the business of the Motley Fool in quite a long time. We’re more like the teenagers always hanging out in the parking lot behind the store, rather than potential customers. They’ve been perfectly fine to let us hang out back there. Doesn’t cost them anything at all, and they make a very tiny amount of money on us (through banner ads). But almost none of use the products they’re selling these days.
It used to be different, of course. Back in the day, TMF frequently looked to the boards as a source of both content for the main site and as a resource that could help their bottom line. Highly ranked posts were featured as content on the landing page. Articles were written incorporating poster content. They tried to directly monetize the community a few times: pay-per-board, CAPS, and even Soapbox (remember Soapbox? A proto-Substack just for the TMF set!). All those things didn’t just try to wring value out of the boards, but they also brought value to the boards, in the sense that this part of the Fool was actually visible to people who weren’t already here.
But those days passed years ago, I think. These boards have been valuable to those that remained, dwindling in number with each passing year, but not to TMF. Nearly all their business is on the other side of the paywall - inside the “store” if you will, not out here in the parking lot. New visitors to the Fool never were directed back here; us old posters were never going to go to the pay side, not after staying out for so long. They haven’t tried to integrate the community back here into the business of TMF since probably about 2006, when they rolled out CAPS.
Albaby
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It simply means that you’re a different kind of person than we are.
No, it means that I recognize that TMFs reason for being is investing/financial, not general purpose social. It would have been understandable if they disallowed the creation of non-financial boards from the beginning, but I suppose that is a question of shading, i.e., computer help being potentially relevant to investing, and gradual creep. One supposes that as they looked at the task of moving to new software, they wondered why they were supporting all this non-financial stuff.
The mystery for me is that it seems they have generated a fair amount of ill will in order to save what seems to me likely a trivial amount of additional effort or cost.
albaby: I’ve slowly, but regretfully, come to the conclusion that those of us here using the “freemium” boards haven’t been relevant to the business of the Motley Fool in quite a long time. We’re more like the teenagers always hanging out in the parking lot behind the store, rather than potential customers. They’ve been perfectly fine to let us hang out back there. Doesn’t cost them anything at all, and they make a very tiny amount of money on us (through banner ads). But almost none of use the products they’re selling these days.
I confess! It was me. I recently cancelled my subscription to two of the premium services.
CNC
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tamhas… I never came here for the investing side, not my forte’… I originally came here because (I) I was a geek & (II) Mrs PL and I had just gotten a new dog, yes a Poodle, and she read somewhere about TMF and they had a “pet lovers” board. Well, I was all in… and when the community blossomed/exploded/GREW, many of us were here, till ~2002/3.
Guess that’s about the time FB started to really blossom, eh? TMF feeds into FB and with the hordes departing, where else to go? I have no REAL idea of their losses then, but I suspect it was significant. Going back to a free model sorta helped and some came back… I’m an example of AJ contacting me and informing me that the Fool was free again. So I returned and I gotta say it… “it has never returned to its prior glory”. Not even close. YES, I can see it! …and it’s sad. The pooch was… The turn of events these days is enough for me to “call it”… SEC for my personal call.
I’ll never GBF… forever is a really long time. But I will “fade away”. So, to whomever (TMF’r) reads this, your failure to be forthcoming with your populus has not served you well. I understand “private”, but you do have some sembeland of a responsibility to inform those who rely on you, as to your intentions so feedback and information can be shared. Without this, you see the results… TWICE NOW!
Don’t forget, some people take offence to “being left in the cold/dark”. …and once you’ve lost that faith/trust, you will be hard pressed to earn it back. You are a business after all… when g??ood things happen, one person tells friends and family?, maybe?. When it’s bad, one person tells many; the?y are? not always ONLY friends and family.? Words do travel.
OH, and I’m not seeing much in the way of staff input/information, back to us, about what occuring here.? Why is this? And, who in charge anyway?
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I confess! It was me. I recently cancelled my subscription to two of the premium services.
I knew it! It was the Count, in the conservatory, with the cancellation button!
Albaby
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PL, while an understandable history … one does have to admit that it isn’t a history that makes you part of the TMF target market.
But, yes, I think this was poorly handled. What was going to happen and why should have been put out well in advance and feedback been solicited. And, they should have provided feedback on the feedback. Then the transition should have been advertised in advance. And, they should be providing feedback now to the comments we are making. And, frankly, we still don’t know what will happen with the transition to the new software or when that is likely to happen.
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If you are talking about searching from Google or the like with the site: qualifier and a pointer to either a specific board or to favorites or whatever, those have long been searchable and require no login. Premium boards are not searchable, logged in or not. I.e., Google search knows nothing about your login status.