FOOL SCHOOL
Getting The Most Out Of Discussion Boards

February 22, 2002

The heart of The Motley Fool is the discussion boards. They epitomise what is truly unique to this interactive medium called the Internet and enables a huge amount of information to be exchanged very easily. It is a fantastic way for someone's specialised knowledge to be made available to a much wider audience. Using the discussion boards is very easy, but like everything in life balance is required. This guide sets out some ground rules. The main guideline is 'civil discussion for mutual benefit'. Put simply treat others as you expect to be treated yourself.

Searching a board

Some boards are very busy with dozens of messages a day. Others may get only a few a month. It will depend how popular the company is with private investors and how often there is new information about the company to discuss. If you want you can read every message. Using the "<" and ">" keys you can skip back and forth through messages very swiftly. But there are three main ways to save even more time. First of all you can use the Search box that appears at the top of every page.

Secondly, many of the more popular boards have a FAQ page (Frequently Asked Questions). This contains the most common questions and answers and helps prevent the board getting clogged up with the same old questions over and over again. If you haven't visited a board before it's a good idea to look at the FAQ first rather than posting your question straight away. Unfortunately, due to a quirk of our board design, you can only see a link to the FAQ when you are looking at an individual post, rather than the list of latest posts. The link to the FAQ on the right hand side of the page, next to the text of each message.

Thirdly, you can use the 'Best Of' feature. This lists the most recommended posts on that board. Bear in mind that people recommend posts for two main reasons. Either they agree with what has been said or they think the post is particularly helpful. Usually reading a handful of the most recommended posts on a board will give you a pretty good overview of the company.

Be Objective

Company message boards are predominantly used by shareholders of that company. Therefore their view of the business will tend to be optimistic so you need to ask yourself if that optimism is warranted. But you need to remain objective. Do people back up their views with solid facts rather than relying on idle rumour? At the other extreme some people will post on a board because they dislike a company. Most people aren't shy about expressing a strong opinion one way or the other.

In order to keep things running smoothly we have the 'report this post' mechanism so that you can alert our cyber policemen to a post that just goes that little bit too far in terms of language or accusations. Our cyber cops will delete a post if they think it is necessary if, for example, it breaches copyright. Our boards are subject to English law and we have to ensure that they comply with it.

Have fun

We should round off by saying that using the boards is actually great fun. It's a quick and easy way to get up to speed on what is happening with your investments as well as seeing what people think about your prospective investments. So register now and get posting!