Attention all posters...Please read.

Originally posted by nine lives ↑

What I am seeing in this thread is a reoccurring theme. Most people agree that negative posters should be allowed to keep the forum balanced but that those posters who are just causing trouble or being trolls should not......

So put yourself in a mod's shoes for a moment and imagine how difficult it might be to decide where to draw the line between a genuine negative poster and a trouble making troll. Here are two brief examples....

Several months ago I was a fan of VPC. At that time we had other HR SAAS's like RFN and 1PG going to the moon. Just around the time of listing VPC was enjoying early success with 20% MoM customer sign ups. My own calcs were confirmed by a Ballieu report that stated VPC should be able to maintain this rate of growth and that if so further capital raising would not be required before break even. Hence dilution would be avoided. But then the customers signings dried up. Ballieu released a second downgraded report predicting 14% MoM growth. This, I realized, would mean a CR was coming soon. So I got out in two stages, one in the low 6c range and the rest in the 4s. As I had been up until then a very active and positive poster I thought it only right to share the reasons for my change of heart complete with the mathematics laid out in simple numbers proving why I thought a CR was coming. Many posters accepted this as genuine but there were a couple who went straight to the lowest common denominator resorting to accusation, insinuations and personal insults. As far as they were concerned I was a troll who was down ramping to buy back cheaper. I made just a couple of posts defending myself after which I stopped posting. I think as a mod I need to set a standard of how to simply walk away rather than descending to that level to defend myself in a never ending squabble. Today there are no negative posters on VPC. The CR did eventuate as I predicted and the SP is now about 2c. I still read the forum occasionally and I shudder when I see posters declare that the fundamentals are the best they have ever been. The fundamentals are not the best they have ever been, they are the worst they have ever been.....but how can I tell them that without repeating what I have already said?? The reason the fundamentals are bad now is exactly the same as when I got out. IE they are not signing new customers and revenue is not growing. But if I kept making that same point then I would be accused of being a troll who is repeating himself ad nauseam.....and so the punters are left to watch their capital evaporate.

Example two. When IOT recently hit 18c there was a poster who declared it would return to 2c. Unlike me who walked away and left the VPC thread to their own devices this bloke has dug in and defended his opinion. Immediately the on forum attacks started, mods were inundated with reports about this trouble making troll who obviously only wanted to stir up trouble for his own morbid pleasure. Guess what. IOT hit a fresh low yesterday of 2.4c with no particular sign that the bottom is in. So this poster, who everyone wanted to vote off the Island, was the one who was right. Imagine if mods caved into popular opinion and we barred this guy....Whilst resisting the temptation to do so was unpopular, in hindsight it was probably an insightful and responsible decision by the mods. If we just caved in then we would be guilty of steering HC towards a culture of boiler room mentality.

There are some posters that do get the chop. Usually the process takes longer than what punters would like but we follow a procedure. We start with moderations, then move on to temp suspensions and/or warnings via private messages and only as a last resort permanent suspension......but the ones suspended are not visible any long so perhaps mods are not credited with taking action as we do. The "trolls" that we allow to stay may really just be posters who are making the fan clubs feel uncomfortable about their investment decisions. I still struggle to know where to draw the line between negative posters and trouble makers but I think a conservative approach is prudent for all the reasons outlined above.

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well said nine lives
I suggest that you add this post to "Wise Thoughts/Words" with possible title:
- where to draw the line between a genuine negative poster and a trouble making troll ?