The Question and Answer Board

[sarals]

Cassandra,

My very first experience on a stock message board (not here at iHub) was a real bad one. It was near the height of the tech bubble and also the height of stock spam email campaigns and pump and dump schemes. But I was pretty naive and ignorant and just learning... so I started asking a lot of questions. The deal was it was a "shell" and this one guy who seemed to have a following was pumping it up... and that was admittedly their plan... to make the thread popular to arose interest and get people to buy thus inflating the price. Of course he also claimed that the company was pursuing being used by real company to get on the stock market. (later, after much studying I realized that was unlikely because the percentage of stock owned by the owners made it impractical)

Anyway... my questions eventually got me labeled a basher. Being my first stock message board experience I was shocked at the things said to me... accussed me of being paid, etc etc... and nasty stuff not fit for print. My reaction was to stubbornly pursue more information and continue questioning the thing. At one point that guy said he talked to the principal and anyone could. So I did and I soon found out that what the principal told me was different than what the leader of the board reported. Of course, everyone believed him and not me and none of them would call themselves to confirm. (also interesting was the first thing the principal asked me... "are you a reporter"? with a sound of apprehension in his voice).

Anyway, I eventually walked away from that board but interestingly enough had made some friends along the way... most of who had emailed me privately to voice their support.

Oh... and that stock is now below zero with almost non-existent volume. I was right, they were wrong, but it doesn't matter if people are determined to follow someone off into oblivion. Would it have mattered if they were right and I had been wrong? Probably not, the reactions would have been the same. Something to ponder.

I try to stay away from those kinds of situations these days... but I understand the feeling when you think people are misleading or even lying in an effort to bilk people.

Oh, and the funny thing... on this other message board service, EDIG was a big battleground way back then.

This post is not meant to judge any stock, stock board or poster... just an effort to relate my experience that may or may not be similar to yours.

Have a great day.

p.s. I've also been on the otherside of the fence where I felt a person trashing a company was posting lies, and I felt compelled to prove that they were lies. Did I do that? Most people already knew that and the person posting the lies has never stopped as far as I know. Might as well been beating my head against a wall. All in all, it was really the same situation as when I was the "basher".

p.p.s. My theory about why this happens? It happens when people base their loyalty or decisions based on emotional reasons. You can't argue with emotion.