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Moratorium on Antagonistic, Rhetorical & Conspiratorial Posts!


Parsad

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Hi Folks,

 

I've been getting some complaints in recent weeks regarding the quality of posts on the message board.  As such, posts that are conspiracy-based, antagonistic or completely rhetorical in nature will be removed going forward.  This is an investment message board based on Ben Graham's intellectual investment framework...to generate ideas and quality discussion on the merits or folly of those ideas.  I don't mind off-topic posts, but they should refrain from getting too political.

 

The board is named "The Corner of Berkshire & Fairfax" Message Board, thus there are probably alot of investors here who hold Warren Buffett and Prem Watsa in high esteem.  Posts with an antagonistic bent in reference to Buffett or Watsa will also be removed...not critical, but antagonistic...there is a difference and unfortunately your moderator is now stuck with the responsibility of drawing the line on such subtle divisions.  And please, no tattle-tale emails on individual specific posts.  I will review virtually every new post on the board and remove them if and when necessary.

 

The best filter for such posts isn't yours truly, but each message board participant's own internal filter...gee, should I really post this and what will the reaction be from some other participants?  Yes, unfortunately you SHOULD actually care about your fellow boardmembers.   ;D  If you feel that emotionally you are getting wound up...walk away and post another day.  If you feel that someone is completely misguided and you must save them from their own stupidity...stop for a moment and tell yourself, maybe I don't hold ALL of the high moral ground and intellectual equity on the board.  If you feel that Obama is running the country into the ground...write to your Congressman.

 

Hopefully, the censorship will be very limited, and relegated more to board cleanup and maintenance than anything substantial.  The more people stick to their better instincts and refrain from their baser instincts, the less I will have to interfere.  But unfortunately, a small subsection of participants are sometimes creating an environment that is degrading the overall quality of the posts and it's original intended purpose...to talk about investing!  Cheers!

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Hi Folks,

 

I've been getting some complaints in recent weeks regarding the quality of posts on the message board.  As such, posts that are conspiracy-based, antagonistic or completely rhetorical in nature will be removed going forward.  This is an investment message board based on Ben Graham's intellectual investment framework...to generate ideas and quality discussion on the merits or folly of those ideas.  I don't mind off-topic posts, but they should refrain from getting too political.

 

The board is named "The Corner of Berkshire & Fairfax" Message Board, thus there are probably alot of investors here who hold Warren Buffett and Prem Watsa in high esteem.  Posts with an antagonistic bent in reference to Buffett or Watsa will also be removed...not critical, but antagonistic...there is a difference and unfortunately your moderator is now stuck with the responsibility of drawing the line on such subtle divisions.  And please, no tattle-tale emails on individual specific posts.  I will review virtually every new post on the board and remove them if and when necessary.

 

The best filter for such posts isn't yours truly, but each message board participant's own internal filter...gee, should I really post this and what will the reaction be from some other participants?  Yes, unfortunately you SHOULD actually care about your fellow boardmembers.   ;D  If you feel that emotionally you are getting wound up...walk away and post another day.  If you feel that someone is completely misguided and you must save them from their own stupidity...stop for a moment and tell yourself, maybe I don't hold ALL of the high moral ground and intellectual equity on the board.  If you feel that Obama is running the country into the ground...write to your Congressman.

 

Hopefully, the censorship will be very limited, and relegated more to board cleanup and maintenance than anything substantial.  The more people stick to their better instincts and refrain from their baser instincts, the less I will have to interfere.  But unfortunately, a small subsection of participants are sometimes creating an environment that is degrading the overall quality of the posts and it's original intended purpose...to talk about investing!  Cheers!

 

 

Thank you Sanjeev for your concern for the quality of our board.  The life of a moderator is not an easy one.  I appreciate you personally and especially in view of the time you take to make this the best investment board by far!  I think that any poster who doesn't have a thought disorder or an extreme mood disorder will be able to comply with the spirit of what you have said.

