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I'm probably the longest Berkshire forum/board poster (on this and previous AOL and others boards) who's 'still here' and finally got my original dealraker name back. Somehow one day MF wouldn't let me use it one day.

Very-very appreciative of Manlobbi doing this and his posts...although given a 28 year experience holding BAM I do question many things the company choses to do as to reported FFO. Not a big thing, just my intuition maybe getting the best of me?

For the record: I am a holder of my inherited Berkshire shares since 1975.

Like Blackswanny I'll mention my largest holdings (I own 250 stocks) and why I hold them as per Manlobbi's suggestion:
Largest holding: AJ Gallagher - Why? Because I read some 45 years ago from John Train that Buffett said, 'We should have gone into the insurance brokerage business instead of underwriting: it is a better business.' I hold all the brokers but AJG has impressed me continuosly with its consistency. I think the stock counting div's has appreciated about 17-18% annually since 1994.
2nd largest: Berkshire
3rd largest: Erie Indemnity. I bought Erie, and I bought quite a bit of it, when the local insurance agency/broker aligned with them and he (a close friend...smart as he can be) suggested I buy the stock. Erie seems outrageously priced but I don't sell: I don't sell because the business seems to crank out results that are impressive.
4th largest: Norfolk Southern. I inherited a small amount of NSC also in 1975 when dad died. The shares are part of my grandfathers purchase and have now been in the family for 82 years. My CPA in our investment club did a compound return on NSC two years ago and for the 82 years it has been 11% according to him. I live on a lake front lot and watch the NSC trains every day go over the trestle. That's why I own mostly, but the performance of the business has been excellent. Wish they'd be more selective as to when they buy back stock, and wish too they'd let their employees live a decent life. I understand that even taking time off for a funeral can get you the axe.
5th largest: Markel. I bought Markel at the public offering. My wife (a CPA) is from Richmond and worked for Markel. Everybody, and I mean everybody from Richmond in any kind of finance position clammored to buy Markel stock when it came public in 1987 or so. We were on the list and got shares. After my my wife left Markel and became self-employed was CPA of DeFazio's Restaurant in Richmond for some time (it closed) and Tony Markel often ate there. We had many conversations with him. I hold because I think the business is sound and stable, that shareholders are treated with respect. I was surprised back then because Tony was already selling stock.
6th largest: Lowe's. My family is in the building materials business and Lowe's began not far from our home. We've been shareholders for a long, long, long time. Excellent business, tends to do well in building downturns, and competition is limited.
7th largest: Mondelez. Bought Cadbury in the year 2000 and have ended up with Mondelez. I just considered the business sound and stout, that little would interfere with steady growth over time and there was almost no way to lose money (my theme as to investing is not to lose, to focus on the downside). Already owned Tootsie Roll and Hershey for decades, so the business was similar. Read much about this business in an excellent book named Emperors of Chocolate.
8th Brookfield things: I stumbled upon the predecessor to Brookfield in name (Edper/Brascan) and bought $5000 of the stock because it was crazy cheap and I thought it was cool that they owned dams and such. I'd already invested in this type renewable assets and the attraction of being unique intrigued me. I hold the stocks because the business fascinates me as does Bruce Flatt. I have suspicions about Flatt (seriously LOL) but I won't sell, I basically never sell anything. I think Brookfield does well but not as well as their accounting suggests. Time will tell.

Rambling, think I got it right. Most of what's in my top holdings simply got there over time with patience. I'm not necessarily an expert investor at all, but I use a model (buy/hold) that tends to reward basically everyone who uses it.

Not checking for spelling or grammar.

Have a great day. Thanks again Manlobbi- please keep the board upbeat, but please let people question things. Wasn't long ago 5 of us questioned GE and Jack Welch, even wrote entensively and published things. We got slaughtered...but all 12 of our points of concern proved completely accurate!

Have a good day.

welcome back dealraker, glad to see you here. - nola622 (gfp on that other board)

Thanks nola 622.

Yeap, nice to see you here :-)

'I'm probably the longest Berkshire forum/board poster (on this and previous AOL and others boards) who's 'still here''

Dealraker,

I certainly won't challenge this statement since my adventure with BRK only began in 1995 on the AOL board. It was just after I retired from XOM and finally had enough investment capital to buy A shares. Those were the days of dial up modems.

