xtreeq Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldfinger Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 And to those that continue to show support for the board and aren't bitching, I thank you from the bottom of my heart! Paul will be inserting a mobile add-on that should give some mobile functionality in the next couple of weeks. The "search" feature is something we'll have to work on and tweak over time. Cheers! Sanjeev please do not change a thing! I know I do not post that much (mostly a matter of time and respect for others intelligence!) but I am grateful to have found a gem like this site to open my mind on investing etc... in real time. I love the simplicity too (even though I am a hard-core engineer). I just wanted to congratulate you on the creation of this board and for operating it once again!!! THANKS ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross812 Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Yes, we are slow in making changes, and progress has been gradual...and that is because things aren't broke by any means! We've grown 50-100% every year for the last five years, and added new and exciting members who have added to the dialogue while retaining most of the old-timers. How many message boards are out there that have actually improved and retained members? Value Investors...no! Fool.com...no! Yahoo message boards...yeah right! Stockhouse...nope! The culture of this board is incredible. I think some of the search, up/down voting, and organization would make it easier to rapidly find an answer to a question, but that is not really what a forum is about. A forum is meant to provide people a place to discuss a topic. It's bad etiquette to walk into a conversation and insert yourself into it without having any idea of what has been discussed; yet individuals do this on the forum all the time. I've actually seen posts where people say: "I'm not going to read all 500 pages, so what is going on?" There are a lot of gracious posters on here that are willing to bring people up to speed, but reading those 500 pages really should be the price of admission to adding to a conversation. If you follow a thread from start to finish, you can really see how the thesis is developing/changing and gage who knows what. Changing the website in the ways described might help the casual observer, but the people actually participating in the forum don't need it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yadayada Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I have a better idea...we need to start meeting as a secret society in a smoke-filled opium den and engage in blood rituals at the full moon. This is how great investment ideas are shared. May Ben Graham guide us all... Dont forget the masked orgies in large mansions, with various code words to acces it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyten1 Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 parsad, i hope i didn't come off saying i don't like COBFF i think COBFF is one of the best value investing forum around, like i said before at the end of the day how good a board is, it all depends on the people involve, the tool (the message board/forum software) is secondary. good folks and quality posts COBFF have in spades!!! my only thought was to maybe/its possible to improve "the tool", not the quality of the post. hy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ni-co Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 parsad, i hope i didn't come off saying i don't like COBFF i think COBFF is one of the best value investing forum around, like i said before at the end of the day how good a board is, it all depends on the people involve, the tool (the message board/forum software) is secondary. good folks and quality posts COBFF have in spades!!! my only thought was to maybe/its possible to improve "the tool", not the quality of the post. hy +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraven Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 If it ain't broke... It is broke. What is broken, exactly? Do you realize that if members had their way, they would have kicked you out a long time ago, but after a few experiences in the past with kicking people out, I've chosen to give people a chance on here. Rather than complaining, you should be grateful you've been given an opportunity here to express yourself, even though many don't want to hear what you have to say! You guys whine so much about a forum that is virtually free, operates with an inclusive culture, has monitored posts, zero spam, and has existed in one form or another for about 12 years this Thursday. Yes, we are slow in making changes, and progress has been gradual...and that is because things aren't broke by any means! We've grown 50-100% every year for the last five years, and added new and exciting members who have added to the dialogue while retaining most of the old-timers. How many message boards are out there that have actually improved and retained members? Value Investors...no! Fool.com...no! Yahoo message boards...yeah right! Stockhouse...nope! Tell me how many message boards have a thread like our BAC thread? Or discussions on call options that are as detailed and informative as Ericopoly's? Or track individual stocks and information about each of them like on our "Investment Ideas" thread? Or how many have a growing conference around them in Toronto? Even Mohnish Pabrai is now telling people this is one of his favorite sites? But yet it's apparently broken! By the way, good luck on starting a new board. Unless you want to spend a couple of hours a day looking after it, monitoring posts, dealing with member requests and posting on there as well, it is not going to be easy. This board was developed out of passion, not out of necessity, but has become a necessary tool for many when investing and networking. That happened because of the culture here and great members...not so easily replicated...especially when one guy would give up sleep for years to look after it with no pay. And to those that continue to show support for the board and aren't bitching, I thank you from the bottom of my heart! Paul will be inserting a mobile add-on that should give some mobile functionality in the next couple of weeks. The "search" feature is something we'll have to work on and tweak over time. Cheers! Amen brother! