Why are there so few new posts? Is it me? Or might this forum be dying?
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Definitely, a decrease in volume over the holiday weekend…but yesterday was right back where it was a month ago. While weekends are sometimes even busier than weekdays, a major holiday weekend in the US, like the one we just had, will be slower.
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Am I correct that this forum is dying due to the new format? I see very few new posts lately. Or am I missing something?
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“New format” is maybe a bit strong. Many regular posters (and who knows how many lurkers) did not make the transition to the new boards.
Of course we hope they are still coming just not here yet. But loss of many popular boards is also a factor.
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Also I think many who subscribe to a service spend their time on the Premium side, which is totally isolated from here on the Free side. They need to take a step to look here, and a lot of them aren’t doing it.
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The new format is just poor. Why MF ruined what used to be the best part of MF?
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But how does it compare to a year ago? The emperor has no clothes, or in this case, the new format has few posts.
AJ
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All of us are learning the new system. It has its own kinks. It does work reasonably well.
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There are few posts because they drove so many away in 2013 or so when they killed the thriving, living, wonderful community of hundreds of us. We left. What I see here is a halfhearted attempt to recreate what they once had, but after all these years, many won’t come back.
They won’t have a chance to do it again, because they treated us like they were just stepping on an anthill…I doubt many of us trust them.
I once went by the username of truthisntstupid, and later, notyouagain.
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I’m also notyouagain on Seeking Alpha but I’d give that up in a heartbeat to have the Motley Fool I knew back in 2009/10/11 back.
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Fool is worthless. Maybe I’ll go 5 years before I look in here again.
They sure did kill it good.
Not much interest in investing any more. Saul’s board is about all there is. A few Tesla posts. METAR is most active but mostly comments on economics. Investors seem to be siphoned off maybe to premium boards. Used to have excellent value investing boards. Especially Berkshire Hathaway. None survived.
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Me too:-(yep it was a fun group, made many friends
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Hmmm. You have 3 years between posts. Maybe you’re part of the problem? Or perhaps you’d like to be part of the solution?
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Yeah. Fun group until the folks who run the Fool wiped it all out.
No, Goofy, I’m not the problem. It isn’t my fault everybody from that iteration of the Fool is gone. And if everyone from then keeps staying away because we don’t trust the Gardners to not do it again, that isn’t our fault either.
Your Motley Fool world might be changed, but it wasn’t wiped off the face of the earth. The boards are still here. I don’t recall seeing you ever participating in the other Fool community that existed back then up to around 2012 or 2013.
I think you’ve mainly been a citizen of these boards. Your boards haven’t disappeared.
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I’ve been on the Fool boards almost continuously since 1995. I migrated from the iteration on AOL to the web, then survived the transition from the original spaghetti code Fool to this newer (rented) model. Each has had its good and weak points.
I also notice some investment behavioral characteristics that have nothing to do with the Fool, because I’ve seen them elsewhere: CNBC, Seeking Alpha, Facebook (investing) groups, and so on. When the market is doing well, there’s froth and lots of happy, excited people. When the market tanks they go away, and many never return. The Fool has gone through this cycle at least three times: the Dot-com bubble, the 2008 housing debacle, and the onset of Covid. They have also changed their business model more than once: from deriding “wise” investment counselors to becoming one themselves, from free boards to premium boards, from (short-lived) paid membership boards back to free, etc.
That’s what happens in business. Sometimes one thing doesn’t work out and you try another. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I’ll also note that since 1995 I no longer shop at Sears, my Bed, Bath, & Beyond coupons are worthless, and I cannot seem to find a copy of Life Magazine on the newsstands.
I have come to the conclusion that “things change”, and complaining about it doesn’t make it revert back to what I want; I have therefore decided to accept what exists in the real world rather than fantasize and grumble about things over which I have no control. If you’ve found a universe somewhere where I can have exactly what I want the way I want it, and forever, please advise. I have not been able to locate such, and any help you could give in that regard would be appreciated.
Thanks.
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Ok. So how am I “part of the problem”?
I was never attracted to “the boards.”
I was, however, very much a part of the multitude of people who knew and loved what was at that time what we thought was “the main part” of the Fool.
We’re all at fault, I guess, for not joyfully all migrating to “the boards” when the Gardners pulled the plug on all of us.
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Initially TMF thought it would be supported by advertising. In the early dot com boom like many other dot com companies. That did not work out. So they switched to paid memberships (and comps) for a while. But paid premium service and more hand holding was more profitable.
With the first strategy volume and number of clicks was the goal to improve advertising rates. The shift to premium made free services a liability—except to the extent they attracted new premium business. Manpower to deal with FAed posts became an issue. Hence the new boards to reduce problem posts.
Customer response and strategy changes do matter!!
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…so how are “volume and number of clicks” now?
You reference the early dot com boom. I’m referring to the Fool community (not the boards) from around mid- 2008 to sometime around 2013.
I’m obviously not alone in feeling this way. None of the people I knew show up on these boards.
Not a single one.
Not even weird ol’ attention-starved Alstry.
Now there are other posts I’ve seen here made by people complaining that some of their favorite boards have been disappeared.
You are not immune. That’s why I only show up here once in a blue moon.
Why get to know another whole multitude of people, make friends, and get the plug pulled again?
Not worth it.
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The new format is basically unusable and has destroyed the board here for good. RIP.
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