Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
What bothers me is to sign in and look at all the unread posts (and I sign if fairly often) and then spend my precious time looking for the posts that interest me, which happen to be mutual fund specific. Hitting the "delete button" distracts from my enjoyable experience here at MFO.
How about something like putting the generic daily news articles in one post?
Dear Hrux: Lets see, you joined MFO on 6/23/12, and have made 10 visits, and your telling veteran MFO's what they should post. Give me a break, lead, follow, or get out of the way. Regards, Ted
I find many of the articles to be useful. If interested, I click. If not, I scroll past. Putting them all in one posting or a designated area might be a good idea.
It would be nice and helpful if you put all the daily news that usually comes from the WSJ, Marketwatch and a couple of others not regarding mutual funds in one post and flag it as OT.
It isn't such a big deal to scroll past the posts, whether it be from Ted or anybody else, that don't interest you. Ted does us a service by locating articles that might be of interest to anybody reading this page. I welcome Ted's effort, which has been going on from the beginning of the old Fund Alarm days.
As far as I know, Ted is a volunteer doing this right? Not sure anyone other than site owners have the right to tell him what to do. Besides, putting news in one post will discourage discussion or have multiple discussions in the same thread.
There is a need to balance keeping a forum fresh with new threads and building a discussion around a topic and they can be in conflict in a single forum.
Forums have solved it by converging to at least two tabs to sort articles by - most recent and most active. This works to serve both needs.
Doing this costs money and I am not sure how the finances are set up in this place to do that. Perhaps, owners can estimate the cost of implementing such a feature if feasible. We can all chip in money targeted at that task perhaps via a platform such as kickstarter to have it done. If enough people want it and willing to do something about it.
Reply to @Ted: My apologies if you take offense to my constructive criticism. Just thought it would best serve the masses to have daily news articles posted separately so one does not have to spend so much time scrolling through discussion topics of interest. Perhaps the forum would get more participation.
Don't know if it's possible, but what if there was a category called "articles", just like the categories, Funds, Off Topic and Technical? That way anyone not interested in a bunch of articles posted with no discussion could by-pass that category, or just open the category and mark them all as viewed.
Ted puts a lot of work into his efforts to share articles so it's hard for me to fault him. I do see the point though that all these articles are some times overwhelming. They take up a lot of space and you have to sort through a maze to pick posts with discussion. In fact, normally I don't open a post unless there is at least one comment associated to it.
edit: the more I think about it, posting articles-only under "Fund Discussion" doesn't even make sense if there is no "discussion" in the post - but right now that is the only choice Ted and everyone else has.
I think MFO could probably accommodate posting articles without creating a separate section if everyone who uses the site would agree to post only articles we've read fully and that we think have specific value to readers, and to state in the post what that value is, in at least a full sentence or two. (Articles without reference to funds, under the existing setup, should go in "off topic.")
If that's not agreeable, then I think MFO needs an "articles" section.
I find Ted's post of value. I sincerely hope he will continue to post articles he feels might be of interest to MFO readers. And, for those that do not wish to read them ... I don't believe they are required reading ... just skip over them.
Reply to @AndyJ & Certain Others: I'm taking notes and checking them twice to see who's naughty or nice, and sending them to Chuck Jaffe who will be sending some of you a 'Lump Of Coal.' Merry Christmas TED
While I agree Ted's numerous article postings are an overall benefit to the board, it would be nice if they were consolidated (to maybe 2 postings per day?) Or somehow kept in a separate chain.
Reply to @JoeNoEskimo: While I agree that JoeNoEskimo is a benefit to MFO, it would be nice if he visited the board say twice a year ? Merry Christmas Ted
It is easy to identify Ted's news article posts by just looking for his name as the author. I don't see why we need a separate chain. Perhaps if there were a way to sort the message posts by author it might be helpful. I would find this useful for other reasons, since I sometimes look for message posts from specific posters.
Reply to @Ted: Merry Christmas to you too, Ted. If you have a problem with reading articles before you post, and relaying what's relevant and important about them in the post, I'd be interested to know what exactly is the problem.
You are well intentioned - but misguided. Ted's excellent articles appear to dominate on some days only because there is an absence of other discussion. I have thought often about the reasons why there isn't more discussion and have no definitive answers. Reasons are likely diverse and complex. However, do think different times and different markets tend to draw different types of participants to a forum like this. Certainly that's but a small part of the puzzle. I value Ted's posts and try to offer up a comment or two a week in response. I'm sure he posts the links with the expectation board members will use them as jumping-off points for further discussion. I also value the several other "stable" members who post interesting questions, offer up advice, and in many other ways make the board a stimulating and profitable experience. Of course, let's not overlook David who shares so much of his experience, knowledge and wisdom with all of us.
There should be some sort of an easy fix to keep everyone happy. The preponderance of links, many of which I've already seen, does make it slightly more difficult to navigate the discussion board and follow certain threads. The other day 26 of 30 front page topics were links from Ted, and several were links to the same Kiplinger's article which could easily be navigated by a drop down menu.
