Attention AVQ posters

Posters, the AVQ forum has become somewhat dysfunctional in recent times so I would like to address some issues in regards to what is expected and what is acceptable behaviour on HC.

HC is not a collection of fan clubs for the lovers of various stocks. It would seem that a myth has been perpetuated whereby it is believed that holders of a stock somehow have special posting rights over non holders and negative posters. This could not be further from the truth. If this was how we ran Hot Copper then we would be nothing more than a collection of boiler rooms where posters of dubious character could talk up dog stocks in order to dump their own holdings on to unsuspecting newbies. This is most certainly NOT a practice we want associated with our name. Hot Copper is, in fact, about balanced debate and we want to see all sides of the argument weighed, the pros and the cons, the risks and the possible rewards. Only by conducting our forum in this manner can readers make informed decisions about the virtues or otherwise of any given stock. However there has been a disturbing trend recently on the AVQ forum of trying to shut down the negative posters. Various tactics have been used ranging from personal abuse, bullying, physical threats, threats to obtain and reveal personal information as well as demanding emails being sent to admin. I would remind ALL posters at this time that when you apply for Hot Copper membership, and indeed every time that you sign into Hot Copper, you agree to abide by our terms and conditions. Such behaviour as I have mentioned is not permitted according to our terms of use. Such violations will be moderated and ultimately posters will be suspended if they persist in these practices.

Over the years we have seen this type of scenario play out so often that I would go as far as describing it as archetypal. Fans of a stock get together and a tribal bond is formed. The negative posters are eyed with suspicion as they are "outsiders" and are not part of the tribal mentality. Instead of addressing the facts of the argument about the stock that were presented by the negative poster (which is how HC is supposed to work) the tribe begins a process of discrediting the character of the negative poster. Terms such as "troll", "trouble maker" and "hidden agenda" become cliches. The negative posters present arguments against the stock and the shareholders respond with threats and personal insults. The shareholders are the ones who end up getting moderated because they are the ones posting outside the guide lines and they are left wondering why.

I also see that there has been discussion on this forum about leaving HC and forming a private discussion group away from the naysayers. We cannot prevent you from forming such groups but I would point out that this has all been done before and with little success. There is one example that really stands out in my mind. There is one well discussed stock on HC that ranged between $1.80 and $2.70 for about 9 months between December 2010 and September 2011. Back then there were a number of posters who were expressing concerns about the future of the stock. As is the case here on AVQ they were labelled as trolls and trouble makers and a group went off HC to form a private discussion group where they could talk about how wonderful their stock was without having their bliss messed up by naysayers. The way they saw it was that we would not "deal" with the "troublemakers". The way we saw it was that we would not budge from our policy of balanced debate. Today that same stock trades at between 5 and 6 cents. HC has been doing this for a very long time and we know what works best. Sometimes what we need to hear and what we want to hear are not aligned but if we are to be ultimately successful as traders and investors then we need a mind that is open to all possible outcomes successful or otherwise.

Maybe AVQ will be that one rare speccie that is different to all the others. For the sake of holders I hope it is. Notwithstanding, in the meantime we are all required to post within the guide lines. If a poster is posting negative arguments you have a couple of courses of action open to you. If you think that poster has nothing of value to add at all you could try using the ignore function. Probably the best course of action is to smash his or her argument to pieces with a counter argument about the facts of the stock. Whilst personal attacks are not permitted no one is saying that debate cannot be robust. Besides anything else, nothing looks quite so desperate or unconvincing as responding to a well thought out post about the facts of the stock with a character assassination. However you will do yourself and your stock a great service if your can prove with facts why the other guy's argument is wrong.

Hopefully we can now start to see a little more tolerance to contrary views from here on and hopefully the AVQ forum can start to function in accordance with HC's terms of use. Please note that I have made this post for your information and as a directive on how we expect to see the forum run. This is not a topic for debate so I will be locking the thread immediately.


thanks
9