Newbies Investing Questions

[ZincFinger]

Off Topic material below the line.

Lately there has been a pattern on many boards of a lot of posts with entirely off topic material below a horizontal line of the post, usually of very strongly biased political material.

Many posters with opposing views find this highly offensive especially if some of their posts are deleted for quite neutral content as being off topic even if the rest of the post contains highly relevant material and sometimes even when the supposed off topic material is actually directly relevant to the company but non in a way obvious to an admin unfamiliar. (which leads one to suspect that board moderators who know better are abusing the off topic category to delete posts they disagree with when they think they can mischaracterize it as "off topic" and the admin won't know it isn't.

1) is this "BELOW THE LINE" material something put in by the poster or something added by an advertiser? (IMHO if it's an advertiser it is unethically misleading advertising as it's inserted in a way that makes it appear to be part of the post.)

If it's inserted by the poster, why aren't these posted being deleted for off topic material? Much of the material has a very high potential for inciting flame wars, is highly irrelevant to the companies and has no legitimate purpose IMHO.

BUt it they continue to get away with it, I'm going to start adding my own opposing views "below the line" and see what happens. And if mine get deleted and theirs don't I'm gone from IHUB. Fair is fair: equitable treatment for everyone.