Hi guys,
I thought I'd make post, at Old_Skeet's request, and advise that he is well and remains engaged in the investing community as an individual investor but will no longer be posting on the MFO site going forward.
There are multiple reasons for this ... but, politics were a major part of this.
He wishes all well ... but, he felt it was time that he moved on where free expression would be allowed.
His last comment ... I wish all "Good Investing."
Comments
Why is is that people who cling to the concept of strict constitutionalism have no clue as to the limits of the First Amendment?
IOW, as for “free expression”, in the immortal words of Inigo Montoya: "You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means."
Several posters attacked other posters personally. It never bothered me but it bothers others.
IMO, Old Skeet was an excellent poster with outside the box thinking.
I think Old_Skeet is one of valuable members MFO, since FA days. I wish him the best of luck. Please don't take emotions/bring emotions toward investing. His insights toward long/short term investing are extraordinary. I hope he comes back Nov5th [or Nov 20th after we find out who wins Presidency]...
everything is clearly labeled here and it is easy to skip whatever; this is just kvetching and quitting about having to mix it up and defend one's posts
his 'free expression' thing is comedy gold, at last!
I was giving Old_Skeet slack in spite of his loud, obnoxious and blatant trolling because he had been a long time contributor and therefore had earned it. While not that active towards the end, it was for similar reasoning I gave slack to Ted.
That said, loud obnoxious true believers and trolls are what they are. What we need to do going forward is what we used to do in the old days of un-moderated news groups. In response to blatant trolling simply ignore them. Trolls live off of negative energy that they receive when people respond. When they piss you off. No response => no energy => no trolls.
Have you noticed how LOUD the Trump foamers are? We'll need someone smarter than I to figure out why.
and so it goes,
peace and wear the damn mask,
rono
David
To flood the board with a daily diet of these “Rome is burning” negative one-sided tabloidish accounts from a single Russian propaganda outlet with nary a scintilla of one’s own reasoning or logical argument to supplement the sensationalized depictions of a country in ruins is unworthy of the community. The internet is full of such garbage.Type in a Google search query for “X Candidate raped a woman in a storefront window” and you’re likely to find something to that effect. So, what a board like this brings to the equation is brains.
If you’re going to post this political crap, at least do your readers the courtesy of injecting your own thoughts and analysis into the presentation. What’s the root of the problem? What are the identified deficiencies under the status-quo? What new plan does your candidate propose for remedying those deficiencies? How and why is that plan superior? Without such personnel investment the post remains just crap. Criticism goes to both sides.
Best wishes Ol_Skeet. Hope to see you on the other side.
what does this mean, what are you advocating here?
1. Let opposing opinions be stated without retribution, derision, personal attack or name-calling.
2, Attack the argument, not the individual. Point out fallacies in argument with deductive reasoning.
3. Fact-check before posting something. Consult multiple sources when possible.
4. Challenge an opponent’s sources and supporting evidence with provable counter-evidence.
5. Post with a clear purpose - not simply to shock or sensationalize; or to distract from, confuse, or obfuscate an opponent’s position; or to overwhelm others with a plethora of near-senseless drivel devoid of further analysis.
On the other hand, he did seem to start many of these inflammatory threads with less than reliable sources. I was willing to ignore all but the most obvious falsehoods, but the fact he "picked up his marbles and went home" seems to indicate that he did not want to hear opposing views, even if they were carefully reasoned and thought out with supporting facts.
I agree politics generally does not help investing, but unfortunately we are in a very very divisive time and these politics impacts economic policy, interest rates and etc and investing decisions. I do not see how it can be avoided, but I do not think that you can really change anyone's mind nowadays.
What we should really be discussing is policy not politics.
Mine still gets changed pretty often by things I read. Policy perhaps especially. I guess that might sound pious, but I bet I'm not alone.
are you vacillating about who you will vote for?
I don't get into the political discussions much and I wouldn't have gotten onto the OS one's either, but I was truly put off by his use of propaganda posts from a foreign country that explicitly intends to cause chaos in our democracy. That's just to much for me to understand that any American could do that when repeatedly warned.
My issue with the recent spate of posts about the election is that I don't come to MFO to get news about the election. And yes, of course, we are all free to ignore those posts (which I often do) but lately those posts have seemed to dominate the board and because some of the references were lies and disinformation, I couldn't engage out of a sense of my own ethics. Same reason I've never joined the FaceBook cult. Don't get me wrong, I'm on social media -- but we all have to determine our own lines not worth crossing. And I'm also not so naive as to think that politics and investing are completely separate subjects. Unfortunately we are living through a moment in history where we have all been cast as either patriots or losers.
I won't say anything specific about the (former) poster who asked a third party to say his goodbyes to MFO except that I won't miss having to wade through a lot of junk in hopes of finding something truthful and useful.
And now I offer something for all the haters who no doubt have already begun typing a response to my post: three questions we might ask ourselves before posting here or engaging with anyone for the next two months. 1) Is it kind? 2) Is it useful? 3) Is it necessary? Your answers to those questions might help guide some of our founded-passion on the inevitable disagreements we'll all be faced with for months to come.
I want to give my sincere thanks again to so many folks on here who have contributed to my education as a student of investing. At its best, MFO is nothing short of extraordinary.
This from a post he gave after Ted's death.
Old_Skeet
December 2019 edited December 2019 Flag
Hi guys,
I received a nice "Thank You" note from Lynn Didesch, Ted's wife today. I'm thinking she sent this to me to thank everyone. It reads as follows.
"Dear Cecil,
I am so sorry it took me so long to write you. I'm not that computer savvy and I could not figure out how to get on the MFO site. I did not see the return address on your card until today.
While a gazillion funds is not my style (I've been cutting down from a mere half gazillion
Now that the curtain has been pulled back:
Cecil wrote: "I have found what has worked well for me and my family over the past years was to take a sum equal to no more than one half of the five year average return of the portfolios. For me, this currently computes to a little more than 4.75%. In this way principal grows over time. This is how I ran my parents money in their retirment years and now run mine."
Skeet wrote: "I set my own withdrawal rate to generally not exceed a sum of what one-half of my five year average return has been. I found in doing this about twenty years ago when I governed my parents portfolio's provided them ample income plus grew their principal. Now, I have adopted this very same distribution withdrawal method."
And nobody said Zero Hedge can't be mentioned. It was said that it can't be trusted. It was said that it is a foreign agency with malignant intentions towards our country.