Hi All! Below is a C&P from Matt the Admin. This is a nice review of the history behind the concept and a look forward to what the future holds for I-hub. I think you'll find this informative.
What is IH and where is it going?
Lately, there has been quite a bit of confusion as to what IH is, who is running it, and where it is going.
I will attempt to address what I think are important issues out there in folks mind.
Where did IH come from?
IH was born out of a passion for talking stocks and not having anywhere to do it. I got tired of the way things were ran on the current sites, so I figured I would fiddle around and build my own. I knew that I couldn’t be the only one who didn’t like what was out there. I found a group of about 100 or so who shared my distaste for the sites out there. We put our ideas together and started forming the foundation for this great empire. I ran into a programmer here in town and we got to work building a BETA version of what I (and my buddies) had drawn out.
Then, in about April 2000, we went live with the ‘draft’ version of the site. People started playing on it and offered suggestions. Plenty of them. So we started implementing all the cool ideas. It was just a hobby. Then around 2001 or so, things started to get real as we were running out of server horsepower in our curent location.
So I ran into the Italian guy. We put the site up on real Dodge Ram horsepower and were off to the races. That’s the short and sweet version of where we came from.
What makes IH different?
Plenty of things. But I will just hit the main one. The Chairman of the Board concept. The CoB was my answer to the psychos, whackos, trouble makers, and looney toons. None of these folks should be part of any investment discussion. In the early days of SI, it was about having fun and learning. We all talked stocks and taught eachother what we knew. One cool thing about message boards is that you get to see what’s on people’s minds, instead of just what they would say in person. People are far more open and insightful over the computer than in person. So that leads to all kinds of interesting topics. Anyways, investing used to be fun. Then came the whackos. These are the folks that hang out on the boards and rooms just to harrass people and generally disrupt the place. They can’t keep a civil conversation and resort to the name calling, attacking, etc to destroy the flow. I don’t like these kind of folks. And neither do ‘normal’ people.
That’s where the Chairman concept came from. A basic annoyance with folks that have no place discussing stocks or have no intentions but to harras people. That’s what the Chairman concept weeds out. And very well I might add. The Chairman concept allows people to instantly, temporarily ‘hide’ posts from view that don’t fall within the User Agreement, for Admin review to decide if the post should be deleted. Think of a Chairman as the guy on the board with the instant TOS violation button. He doesn’t do the deleting, just the alerting. Admin does the deleting.
The CoB concept doesn’t enable pump and dumps. It just stops the non-sense. The reason people call it a pump and dump enabler is because of how fast it works. One Admin doesn’t have to watch after 100,000 posters. Instead, he just watches the deleted box and the Chairman. Far more effective. Far more efficient. And that’s what bugs people who are here to create trouble. They just aren’t very effective anymore. Take a look at some of the folks who complain about the site. Look at their posting history. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack to find a post about a stock. Yet this IS Investors Hub.
The CoB concept does need some fine-tuning. I admit that. But it isn’t going anywhere and it most likely isn’t getting watered down, until I see folks that post about stocks
complaining.
So who’s running IH now?
Me.
Where does IH go from here?
We’ve had a few bumps in the road. Not getting new features out on time. Launching a year late. Not having enough server horsepower. Flip flopping in the key Administrator position. But nothing we haven’t learned a tremendous amount from.
When you form a business, you pick out your target market. I am building something right in between SI and RB. Something that caters to the folks who like the various qualities of those two sites and like to talk about a wide scope of stocks. I want to build the team spirit of SI coupled with the activeness of RB.
Most Admin problems arise out of the OTC. Most fights, problems, everything. Because of it being so unorganized, it offers the most opportunity. That’s what I want. To bring order to a very haphazard group of posters. And create good, informative, insightful market talk out of it.
Order is already in place with the Listed stock folks. Once we have the platform refined and the traffic here, is when they will come this way on their own. When we are offering the real-time quotes, news, charts, and such is when I will turn my focus to the big-cap traders.
In short, we will continue to build the site as we always have, integrating new features,
and adding new content to the site. And responding to what the investment community wants in a stock site.
Things should start progressing forward now much quicker, as we have the Admin position filled, the company fully funded, and a clear direction of how this site will shape up.
Excel - Greg
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
