No. of Recommendations: 2
The "Latest" feature on the new TMF boards is one of the few good things they've done with the new boards.
I definitely like the idea of posts on new stock investing boards being more visible, as those boards are more hidden away. The problem isn't as large as you might think, though - I have scanned the boards having only 5 or less posts and they all have a surprisingly high readership. I pointed this out to BenSolar, as his excellent Alibaba and Upstart posts are among his most recommended despite the audience seemingly small if misjudged by post frequency.
Post frequency is a poor indicator of board quality, and a major goal is to keep each board as focussed as possible.
I also encourage cross referencing posts to introduce boards to other communities. My recent post on the Value Investing board could have been made on the Berkshire Board, but I instead posted it at Value Investing because I thought it was the most relevant there, and then posted an "OT" reference to Value Investing board at the Berkshire Hathaway board.
I'll likely soon add a feature called "Vanguard Boards" which lists all the boards that have at least one post in the last 3 months, and lists the top 4 boards in reverse order of their number of posts. All this means is that a new post added to a new board will push the board to the top of the Vanguard Boards list, making the new post visible. (If quite a few posts are made there, then it will moved down the Vanguard Board list, though if a board is ignored for a few months again, and then a new post is added, once again the board will jump to the top of the Vanguard Board list). This is better than a "latest" list, as such new posts would anyway be swamped by the high frequency of posts on other boards. My "Vanguard Boards" concept will make sure new posts on rarely posted boards will remain visible to accent them.
- Manlobbi