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsad Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 parsad, i hope i didn't come off saying i don't like COBFF i think COBFF is one of the best value investing forum around, like i said before at the end of the day how good a board is, it all depends on the people involve, the tool (the message board/forum software) is secondary. good folks and quality posts COBFF have in spades!!! my only thought was to maybe/its possible to improve "the tool", not the quality of the post. hy Hi Hyten, No, it wasn't your post that upset me. It's the curt post that I responded to that made me angry. It was curt, ungrateful and of poor taste. If it was so easy to make a good investor forum, why don't we have more around then? Why is that this one has grown while most have perished? It's easy to bash something successful, but hard to replicate. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorpRaider Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I appreciate your efforts. If you ever decide to charge a few bucks a month to run off some of the chaff, I'm in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
constructive Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Are there any good stock wiki sites? I think that could be very useful with the right format. http://www.wikinvest.com/wiki/Aapl http://wiki.advfn.com/en/Apple As far as message boards go, I like COBAF's format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matjone Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I agree, the board is a great value. Not to say that the OP's ideas were bad ones. I'll jump in with an unsolicited suggestion of my own. I don't know if this is even possible, but it would be nice to have the whole prior conversation show up in a private message. I have a poor memory and sometimes I forget the details of the previous messages Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsad Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I agree, the board is a great value. Not to say that the OP's ideas were bad ones. I'll jump in with an unsolicited suggestion of my own. I don't know if this is even possible, but it would be nice to have the whole prior conversation show up in a private message. I have a poor memory and sometimes I forget the details of the previous messages Hi Matjone, Are you referring to PM's or general posts? With PM's, you have a choice to save any sent PM's, so you can see all of your old private messages. Is that what you meant? Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merkhet Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I reckon I'm probably just in a crotchety old man mood today, but I feel like a lot of the complaints that people have levied at the site is that sometimes there are threads that get long, and you have to read through the WHOLE DARN THING to get information. Cry me a river. It's like asking for Spark Notes for the 10-K. Tough shit. Read the whole damn thread. You want to get caught up with a company that has a 100+ page thread? Read page 1. Then read the page right after it until there are no more pages left. There are greater tragedies in life than having to spend a couple hours reading what a bunch of pretty bright people have written... (It's also possible that in my befuddlement I'm confusing this with something that was posted on the Sears thread about there being too much to read...) I stand by my previous comment. It ain't broke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mephistopheles Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 If it ain't broke... It is broke. What is broken, exactly? Do you realize that if members had their way, they would have kicked you out a long time ago, but after a few experiences in the past with kicking people out, I've chosen to give people a chance on here. Rather than complaining, you should be grateful you've been given an opportunity here to express yourself, even though many don't want to hear what you have to say! You guys whine so much about a forum that is virtually free, operates with an inclusive culture, has monitored posts, zero spam, and has existed in one form or another for about 12 years this Thursday. Yes, we are slow in making changes, and progress has been gradual...and that is because things aren't broke by any means! We've grown 50-100% every year for the last five years, and added new and exciting members who have added to the dialogue while retaining most of the old-timers. How many message boards are out there that have actually improved and retained members? Value Investors...no! Fool.com...no! Yahoo message boards...yeah right! Stockhouse...nope! Tell me how many message boards have a thread like our BAC thread? Or discussions on call options that are as detailed and informative as Ericopoly's? Or track individual stocks and information about each of them like on our "Investment Ideas" thread? Or how many have a growing conference around them in Toronto? Even Mohnish Pabrai is now telling people this is one of his favorite sites? But yet it's apparently broken! By the way, good luck on starting a new board. Unless you want to spend a couple of hours a day looking after it, monitoring posts, dealing with member requests and posting on there as well, it is not going to be easy. This board was developed out of passion, not out of necessity, but has become a necessary tool for many when investing and networking. That happened because of the culture here and great members...not so easily replicated...especially when one guy would give up sleep for years to look after it with no pay. And to those that continue to show support for the board and aren't bitching, I thank you from the bottom of my heart! Paul will be inserting a mobile add-on that should give some mobile functionality in the next couple of weeks. The "search" feature is something we'll have to work on and tweak over time. Cheers! +1 I go on this site more than any other investment related site (besides EDGAR). I don't even read the WSJ as much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsad Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Cry me a river. It's like asking for Spark Notes for the 10-K. Tough shit. Read the whole damn thread. LOL! Love it! Couldn't agree more. If you are going to put 10-20% of your money into something, then shouldn't you know every single argument to be made...whether it is rational, silly, nonsensical, implausible or completely off kilter? The SHLD thread is so long and repetitive, because the damn history of the company is long and repetitive. They've gone through the same mistakes over and over. Thus, you are watching what happened at the company in real time, with real confusion or understanding by those investing in it, considering investing in it, or avoiding it all together. There's a lot to be learned from that psychology! