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No. of Recommendations: 27
Geez. I've been here awhile and I have to tell ya that some of these attitudes are amazing. The outrage and indignation shown by BigShoes and others tell me that they do not understand this site, nor have they read all of the objectives, philosophy and the "read this" type of caveats. If they did, understanding is lacking.

This is a group learning type of site, led by, more or less, the people with TMF in front of their handles. I looked, and I can't find the place where it says "Results Guaranteed".

Most publications charge money. Others have a certain angle or axe to grind. As far as I know, TMF does not employ journalists. They do not run a brokerage. They are not venture capitalists (in the commercial sense).

Many, many people come here expecting to be told what to buy, when to buy, when to sell, what to sell. That is not the purpose of this site or the boards. I have rarely seen, if ever, a TMF or any of the many leaders of the forums write "Buy This because...". All I've ever seen is "I (or We are) am buying this because...".

Every column I read, every one of the dozens of posts I read every day here, I read with a certain sense of skepticism. Don't read that as doubt. Read that as asking myself "Is this right?" or "Does this make sense?". If I find a mistake or I need additional clarification, I email the author or post a question or correction in the open as a contribution to the learning. I do not accuse a TMFer or any other poster of lying.


In the recent Maker column re: Nokia the Matt Richey said "But don't take my word for it. Seriously. For example, if you took Bill's word for it last Wednesday, you might've thought Nokia's flow ratio was just a so-so 1.85. Nope, it's actually 1.16. Did we catch you with that one? Watch out, we Fools are prone to a bit of trickery now and then."


What I got out of the last sentence above was that TMF screws up now and then. Deliberate mistakes are made, but they are usually explained in the same column. I also read this as a very, very polite way of saying "If you were caught with this mistake, you are not doing it yourself but lazily relying on others. You are not trying to learn, but to copy someone else's work."

What BigShoes and others need to do is to take out some damn paper and a pencil and do some analysis themselves. Then post it. Then these people can become contributors instead of complainers.

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