TMF Cadillac in the Tesla Age

Investment Analysis Clubs Saul’s Investing Discussions
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Saul, you inquired why the “Post of the Day” has disappeared and learned it was only on hiatus. You do an excellent job analyzing a company to determine its future growth path. I think a similar analysis is appropriate for the Motley Fool public message boards (boards).

In a nutshell, TMF boards are like Cadillac’s in the Tesla Age. There was a time and place when the boards were the place to be. Lots of great posts about INVESTING, lots of give and take and a useful public service. It pains me to say this, but I think the boards are on downward glide path. If it was a company or stock, it would definitely warrant a “Sell.”

By far, the largest percentage of posts each day are political in nature. The top two boards are “Political Asylum” and “Retire Early CampFIRE.” There is nothing wrong with these boards if your interest is politics. Some people seem to enjoy spending their time posting to these boards. However, you can argue they do not offer a meaningful contribution to “investing” which is core to the founding principles of the Fool.

Let me be clear. I DO NOT WORK FOR THE FOOL. I HAVE NEVER WORKED FOR THE FOOL. My opinion is that they are fine folks trying to help a broad swath of investors. It is a “for profit” operation. They have to make a few dollars to pay the salaries and keep the lights on. I imagine internal meetings where they discuss the boards. And they would have to conclude, that the boards are an asset that is losing value. It is NOT worth their time and money to keep supporting the boards when most of the activity is politics, NOT investing. Saul, as much as I love this board, its value is NOT enough to carry the whole overheard of the boards. The Fools probably love the board also, but say “is is worth X dollars per month to keep Saul’s board, when most of the activity is on PA/RECF?” And they have to answer, the boards are NOT worth any further investment.

Just like Cadillac is not the number one upscale car of choice, the boards are also not the number one boards of choice. So what is? Two things have replaced the boards IMO.

  1. Seeking Alpha
  2. Twitter

Seeking Alpha has attracted many former Fool posters. They seem to have switched their time/efforts to SA from the boards. Part of this is likely due to the size of the audience. Saul has about 750 followers on the boards. I will speculate he would have at least 7,500 followers on SA. Many former Fool posters saw their followers go up by 10X to 100X.

If you have an education mandate like Saul, where you are posting as a public service, the choice is clear. For the same amount of effort, you can spread the gospel to 10X or 100X the parishioners.

Saul is NOT selling anything. He is not selling a paid newsletter. He is not selling his portfolio management services. I think that is the case of most of the board posters. Many SA posters are trying to sell you something, be it a newsletter or portfolio management. I don’t know the exact ratio, but maybe half of the SA posters are attempting to make money on their posts in some form. SA also has some type of compensation system where you can make money from how many people read you posts, aka “clicks.”

One other major point: SA let’s you include graphics and spreadsheets. The Fools boards do not. So SA posts are easier to convey information with.

The other competition for the boards is Twitter. Apparently, there is a large number of “investors” that exchange investment advice, 140 characters at a time. If you do, I guess you understand the value of it. This type of investing does not depend on the type of thorough analysis that underlies Saul’s methodology. Personally I do not subscribe to the Twitter approach, but I do know many “investors” that do.

I am guessing that Fool management has decided to let the public boards slowly fade away on their own. Just keep the costs as low as possible, including not assigning anyone to find and make the Post of the Day. They forecast that most serious investors will leave over time for various reasons. I can’t really blame Fool management on this choice. It would not be surprising at some point, if Fool management decided to shut down the boards. Yes, we don’t want to hear that message, but sometimes we have to issue a “sell” on something we used to have a “strong buy on.

I did NOT want to write this post, but had to in the spirit of Saul’s board. On Saul’s board, if you think you know something that is new pertaining to a company, you are compelled to speak up. I have telepathically been in several of the Fool meetings regarding the boards and had to speak up. Also in full disclosure, this is conservation that some of us have had offline. This is just the first time it has been posted to my knowledge. So these thoughts might be from a single lunatic, but there are other lunatics out there . . .

IHOne

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IHOne,

I am not a Fool employee, I am a contractor that is part of the “Farm Team”, members whose work is to engage and invigorate the community of investors. I am not privy to management discussions directly, but I can assure you that this:

I am guessing that Fool management has decided to let the public boards slowly fade away on their own. Just keep the costs as low as possible, including not assigning anyone to find and make the Post of the Day. They forecast that most serious investors will leave over time for various reasons. I can’t really blame Fool management on this choice. It would not be surprising at some point, if Fool management decided to shut down the boards. Yes, we don’t want to hear that message, but sometimes we have to issue a “sell” on something we used to have a “strong buy on.

