Here's TheStreet.com article for those who can't use the link...
SI's Message Board Purge
Spurns the Site's Star
Power
By Beth Kwon
Staff Reporter
8/26/99 7:26 PM ET
If you can't behave, stay off the message
boards. Silicon Investor, the stock message
board site, is trying to clean up its boards, but
could end up losing the strong personalities
who've made the site so popular.
Joe Park (a.k.a. TokyoMex), an aggressive
trader under investigation by the Securities
and Exchange Commission, already had his
Silicon Investor membership terminated
several months ago. Now Anthony Elgindy, a
high-profile short-seller who goes by the alias
Anthony@Pacific, has been thrown off the site
after he was involved in a spat with fellow
message board personality, Jenna, in July.
The trouble started in July when Elgindy --
who trails Jenna as Silicon Investor's
most-bookmarked member (a measure of
popularity on the site) -- challenged Jenna to a
trading duel. Soon, the epithets flew:
"[Jenna's] stats are older than dirt," Elgindy
wrote in one posting. "She is a dinosaur."
Dismissing Elgindy and his followers, Jenna
replied: "You either have small minds or
imaginations the size of sunflower seeds." And
to make sure they got the message, on
another occasion she thundered: "[You're] but
a burned-out fire cracker in the annals of
time."
Although both can dish it out, Jenna and
Elgindy couldn't be more different.
Jenna (whose real name is Barbara J. Simon)
joined Silicon Investor three years ago and is
a self-taught trader. Her popularity on SI has
spawned her own stock-selection site, which
she designed herself and launched in July.
She claims to have 1,600 subscribers who pay
$50 a month for her insights. A former English
teacher and graphic artist, 39-year-old Jenna
says she grew up with avid traders as parents.
"It took me awhile before I realized Merrill
Lynch wasn't just an uncle that never came to
dinner," she says.
Elgindy, who joined Silicon Investor last
summer, trails Jenna in popularity but is
known for his colorful and sometimes vitriolic
posts. Through his company, Pacific Equity
Investigations, Elgindy tries to uncover stock
scams. A former Nasdaq market maker and
retail broker who's gotten a fair amount of
press for his flamboyant style, he started his
own site in May.
Fighting on message boards is nothing new,
but SI has struggled to make peace between
its two most popular names. SI has 120,000
registered users who post up to 15,000 times
a day -- many of whom are drawn to Net
gurus like Jenna and Elgindy. Eventually, SI
suspended Elgindy in early August for 3 days,
and warned he and Jenna not to post
comments about each other or to contact one
other.
After the suspension, the battle shifted, this time between Elgindy and Silicon Investor. As
soon as he was back on, Elgindy says, he
called someone a "goatboy" for criticizing him.
And he promoted his own site, expected to be
launched in September.
"I put up a thread about my new site, and
when I put up a direct competitive thread I was
suspended" for two weeks, he says. He says
his original note was deleted, but that he
wrote, "Everyone will be happy to know there
is a new place coming down the street. No
censorship ... No longer will the public be at
the mercy of a few young guys who know
nothing about the market."
Silicon Investor would not comment on the
suspension, except to say that termination
results from "severe breach or consistent
abuse of terms of use." The terms of use
prohibit advertising and vulgarities.
After his second suspension, Elgindy's wife
Mary joined SI and began posting messages
on behalf of her husband. "Anthony was
wrongly and unfairly suspended," Mary wrote.
Her membership was terminated as well.
Elgindy petitioned to be allowed to post again,
and two days later, a note came from Silicon
Investor's head honcho, Jeff Dryer, one of the
Dryer brothers who've made Silicon Investor
into a top investor message board site. "I don't
want there to be a war between you and SI,"
wrote Dryer in a personal email message to
Elgindy. "If I close my eyes and look back
later, maybe everything will be OK, I hope."
Dryer could not be reached for comment.
Elgindy started posting again, thanking Jeff
profusely. "Babay! I'm Back!" he wrote. He
pitched his new site again, only to be shut
down a day later, this time with no promise
that he would be able to post again. Elgindy's
supporters immediately started to lobby for his
return, sending emails directly to Jeff Dryer
demanding the Elgindys be released from "SI
jail."
No dice. "You were suspended for vulgarity
and more solicitation for your site," wrote SI
Webmaster Jill Munden to Elgindy. "Your
account has been terminated."
That leaves Elgindy with his new site. Jenna
and Elgindy, meanwhile, have come to a
truce. "We've patched it up now," says Jenna,
who hints at doing more work outside of the SI
umbrella. "I'm doing something particularly
exceptional," she says.
SI had better hope that its members keep
visiting the site's boards instead of flocking to
the new ventures of its most contentious
celebrities. |
