Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently put to the Suckers Buy It! forum:
No one here is trying to convince people not to use SBI.
My thought is that it would be a good idea to give this expression of intent greater emphasis.
I have experience with this sort of thing.
There are people who believe firmly, strongly and without any acknowledgment of doubt that my investing ideas are wrong. They believe this so strongly that they won’t permit other people — who want to explore my investing ideas and see if they are right for them — hear about them. They have every right in the world to dismiss my ideas. And they help our communities and even me when they point out weaknesses in what I say. But they cross a line when they take it on themselves to determine as a practical matter what can and what cannot be said at hundreds of investing boards and blogs.
I intend to bring lawsuits against these people. Not because I don’t like them. A good number of them were friends of mine in earlier days. I am bringing the lawsuits because there is no other way to recover the financial losses I have suffered. The bottom line on lawsuits is that they are a money thing.
Don’t go there. That’s my advice.
Continue to criticize SBI all you like and you are performing a public service. All you are doing for so long as you remain on that side of the line is giving people an opportunity to hear the other side of the story.
My only reservation about things said here going back to the first day is that there are times when the emotion is so unrestrained that the impression is made that the goal is to stop prevent people who want to sign up with SiteSell from doing so no matter what. You can’t cross the line. People have a right to make dumb choices for themselves. That’s between them and SiteSell. Let that part of it go.
I sometimes add a section in my posts on investing in which I say “Of course it could be that I am wrong. I’ve been proven wrong about important things in the past and it could be that it’s happening again. I never went to investing school. I never managed a big fund. Please don’t go by what I say solely because I say it. If you do that, you are a darn fool, in my assessment.”
I don’t think I am wrong. But no one ever knows anything with 100 percent certainty. We don’t know with 100 percent certainty that the moon isn’t made of green cheese. So you want to cover yourself for scenarios that today seem unlikely to play out. I wouldn’t have put 11 years of effort into what I am doing if I thought I were wrong. But it hit me at some point that, when I say “I might be wrong,” I am projecting a confidence that those who are trying to silence me do not project. I put points on the board by doing that.
It frustrates me that larger numbers do not already buy into what I say. But the world is what it is and I have to accept it. I believe that in time people will come around. And I make that day come sooner by saying “I could be wrong” than I would by saying “How can anyone be so stupid so as not to see things that are so obviously true?” If you really are right, people will come around in their own time. You cannot force these things.
Rob
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