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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Bid.com International (BIDS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bill hamilton who wrote (28368)	4/28/1999 8:38:00 PM
From: Dave Kiernan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 37507

BII,MCF,LAT...all trade TSE. Watch them. Regards Dave K.

To: bill hamilton who wrote (28368)	4/28/1999 8:38:00 PM
From: Chris Stovin	Respond to of 37507

Wednesday April 28 7:23 PM ET Wrong bull running stock boards? By Margaret Kane, ZDNet A finance and stock site is cracking down on its message board service after some users slung around the wrong kind of bull. StockHouse.com, a Florida-based company that runs the Bullboards message service, said Wednesday that it was increasing scrutiny of its message boards following the posting of obscene and threatening posts in one particular board. The threats followed the downgrade and subsequent downward surge in the stock of Bid.com (Nasdaq: BIDS - news), an online auction company. Officials for StockHouse said they would begin conducting random spot checks of message boards and would set up a hot line where users could report suspicious posts. Enough cross words "We decided that we'd had enough. When you've got posting where people are swearing at each other because the stock goes up and down, that's just ridiculous," said CEO Christos Livadas. The StockHouse comments may have gotten out of control, but the news that was being discussed there was at least factual. Recent weeks have seen several reports of scams being perpetuated online. Earlier this month, a hoax report claiming that PairGain Technologies Inc. was an acquisition target was posted on Yahoo! Finance -- sending PairGain's stock price soaring. The FBI later arrested a PairGain employee, Gary Dale Hoke, and he faces fraud charges relating to the hoax. Yahoo! (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) recently began notifying users via a "warning" at the top of its message boards section that "These messages are only the opinion of the poster, are no substitute for your own research, and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose." 'Entertainment only' A further disclaimer goes on to state the message boards are "for entertainment only." Most of the big message board companies run similar disclaimers, warning investors that reading tips online is no substitute for doing actual research on a company. "We like to think of our boards as a huge giant investment club. Just like any club you'll go and listen but won't necessarily make a decision based on one person. You'll still do your own research," said Julie Lewis, a spokeswoman for the Motley Fool, one of the largest stock sites online. But she concedes that "the Internet has definitely created a community where things like that can happen." The Motley Fool has also taken steps to monitor its boards for improper or fraudulent postings, she said. The company has "strollers" who read the boards and also provides a feature where users can flag a post and send it to an administrator. At Silicon Investor, a site owned by Go2Net Inc. (Nasdaq: GNET - news) the company's fee-based policy helps to screen out inappropriate posters, since they can't post anonymously. "In addition to providing subscription revenue for us, it lets us know who's posting," said Mark Peterson, director of public relations for Go2Net. "They don't enjoy the same anonymity as they do in a free service. So if we need to know who's posted something or held them accountable we can and we do."