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grenville Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 And to those that continue to show support for the board and aren't bitching, I thank you from the bottom of my heart! Paul will be inserting a mobile add-on that should give some mobile functionality in the next couple of weeks. The "search" feature is something we'll have to work on and tweak over time. Cheers! I wouldn't be investing full-time, if it wasn't for this board and the people I've met through it. I appreciate the time and energy you've put into putting a board like this together. It's been an incredible resource. It's hard to find a place to find balanced, educated views on companies and other subjects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matson125 Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 When the host of the television show responded to Buffett, 'But there are 24,000 publicly traded companies!' Warren responded, 'Start with the A's'” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest valueInv Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 parsad, i hope i didn't come off saying i don't like COBFF i think COBFF is one of the best value investing forum around, like i said before at the end of the day how good a board is, it all depends on the people involve, the tool (the message board/forum software) is secondary. good folks and quality posts COBFF have in spades!!! my only thought was to maybe/its possible to improve "the tool", not the quality of the post. hy Hi Hyten, No, it wasn't your post that upset me. It's the curt post that I responded to that made me angry. It was curt, ungrateful and of poor taste. Curt? I thought it was whiny? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross812 Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I reckon I'm probably just in a crotchety old man mood today, but I feel like a lot of the complaints that people have levied at the site is that sometimes there are threads that get long, and you have to read through the WHOLE DARN THING to get information. Cry me a river. It's like asking for Spark Notes for the 10-K. Tough shit. Read the whole damn thread. You want to get caught up with a company that has a 100+ page thread? Read page 1. Then read the page right after it until there are no more pages left. There are greater tragedies in life than having to spend a couple hours reading what a bunch of pretty bright people have written... (It's also possible that in my befuddlement I'm confusing this with something that was posted on the Sears thread about there being too much to read...) I stand by my previous comment. It ain't broke. Dang it merket! I said the same thing and you didn't even read through the posts to find it! ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest valueInv Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 If it ain't broke... It is broke. What is broken, exactly? People have pointed out what is broke on this thread. We who make products for a living call it "user feedback". You can choose to learn from it or ignore it, your choice. Do you realize that if members had their way, they would have kicked you out a long time ago, but after a few experiences in the past with kicking people out, I've chosen to give people a chance on here. Again your choice. Let me see: - On the Dell thread, I was the one guy who correctly argued that Dell's server business may face declines - On the BBRY thread, I was one of two guys who stood up and called out all the BS being posted - On Google, I was the only guy who correctly handicapped the Motorola acquisition - On Cisco, I was the only guy who pointed out the risks - On Apple, I was the earliest guy to argue for the value I could go on and on. Today, there are plenty of people singing the same tunes a year or two ago on the Apple and Google threads. Back then, I was the "irrationally biased Apple fanboy". Notice a pattern? I tell people directly when they are wrong and I don't mince my words. Yeah, people don't like being called out publicly. No surprise. BTW, if you are going to be a contrarian, learn to appreciate other contrarians Rather than complaining, you should be grateful you've been given an opportunity here to express yourself, even though many don't want to hear what you have to say! Understand the difference between complaining and point out the problems people have in posting, reading and finding information on the forum. These are people offering suggestions on how to improve your site and make it more useful. I wouldn't be surprised if many would volunteer to help you implement those suggestions. BTW, there any many people's posts I don't want to read either. I just skip past them. Yes, we are slow in making changes, and progress has been gradual...and that is because things aren't broke by any means! We've grown 50-100% every year for the last five years, and added new and exciting members who have added to the dialogue while retaining most of the old-timers. How many message boards are out there that have actually improved and retained members? Value Investors...no! Fool.com...no! Yahoo message boards...yeah right! Stockhouse...nope! Tell me how many message boards have a thread like our BAC thread? Or discussions on call options that are as detailed and informative as Ericopoly's? Or track individual stocks and information about each of them like on our "Investment Ideas" thread? Or how many have a growing conference around them in Toronto? Even Mohnish Pabrai is now telling people this is one of his favorite sites? But yet it's apparently broken! By the way, good luck on starting a new board. Unless you want to spend a couple of hours a day looking after it, monitoring posts, dealing with member requests and posting on there as well, it is not going to be easy. This board was developed out of passion, not out of necessity, but has become a necessary tool for many when