Rick! You rascal! Cal State Bakersfield, eh? Alright! What dorm are you in? I know them all! Here you go, and I broke it down, college style, for ya:
Title of Thread, "Fresh Water for a Fresh Millenium", very good. Captures attention, spelling and grammar are correct. Ticker symbol is missing, and leads the informed reader to suspect that this may be an OTC Bulletin Board POS, but most readers will be sucked in and not even think about it. You get a B+
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Header: Text is good, kind of a homey, 'Hey, I'm just like all you other people college boy computer guy' sort of feel. Very good. It's fresh, it's clean, it's Valley Guy Goes To Hollywood! However, your header seems to indicate that you cut-and-pasted your comments. That could be a copyright violation of someone's material, but no concrete evidence. Again, no mention of the exchange, a further indication it's a BB POS. so I give you a C-.
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Links in Header:
The links are really entertaining. The first one is a link to the company's web site. Good move, adds credibility. Hopefully the site is not "under construction" with a bunch of graphics of crap that hasn't really happened yet.
Second link: looks like a PR company. We are now on the lookout for a Bulletin Board POS, we will check to see if the company's site is somehow connected to the PR company. If it is, you'll get minus points. If the PR company is located in Nevada, it's double minus points.
Third link: to the Go2net newsalert. A creative touch!
Sandwiching the PR site in between the company's web site and GNET's news service is also deft. On the header links, you get an A.
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Company web site:
Java script error on Navigator, right up front. Not good, Rick.
Ooops. Under construction! That's a no-no. Then, when we try for a "quote on the stock" (remember, we still don't know what exchange it is on) we can't get a quote. No quote for the stock. Promise not delivered, Rick, Marketing No-No #1. (#2 is lying.)
We do see, if we look around,
Searching the Globe for Outstanding Investment Situations. Published by R4 Services, 1982 N. Rainbow Blvd., Suite 101 Las Vegas, NV 89108 www.intlstocks.com
Ooops again! That's the address in the other link, the PR company, and it is in Nevada! Why, it's literally miles away from the ocean!
Any ocean!
The site is not looking good so far, Rick. Now we are wondering if you are really a student at Cal State, if you get my drift.
"Career Opportunities", rats, no page there.
"Contact Us" all right! Now we are getting somewhere:
Spectrum Arabieh, Inc. 3110 South Valley View Boulevard Las Vegas, Nevada 89102 Telephone: (702) 385-5865 Facsimile: (702) 382-2168
NASDAQ BB Trading Symbol: SPUM
Our fears have been confirmed. It's a BB POS from Nevada.
Not only that, the stock does not trade on the NASDAQ. That's a lie, buddy. You screwed up. The NASDAQ doesn't like that, you'll have to fix that right away. Company web site gets an F. No good at all.
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Moving along to the PR firm's site, (the middle link in the header):
Some weird page with links. The "get a stock quote" leads to...NO QUOTE! This is not a good start.
"See the mobile desalinization plant" goes to the company home page, another Java script pop-up on Netscape.
Rick. Rick! Someone should check these things!
Nothing about "intlstocks.com", so we have to go to "find it ourselves" mode.
Oh, jeez. Oh, golly. Become a Millionaire by investing in an IPO. Oh, jeez.
Not good Rick. Bad PR. Bad. This is a PR company, so now we look for the fine print.
What's the fine print? We need to see some compliance to this law:
It shall be unlawful for any person, by the use of any means or instruments of transportation or communication in interstate commerce or by the use of the mails, to publish, give publicity to, or circulate any notice, circular, advertisement, newspaper, article, letter, investment service, or communication which, though not purporting to offer a security for sale, describes such security for a consideration received or to be received, directly or indirectly, from an issuer, underwriter, or dealer, without fully disclosing the receipt, whether past or prospective, of such consideration and the amount thereof.
law.uc.edu;
What can we see? We see at the bottom of the home page, the following:
"Disclosure Notice - In order increase their search engines rankings, enhance web site traffic, make you aware of the growth and profit potential that exist and to advertise their technology the companies featured on this site have paid to appear here. Click this link for full details."
That's good! I like that! That is extra points! OK, let's see what we have for this SPUM deal you are touting here. We will click on the disclaimer link:
"The owner, employees and affiliates of R4 Services hold or may take stock positions in the companies featured on this site. They have the right to actively trade these positions, buying and selling at any time...
..."R4 Services and/or its affiliates or agents may at any time after receipt of compensation in stock sell all or part of the stock received into the open market at the time of receipt or immediately after it has profiled a particular company."
Whoa! Rick! My man! Looks like you are commuting from Bakersfield to Las Vegas! That's a hell of a drive buddy, especially if you have First Period classes. Damn!
Now we click on "Full Details" we find out that the PR firm has received some cash and some stock, the exact amounts, just like the law requires, for the glowing report and the appearance on the web site.
OK! The PR website is in compliance with the law. That's good.
So, whoever got the shares can sell them any old time they want.
The PR web site gets a C. (Visually the site blows, or it would be a B. You get an A if you can bury the Actual Bulletin Board POS Stock Tout Truth somewhere where nobody can find it and you are still complying with the law.)
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Overall, C-
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Your assignment for next week is an essay:
"How to Pretend to Be a Happy College Boy and Pump A Nevada Corporation Bulletin Board POS That I Own Free Shares In And Get Away With It On Raging Bull But Not Silicon Investor Because Those People Are Too Smart To Fall For My Lame Hallucination and Illegal Posts Since I Am Not Disclosing My Compensation, While I Am Also Correcting Java Script Errors And Building A Web Site That Actually Works Because I Claim I Am A Computer Science Major At Cal State Bakersfield.
No cheating, now, Rick.
We want you to graduate.
And if you want to hype your carp, the least you can do is buy a membership. Us GNET shareholders really do want some of that cash you collected from the mobile desalinization drawing.
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