… is categorically incorrect. The community is one of the key differentiating factors of the Motley Fool, and has been nurtured and built by the Gardner brothers from the beginning. Without the message boards, there would be no community.

Saul’s board, and the political and current events boards you mention, are all on the free side of the Motley Fool. For those who subscribe to one of the newsletter or portfolio services, there are a myriad of message boards specific to those services, and the companies that those services recommend. In THOSE boards, you will find remarkably few posts that are not germane to investing. Fools who value the service enough to subscribe are generally very protective of the quality of posts. Saul’s board (and a few other investing boards on the free site) are awesome places to learn about investing, but not the only place.

Now, I think that everyone, including the Top Brass of the Fool, understand that the board technology is definitely antiquated. But the value of the boards is both in the “now” (reading and posting what is happening today) and in the rich and deep history of posts. The problem with moving to a newer, more “Telsa-like” community forum is transferring the millions of posts over in a way that maintains the continuity of the community over time.

BTW, Seeking Alpha, while it does have a comments section, is not a true community in the sense of a place devoted to peer-to-peer discussions. It is more of a lecture-hall type environment, where approved writers publish articles. That is very, very different than here. The transparency, community, and mission of the Fool is unparalleled by any other organization.

I have telepathically been in several of the Fool meetings regarding the boards and had to speak up.

Huh? You have telepathic powers? And you are wasting them by hanging out at Fool meetings discussion boards? I think that there are much more profitable ways to exploit your superpower!

Tiptree, Fool One guide, lacking telepathic abilities

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IslandHomeOne, First of all, congrats on your first post! Thank you for posting and becoming part of the Foolish community.

BTW, Like TMFTiptree, I am a contractor to the Fool and have the same limitations for inside information that Sonny mentioned in his post.

I am happy that The Motley Fool is a company that is open to criticism, even on it’s own platform, and ironically, even about it’s own platform.

In a nutshell, TMF boards are like Cadillac’s in the Tesla Age.

While I love your quote, I think it’s a little inaccurate. I think the TMF boards are like the 2000 Honda Civic that has 100,000+ miles on it, but still gets you from point A to point B with pretty good gas mileage. You could trade it in, but that would cost you quite a bit of cash out of pocket. The Civic has been with the family through throw up from toddlers, long trips across the country with too much luggage and the dogs and even helped move Junior move into the Freshman dorm at State U. It’s got some history, but it doesn’t cost you much to maintain at this point.

One other major point: SA let’s you include graphics and spreadsheets. The Fools boards do not. So SA posts are easier to convey information with.

I agree, the boards are clunky. But I love a good post with backup data and links to articles, spreadsheets or the occasional family picture.

Part of what I love about the boards and the community is the exchange of information from a Motley array of people. Although you can exchange information on Twitter or post comments on an SA article, I don’t think that’s a real valuable dialog.

Lastly, I would say an additional benefit of the TMF boards are that they are transparent. If you chose to do so, you can fill out your profile and participate in CAPS. Even if you don’t, the Community tools keep track of the number of posts you make, the recs you get and your recent history of posts. You at least have some idea of who is posting and what’s important to them and what is in personal holdings. I can’t get this from Twitter or SA.

I would love for Motley Fool to update the board interface. It’s pretty lousy for mobile (reading AND posting) on my iPhone. I worry about the millenials and generation Z being active in our community. If they are turned off by the interface, we’ll lose some great perspective.

But for now, I wouldn’t trade in the Civic. BTW, Some of the international services have different community tools, but I haven’t seen one yet that is like a Tesla.

Thanks for posting! Hopefully, this is the first of many for you. I see from your profile you joined just a couple of days ago, but we don’t know much about you. Hopefully, that will change.

Brian
Fool One Guide
You can see my holdings here: http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBwithbike/info.aspx

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I’m pretty sure IslandHomeOne is a long-time user seeking anonymity via a doppelganger email.

Don’t let the date of joining fool you. 'll take him at his word that he doesn’t work at the Fool but he is probably known on the paid services.

