Actually I am happy to stand on my record in this forum.
With over 400 posts to date, many of which have been included in the most read posts of all, and ranked 5 Star I believe I am, as well as all people here, a contributor.
A search in the forum will find many positive and some negative things said about me and my companies. People are entitled to their opinions and I, who engage in public philosophising, have to take the good with the bad when it comes to attention.
In most cases I have respectfully and sometimes forcefully responded to criticism. I have admitted mistakes where appropriate and engaged in debates on wide ranging topics, sometimes changing people’s point of view but always encouraging the main goal of this forum – education.
While there are a lot of “new faces” that I don’t recognise responding here I believe that I have built up, over the last 4 years the respect of many in this forum, even if that respect is only for my willingness to engage in debate on many topics, including my strategies and investments.
Indeed the thread on Fox Invest had continued for many months with many contributors and many different points of view and I responded where appropriate to all those comments – all that was fine.
A post was made that, while described as an “attack” which it may or may not have been, contained information that was untrue, unsubstantiated and potentially false and misleading.
And yes, I did ask for that post to be removed. People’s views on all my activities are fine, even if they do not agree with me – after all that is what a forum is all about, but a line was crossed. However to imply that the Mod’s are unable to make their own decisions, again I think is unjustified. They do a difficult job under difficult circumstances and they do it of their own free time and volition. I think they should be lauded for the job they do and I always appreciate their adjudication and keen eye for detail that has kept this forum as a valuable resource for all investors, not degenerated into the mess that other forums have.
Not only was the post insulting to our investors it was full of errors and non-factual information.
As an investment adviser it is easy to pick on me and the investments I manage and recommend to our clients. And I have not always got it right. Some of our investments have not performed well. But the majority have and I guess that is why we have 12,700 clients all around Australia and have been in business for 21 years.
In this case I am very happy with Fox Invest. While its share price has been adversely affected by illiquidity and recent market movements I reiterate that we believe that Fox Invest is run well to mandate, performance has been above expected, shareholders are largely very happy with our results, and Fox Invest offers an alternative investment that is suitable to some people and may not be suitable to people with a different view on our mandate or structure.
It is a small Listed Investment Company (LIC). It has risks that larger LIC’s do not have. It is suitable for a small number of investors who understand the mandate, agree with it and believe that the risks are appropriate to their investing model.
And finally, almost all public figures who have been contributors here have been criticised to the point of leaving. These people include well respected authorities on their chosen field and strategy and I believe their loss is to the detriment of the forum.
There is little gain for me to post here – we do not sell or market property, the members of the forum are independent investors with little desire for our advice services and very few are clients or interested in being clients.
I contribute because I believe in the goals of the forum, because I believe in education, because Jan was an inspiration to me when I was starting out and because I believe in encouraging people to achieve their dreams. I respect the contributions of many, many people here, even those who have debated me strongly (like Bill L.). Those people have held their views, intelligently and with excellent knowledge and wisdom debated topics without ever resorting to mistruth and vindictive criticism. And I will continue to encourage that type of discussion regardless of if it supports me, my philosophies and indeed my companies.
As I have said, discussion and even strong, well moderated and measured debate is fine, but personal attacks and vendettas will only lead to the disintegration of this forum and lose this extraordinarily valuable resource forever. Easy to criticise, MUCH harder to do.