I recall a lot of folks who helped me get on the train - tode, pagewrite, neuroberk, robsny, ikoborso, DonaldD, Jbenvent, so many more to whom I owe a debt I'll never be able repay. Some are now gone and others have moved on to other activities. I believe tode occasionally checked the old Fool board, and I've told him and Jack about this one. I would see a few names on the old Fool board that I recalled, but they didn't tend to be active posters.

For reminiscing purposes, what names from the old AOL board do you now see active on this board - at least so far?

And others we might entice?

Tex so far the longest ago poster by far would be babyb as we were having 'discussions' of great interest (laughing out loud with some amount of hysteria) by the mid 1990's. Those discussions included GE/Jack Welch and Cisco/John Chambers and such. Babyb was quite the positive poster, she admired them all. At times I was far more skeptical, sometimes right but not always of course. Babyb is a money manager today with an active website, I know her name but won't share.

That was when Ben (killed in a auto crash) was a prolific and knowledgable poster and I too enjoyed him and debated with him as did babyb.

I'll let you know as they come, but for now I'll have to see some posts and think about it when I recognize the aliases.

And Tex you'll have to post up too what you see. EliasFardo (spelling?) was on the MF boards occasionally: he was a long time ago active poster.

'welcome back dealraker, glad to see you here. - nola622 (gfp on that other board)'

Hi, dealraker, and hi, nola. I didn't realize that nola622 was gfp. I wondered who that person who made such insightful posts was.

For reminiscing purposes, what names from the old AOL board do you now see active on this board - at least so far?

Me

Wheezy

EliasFardo (spelling?) was on the MF boards occasionally: he was a long time ago active poster.

Elia was one of my favorite posters. And, yes, he was very selective in his occasional comments. But he was always worth a listen.

I'm gong through my contacts list and trying to spread the word about this board.

Tex wrote:
I'm gong through my contacts list and trying to spread the word about this board.

Thanks a million Tex.

If I may ask one thing from everyone else - you can do nothing (or may not be able to do anything) about this, but I only ask: (1) Technology - ticked. (2) Culture - superb progress but still not ticked.

We are essentially fine with 1 now. But we all need your help with 2 to reach our collective goal of making sure all the souls that either already left (not just TMF but I mean separating entirely, quite reasonably feeling there was no alternative), or the lost souls who are just about to leave but don't know about this new site - please let them know, somehow.

Ideas include:
1. Going though your emails. What to search for? Use this: The standard subject line that you would have got was 'Fool Boards Reply'. Search for that subject through your emails and let your companions know.
2. Paste the shrewdom.com url to other forums where your companions occasionally went, even if they went there infrequently - it might be enough for them to see your link, and find that they can re-join with you.
3. Other ideas anyone?

We have come a long way in the last 3 days, but you should stay vigilant - you know about this site, but you will be amazed how many don't, unless you actually show them somehow. I cannot do this. This sentence sounds odd, but quite literally: We (including you) are relying not on me, but on you, regarding the cultural side of making this transition successful. Many people's first reaction has been 'What? How is this possible?'. Consequently a lot of people won't believe it could have been programmed so quickly - until they see this site. Even seeing a link, many (probably even I) would not believe it and ignore it, so introduce it nicely: they might need to be nudged a little, but once they clicked, generally it will be okay from there. The usual reaction that follows is: 'I'm in!'.

- Manlobbi

3. Other ideas anyone?

1. Many who seem to have disappeared actually do check in on the new TMF boards from time to time. Searching for a username and checking the profile gives you the answer by showing 'Last seen'. If there's someone you know who would love this place but you don't know to how contact, bringing it to attention by using a 'mention' (in proper context) would likely be welcomed.

2. (Opinion/experience from creating thriving communities from scratch.) When starting out, quality of what's written matters much less than fostering ongoing conversations. Eventually, you reach critical mass in active participants.

Even seeing a link, many (probably even I) would not believe it and ignore it

Interesting statistic: A link to this place was posted on Saul's board. As of writing, the post has 1400 views and the link 600 clicks. In fact, it's the most clicked link on the entire site.

