From strictly a business model point of view, it is not to the advantage of IHUB to give an unfair advantage to those who would undermine a stock for whatever particular reason.
From my sentiment-neutral perspective, that is effectively saying that there should be an advantage (other than the typical outnumbering of the contrarians) for those who are bullish on the stock. I cannot imagine why other than for their own self-serving motives. That's not to say they should not have a selfish motives, but just because they have one or even a bullish one doesn't render it more meritorious than anyone else's sentiment or motives.
That's not to say that intelligent discussion of the merits or shortcomings of a stock should be unfairly restricted, but by in large, most IHUB members are looking to make money.
Preserving capital (avoiding losses) is a component of making money. Being informed of both the positive and negative views enhances visibility and can help to mitigate losses. It's up to the reader to weigh the opposing views for themselves.
And in many cases, repetitious, non-spam negative statements are not designed to improve discussion, but to provoke, intimidate and reduce the value of whatever particular stock.
By that measuring stick, repetitious, non-spam positive statements are not designed to draw attention to the negatives and potential pitfalls of a particular stock. Make no mistake about it - all stocks have them at some value, whether it is AAPL OR ABCDE. One sentiment is no more or less meritorious than the other. Opposite sides of the exact same coin.
Recently, a couple or three "anti-contrarian" users (out of tens of thousands of active users) have gone to great lengths to inform me they are going to effectively hide their heads in the sand at a new site where "bashers" are shunned. I'll call it sheeptoslaughter.com. It's like deja vu all over again - not the first time that iHub uses have gone off to build a "basher free" site. The more notable ones that come to mind are goldenboards.com and investmentnation.com, startup sites that cloned iHub for a better mousetrap free of those pesky bashers. Where are they now? Gone, along with their users' portfolio balances. The concept may seem appealing for those who prefer blinders for eyewear, but in the end it's doomed to failure.
In the end, constructive, beneficial dialog demands nothing less than having all points of view welcome, irrespective of investment sentiment, as long as they are on-topic and comply with the site's TOS.