 

There is one point of clarification.  I agree that rants against public figures are inappropriate for posting as are antagonistic comments against board members, but thoughtful comments about what makes people like Buffett or Obama or Prem tick, in my opinion, are among the more interesting on the board and indirectly help to clarify investment philosophy or public policy,  I think these should still be allowed if the tone is appropriate.  I believe this is what you are saying, that such topics and criticism are still OK.  Is this correct?

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Sanjeev, Thanks again for making this the best board I have read on investing. The quality of posters here on this board is incredible and it takes a quality person to attract quality people around them. So, the quality of this board says a lot about you and your character.

 

 

twa, in reference to your question about being critical of Buffett... I think that he answered your question in his post.

 

Posts with an antagonistic bent in reference to Buffett or Watsa will also be removed...not critical, but antagonistic

 

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I find myself in the 50% / 50% boat - I have initiated a lot of topics on Buffett style investing and constantly ask others for stock picks.

 

I am also guilty of being a class clown. 

 

Moving forward, things I find interesting in the market - 1) banks becoming value plays - still looking at HCBK as my understanding is there is a very low foreclosure rate and 2) Biglari and the Fremont Acquisition.

 

Any users feel free to take the ball and run with these. 

 

Interesting Buffett this morning stating his worst investment was Berkshire.  Kinda knew this, but thought it might be that Buster Brown (or whatever) shoe company.

 

Still maintain Buffett style of investing is finding great businesses at great prices.  It seems there are some investment professionals here and maybe they can't disclose, but I think one interesting topic is listing a company, describing why it is a great business, and then detailing why it is a good price.  I think a good investment should be easily defended by the investor.  Then users can attack, agree, disagree - give some good input. 

 

This is my pledge to be a better poster.  No more politics or tax stuff etc.  But I may throw in some hockey comments come playoff time.

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Sanjeev,

 

Why don't you add a couple senior members as moderators too?

 

We tried that in the past and it didn't work that well.  I want to limit the censorship to be as minimal as possible.  I think posters will get the idea when certain messages are deleted, while others remain...a sort of guiding hand. 

 

In regards to critical posts of Buffett & Watsa...those are fine.  It's just the ones that go a little too far...such as calling them senile, etc, which will be removed.  Understanding their mistakes is as important as understanding their successes in my opinion, so rational, critical posts are ok...it will just be a bit of a judgement call on the ones that veer off the edge.  Cheers!

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Sanjeev,

 

Why don't you add a couple senior members as moderators too?

 

We tried that in the past and it didn't work that well.  I want to limit the censorship to be as minimal as possible.  I think posters will get the idea when certain messages are deleted, while others remain...a sort of guiding hand. 

 

In regards to critical posts of Buffett & Watsa...those are fine.  It's just the ones that go a little too far...such as calling them senile, etc, which will be removed.  Understanding their mistakes is as important as understanding their successes in my opinion, so rational, critical posts are ok...it will just be a bit of a judgement call on the ones that veer off the edge.  Cheers!

 

 

It sounds like we are virtually all in agreement with the direction you are suggesting. 

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I am sorry for my attack on a certain poster in the other thread, but I was a bit tired of seeing potentially interesting threads constantly go astray into meaningless banter. I like this initiative.

 

May I also propose splitting the general discussion subforum into macro discussions and company specific discussion to prevent threads from derailing into macro discussions (which seems to happen more often than necessary)?

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May I also propose splitting the general discussion subforum into macro discussions and company specific discussion to prevent threads from derailing into macro discussions (which seems to happen more often than necessary)?

 

This is a great idea.  I have proposed in the past making a subforum on investment ideas only. 

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josh and mr. inversion - are you proposing in the subfolder that each new topic is 1 company/stock?

 

If so, I really like the idea.  It would be easy to sort through ideas - I may hate tech so I can skip the Apple topic (but who would really skip Apple - $$20B in revenue?)

 

 

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josh and mr. inversion - are you proposing in the subfolder that each new topic is 1 company/stock?

 

If so, I really like the idea.  It would be easy to sort through ideas - I may hate tech so I can skip the Apple topic (but who would really skip Apple - $$20B in revenue?)

 

 

Yes, that would be ideal for overview purposes. The forum wouldn't get cluttered with several different news threads on the same companies and you would not be forced to search/browse the whole board for the information you are looking for.

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