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I agree the interface could use a major overhaul, but I’ve thought so for the last several years. It works like a graphical interface for a bulletin board circa 1990.

We’re not using terminals any more. The board should have mobile optimization, better threading, notifications, and search capabilities, to name a few features.

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And let’s throw in editing as one of those really pretty basic things that would matter to me a lot more than some fancy bells and whistles.

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gotcha!

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Just like Cadillac is not the number one upscale car of choice, the boards are also not the number one boards of choice. So what is? Two things have replaced the boards IMO.

1) Seeking Alpha
2) Twitter

Not for me they haven’t. There is no way you can write a meaningful investing post in 140 characters. Most users use it to link to their websites. Seeking alpha is for long pieces. I tried to post one but I found it clunky requiring me to use WORD or some other software I don’t have and don’t like. Also, the articles are edited. The comment section of SA is clunkier than TMF by FAR!

I have a personal website and when I want to include a picture I upload it to my website:

http://softwaretimes.com/pics/29.jpg

Fools have lots of options for uploading pictures. Fools just need a bit of initiative.

Between Tesla and Cadillac I’ll stick with my Toyota Corolla.

Denny Schlesinger

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I think the TMF boards are like the 2000 Honda Civic that has 100,000+ miles on it, but still gets you from point A to point B with pretty good gas mileage.

Hey, I found the Fool and the boards in 1999 and almost immediately fell in love with the Fool.

I’ve been driving a 2001 Toyota Camry for quite some time. I have about 180,000 miles on it. It is still getting me from point A to point B, yet, I no longer drive it on long trips. It’s my daily commuting car.

I’d love to get a new job that I love better and that pays better.

Perhaps one day.

Fool on,

mazske

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IslandHomeOne,

Have you been smoking something?

Frank

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Are you saying Motley Fool pays people to engage and invigorate the community of investors? Or by “contractor”, you simply sign a contract, they give you a TMF handle, and you get to wear that on your bicycle helmet while you’re in spin class at the gym?

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Saul… You do an excellent job analyzing a company to determine its future growth path. I think a similar analysis is appropriate for the Motley Fool public message boards (boards).

In a nutshell… There was a time and place when the TMF boards were the place to be. Lots of great posts about INVESTING, lots of give and take and a useful public service. It pains me to say this, but I think the boards are on downward glide path. If it was a company or stock, it would definitely warrant a “Sell.”

By far, the largest percentage of posts each day are political in nature. The top two boards are “Political Asylum” and “Retire Early CampFIRE…”

Sorry, Island home, I have to add my voice to those who disagree. There are political boards PRECISELY to avoid having the investing boards degenerate into political arguments. They don’t hurt the investing discussion boards at all. If people want to argue politics, let them. We still have great discussions about stocks.

I’m sure the MF understands that its discussion boards are the life of the organization, and make it something different than any other advisory service. You may prefer more “modern” boards but i don’t know of any discussion boards anywhere that come close to them. Seeking Alpha has comments after articles but there is no coherent organization or grouping of posts. There’s no numbering of posts, no way of looking back, etc. There’s no comparison.

Just my opinion.

By the way, I hope that you are a regular on the boards, just posting anonymously. I’d hate to think you just signed up to diss the MF.

Saul

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I too have found the boards tremendously useful and helpful, including ‘Ask a Question’ for general queries. A great service.

Often there is something puzzling about a company. To be able to discuss it with other investors or interested parties is invaluable. No question I have learned a lot from the boards over the years.

Why is CBM down today? (For example!)

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Another question, why, since yesterday when I first read the OP on this thread, have I seen about 12 Cadillac’s and not one stinking Tesla.
In fact I have never seen a real Tesla, what’s up with that? Cadillac in a Tesla world, that’s got to be me, and that’s a country song title for sure. Showing my age folks because I’ve broke them horses and I’ve branded cattle and I’ve bull dogged a steer or two, but I have never seen a Tesla that wasn’t in a magazine.
To quote an old song.
“Ten, Four, buddy come on back, a horse trailer on a Cadillac, I’m talkin’ to the cowboy in the Coupe Deville. Chugalugin’ up one side, sliding down the other. I’m a lover of the other side of the hill.”
Enjoy the complete song right here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slBfV5skXaw

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I’m late to the party, but I can name that tune:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant

Not sure which part the OP thinks he’s found though.

:wink:

Rob

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