The Question and Answer Board

[Was (Bob)]

An Intro

My name is Bob Zumbrunnen and I'm the new Operations Manager of Investors Hub.

Prior to my accepting this position, I had been the main Community Administrator at Silicon Investor for about 3 years. Many of you knew me there as "SI Bob" or "SI Admin (Bob)".

If you'd like to know more about me in that role, read the following:

http://www.wsj.com/public/current/articles/SB960500735516514271.htm
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/msg.gsp?msgid=15355023

At Silicon Investor, my role was to deal with violations of the site's Terms of Use (TofU, for short) and to step in as required to prevent disagreements from turning into flamewars.

At Investors Hub, I will be doing that and more. My duties here will be those currently being taken care of on SI by Jeff G, Scott Lux, John Busby, and Mike Coddington.

If you've got issues with the site's functionality or features you'd like to see, I'm your man. I'll be working very closely with the programmers, who I've already found to be very competent, and if it's a feature a lot of people want, it'll likely become a reality. I might say "No" if it's something I don't feel would be in the best interests of a streamlined community-enabling site, but I won't say "We'll have that feature soon" and let "soon" become several months.

The following are some realities of at least one other site, and how they'll be different here:

1. Other site: You're told for months that a problem with the site will be fixed in two weeks. Investors Hub: If a problem interferes with your ability to use the site comfortably, it's my problem. It'll get fixed quickly by either myself or another programmer.

2. Other site: If a subpoena is received for your personal information, you're not told (and given a chance to fight it) because it's too inconvenient. Investors Hub: If a subpoena is received for a civil matter, you're told immediately. This was a huge issue for me at the other site and I never got over my disgust at how this was handled.

3. Other site: If you write in with a complaint, you'll get an insulting automated reply. Investors Hub: A *person* will reply.

4. Other site: If a post needs to be deleted because it contains your personal contact info, it'll be deleted sometime that evening because the database is so screwed up it takes several minutes to do the deletion and it slows down and even crashes the site. Investors Hub: Posts that should be deleted are deleted immediately by an admin or a chairperson.

It is my expectation that by putting me in a role in which I can do all of the things I wanted to do at the other site (rather than tying my hands and taping my mouth shut, like happened there), and by having the decisions made by a member of the community who understands what the community is, rather than outsiders who see the community as a necessary evil that gets in the way of building the technology they *think* other people want, we will make this venue exactly what our online community wants and needs.

Together, we will help InvestorsHub become known for its quality content in the way SI was, but without the community-impeding "features" of it.

If you have any questions or comments about the site, feel free to let me know.

Regards,

Bob Zumbrunnen
Operations Manager, Investors Hub