From: mdhangton@gmail.com   
      
   Dorothy J Heydt presented the following explanation :   
   >   
   > Unfortunately, because of a pestiferous infestation of political   
   > flamers a few years ago, this group is now very little read.  A   
   > pity, that.  We used to have some good discussions.   
      
   I watched an investment and stock trading newsgroup website die like   
   that a few years ago.  The core problem was that talking about   
   economics or economic reports was seen as criticism of Obama, and these   
   guys would come in to call the members klansmen and racists.  So then   
   people only talked about stock chart patterns because that was safe,   
   and then a guy came who only talked up those pennystocks in NASDAQ   
   Smallcap market that shoot up 5X in short squeezes.  He posted so much   
   of that, he became the dominant member, and then forbid anybody to talk   
   about technical analysis and bashed the people who used to be core   
   members when they posted stock charts.  That was the final knife that   
   killed it.  After that, the brokerage who hosted it said nobody talked   
   about stocks there, only their pets and whatnot, and stopped paying for   
   the server.   
      
   Of course, it was competing with Twitter and FB, so it was living on   
   borrowed time anyhow.  And I stopped posting there, so it was doomed.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)