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Pastimes : The Perils and Pitfalls of Investing With "Friends" -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SI Bob who wrote (215)	10/29/2004 11:31:20 PM
From: Bill Ulrich	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 377

I agree with "no software solution". Not fully 100% there on "no adminstrative solution". It's not just like a msg thread for a penny stock going to $5 on Friday. On a thread, people read mulitple voices and tend to mentally ally themselves towards voices that appeal to them or echo their thinking. Smarter ones are even flexible enough to absorb some opposing viewpoints, based on event outcome or credibility of messenger. A confidence man working a room, one-on-one has a much larger advantage over the victim. The privacy factor helps a good con man a great deal. Also, with stocks, there is less of a one-on-one emotional appeal. With stocks, people get stupid by greed, but it's rarely an issue where the company President himself is playing on you personally with "Please, I'm stuck in a homeless shelter and I need an emergency dental operation, my wife left me ... and BTW, my partner blew up the trading account". Greed is more variable among people whilst compassion is closer to universal. Again, the PM factor is more relevant than Admin is acknowledging. Now couple all those factors in with the fact that TLC is a little closer to you guys than others, then the victim senses a cachet of additional credibility. "Well, he's "friends" with the site, he's even on the front page, so it must be okay." If the only administration response you have is, "Too late, so what." then the misuse of your site has an appearance of almost being condoned. Now, I know in PM-mode it appears you and Dave take this seriously. But those are just my PMs. Outwardly, the position appears absurd (and if I make a quip pointing out the absurdity, I'm just pointing out the absurdity of the nouns and verbs, not picking you personally). It's a good thing that I can laugh at myself because it gives me a never-ending source of amusement (I do and say stupid things, often). Respectfully, -MrB