Please Put An End To This!

[Parsad]

Are any of you tired of seeing Whitney Tilson's face constantly plastered on Google Ads?  If so, please sign my petition on Change.org to have this "Wall Street legend" banned from shilling out any more investment advice!  Literally worth less than a shilling! 

 

I'm kidding about the Change.org petition, but if any of you want to start one, I'll sign it!  Cheers!

 

[Gregmal]

Tilson is a breathing embodiment of high finance/WS. Go to Ivy League school. Make friends. Gets rich selling his connections and other bs. One of the worst investors Ive ever seen. Basically copied Bill Ackman when Ackman was crushing it and still managed to blow up his fund. Then taught courses on how to short for $2500 a pop when shorting was one of the primary reasons his fund sucked. Then started a newsletter LOL

[thepupil]

i pretty much agree...but i've always liked his berkshire powerpoints. 

[Guest]

55 minutes ago, Gregmal said:

Tilson is a breathing embodiment of high finance/WS. Go to Ivy League school. Make friends. Gets rich selling his connections and other bs. One of the worst investors Ive ever seen. Basically copied Bill Ackman when Ackman was crushing it and still managed to blow up his fund. Then taught courses on how to short for $2500 a pop when shorting was one of the primary reasons his fund sucked. Then started a newsletter LOL

 

Dude, stop hatin' on a freaking  legend. 

 

Rumor was Buffett wanted him as his protege but Tilson didn't want to have some old has-been as an influence. I mean when you go to Harvard, why work for someone who was rejected there? 

 

Here's a picture for proof of their tightness.

Edited January 25, 2022 by stahleyp

[Parsad]

25 minutes ago, stahleyp said:

 

Dude, stop hatin' on a freaking  legend. 

 

Rumor was Buffett wanted him as his protege but Tilson didn't want to have some old has-been as an influence. I mean when you go to Harvard, why work for someone who was rejected there? 

 

Here's a picture for proof of their tightness.

 

Buffett looks uncomfortable in this picture.  Notice how hard he's squeezing the Coke bottle and the cap is aimed directly at Tilson's head!  

 

I'm assuming the real Buffett didn't want to pose with Tilson.  Cheers!

[Sunrider]

Prasad - how about you get these friggin ads removed from the site before complaining about specific ads? It’s a bit rich having an issue with Tilson (or anyone else) if most of the exposure to this shitty ad stuff comes through CoBF (at least for me).

 

The new site has near 40% of screen unusable and a screen-filling ad nearly every time you click a link. Maybe this is unfair, but the thought did cross my mind that you need to make money with the site after burning all that cash at Premier (including mine)?
 

you had asked for feedback on the new site on the switchover - tons of people provided it. I saw no changes in response to the feedback … did I miss something?

Thanks.

[Castanza]

[E. Nashton]

[spartansaver]

56 minutes ago, Sunrider said:

Prasad - how about you get these friggin ads removed from the site before complaining about specific ads? It’s a bit rich having an issue with Tilson (or anyone else) if most of the exposure to this shitty ad stuff comes through CoBF (at least for me).

 

The new site has near 40% of screen unusable and a screen-filling ad nearly every time you click a link. Maybe this is unfair, but the thought did cross my mind that you need to make money with the site after burning all that cash at Premier (including mine)?
 

you had asked for feedback on the new site on the switchover - tons of people provided it. I saw no changes in response to the feedback … did I miss something?

Thanks.

Is that you Whitney?

[Castanza]

20 minutes ago, spartansaver said:

Is that you Whitney?

[rkbabang]

28 minutes ago, spartansaver said:

Is that you Whitney?

 

No, obviously Whitney likes the ads.

[Sunrider]

On 1/25/2022 at 3:56 PM, rkbabang said:

 

No, obviously Whitney likes the ads.

 

No I'm just annoyed at the gall, should keep his own house in order first.

 

And to be clear: I think WT is about as scammy a stock advice promoter salesman as you can get. I think he learned it at the Motley Fool.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Sunrider

[TwoCitiesCapital]

1 hour ago, Sunrider said:

 

No I'm just annoyed at the gall, should keep his own house in order first.

 

And to be clear: I think WT is about as scammy a stock advice promoter salesman as you can get. I think he learned it at the Motley Fool.

