On pontificating..
Marcos,
You're doing a much better job of it than I could... so carry on. (-:
Actually, I just wanted to mention that you have brought up a point which I thought to be very important... and that is the need for companies to recognize internet forums such as SI as a very legitimate place for "information gathering". How many times have you repeatly struck out in the search for indepth information on a company... only to find it, or directions on how to find what you are seeking, here on an SI thread... Sure some of the time it is no more than a bunch of BS... which is why all of us must constantly wear our BS-detectors on our sleeves as were travel from thread to thread. But as you have mentioned, there are a lot of smart people looking for answers and digging up information every day. Over time, each of us grows to form an opinion on the reliability of certain knowledge obtained on the internet.... just as we come to understand that a certain magazine, newspaper, or television show can be relied upon for good hard investigative reporting, while another is no more than a vehicle for unsubstantiated fluff....
I have a real problem with companies that want to "play ostrich" by hiding their heads in the sand when they see misinformation being spread by the media...be it on television, in the newspapers, or on the INTERNET. Sure, the internet is a vast space in which it may be impossible to monitor and correct every piece of falacious information, BUT certain large information forums like SI are easily accessed by the IR department of any company. IMO, there is little or no excuse for a company's management not to assign the monitoring of high-profile internet sites to their IR people. The refusal to do so is, as stated above, is nothing more than playing ostrich before the eyes of the public... In time, I am confident that most responsible companies will come to understand and accept the internet as important site of discourse which, in many ways surpasses all others due to its interactive rather than passive nature.... a place where the listener can proactively interrupt and ask questions rather than sit in glazed silence accepting the facts as stated...
Well, that is enough of my own pontificating for one day... (-:
Regards,
Bev |