-Raylight

What is a 'Saul Board'? Was there a Brk related message board I've missed?

Manlobbi,

Twitter accounts that are interested in Berkshire include:
@rationalwalk
@RogerLowenstein
@DrDavidKass
@kejca
@ChrisBloomstran
@farnamjake1
@BRK_Student
@wabuffo
@BillBrewsterTBB
@Greenbackd

Perhaps a long shot, but if any Twitter users here, were able to get the attention of any of these folks above. They each have large followings on Twitter. They are all very interested in Berkshire. If they were to post an introduction and link to Shrewdom.com, it would certainly spread the word and help attract even more members to this great group of Berkshire fans.

I think in the past, there has been quite a bit of noise on the Berkshire board, which is off-putting to some of these highflyers and no doubt people like Rational Walk abandoned it for that reason. Although I did see him reference a post by Jim one day last year on the Twitter machine. So maybe he is lurking somewhere.

EliasFardo is someone who it would be great to see here now and again. Having people like mungofitch, iluvbabyb, Dealraker and Manlobbi and the countless others is pretty special but the more talent onboarded the better obviously.

A community like this is so tricky to cultivate I imagine. You have just so many different types of people. Different abilities and personalities. I do genuinely like to see posts from everyone. People just like me 'Even the dull and the ignorant: they too have their story.' People like me can ask questions and challenge some of the better informed posters and that can be useful. We also provide recommendations which no doubt everyone appreciates. Of course the perfect Berkshire community would be thoughtful posts and discussion between the people that have way more insights and experience than people like me. We live in hope that they share their thoughts with us.

EVBigMacMeal

Could you please, or can anyone else her, post another link on that same thread on his page (where there is already a link to this site) but instead linking directly to this post below? In the post I am inviting any of their community who want to return also. They also might want an separate SAS board here, even if not the whole community to return. Thank you!

Good idea but as a fairly new active poster at Saul's board I really don't want add to something that's clearly off-topic. The original poster had a valid reason and it seems like Saul has kindly decided to let the post stay in place. The way to go about this would be that the poster (who I believe has joined this place) edited the post.

As for 'they' and might want a separate board. Well, I'm am a 'they' fully invested in pretty much what's being discussed there, and think it's great idea. It's actually been on my mind since day one of the migration to the new platform to suggest a 'side chat' or something to that effect, where anyone can post. So your post is on my (growing) list of things I intend to comment on.


For those who wonder what Saul's board is about: It's pretty much the polar opposite to BRK. Throw valuation and market timing out of the window, and stay fully invested in hypergrowth companies. Primarily focused on SaaS (Software as a Service) companies with recurring revenue, since their growth is more steady and easier to analyze.

And here's the link to the thread posted on Saul's board: https://discussion.fool.com/t/kindly-check-this-sa...

-Raylight

It's actually been on my mind since day one of the migration to the new platform to suggest a 'side chat' or something to that effect, where anyone can post. So your post is on my (growing) list of things I intend to comment on.

Done, and this topic can continue there to not disturb Berkshire Hathaway. Please encourage comfortable side chats there, it could also be a pleasant contrast for some. I have added a board 'Software as a Service Gems'.

http://www.digitalscores.com/MB?bid=22

Saul might not mind the platform he is on, but if he wants to return to this platform which I think catalyses a more focussed mind-set, he can (with their own post deleting moderation tool). I would then remove the 'Software as a Service Gems' board so there is no redundancy. But it is great either way. The 'Software as a Service Gems' board would probably become popular being more broad.

- Manlobbi

Many who seem to have disappeared actually do check in on the new TMF boards from time to time.

I check the new garbage boards once in a while. Still garbage, and still tumbleweeds. The most interesting & useful post there was the link to here. :-)


Interesting statistic: A link to this place was posted on Saul's board. As of writing, the post has 1400 views and the link 600 clicks. In fact, it's the most clicked link on the entire site.

How likely is it that the TMF folks will take a hint from that?
{pause until the laughter dies down}

No, the way dying organizations do it is they double down on failure.

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