# 50,000 posts!



## Joe Blow (12 June 2006)

Well ASF is now 50,000 posts and a little more than 2 years old!

As this is a significant milestone for ASF, I thought I would take the opportunity to say a few words and address a few issues at the same time. Bet you weren't expecting this, were you?  : 

ASF has been quite the rollercoaster ride since its inception in late May 2004. In the last two years I've had legal letters from the CEO of an ASX listed company demanding that posts deemed to be 'defamatory' be removed, hate mail and harrassment from a banned member, one offer to merge ASF with another ASX based forum and two offers to buy ASF outright. Plus, of course, the usual daily dramas and heachaches that go along with running a forum. But I'm still having a good time and I plan on sticking around to watch this place grow.

There were three main points I wanted to briefly touch on:

*Peace and Harmony at ASF*

I have noticed that the larger ASF has gotten the more likely it has become for conflicts between members to occur, creating a sense of disharmony on the forums. I realise that some conflicts on a forum with this many members is inevitable, but I would hope that we can keep it to a minimum. In order for this to be achievable I need the co-operation of all ASF members. I need people to be proactive about avoiding conflict on the forums and to report troublemakers to me or one of the moderators as soon as possible. 

If you find the posts of another member annoying or irritiating then I strongly urge you to place them on your ignore list. I have noticed that some members refuse to do this and I am mystified as to the reasons why. It is without a doubt the best method of avoiding the posts of someone who rubs you the wrong way and is a proactive step in avoiding conflicts with others. On forums, as in life, we will inevitable encounter others we find annoying and irritating. The larger the community ASF becomes the more likely it is that there will be several people who meet this criteria. Two suggestions I can make that will make your life far less stressful are:

1) Put them on your ignore list, or;
2) As tempting as it may be, do not respond to their posts. Ever.

I understand how easy it is to be drawn into conflict with others on the forum. With no body language to observe and being reliant solely on language to convey your thoughts it is easy for words to be occasionally misconstrued. If you are in doubt about what somebody meant, just send them a quick PM and ask them. That way, if they did mean to insult you, you can fight via PM and keep it off the forums.   

If you feel you are being baited by someone then please contact me by PM and I can take the appropriate action. (No crowbars necessary!   )


*A few friendly reminders about posting*

Please title your thread as accurately at possible. The thread title is the only clue other members have to the content of your thread so please take a moment to consider the title carefully and try and be as precise as you can.

Please be aware of your spelling and grammar for the sake of readability. I don't expect everyone to be perfect but please just have a quick read through your post before you click on the 'Submit Post' button. It only takes a minute and you will be surprised at how many inadvertant errors you will discover... and hopefully correct!

Don't forget to use the 'Report a post' feature to report posts that you feel violate the ASF code of conduct is some way. The faster a post is reported the faster it can be dealt with by myself or one of the moderators. To report a post just click on the '
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 ' icon that appears in the top right of the offending post.

Please keep your signatures to within the defined limits. Remember, you are only allowed two single spaced lines of text and one link. If you have smilies in your signature that make it more than two single spaced lines please remove it or replace it with another, smaller one. Signatures that are outside of these limits will be edited. If signatures become too much of an issue in the future I may consider eliminating links from them altogether.

Ramping is bad. Don't do it. So is posting while drunk... I won't mention any names.   


*The Future*

I'm very fond of the community we've created here and I would like to see it continue to grow and mature and the body of knowledge that is contained within the 2,900 odd threads here can be continuously built upon and expanded for the benefit of all. ASF has been a full time job for me for some time now. I left full time employment earlier in the year to devote all my energies to the management and administration of the forums. In terms of revenue it's not full time for me yet but I believe that it eventually will be. So please, if you have found ASF to be valuable or if you have enjoyed your time here and found it to be worthwhile please consider supporting some of the advertisers or buying your investment books and software through the ASF Investment Shop. Every little bit helps and is sincerely appreciated by me. 

Over the next few months you may see me experimenting with the placement of the ads as I attempt to optimise things. My aim with the ads is to make them as unobstrusive as possible while still getting them seen. As you can imagine it is a difficult balance so please bear with me until I find the system that works best.

Now for some quick thank you's 

Thank you to all those who have so generously donated money to ASF. Your contributions are always very sincerely appreciated.

