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Raging Bull's Total Board Posts Surge Ahead of Silicon Investor By CARRIE LEE WSJ.COM

Move over Silicon Investor!

In a case of youth begets speed, Raging Bull
(www.ragingbull.com) recently charged past
the bellwether Internet stock-discussion site
in popularity among online investors.

A comparison of total posts on the two sites show that through Tuesday,
Raging Bull had received 14.9 million posts, compared with 14.0 million
for Silicon Investor (www.siliconinvestor.com), which is three years older.

Raging Bull's rise comes as Internet-discussion sites in general enjoy
tremendous growth because of the decade-long boom in the stock market
that has helped make investing a household phenomenon.

Raging Bull, which started in September 1997, has over 680,000 users
and receives an average of 50,000 to 75,000 posts a day. Silicon Investor
has over 300,000 subscribers and an average of 20,000 posts a day.

Tara Burgess, manager of community development for Raging Bull, says
the site has spent less than $300,000 on advertising since its inception and
has grown largely by word-of-mouth.

"From day one it's always been about
momentum, friends telling friends about the
site," she says.

Jill Munden, a Silicon Investor spokeswoman,
says Raging Bull is probably benefiting from its free format. Silicon Investor
charges posters a $120 annual subscription fee. But anyone can read the
boards for free.

"Free sites generally get a higher volume of posts," Ms. Munden says,
adding that Silicon Investor boards attract better quality posts. "[Free sites]
receive more posts generally because of the quality issue."

On the contrary, argues Ms. Burgess, Raging Bull's business is growing
"because of the quality of what's being discussed on our boards."

Raging Bull isn't the only free stock-discussion site. Yahoo! Finance and
Motley Fool are also free. Yahoo, which launched its message boards in
late 1996, receives hundreds of thousands of posts a day, while Motley
Fool, which rolled out its boards in April 1997, gets about 5,000.

Raging Bull has become a haven for investors who want to discuss OTC
Bulletin Board stocks -- shares of tiny companies that don't meet the
financial and other requirements for listing on a major exchange.

Its popularity among the OTC crowd has benefited from a decision in
November 1998 by Yahoo! Finance, another of its rivals, to drop message
boards devoted to OTC stocks.

However, Ms. Burgess says Raging Bull's popularity isn't driven solely by
discussions about OTC stocks.

"We get some strong volume on these boards, but the most active boards
are a mix, including [stocks like] WorldCom and Spyglass along with
penny stocks," she says.

Raging Bull has surpassed Silicon Investor amid many changes at Silicon
Investor that have worried and annoyed its users, including the site's
purchase by Internet portal Go2Net Inc. in 1998.

When the Go2net deal was announced, posters had complained that
Silicon Investor was giving up its independence and would become too
commercialized.

Some seasoned message board posters also complained last summer when
Silicon Investor redesigned its site and included technology that could track
a user's habits on the Internet.

Although it went online in September 1997, Raging Bull didn't get much
attention until a major redesign of its message boards in mid 1998. The site
also has expanded its forums to include sports, current events, and other
subjects.

The expanded topics have helped boost Raging Bull's total postings.
Raging Bull also is benefiting from discussion boards it has provided since
last summer for search engine Alta Vista. Alta Vista purchased Raging Bull
in February. Raging Bull's boards also can be accessed through some
financial Web sites, such as thomsoninvestment.com and forbes.com.

PR Newswire Helps Track Posters

Companies maligned by anonymous posters on the Internet are getting
some help from PR Newswire.

The news dissemination service has formed an alliance with Internet
Crimes Group, a cyber sleuthing firm in Princeton, N.J., to help its
corporate clients track down malicious posters.

ICG will help track down the persons behind anonymous online postings,
e-mail messages, and Web sites that spread rumors about a company or
try to manipulate its stock.

ICG's ten person outfit, which is largely comprised of Princeton University
graduates, uses technology and old-fashioned digging to solve the cases.
ICG 's service isn't limited PR Newswire clients.

Chairman and chief executive, Michael Allison, says ICG has done work
for about 25% of the Fortune 100 companies. He says the company has
tracked down about 75% of anonymous authors it has gone after.

http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB962210452559916743.htm