 

IIRC, Parsad gave board members a choice of higher fees or running ads. The vast majority of us voted in favor of ads. 

 

 

[BG2008]

What happened to Glenn Tongue? 

[Longnose]

21 minutes ago, TwoCitiesCapital said:

 

IIRC, Parsad gave board members a choice of higher fees or running ads. The vast majority of us voted in favor of ads. 

 

 

 

I do remember voting for ads. over more/higher fees.

[Guest]

46 minutes ago, BG2008 said:

What happened to Glenn Tongue? 

 

Looks like he's just umm...hanging out?

 

https://twitter.com/glenntongue

 

[Parsad]

On 1/25/2022 at 6:30 AM, Sunrider said:

Prasad - how about you get these friggin ads removed from the site before complaining about specific ads? It’s a bit rich having an issue with Tilson (or anyone else) if most of the exposure to this shitty ad stuff comes through CoBF (at least for me).

 

The new site has near 40% of screen unusable and a screen-filling ad nearly every time you click a link. Maybe this is unfair, but the thought did cross my mind that you need to make money with the site after burning all that cash at Premier (including mine)?
 

you had asked for feedback on the new site on the switchover - tons of people provided it. I saw no changes in response to the feedback … did I miss something?

Thanks.

 

6 hours ago, Sunrider said:

 

No I'm just annoyed at the gall, should keep his own house in order first.

 

And to be clear: I think WT is about as scammy a stock advice promoter salesman as you can get. I think he learned it at the Motley Fool.

 

 

Your criticism would be fair if you had not been using this site for free for 10 years...talk about gall!  My criticism of WT's ads wasn't that they were ads, but that they kept saying "Wall Street legend".

 

Also, was anyone ever stopping you from selling your shares in Premier?  Last I checked, I was the one still keeping it afloat, including during the pandemic, until the businesses could be monetized.  Cheers!

[ERICOPOLY]

This is funny:  "reformed hedge fund investor Whitney Tilson"

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/a-meta-morphosis-in-market-sentiment-morning-brief-100754611.html

[Sunrider]

On 1/26/2022 at 11:03 PM, Parsad said:

 

 

 

Your criticism would be fair if you had not been using this site for free for 10 years...talk about gall!  My criticism of WT's ads wasn't that they were ads, but that they kept saying "Wall Street legend".

 

Also, was anyone ever stopping you from selling your shares in Premier?  Last I checked, I was the one still keeping it afloat, including during the pandemic, until the businesses could be monetized.  Cheers!

No, nobody has stopped me.

I know you could've walked away from it a while ago but have not done so.

I thank you for hat.

I hope that you learned something from the failures in that business and that this will enable you to eventually turn it into a worthwhile investment (for you and for your investors)

I do not know what it costs to run this site but no, it has not been free to use, there have been ads, which cost time and attention.

I don't quite recall how many ads there were on the previous version, but I never noticed it so there were no friction costs for me then, but there are now. I don't know if it is a profit-making enterprise or not, and I admit my comment re supplementing was a cheap shot.

I apologise.

(I do know, however, that ads monetise at (allegedly) net $1.9 CPM. Since I see on average >2 ads on every screen. My usage of CoBF has declined somewhat and I guess I'm responsible for only three or four cents or so of revenue per day.)

I feel that the discussion which took place after the switchover where you solicited feedback resulted in zero (am I wrong?) changes. This is what I find objectionable. Why pretend to care about the feedback if nothing changes? That's fundamentally at the same standard as the legend's marketing.

I do not understand your comment as to why my criticism would be fair if I had not used it for free? What's the inverse? That I didn't use it at all before (so shouldn't complain because I didn't experience the prior version) or that I paid for it (and thus shouldn't complain then either ... because there would be no ads)? Would either of those scenarios change how much heavier the wasteful cognitive load is on this site is now and how much ad shit users have to go through? If not, then I'm not entirely sure what your point is? Whether I did or did not use the site before doesn't change the state it is now vis-a-vis the ads. 

 

We've gone a long way off the Wall Street legend. So let me bring it back to that.

We both agree that the legend is legendary principally in his own mind, as to the ads:

Is there not a better way? (cut out the ones which pop up fullscreen when switching screen which require clicking at least?)

Edited February 7, 2022 by Sunrider

[crs223]

How much are you willing to pay to “upgrade” your account to be ad-free?

