RE:Board Participation NobleHouse...good points
I try to find Boards where there seems to be a number of intelligent people posting who may be thinking about things that I haven't thought about or have technical knowledge that I don't have. In return, I try to pass on perspectives and give people things to think about based on my 50+ years in the investment world and as someone who worked on The Street for many years. If that Board gets overtaken by silly people then I move on to another Board.
In terms of your other point, Dunno, but I have the impression that there are some people who talk about making huge investments and yet ask rookie questions or make rookie comments which leads me to believe that they are more bullsheet than true.
For my part, and I have been atttacked (criticized) for this, i talk in generalities about my investments - eg....underweight/overweight/small as opposed saying I have bought X amount of shares to impress people (for me it isn't anyone's business to know how rich I am) - frankly I am more impressed by the quality of the post than whether they own a ton of shares or not....but hey...that's just me