Lindsell Train Global: what the hell is going on here?

bowlhead99

tin586 wrote: »

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Now it is not my intention to take this thread off topic, but you might also have mentioned some of the issues with MSE. There might not be downvoting, but there is plenty of irrational upvoting. One of the criticisms of MSE as mentioned on Trustpilot is that it is a forum for giving and receiving thanks among a particular clique, who spend a lot of time on the forum and are hostile to outsiders. I consider this very fair comment. Sometimes I see a totally bland and innocuous post from a regular that gets a lot of up votes and I see no rational reason for it. So I wonder if it’s votes from their chums and/or a supplementary sock puppet account they have created to upvote their own comments.

I persist with MSE because there are some very helpful, informative and insightful posts that I can learn from, despite some of my misgivings.

And robust challenge from posters to the ‘orthodoxy’ is always welcome to see!

I do agree with most of that.

Most forums' voting buttons get 'misused' to an extent. For example on reddit, the upvotes and downvotes were originally supposed to be for adding something useful to the discussion, but they largely just get used to say you agree or disagree, quite a different outcome.

On here, some boards you see 'ganging up' and trolling more than others with bans aplenty handed out (e.g. motoring board) and if you want to build your 'thanks' count you can just go to the 'Debate house prices and the Economy' with a popular political opinion, or spend a few seconds on 'debt free wannabee' or mortgage free wanabee' boards which basically exist for patting each other on the back (and woe betide anyone who suggests you don't actually need to pay off a mortgage as fast as humanly possible)!

I tend to find the 'thanks' are harder-won on the investments or pensions boards where people tend to be thanking only when they are actually grateful for learning something, or when you are saying something sensible in response to a common query which saves them answering it themselves - I give out some of the latter myself, a lot less than I probably could / should. That said, it's probably not very healthy to have a crowd of people thanking someone for 'putting someone in their place' but in the absence of proper moderation maybe it is useful.

A forum should be welcoming rather than a closed clique; but the real world is full of cliques:

- If I go to a gym or exercise forum and tell a newbie how to bench press with unconventional and dangerous form, hopefully the 'old guard' will rally round and tell me to stop being an idiot;

- If I come to an investing forum and tell some elderly lady with failing health that she should forget about using an investment fund to preserve and grow the modest inheritance for her sister's kids and instead take hold of her own destiny by selecting three or four big american companies and buy shares in them, all the better to navigate Brexit, many would hope the clique will rally round and say "Dude !!!!!!". As the newbie with the smart idea to buy the individual stocks and avoid management fees I would feel unwelcome and my ego would be bruised, but the lady in question might focus on the more 'conventional' advice and better preserve their life savings, at least without crazy volatility. Even if the 'challenge to orthodoxy' is not well tolerated, it is at least not outright banned, so you do hear some fresh ideas.

I also find Lemonfool very useful, by the way, and in some respects more ‘sophisticated’ and collaborative than MSE.

Yes, it was a shame when the Motley Fool forums were finally shuttered a couple of years back as it had a heck of a lot of old content, but Lemonfool has some smart cookies lurking, who understand business and finance concepts to a high degree. I certainly picked up some useful info on bonds, bank and building society perps/pibs and prefs a few years back, and from time to time drop in to see what people are saying on the VCT boards which can elicit some answers much more rapidly than doing your own research from scratch. It's more highbrow than the 'wild west' of ADVFN's AIM shares pump and dump boards!

tin586

Don’t even get me started on ADVFN! Some of the boards are truly poisonous (admittedly some of the banter is funny, even if crude). I cruise them from time to time on a share I’m interested in, because there is the occasional poster who provides useful info.

I appreciate your measured and insightful comments (yes, really 😊) which proves the value of MSE for me. Thank you.