Thank you to ASF's moderators RichKid and WayneL (and now ctp6360) who I know got more than they bargained for when they agreed to give their time to keep a watchful eye over the forums. Please always show them respect they deserve as volunteers. Being a moderator can be a thankless job at times and I know they do it because they care about the site.

And thanks to everyone else as well for contributing to the forums and for coming back and visiting ASF as often as you do. We are more than twice as busy this month as we were in December. It's good to see so many people determined to maintain the high standards we have set for ourselves here. Lets all try and keep ASF a cut above the rest!

This was my first post  on ASF, made in the ASX Stock Chat forum on May 28, 2004:



> Welcome to Aussie Stock Forums! I hope you enjoy your stay.
> 
> Please let me know if you have any suggestions to make the site more useful. I want it to be a place where investors of all types and ages can come and exchange information!




I hope that if anything, we have maintained the spirit and purpose of that first post - 50,000 posts and a little more than two years later.

Thanks for sticking around everyone. See you all at 100,000 posts!

Cheers!
Joe

P.S. Don't forget, if you have any ideas, criticisms or suggestions feel free to post them in the Suggestion Box. Or you can always PM them to me if you prefer.


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## Dan_ (12 June 2006)

Joe,

May i be the first to sat congratulations and well done on an outstanding effort providing us with ASF.

Thanks for giving us a home for stock discussion, education and an open forum to express ourselves in.

Thank you


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## ctp6360 (12 June 2006)

Joe you know I'm one of your biggest fans and its clear that the success of this forum is directly related to the massive effort and care you put in to setting it up and running it. I have never seen a forum, in any field, maintain such quality and harmony and have such valuable contributers and such wonderful regulars who are genuinely interested in helping out other people.

Congratulations and thankyou! I didn't know you were doing this full time now, but I'm pleased to hear it and I think you did the right thing in not selling it (you can imagine what they would have done to it, being a sell-out myself, I know!), and I am sure that everyone will consider making their stock market purchases through the ASF store to make this feasable for you and clicking on the ads they are interested, of course, I know I do!

Thankyou again, I think you know that everyone on this forum has a deep respect for you and immense gratefulness that such a resource exists (FOR FREE!)


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## Sean K (13 June 2006)

Joe, You could sell this for a fortune if you market it the right way. For the love of our game - sell high!


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## frugal.rock (23 June 2022)

Joe Blow said:


> Well ASF is now 50,000 posts and a little more than 2 years old!




Now over 18 years old.
Not sure on post numbers?

3 Cheers to Joe and all contributors over the years. 






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## tech/a (23 June 2022)

Clearly, I talk too much with 20,000 posts.
Long and at times very expensive exercise for Joe.
In the 20+ years I've been around I've seen.

Plenty come on ready to make a killing and pretty well all of them are no longer here.
Others have just come along out of nowhere and disappeared back into the abyss.
A few are committed and talented traders.
Many give up with the constant barrage of the unsullied seeking attention and nothing more.
I've sadly seen many brilliant professionals who leave through a lack of patience with the moron factor. 
Lots and lots of agendas are being filled and partly filled or not filled at all by this forum.

But in amongst the widely diversified community, there is *BRILLIANCE*.

That is why this Black Duck stuck/sticks around---and shuts up, mostly (Now). ( I became older and perhaps a little wiser).

Well done Joe ----- Most small businesses don't last 3 years! I sincerely hope you have received enough out of it
over the years in return, to continue for another few years.

A big Thanks.
the *BLACK DUCK*


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## divs4ever (23 June 2022)

tech/a said:


> Clearly, I talk too much with 20,000 posts.
> Long and at times very expensive exercise for Joe.
> In the 20+ years I've been around I've seen




 LOL

 that is only because i haven't been here  long  , and need to nap  now days


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## PZ99 (23 June 2022)

frugal.rock said:


> Now over 18 years old.
> Not sure on post numbers?
> 
> 👍👏👍



We passed a million posts a few years ago so this should be 1181798 minus all the hiddens and deletions


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## Joe Blow (23 June 2022)

Wow, blast from the past. I was so excited about 50,000 posts.

