Re: Moderated threads - a great idea if the industry is ready
I'm not sure how many people here remember the heyday of Compuserve where no company was worth their salt unless they had their own forum there. It was also a great place to meet others in the business and share ideas. Truly one-stop shopping for the computer industry.
With the spread of the world wide web, companies began dropping out of Compuserve and setting up their own web sites. Compuserve has recently modernized its forums and moved them to the web, but, alas, the sense of community is gone, maybe forever.
SI has started on the other extreme; we have a great sense of community, but we lack an outlet for companies that would make SI one-stop shopping for the entire financial industry. Moderated threads would be perfect for such an endeavor.
My thinking is simple: there exists information that is not important enough for a press release but too important to be left unsaid. For example, was the purchase in stock or in cash? Was that a paying contract or a free pilot? Exactly how much overhanging paper is there currently? Whereas the existing threads deal with opinion, the moderated threads would deal with facts-- convenient for all to see and reference.
Logically, then, moderated threads should be maintained by an IR rep from a company. And they should pay for the privilege. Such a forum here on SI would not only give the company visibility, but it would establish good will and save them the time and expense of answering the same questions individually day after day on the phone and via e-mail.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, moderated threads would be a perfect place for investors to once and for all settle disputes. Too often on SI it is not the person with facts on their side who wins an argument, it is the one with the stamina to outlast the others. Whereas I can see it is almost impossible to toss someone off SI for a dissenting opinion (i.e. cries of free speech and all), I certainly think anyone who blatantly ignores facts to further an agenda, or to raise the ire of others, should be bounced to preserve the integrity of the thread. In other words, you can yell in a crowded theater, but you can't yell "fire" when there is none.
- Jeff |
