All,
This is directed to Jack and Martin, to VALUESPEC (only should he happen to be reading this; if so, please be sure and read the last two paragraphs--for that IS specifically directed towards you), and equally to ALL you posters and lurkers out there who may still be disposed to think of VALUESPEC with an open mind.
Today and tonight you two guys--Jack and Martin--are clearly of the same inclination I was way back about a month ago (February 5, actually), when I took up a good deal of space here on this board--and took a considerable amount of time in writing the post before posting it--responding to this individual myself. In my case, I tried to write an appropriately long, as-respectful-as-possible-under-the-circumstances message to this person. I wanted to be sure and cover what I believed were all the salient points, and in a way that made sense.
Re-reading it (SI currently has it filed as #27206, in case anyone's interested), I suppose I'm satisfied with my clarity of thought (for all the good this did...NOT) --although I can also see what a waste of time my efforts were. Now, why do I say this?
I say this for three primary reasons:
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(1) Consider this exchange:
VS: I am here because I took the time to look at this company and didn't like it.
PH: Valuespec, please listen to me with an open mind. You've made this point more than abundantly clear...and you keep making this same point (in various ways), over and over and over and over and over and over and over ad nauseum...If you actually had a financial stake in the company (meaning: if your money is at risk like mine is), I and others might be more inclined to want to listen to you. Question for you: is this something you can understand, or do you have a hard time understanding it? I'm not being patronizing here, I just really would like to know.
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This was an honest question on my part, and I surmised in so stating it I was speaking for many of us investors out there. I think it surely warranted a reply, and indeed I expected a reply, especially given this individual's earlier friendly comment to me: "Paul, thanks for your tactful words, in spite of our differences of opinion." Yet I NEVER received a response from him on this very critical point...
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(2) Consider this exchange:
VS: I chastised this group because you are acting like greedy children.
PH: See, this is the kind of thing that just doesn't fly with me, for two reasons:
ú I, for one, am not acting like a greedy child, nor are so many others.
ú Although contentiousness is hopefully something I'd never personally feel comfortable engaging in, the posts that HAVE been antagonistic in tone towards you and a couple others are this way for many understandable (to me, anyway) reasons. Furthermore, it's not my job to get caught up in anyone else's belligerency, so as a general rule I don't. I will, of course, if you're including me in your use of the word 'you' above (in "I chastised this group because you are acting like greedy children"). Are you?
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Here, my last two sentences constituted another sincere question on my part--one which particularly deserved an answer I believe, especially given his accusatory tone. I was asking him point-blank if he was calling me a 'greedy child;' I may have been called many things in my life (!) but this would be a new one... At the very least, he owed me a response HERE. However, AGAIN--not even the courtesy of a reply.
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(3) Consider this exchange:
VS: Anyway, no matter what you think of me or my intentions, or even the quality of my information, we will all see IF FTEL DOES PERFORM sometime in the future with a "storm" of revenues. In the meantime, we'll I'll just wait and we'll see who was right.
PH: Aha. Can't you see why I might be having a problem with this entire post of yours? Obviously, if your bottom line is simply "Anyway, no matter what you think of me or my intentions, or even the quality of my information, we will all see IF FTEL DOES PERFORM sometime in the future with a "storm" of revenues. In the meantime, we'll I'll just wait and we'll see who was right...", why in heaven's name did you even feel the need to include all this other stuff in your response to me? A genuine question, given these clearly-written, albeit sarcastic ("storm") words of yours.
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Again, another clearly-put question to this individual, something that logically demanded a reasonable response. Why fret, complain and kvetch AT ALL if the truth of the matter (as stated by this individual here) is really only a matter of "I'll just wait and we'll see who was right"? And yet even here, NO response. Amazing!
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Through his silence, this individual has personally proved to me that he is beneath contempt. Of course, he can (and just may, who knows?) always claim "Sorry; I never got the message," or something like this, but I'd hope we'd all (or at least most of us) see the transparency of such an effort were it to happen.
But I digress. Bottom line, all: I took the time out to write what I believed to be an honest message searching for real dialogue, and got brushed off by the big guy, someone famous for words of wisdom like "waiting for the future to vindicate my words." Such obnoxious, self-promoting things. Such rot.
What galls me even more? I'll tell you what! It's the fact that in my desire to be as fair as possible, I even included this ending disclaimer: "Valuespec, this board has its share of fluff and nonsense, but it's also been blessed many times over by some prescient analysis and DD by many people, and I for one appreciate it. May I please ask you to email me privately with any future comments you wish to make to me? Reason: I'd like to keep any correspondence we may have off of this FTEL thread, as I don't feel it's fair to the other posters and lurkers to wade through this stuff. Also, know that this is an unusually long post from me, and as a general rule I don't have the time to post such lengthy replies. I think this post must be well over 1,000 words or so! Shalom, Paul Hofmann 105136.1434@CompuServe.com"
Apparently this person is somewhat inconsistent in how, when and to whom he chooses to reply (and, of course, in what he says), eh? In truth, our 2-year old daughter shows greater maturity than this.
So I'm truly sorry I, like some of you, ever tried (in vain) to reason with such an individual who, in my opinion, it is now clear either (a) MUST have an obvious agenda, (b) is emotionally disturbed, PERHAPS? or (c) BOTH?
By the way, VALUESPEC, in the event you might be reading this: At 11:02 this evening, in response to Jack Sman, you cried, "Many on this thread have been unusually rude to me." (I know, I know, why oh why might this be?) Yet YOU'VE had literally 3-4 weeks to respond to me in some way, ANY way (whether on the SI FTEL thread or to my personal email account which I was kind enough--stupid enough?--to post as part of my message to you for all the world to see. Forget some of your more questionable analyses and comments re. business matters; naturally, I feel that the fact that you never responded to me at all shows me more than anything else that you must be an individual of questionable (if not low) character.
As a result, and after almost a month of waiting in vain to hear back from you, my offer for direct correspondence is permanently off the table. Accordingly, I'm asking you to please not respond to me now, nor at any time in the future--especially at my private email address. Should you respond to me on this board, I will ignore you. Should others comment, I'll kindly refer them to THIS explanation in THIS post as to why I will NOT reply to you.
Paul Hofmann |