 

Amazon charges $20 per kindle to remove ads.

[Sunrider]

Let's start the other way around. 

 

Do we need all these ads? I just counted, when I opened the site, three ads on the first screen (ironically 2/3 were the same). Click on one topic, fullscreen ad I need to click away. Topic comes up, another two ads (top of page, overlay bottom of screen). Scroll through topic, ad in the middle. This is too much and feels not far off some of these click-bait-factory sites where you got ads left, right centre, front and back. 

 

It doesn't feel like the site is the product, but like I am. I am being monetised. And maybe that is what irks me so much. 

 

If the above is representative and my info on ad rates is correct, then I guess I'll contribute somewhere around 15 - 20c per day to the site. So call it $5 per month. Do I use it a lot? Not as much as some, so there will be a few who probably contribute a lot more. 

 

How much does it cost to run?

 

 

 

[crs223]

Sunrider: if you are the content being monetized -- and I can see why you would feel that way given your contributions -- you should start your own site.  And you can make it with or without ads - as you see fit.  You could even structure it to pay contributors for their content like YouTube does.

 

I'd pay $5/month for COBF even with the ads.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Sunrider said:

Let's start the other way around. 

 

Do we need all these ads? I just counted, when I opened the site, three ads on the first screen (ironically 2/3 were the same). Click on one topic, fullscreen ad I need to click away. Topic comes up, another two ads (top of page, overlay bottom of screen). Scroll through topic, ad in the middle. This is too much and feels not far off some of these click-bait-factory sites where you got ads left, right centre, front and back. 

 

It doesn't feel like the site is the product, but like I am. I am being monetised. And maybe that is what irks me so much. 

 

If the above is representative and my info on ad rates is correct, then I guess I'll contribute somewhere around 15 - 20c per day to the site. So call it $5 per month. Do I use it a lot? Not as much as some, so there will be a few who probably contribute a lot more. 

 

How much does it cost to run?

 

 

 

 

What sites or products do you use (besides this one) that you don't pay for? 

[fareastwarriors]

2 hours ago, Sunrider said:

Let's start the other way around. 

 

Do we need all these ads? I just counted, when I opened the site, three ads on the first screen (ironically 2/3 were the same). Click on one topic, fullscreen ad I need to click away. Topic comes up, another two ads (top of page, overlay bottom of screen). Scroll through topic, ad in the middle. This is too much and feels not far off some of these click-bait-factory sites where you got ads left, right centre, front and back. 

 

 

On mobile, I see many ads but on desktop, I almost see none.

[Parsad]

2 hours ago, Sunrider said:

Let's start the other way around. 

 

Do we need all these ads? I just counted, when I opened the site, three ads on the first screen (ironically 2/3 were the same). Click on one topic, fullscreen ad I need to click away. Topic comes up, another two ads (top of page, overlay bottom of screen). Scroll through topic, ad in the middle. This is too much and feels not far off some of these click-bait-factory sites where you got ads left, right centre, front and back. 

 

It doesn't feel like the site is the product, but like I am. I am being monetised. And maybe that is what irks me so much. 

 

If the above is representative and my info on ad rates is correct, then I guess I'll contribute somewhere around 15 - 20c per day to the site. So call it $5 per month. Do I use it a lot? Not as much as some, so there will be a few who probably contribute a lot more. 

 

How much does it cost to run?

 

 

 

 

Sunrider, we had a poll during the feedback request and the majority of people (like 70%) did not want to pay a monthly fee...they were ok with ads instead.  That's why I grandfathered all past members without instituting a fee for all of them.  I tried a subscription model with only new members paying...my revenues dropped 75% during those few months.  So I went back to a one-time fee for new members at a higher rate.  I'm not going to moderate this board and do it all for free.  Do you do everything for free?

 

Regarding the ad sizes, I've got GoogleAds on auto, so I don't have to control the ads...I just don't have time to play around with it and adjust it regularly.  So it adjusts the placement and type of ad automatically.

 

Lastly, as I said, I wasn't criticizing Whitney's ads, but his choice of words...previously "Wall Street Guru"...now he chooses "Prophet".  I find that very douche-like!  But you're pissed off because your investment isn't doing well (which has nothing to do with this site or WT) and you don't want ads disturbing your FREE use of a site that you greatly benefit from.  Cheers!