That being said, there is clearly value added to many readers, and none of us ultimately own the board as it were. If there were a category to collate links for everyone's use, or if there were a general thread for link posting and related discussion maybe that would satisfy everyone?
I do appreciate Ted's posting and it would be a loss if he stopped. So, I am posting this with hesitation.
However, I too appreciate if several individual link posts by frequent posters like Ted could be collected to a few threads per day. Most of these single link posts do not stimulate much discussion so a daily thread would be just fine. Even an hourly thread that starts at the top of hours would keep the board much more organized.
I actually do not want to ignore. There are some good articles to read.
If they were all in post. I could actually read them with less time spent in clicking in and out. Reading would be easier.
In fact, if people found some of the articles interesting and worthy of discussion, the thread would get a bump and the links were likely to stay towards the top of the forum.
If the site ever goes premium, it will need an "articles" or similar heading, where Ted and others will post (or it will need an active "editor", which costs money, to rate the quality of the selected articles). I don't think the articles receiving comments need to be "bumped" back to a different thread, since those scanning the section can see that interest exists.
I find some of his posts very useful (or, I will know in a few years if they were useful). Some are amusing, but of little investor interest.
OTOH, currently, I could probably post a "Right on, dude" comment and bump a post to the top of the screen for a while. I don't have the coding/programming skill to prevent this. Even a "Thanks, guys" achieves the same result (as this post temporarily will).
So, for now, Ted, don't stop. You know a lot more than I, have invested more wisely than I, and apparently have a whole lot more time than I. If there is ever an "articles" heading, it will be my first stop.
Within the past year, I seem to recall a stretch of a few weeks where Ted didn't post. I don't recall the circumstances as to why, but I do recall feeling that the board was missing something, and was happy when the posts then resumed.
This thread has kind of a "Truman Show" quality to it...maybe we should have a separate category focused on Ted. Pictures, comments on his haircuts...things like that.
Comments
How about something like putting the generic daily news articles in one post?
Mona
Regards,
Ted
It would be nice and helpful if you put all the daily news that usually comes from the WSJ, Marketwatch and a couple of others not regarding mutual funds in one post and flag it as OT.
Thanks
There is a need to balance keeping a forum fresh with new threads and building a discussion around a topic and they can be in conflict in a single forum.
Forums have solved it by converging to at least two tabs to sort articles by - most recent and most active. This works to serve both needs.
Doing this costs money and I am not sure how the finances are set up in this place to do that. Perhaps, owners can estimate the cost of implementing such a feature if feasible. We can all chip in money targeted at that task perhaps via a platform such as kickstarter to have it done. If enough people want it and willing to do something about it.
My apologies if you take offense to my constructive criticism. Just thought it would best serve the masses to have daily news articles posted separately so one does not have to spend so much time scrolling through discussion topics of interest. Perhaps the forum would get more participation.
Ted puts a lot of work into his efforts to share articles so it's hard for me to fault him. I do see the point though that all these articles are some times overwhelming. They take up a lot of space and you have to sort through a maze to pick posts with discussion. In fact, normally I don't open a post unless there is at least one comment associated to it.
edit: the more I think about it, posting articles-only under "Fund Discussion" doesn't even make sense if there is no "discussion" in the post - but right now that is the only choice Ted and everyone else has.
If that's not agreeable, then I think MFO needs an "articles" section.
Old_Skeet
Merry Christmas
TED
Merry Christmas
Ted
And your articles dominate the board at times.
Merry Xmas, Ted.
That being said, there is clearly value added to many readers, and none of us ultimately own the board as it were. If there were a category to collate links for everyone's use, or if there were a general thread for link posting and related discussion maybe that would satisfy everyone?
However, I too appreciate if several individual link posts by frequent posters like Ted could be collected to a few threads per day. Most of these single link posts do not stimulate much discussion so a daily thread would be just fine. Even an hourly thread that starts at the top of hours would keep the board much more organized.
We need an "ignore" option like they have on the Morningstar boards.
I actually do not want to ignore. There are some good articles to read.
If they were all in post. I could actually read them with less time spent in clicking in and out. Reading would be easier.
In fact, if people found some of the articles interesting and worthy of discussion, the thread would get a bump and the links were likely to stay towards the top of the forum.
I find some of his posts very useful (or, I will know in a few years if they were useful). Some are amusing, but of little investor interest.
OTOH, currently, I could probably post a "Right on, dude" comment and bump a post to the top of the screen for a while. I don't have the coding/programming skill to prevent this. Even a "Thanks, guys" achieves the same result (as this post temporarily will).
So, for now, Ted, don't stop. You know a lot more than I, have invested more wisely than I, and apparently have a whole lot more time than I. If there is ever an "articles" heading, it will be my first stop.
This thread has kind of a "Truman Show" quality to it...maybe we should have a separate category focused on Ted. Pictures, comments on his haircuts...things like that.