Re-reading my post in this thread I sound so bright and optimistic and unjaded. That one legal threat over time turned into a whole drawer of them and two separate legal battles, one of which lasted almost four years until trial and only stopped costing money recently after I bankrupted the person responsible for it. Needless to say, ASF did not lose either case.

I hope everyone has enjoyed their time here, and found this community useful to them in some way. That's why I started it. I didn't think it would last 18 months, let alone 18 years. That's a quarter of an average lifetime. A scary thought indeed.

I also hope that some people have avoided being ripped off by scammers. There are too many of them in the financial services industry and I would mostly refuse to take down threads that exposed them, leading to many of the aforementioned legal threats.

Thanks to everyone (past and present) for your contributions in building this community and helping to create the huge body of knowledge contained in all these threads. I think we've done alright here, and something good and worthwhile has been created. I hope ASF continues to be useful to people in the coming years.


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## sptrawler (23 June 2022)

Joe Blow said:


> I hope everyone has enjoyed their time here, and found this community useful to them in some way. That's why I started it. I didn't think it would last 18 months, let alone 18 years. That's a quarter of an average lifetime. A scary thought indeed.



I have only been on the forum since 2009, but have found it the most hospitable, friendly and inclusive web based forum I've joined.
It really is a space that people can bandy ideas, discuss investment, politics and even religion without it descending into a slagging match.
@Joe Blow you should be proud of the platform you have developed and it obviously is a reflection of you, your perseverance and personal values.
I for one find it comforting, knowing I can come here and discuss something and get sensible objective opinions, no matter what the subject.
So hopefully you can keep peddling away and maintain the platform.

Cheers and thanks.


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## SirRumpole (26 June 2022)

This site is a civilised haven removed from the petty point scoring rampant on places like HC, Facebook and Twitter.

What @sptrawler said +1.

Well done to Joe and all the participants here.


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## Dona Ferentes (26 June 2022)

SirRumpole said:


> ....places like HC, Facebook and Twitter.



Forums in general represent an early social medium development. Most ran a good race in the early 2000's and have either morphed or abruptly closed. On the investment / sharemarket side of things, I can think of SharesGuru, ShareScene, Ten Bags Full, where many a misspent hour was spent. All gone. I've never been predisposed to HC, the crassness was too evident.

A reality of the catchment audience is that we're all getting on. By definition. And mainly blokes. (probably white, too, if you need to feel guilty). Middle class. _Whoa there_!! ... too much stereotyping. And apologies to some younger people, and to the females, worthy contributors all.

I guess the younger crowd are more attune to FB and Twitter, Redittor ways. Or bloggers /influencers (self-appointed).


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## moXJO (26 June 2022)

God. I've been talking sht since 2005 under a different username back then. 
I actually followed wayneL from I think was his webpage on options and found him posting here. 

Where does the time go.


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## divs4ever (26 June 2022)

since this forum is 'less hype and emotion'  ( than one major rival )   the current headwind  is over-valued markets   and endemic uncertainty 

 take the 'sub $1' end of the market cap  there were several invest-able  contenders  , some had good growth prospects AND paid divs. back in 2011 and 2012 ( even up to 2014  if you researched hard )

 arguably this forum needs a good ( but not catastrophic ) market melt-down  so members can talk fundamentals and valuations


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## 3 hound (26 June 2022)

Forums in this format are effectively dead and gone technology. That just makes it all the more  remarkable that this forum generates the traffic, posts  and new members it does.

Congratulations on the staying power and quality content that has been established.


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## Captain_Chaza (26 June 2022)

divs4ever said:


> since this forum is 'less hype and emotion'  ( than one major rival )   the current headwind  is over-valued markets   and endemic uncertainty
> 
> take the 'sub $1' end of the market cap  there were several invest-able  contenders  , some had good growth prospects AND paid divs. back in 2011 and 2012 ( even up to 2014  if you researched hard )
> 
> arguably this forum needs a good ( but not catastrophic ) market melt-down  so members can talk fundamentals and valuations



I Agree! 
I think you need your own thread to discuss your own somewhat Fundamental Knowledge
I find your bits and pieces  of FA comments  a nuisance on my Technical Analysis
 As you know 
I am not interested in any debate! re FA vs TA

Please Stick to what works for you  and I will stick to what works for me


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## kenny (26 June 2022)

As antiquated and obsolete Forum formats are, I have always found welcome community and thoughtful insights here in ASF that's absent in the other channels devoted to the same subjects.