investing and networking. That happened because of the culture here and great members...not so easily replicated...especially when one guy would give up sleep for years to look after it with no pay. And to those that continue to show support for the board and aren't bitching, I thank you from the bottom of my heart! Paul will be inserting a mobile add-on that should give some mobile functionality in the next couple of weeks. The "search" feature is something we'll have to work on and tweak over time. Cheers! Understand the difference between the COBF community and the COBF site. And understand which one people on this thread talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest valueInv Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I reckon I'm probably just in a crotchety old man mood today, but I feel like a lot of the complaints that people have levied at the site is that sometimes there are threads that get long, and you have to read through the WHOLE DARN THING to get information. Cry me a river. It's like asking for Spark Notes for the 10-K. Tough shit. Read the whole damn thread. You want to get caught up with a company that has a 100+ page thread? Read page 1. Then read the page right after it until there are no more pages left. There are greater tragedies in life than having to spend a couple hours reading what a bunch of pretty bright people have written... (It's also possible that in my befuddlement I'm confusing this with something that was posted on the Sears thread about there being too much to read...) I stand by my previous comment. It ain't broke. I suppose you don't use Google? When you want to find something on the web, you start with sites under "a"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyten1 Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 i hear everyone's thoughts, and i agree to some extend unless this message board/discussion enabling software is the best in the world, there are always room for improvement :) i understand peoples argument (its good enough for what we want etc etc.) I hear ya. I just thought, maybe, just maybe we can do even better, the discussion could be even more useful, the quality could be even better, more people can be involve in the discussion etc. etc. i mean i am sure before iphone came out (i am sure i'll get tons of crap about this crappy analogy) everyone thought the mobile phones were good enough "look we can do all the things that we want etc". but then iphone came, the rest is history NOT saying whatever that we can come up with will be the next iphone, just trying to make the point, there is room for improvement and you never know, the improvements just might surprise you or it might not. sometimes the smallest change can make the biggest difference. ALSO I think people keep getting things mix up. We (at least i am not saying) the quallity/people of the post needs improvement (well there is always room for improvement, but that is another thing all together). I am referring to the TOOL that needs improvement. also to the point that long repetitive shows thing in real time, and there is value in that. I agree, but that doesn't mean you can't ALSO have concise and to the point/summary. jmho hy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyten1 Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 Kraven here is a great example. I agree and share your sentiment. one way to solve this is allow users to post sentiment or some sort of how they are feeling today, so as not to waste a entire post. i have seen this on some discussion sites (that is not stock related) where they have dedicate options where user can say "thank you", instead of having the discussion board fill with thank you posts and take up space. just one small example jmho hy I'd love a board where people don't post things constantly like "[insert favorite stock] is down 1.3% today? WHAT IS GOING ON?!!!!" Or, "[insert other favorite stock] just keeps going down. Day after day. That's all it does is go down. It's down 1.45% while [insert name of competitor] is up 0.9%. WHAT IS GOING ON?!!!!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest valueInv Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 i hear everyone's thoughts, and i agree to some extend unless this message board/discussion enabling software is the best in the world, there are always room for improvement :) i understand peoples argument (its good enough for what we want etc etc.) I hear ya. I just thought, maybe, just maybe we can do even better, the discussion could be even more useful, the quality could be even better, more people can be involve in the discussion etc. etc. i mean i am sure before iphone came out (i am sure i'll get tons of crap about this crappy analogy) everyone thought the mobile phones were good enough "look we can do all the things that we want etc". but then iphone came, the rest is history NOT saying whatever that we can come up with will be the next iphone, just trying to make the point, there is room for improvement and you never know, the improvements just might surprise you or it might not. sometimes the smallest change can make the biggest difference. ALSO I think people keep getting things mix up. We (at least i am not saying) the quallity/people of the post needs improvement (well there is always room for improvement, but that is another thing all together). I am referring to the TOOL that needs improvement. also to the point that long repetitive shows thing in real time, and there is value in that. I agree, but that doesn't mean you can't ALSO have concise and to the point/summary. jmho hy +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nkp007 Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 There's nothing materially wrong with this board. If anything, the current format with long threads filters out many of the people who would rather not do the reading (and therefore filters out people who likely will not make worthwhile contributions). Sanjeev: 1) The vast majority of people are wholly satisfied and probably will not comment in this thread 2) When investors cannot find anything cheap, they get cranky. That is what you are mainly seeing here and will continue to see until a panic hits 3) From now until eternity, valueInv is our lovable troll. And like my cranky grandpa, he helps break up the monotony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now