The Lemon Fool

Clariman wrote:Fair point. The idea was originally raised by the Mods so that those who felt it was an unnecessary and fractious diversion from the main financial content of the site did not have to see it. There was also Mod discussion which included the view that users could ignore it anyway, that we shouldn't have the board at all and that the board was essential.

FWIW, I think PD serves a useful purpose as a 'lightning rod' for contentious subjects. I rarely look at it, but I appreciate the fact that it's there because moving discussions that threaten to 'hijack' investment threads to PD is a rather friendlier, less confrontational way of preventing that from happening than deleting them...

csearle wrote:I think PD will eventually wither as once the B topic is sorted the main contributors will have little to discuss and no new Fools will be aware of its existence.

I doubt it! I can't remember a time when there weren't any contentious subjects that tended to provoke heated arguments - the "B topic" is an especially contentious example, agreed, but LoST was a thriving board on TMF long before it came up... And if by any chance PD ever does wither, I don't recommend getting rid of it - because it probably won't be long before something else comes up for which a 'lightning rod' is useful...

Gengulphus

Howyoudoin wrote:But if someone is paying £20+ a year to access this site, they don't really give a feck about Google and their threats, do they? That's not our problem, it's your problem.

That is a very short sighted and unacceptable view I think. The owners here do a great job and so do the mods (by and large!) It is to me a great resource and I would simply remove Polite Discussions altogether, as it simply allows otherwise unfulfilled people their say.

Thanks Calriman for the comments. It helps to put the whole thing in perspective.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:That is a very short sighted and unacceptable view I think. The owners here do a great job and so do the mods (by and large!) It is to me a great resource and I would simply remove Polite Discussions altogether, as it simply allows otherwise unfulfilled people their say.

I agree 100%. One of the major reasons why TMF removed the message boards was the aggrevation caused by Land of Serious Topics (and to a lesser extent Middle Eastern Topics). It didn't look good for the site for Best of Boards to be constantly filled by aggressive and contentious topics on those two boards. From emails from TMF (and conversations with TMFers at Socials) LoST and MET occupied the vast majority of moderators' time. And most of the legal risk.

I (and several others) suggested that LoST and MET should be shut down and the more obsessive posters (i.e. those who only ever posted there, and posted frequently) simply be banned from the boards. TMF was clearly fed up with the message boards and I wasn't surprised when they were shut down.

LoST and MET were moved to the Fringe, which meant that posts there couldn't be recommended and thus wouldn't appear on Best of Boards. Then we started getting LoST and MET type posts appearing on the investment boards, notably Bert's Investment Sanctuary, and things started all over again. Bert's went from arguably the best investment board on TMF to LoST 2 after the Brexit vote.

Gengulphus wrote:

Clariman wrote:Fair point. The idea was originally raised by the Mods so that those who felt it was an unnecessary and fractious diversion from the main financial content of the site did not have to see it. There was also Mod discussion which included the view that users could ignore it anyway, that we shouldn't have the board at all and that the board was essential.

FWIW, I think PD serves a useful purpose as a 'lightning rod' for contentious subjects. I rarely look at it, but I appreciate the fact that it's there because moving discussions that threaten to 'hijack' investment threads to PD is a rather friendlier, less confrontational way of preventing that from happening than deleting them...

Totally agree. I actually tried quite hard yesterday to divert posts (which were at risk of veering away from news towards opinion) away from the "Company News board" ULVR thread onto a "different board". My efforts were in vain.

Gengulphus wrote:

csearle wrote:I think PD will eventually wither as once the B topic is sorted the main contributors will have little to discuss and no new Fools will be aware of its existence.

I doubt it! I can't remember a time when there weren't any contentious subjects that tended to provoke heated arguments - the "B topic" is an especially contentious example, agreed, but LoST was a thriving board on TMF long before it came up... And if by any chance PD ever does wither, I don't recommend getting rid of it - because it probably won't be long before something else comes up for which a 'lightning rod' is useful...

I agree. Since it seems that TLF is a "broad church" (other people's words) it will always be seen as a place to discuss other matters (e.g. health, books, cars etc.). As Geng states there will always be a few hot topics in current affairs which people will want to discuss and argue about. It's human nature.

Matt

Gengulphus wrote:

csearle wrote:I think PD will eventually wither as once the B topic is sorted the main contributors will have little to discuss and no new Fools will be aware of its existence.

I doubt it! I can't remember a time when there weren't any contentious subjects that tended to provoke heated arguments - the "B topic" is an especially contentious example, agreed, but LoST was a thriving board on TMF long before it came up... And if by any chance PD ever does wither, I don't recommend getting rid of it - because it probably won't be long before something else comes up for which a 'lightning rod' is useful...

Gengulphus

Exactly!

I certainly come to this site for the financial content, not the polite discussions or other content. Though I found myself getting drawn into the Brexit related discussions because of seeing such one-sided misrepresentations of the situation.

I am happier now that I am not able to see that content, (I can follow Brexit developments from less biased sources), though I shall miss the sharp perceptive comments of Owen of Swansea and JoyofBrexit!!

I am hoping that the changes to the structuring of the boards will now alleviate some of the recent problems I have been having in accessing The Lemon Fool. All seems to be good this morning.