I'll add my name to the `mourners' for IAAG. I always felt that his posts, despite a slightly
over-enthusiastic use of
italics (only joking if you're reading IAAG!) were consistently some of the best on the board.
I've also had the odd PM with him, and he strikes me as a Good Egg, so I'm sorry he's been feeling a bit scrambled of late. (Mind you, he's also a Liverpool supporter, so Good Eggism is probably a given!)
I have to say that I can't understand his view that there has been increasing acrimony to the point that he's had enough, but that's probably because I don't visit as many boards as he did. Strangely, for an investment site, I now visit relatively few of the investment boards. After not far off 50 years of investing, during which I've had some spectacular (and wholly undeserved) successes and some spectacular (and equally undeserved) failures I've reluctantly concluded that investment returns have as much to do with luck and random chance as diligent research.
However, on the boards that I do regularly visit I've seen hardly any real aggression or hostility. Yes, people disagree, and there are a few posters (you know who you are!) who are like a dog with a bone and tediously drag arguments on
ad infinitum, determined to have the last word, but it's very easy just to leave them to it. When they realise that the only audience left is each other the thread usually dies very quickly.
But on most boards that I frequent, for example, Legal and Beerpig's Snug, the tone seems very convivial, and in many ways far better than the TMF boards. Many of the posts in t'Snug have been remarkably interesting, and have opened my eyes to things I never knew about. LIkewise, both the DAK board and the Computers board have provided me with a lot of really practical help, even though I'm invariably a receiver of advice rather than a contributor. I, and I'm sure many others, really appreciate the time so freely given by the contributors on those and other boards.
So for my own part I think TLF has achieved something quite remarkable, in that it has provided a very effective replacement for TMF. Like many others, I was truly shocked and saddened by the demise of the TMF boards, and it never occurred to me that it could or would ever be so brilliantly replaced. The fact that it has is, of course, largely due to the people who post here, but we all need to bear in mind that we wouldn't be here at all if it hadn't been for those who set it up and have since given their time to running and moderating it.
So keep up the good work, and don't let the tail of the odd irritating poster wag the LF dog. And IAAG if you're reading this please
come back soon, it's
not the same without you!