The benevolent TMF

Fool Community Help Desk Improve the Fool
1

Yes. I left off the “overlords” denigration.

TMF does NOT deserve such.

Let me explain.

TMF has BENEVOLENTLY maintained all these “free” boards, even though the financial income (from the free boards) has likely been sparse, for 30 years.
30 years!

Yes, there are some pros for TMF. There are also cons that must be considered.

TMF is a private company.
Do you really think a SHAREHOLDER company would maintain these private boards?
I don’t.

On this board - Improve the Fool - we’ve seen a lot of COMPLAINTS and actual suggestions for how TMF might improve its website.
Tom and David inculcate a CIVIL culture at TMF. I’m often surprised at the civil, even KIND responses to some of the harshly worded criticisms.
Kudos to Tom and David! They and the ?MFcrew are role models!

TMF apparently LISTENED, formed a plan, and is trying to implement those user defined wants/needs.
This involves change.

Change happens. And, based on TMF’s culture, I think that after the dust settles, it’ll be BETTER!

While I truly enjoy the non-financial boards… I come here primarily for the financial boards and the superb commentary about various stocks. My, ralph’s, primary need/want is cogent financial information,

TMF is WAY better than Yahoo was.
SeekingAlpha is a different format. It’s useful in its own way.
I’ve wandered through a few other financial websites, over the years.
I’ll take TMF any day!

Thank you TMF for continuing the financial boards here on the free side.

Tom and David were, IIRC, 35ish when they started TMF in mid 1990s. 25 or so years ago.
IIRC, again, they both stepped down from micro managing TMF a decade or so ago. They built a team to grow the company.
IMO, they’ve done well. (Consider how many private companies have disappeared over the last 25 years!
Bravo! TMF).

Tom and David gotta be about my age, and I’m RETIRED… they may be leaning that way, too?

I hear the complaints about no clarity, no transparency, no explanation… yes, those ARE valid feelings.

But, I suspect that part of the “silence” is due to legal considerations. (If something is stated, then it gives nefarious lawyers a handle with which to launch a lawsuit.)

Personally, I’m grateful to TMF and Tom and David.

:vulcan_salute:
ralph
To the non-financial boards, that I will definitely miss, I say “so long”. I expect to see many of my fellow posters on the financial boards. :+1::slightly_smiling_face:

To the financial boards, I say not only “thanks for the fish” and, more important, “thanks for teaching me how to fish”.

10 Likes
2

TMF has BENEVOLENTLY maintained all these “free” boards, even though the financial income (from the free boards) has likely been sparse, for 30 years.
30 years!

Dare I say, if a section of business is losing money, then the Gardeners should have culled it earlier unless it suited their purposes.
And they would have, I believe.

Your points are great, but building a brand on the backs of posters that are Dedicated, experts in their fields (!) give up time and for what -
can I say it again?
Dedicated to the Community
It’s hardly a selfless act by the brothers to keep the boards going.

Let’s be real here!
I agree to disagree
nag

5 Likes
3

Change happens. And, based on TMF’s culture, I think that after the dust settles, it’ll be BETTER!

I surely hope you are right on this.

We’ll see

nag

4

I think most of us definitely appreciate the years of TMF’s existence, however it wasn’t the investing, financial perspective that pulled me in, it was the variety of interest, the variety of help available or given, which, in the end, it all affects us financially one way or another. For instance, the Pandemic board sorts out truthful, honest information to hopefully keep more folks safe, abel the work, fund our grandkids educations, etc… Sure, some are maybe hobbies, like the woodworking board, generally dusty, but maybe someone needs a bit of information on tools, methods, lots of folks willing to help, same with computers of all kinds, cars of all kinds, homes of all kinds, a real shame if these links to help are lost…

18 Likes
5

wecoguy,

We have said and said it. Perhaps the 3rd time is the trick.

take care
nag

6

I approve of TMF doing this. Some of these boards can’t close fast enough.
I have even turned off the penalty box to be humored by the gnashing of teeth and wailing of the clueless.
Have a nice day. (Hi Mom!) imo

1 Like
7

wailing of the clueless. - wadigo

Too late now but that would been an excellent name for a board.

7 Likes
8

While it may be true that the bulk of the board experience will be better … easily done, perhaps … that doesn’t mean that it will be the best experience which might be achieved. So, presumably, there is some new software which is expected to provide a better user experience. Not hard to imagine. This is, as near as I can tell, independent of the issue of policy changes about what boards are allowed to exist. If there were an argument that each board ported to the new software required some kind of manual effort, one might have an argument for not porting everything … but apparently even the discontinued boards will be ported read-only, so making them active or read-only is only a question of a switch. If this is not the case, TMF, please explain.