I add my thanks to Joe for maintaining the thankless effort to keep ASF going day after day.


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## noirua (27 June 2022)

SirRumpole said:


> This site is a civilised haven removed from the petty point scoring rampant on places like HC, Facebook and Twitter.
> 
> What @sptrawler said +1.
> 
> Well done to Joe and all the participants here.



Yes indeed. You should try the website ADVFN in the UK to find out how bad it can get. The FCA the equivalent to ASIC are described as being somewhere between totally useless and absolutely pathetic.  I would go for both.


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## Joe Blow (27 June 2022)

3 hound said:


> Forums in this format are effectively dead and gone technology. That just makes it all the more  remarkable that this forum generates the traffic, posts  and new members it does.




Even though the traditional forum format is old technology there is still no better platform for long form content. I have been tracking a number of ASX based Facebook Groups for a number of years now and most of the ones that were busy in 2018 have either been abandoned or now have minimal activity.

I belong to one or two other Facebook Groups that are not investment related and the one that is most useful to me is a local community group where people ask for recommendations for various kinds of local tradespeople, or to find a lost pet. Facebook Groups is perfect for that. Short questions or queries that require short answers. But it is not suitable for long form content, extended discussions or content that involves multiple images or other media to be inserted into it. There are threads here that have been running for 18 years and have thousands of replies. This kind of content is not suitable for Facebook Groups and is where traditional forums shine.

Regarding forum software generally, I have been using it as a user since 2001 and as an administrator since 2004. For the longest time there was very little advancement in the core features and functionality available in most commercial forum software packages, but that has been changing in the last five or so years most probably in response to the proliferation of other competing platforms. It is becoming more advanced, and more extendable through free and paid add-on modules that provide additional features and functionality and I expect this increased pace of development to continue for the forseeable future. Forum software will continue to get better.

A few years back I was quite pessimistic about the future of forums, but now I am not so sure. The interface may change over time, but online community software built for long form content and extended discussions isn't going anywhere because there are many niche areas that require software that caters to this kind of content. Also, people are becoming more wary of social media generally and there are a lot of people who don't want to post under their real name on large social media platforms. Forums are built for privacy. Nobody here knows who anyone else is, unless they voluntarily choose to reveal their own identity. The anonymous aspect of forums is very appealing to a lot of people and I imagine will continue to be in the future.


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## divs4ever (27 June 2022)

the value in these  forums  ( in my opinion ) is the accumulated knowledge  , and the ability  to go back to the GFC ( and before ) to see opinions  and historic announcements and charts 

 hindsight can be very educational


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## Dona Ferentes (27 June 2022)

> long form content and extended discussion



.. and a moderator


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## Sean K (27 June 2022)

Joe Blow said:


> people ask for recommendations for various kinds of local transpeople,


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## SirRumpole (27 June 2022)

Joe Blow said:


> Even though the traditional forum format is old technology there is still no better platform for long form content. I have been tracking a number of ASX based Facebook Groups for a number of years now and most of the ones that were busy in 2018 have either been abandoned or now have minimal activity.
> 
> I belong to one or two other Facebook Groups that are not investment related and the one that is most useful to me is a local community group where people ask for recommendations for various kinds of local transpeople, or to find a lost pet. Facebook Groups is perfect for that. Short questions or queries that require short answers. But it is not suitable for long form content, extended discussions or content that involves multiple images or other media to be inserted into it. There are threads here that have been running for 18 years and have thousands of replies. This kind of content is not suitable for Facebook Groups and is where traditional forums shine.
> 
> ...



'Local transpeople' ?

A Freudian slip of are they running a dating service ?


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## Joe Blow (27 June 2022)

Sean K said:


>




Ooops! Don't know how that happened. Post edited.


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## 3 hound (27 June 2022)

I read it as transpeople and didn't have the slightest problem. 

Tradespeople exist.
Transpeople exist
all sorts of different people exist 

and all have a right to.


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## Joe Blow (27 June 2022)

3 hound said:


> I read it as transpeople and didn't have the slightest problem.
> 
> Tradespeople exist.
> Transpeople exist
> ...




Yes, except you don't normally get recommendations for transpeople, while a recommendation for a tradesperson is far more common.


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