Do try to have the sense to realize that everywhere else on this site, there is a weekend rule where things are allowed to slide a little when the markets are closed.
Actually, though I haven't stepped in and been a bit of a bully about it in a whole lotta years, what you're describing is something I used to VERY actively discourage and would still like to see it discouraged.
Especially on a cornerstone broad-spectrum thread like this one with a lot of readers. I don't like writing even this post because it has the same dilutive and disruptive effect I'm gonna weigh in about.
I'll grant you that some threads do relax the rules when the market is closed and their moderators (who, ideally, are gauging correctly what the majority of the participants and readers want) allow a lot more leeway off-hours. Even allowing political discussion which I personally think is a mistake as it tends to make things toxic. People, taken as a group, simply can not be civil when that's the topic. And though many have presented the argument that anything geo-political is tied into economies, which are tied into the markets that're our reason for being here, the site's collective response has always been "Granted, but talk about it in the whole big category set up for it and nowhere else."
Arguably important as such info, opinion, and discussion is when it comes to investing, I loathe reading or discussing it. I'm not alone. If I want to read and discuss such things, I know where to find those threads.
With apologies to the ladies for this analogy, lap dances are good. So is a big rare ribeye steak that flinches when you put your fork into it. With bearnaise sauce.
Wonder how long I'd keep going to a restaurant that's been my regular haunt because of the quality of their steak, but some Mondays I have to find my way through a bunch of lap dancers and their happy customers left over from the weekend before I can get to the steak that's waiting for me.
When I'm having that ribeye, I don't want a lapdance, I don't want nubility paraded in front of me, heck, I don't even want to hear someone say how hot same gal is. And I don't want to be effectively forced to watch the leftover weekenders or have pictures of their weekend exploits blocking my view of the table I'm trying to get to so I can have what I came for. I want my steak, hold the distractions.
The weak double entendre may've been intentional and any who caught it -- you're sick. We meet on Wednesday evenings.
To ditch the analogy and put a finer point on it, we actively encourage moderators to keep their market-related boards clear of political discussion. Sometimes we get heavy-handed about it. Signal/noise ratio. Signal (real, civil, informed stock discussion) is valuable to readers and advertisers. Noise (not civil and not stocks or any other market) isn't. It's actually one of the more annoying and costly things that gets in the way of my closing ad deals. A brokerage or a firm that wants a known intelligent, educated, and wealthy demographic to consider alternative ways to get richer loves the heck out of SI. I'm finding that the brand clout, though weakened, is still very much alive and well.
But I want to scream every time a prospective advertiser reads a forum I'm showing them as an example of why they want to be seen with us and they send me a URL to a post that's noise rather than signal and want to know how I can make sure their ads aren't seen with such posts.
Do you think I ever even *try* telling them "Oh, that post was written over the weekend"? Just as many people will see it as would if it were written right now.
And, to come back around to the membership, posters, lurkers, or anyone else who comes to the site and reads, they, by and large, value a high signal/noise ratio as well and that a noise post was written off-hours doesn't make it any less noise or make it any less in the way of their getting what they came here for.
A frequent complaint I get and I'm sure Dave has gotten is that some quality boards occasionally get very littered over the weekend, and people ready to talk investing and trading get annoyed having to wade through all that litter.
Bottom line: If it were a chat room where only those present at the time something is written will ever see it, then the "looser rules on weekends" thing harms or inconveniences nobody.
But since it's a message board, all that litter is there annoying the majority of readers come Monday.
So, no, it is not true that everywhere else on this site, there's a weekend rule where things are allowed to slide a little. I actively discourage it and often forbid it (or encourage the moderators to do so).
That's why there are off-topic boards. And many boards even have their own side boards that people transition to on weekends.
One last thought on the matter then I'm off to cause trouble elsewhere, likely wreaking havoc with the code we're relying on, and I'm jonesing for work so much I may just radically change the matrix during market hours.
The reason Politics has its own category (essentially a sub-site of SI) is that people who feel the need to engage in such discussions or even arguments can do it here rather than going to another site. And they can do it without diluting the value of the content of threads like this one. Which makes the majority of readers happy as well as the advertisers. And we require premium (paid-for) membership to post in those threads because my thinking is this: If you want to come here to read quality market discussion and participate in those discussions, the door's wide open because that's where my bread is buttered. Keep your credit card in your pocket if you like, because the site will get paid for the ads you see. But if you want to talk politics, which is an area I can't and don't even care to try to monetize via advertising, let's see some plastic, please.
Steak is free and we try to keep the ambience of the restaurant just right. If you wanna go to our bar next door, there is a cover charge, and please don't bring your new-found giggly friend back to the restaurant with you. Even on weekends when the restaurant is comparatively empty.
[/end rant]
Oh, a quick BTW: It's exceedingly bad protocol to go to other threads to find excuses to criticize posters. At face value, not knowing any details of any instances, arguably so. Conduct in other threads is largely irrelevant except in the case of what we call "sniping" or throwing stones from another yard.
You are a frustrated mall cop looking for things to use your miniscule authority to criticize.
You are incapable of learning anything and have the tact of a charging rhino.
That's a pretty good example of what'd be called not only off-topic, but a personal attack, both of which are verboten. Though I see that the person you berate as a "frustrated mall cop" didn't use his ability, authority, or whatever you want to call it ("duty" applies, IMO, but as moderator, his call), to remove your post and boot you from the thread, but chose to leave it there. Hardly the non-action of a person being portrayed as looking for any excuse to billy-club someone into submission.
Anyway, I wanted to try to clarify an apparent complete misunderstanding of site policy and I apologize to the serious market-focus folks here for my just as egregious interruption, but hopefully it'll result in less of the same "Monday Mess" to wade through in the future. |
