mark, I have NO way of knowing who is paid and who is not. Do...

mark, I have NO way of knowing who is paid and who is not. Do they exist?...you bet they do and it can be very lucrative.
I brought it up because at times I have seen certain stock threads get so one sided by bashing and anyone that posts ANYTHING positive is literally ganged up upon until and constantly ridiculed.
Bashers also attempt to make a stock thread untenable by creating as much disruption as possible. They turn everything negative and NOTHING positive, yet they talk about creating BALANCE! That is how bashers work.
They can have many usernames and can work in pairs. They are slick, relentless and always very convincing.
Why does a poster bash and bash away at a particular stock if they have no holding?...to save all those that are long the stock...hardly.