Got this posted to me from a trial member and I agree 100% with the post he found over on the bull....very well written
To: ColleenB
From: Joe Louis (Trial Member)
Monday, Oct 5 1998 9:38AM ET
You may disagree, but I thought this was a good read from PCMODEM off of RagingBull and perhaps deserves to be aired on SI... You decide, if not I think you will appreciate it anyway ;-)
The bashers stop bashing only when:
1. The defenders give up defending (as in CSHK);
2. The company goes out of business (as in MTEI);
3. They are arrested or sued or suspended from the boards.
That being the case, they will continue to bash as long as:
1. The defenders continue to defend;
2. The company stays in business and appears to be propsering; and
3. They are still allowed to post on the boards because they have not been arrested, sued or suspended.
As you have rightly discerened, no matter what press releases are released, no matter what the financials say then they are published, no matter what the CEO (our CEO, not some other CEO) says, either privately or publicly, no matter what individual investors personnally find out for themselves by firsthand, eyewitness investigation
(usually at great personal expense), no matter all these things, the bashers will find SOMETHING to bash.
Which reminds me, time for basher repellant again:
GUARANTEE
(That should keep them confused long enough for me to finish this post).
In addition to the repellant, its important IMHO to not let them get away with even one little lie, not one misrepresentation, not one innuendo, not one accusatory question. Not one. That seems to reduce the frequency of bashing posts, and does scare some away (DragonMire and LeGag come to mind) (not to mention Janice S, and our own local crew of fool's gold basher wannabees).
I know I've said many times "don't feed the bears it only makes them growl." And I still believe that! I think you can correct the stories the bashers tell without playing according to their rules. Once you enter into a dialog with them on their terms on their turf, you have already lost the fight (this, IMHO, is what is happening on SI -- they are responding as though a reasonable answer would SATISFY the basher -- of course it cannot, they are NEVER satisfied!, so they end up in a dialog, on the basher's terms and the bears get fed more and more and they growl more and more).
As jhild has posted on SI and as has been repeated there and here, she is here for the story. I was taught as a child that its not nice to tell stories on others. Somewhere along the line jhild seems to have missed that very important lesson and she now sees it as her appointed duty to make up all kinds of stories about our company. She said so
herself. She is here for the story. She calls them questions. But they are leading questions, constructed to suggest wrong doing, illegal activities, fraud, incompetence, etc.
Claiming to want to help us, she HURTS us and she is in utter denial of the effect her stories have: "...she eats, wipes her mouth, and says, 'I have done nothing wrong'."
It seems to me that it is up to US to deal with the bashers, since they will not accept anything from the company. Point out the errors in logic, the contradictions, the outright lies, the stupid mistakes -- in effect,fight fire with fire. (My dad is a retired fireman, so
this is a metaphor I'm familiar with!!!)
Joe you found out what happens when you enter their universe (by attempting to address directly their concerns and questions thinking a reasonable answer would satisfy them) and try to have a rational discussion about the FACTS. You end up Lost In Space if you fly into their Universe -- its nothing but a big empty vacuum, and you can't get "there" from "here."
Based on the responses from lurkers who have decided to reveal themselves, here, on SI and Yahoo, they appreciate it when we knock down the bashers with facts. So, I don't think its worth giving up. I don't think they will go away. But I do think that we can make it as unpleasant and unfruitful for them to be here as possible. It seems to be working fairly well so far...
The above is IMHO only and reprsents the results my my brain working the matter over, your results may differ.
GO PRWT!!! |
