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Pastimes : Investment Chat Board Lawsuits -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rrufff who wrote (7445)	2/26/2005 11:32:58 AM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12465

If I were a graduating law student this year, I'd specialize in cyber-law. It's a wide open field where no one can legitimately call themselves an established expert as the Internet is a recent phenomena. To be good at any new type of law you have to be able to anticipate the future. When message boards started, everyone, for whatever reason, just gave the contributors a sense of credibility because their messages were in writing and in a public forum. Early attempts at lawsuits against message board posters reflects this. Now we know that message boards are like any large gathering of people where some may be emotional, impulsive, drunk, or just plain stupid. Anyone who does not adapt an attitude of "you can't believe everything you read" is the idiot. I'm not saying that full-fledged separate entities known as gripe sites are like message boards -- since the owner has the ability to rethink what he wrote and edit his comments at will -- but looking into the future we can assume these sites will be a dime a dozen and thus, again, should be seen in this different light. It's when people try to pass themselves off as unbiased credible experts on something that one should take real notice and perhaps action. - Jeff

To: rrufff who wrote (7445)	2/26/2005 12:30:01 PM
From: Lee Lichterman III	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12465

I couldn't disagree more. I would rather love to see a fund so the small guy could afford to fight the big companies when litigated against for telling the truth. I was screwed over by Home Depot (Boise Idaho store) and launched my own campaign and shorted the heck out of their stock. I made the mistake of telling them first what I was going to do and by the time all was said and done, they had 9 attorneys on me and suspect were behind the SEC running an investigation on me. Everything I did was legal so it all ended OK and I made a ton on their Stock drop but things got dicey for while. It doesn't always end so well for others. They have deep pockets and a whole legal dept to make us little guys lives a living hell. FWIW - I had the same thing happen with Sears but they never knew what hit them. I learned my lesson from the HD thing and just kept my mouth shut to S about it and ran my campaign and short attack, took my profits and ran. -ggg- S tried to deny a new washer had a warranty on the transmission. ALL washers have warranties on the transmissions and they tried to fight it until I took my copy and rubbed it under their nose. HD lied about having flooring in inventory, broke a promised installation schedule of one week by 2 months and then wouldn't discount as promised. The house was for sale and it killed the ability to sell it at the time. ( Worked out better for me in the long run as I gave up, rented it for 2 years then caught the housing bubble ramp job and sold it for much more than I was trying for years before plus collected rent for a year. Triple win for me and a double loss for them.) I also posted on one of those boards and still get e-mail inquiries about their service and steer everyone away I can. I still wont set foot in their stores to this day and I do a ton of home improvements each year. Their loss and a LOWES win. Sites dedicated to bashing these guys are a fair counter to their constant commercials on TV about service. It is only fair we all have places to see how they fail to serve. Each reader can do thier own DD and decide if the charges are true or just the isolated disgruntled shopper. If you only see one or two complaining, it is no big deal. When you run a search on these sites and see tons of people all making the same complaints, it is pretty obvious that there is somethign amiss. Trying to block free speech is a scary thing to advocate. We are being silenced enough under the guise of National Security as it is. Good Luck, Lee