If this is the case, then the switch to new software is independent of whether some boards should be discontinued and there should be a discussion of this policy shift in which the users are allowed input … not just random thoughts as we are getting now … although those are revealing logical inconsistencies … but reactions to explicit policy positions.

4 Likes
9

TMF has BENEVOLENTLY maintained all these “free” boards, even though the financial income (from the free boards) has likely been sparse, for 30 years.
30 years!

Not so. There are ads at the top of this board. Eyeballs = clicks = ad revenue.

Purging the boards and their followers reduces income.

13 Likes
10

Purging the boards and their followers reduces income.

Is that income profitable?

Denny Schlesinger

6 Likes
11

ralph,

I didn’t mean to come over as harsh or not appreciative of TMF. Of course we appreciate this site.

But it’s not only so-called ‘social’ boards being removed; Mastering Quicken is as well.
And let’s not forget the Pandemic Board (how could we, we’re still in this mess) - the pandemic turned the world upside down affecting every aspect of life including finances.

oh well, I think the horse is dead
take care
nag

11 Likes
12

No offense taken, nag :sun_with_face::+1:

Like you, and many others, I’m not happy with the changes.

Criticism, harsh or otherwise, is fine.

I just don’t think TMF deserves to be denigrated or called names and such.

:sun_with_face:
ralph

1 Like
13

I just don’t think TMF deserves to be denigrated or called names and such.

Agree. For me visiting TMF is like visiting friends with no pretension of imposing on them. If I were a paying customer I would have different expectations.

Denny Schlesinger

3 Likes
14

Interesting. No suggestions posted since April!!

What does that mean?

15

All hope is lost when you enter there gates… Dante’s Inferno?

The Captain

16

It goes without saying that I am not TMF. But I have an explanation which you may accept or reject given it’s obviously false provenance.

The “boards” were a good part of the success in launching the Fool out of AOL as a financial site. Over the years mission creep set in, politics intruded and, as a way to keep it out of the primary focus, was allowed its own space (notably Political Asylum, but also others.) This led to more and more boards, some political, many not.

But the vision, if there ever was one, of the Fool becoming a “social board success” did not pan out, the banner advertising model collapsed industry wide, and the boards limped along.

At some point somebody somewhere took a look and thought “We’re a financial site, and the first thing people see when they come here in childish sniping on political boards, how to wash out your baggies, and whether or not rutabaga can be steamed into a pie. Probably not a good way to introduce a focused product on investing - you don’t find this sort of thing on SeekingAlpha or CNBC, and you probably shouldn’t see it here, in spite of some people’s wants (mine included.)

I miss several boards - desperately. RELE, Atheist Fools, etc. but all the complaints in the world don’t get me past the notion that it’s the Fool’s site to do with as they please, and I am a mere participant, not an owner.

Customers get votes, but only with their feet. I have used the new software long enough to recognize its severe shortcomings, but absent a new destination my feet haven’t decided to walk. That’s sort of the story of business, writ large, so while I continue to “suggest” I am mindful that my only real vote is my feet, and they haven’t moved yet.

5 Likes
17

Mine haven’t moved either. Yet. They have some wanderlust, but don’t know where to go. Tried a spot or two, but none felt right.

—Peter

5 Likes
18

Aye, we are adjusting, use of the Ignore, Mute for the few trolls that seem to have no end of weirdness does help a lot, but as before they create long ‘discussions’, but Normal reduces the noise level, but there is this ringing…

Fooldom
Fooldom526×520 29.4 KB

4 Likes
19

I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m sick to say the least of the constant misleading offers I receive from Motley Fool that I only click the link provided because you’ve promised you’ll give me the name of a little known company who Motley thinks is going to be massive in the A.I. boom. However, as always with Motley it just says I’m already a paid up subscription member and takes me to your normal website with no sign (that I can easily find) of the company name as promised.

As usual with the Motley Fool, every promised ticker name supposed insight into what you consider a life changing 100X investment just leads to 10 pages of boredom explaining how monumental an investment this would be for you loyal customers who already paid a subscription fee but then when you get to the end of that never ending self promotion you soon realise that it’s always the same old tired trick of trying to sell the customer yet another level of the Motley Fool costing more money with the promise to give away new and exciting information rather than the usual same old tips normally given out like PayPal, AMD or Nvidia which quite frankly are mostly recommended and then re recommended a few months later when the price is practically at its all time high. Rather than pay for this repetitive info I should ask my Nan who could no doubt give me advice on a par with these recommendations but I’d need to visit a medium because she’s been dead for ten years!

So thanks but no thanks Motley but instead how about throwing your loyal subscribers a bone every now and then just to show us it’s not always constantly about trying to wring every penny possible out of us?

1 Like
20

My thinking was exactly like yours, but I found a fix. I turned off all promotional email from TMF. You can control their email here:

https://www.fool.com/account/communication-settings/

3 Likes