Forum Topics Happy New Year
Longpar5
7 months ago

Happy new year all! I concur, no radical changes but some minor enhancements could help.

I'd like to see company pages linked to their meetings. With a few years of meetings under the belt now, it would be great to be able to go to say the laserbond page and see there has been two meetings and go back and watch them. Another example, if I've heard about a new company somewhere, I'd like to be able to look it up on strawman and see the straws and the meetings (if they exist) all in the one page. Another point on the meetings is i watch the meetings via my mobile via the website, I don't usually have time to watch in one go and do get frustrated that they refresh and I lose track. Is there a better way to watch and pick them up again?

PS. this could all be user error so happy to be corrected!

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Bradbury
7 months ago

I second the meeting feature. Or being able to search the meeting page. As it all the videos don't load when the page is opened, I have only been able to use the browser search function after force loading the page by scrolling all the way to the bottom.

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wtsimis
7 months ago

Happy New Year to all the Strawman community .

Similarly enjoying some time off and in Vietnam as we speak.

First time visit and can't say anymore to the quality of food on offer and quality of people. Highly recommend.

Heading to Hoi An tomorrow.

I must say i am amazed at the cash usage in Vietnam . They love it . VNPay is available but in my observations has been it is a small %.

Strawman my only two cents is to keep the simplicity of the platform and agree if we could at other investment options that would be ideal , ie for me its BTC which is now my top single holding or those whom hold or trade other cypto's ?

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Jimmy
7 months ago

Simply a short note hoping all had a safe and festive Christmas and wishing everyone the greatest investing success in 2024 and beyond.

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Strawman
7 months ago

Happy New Year Strawpeople!

Apologies for the radio silence over the past week or so; I've been trying to force myself to have a proper break from all things investing. Sometimes it can all get a bit obsessive for me, so its been good to take a deliberate step back. Creating a bit of distance has helped remind me that one of the best things about being an equity investor is that you don't have to worry about the day to day. My companies will continue to do their thing regardless of whether or not i'm thinking about them.

It's also been a good time to reflect on the bigger picture, specifically in regard to what Strawman is and where it's going. Something that has, in no small part, been prompted by the curiosity of friends and family -- How do you plan to grow subscribers and revenues? How can you better 'leverage' the membership?

As a student of business, I recognise that these are legitimate questions. But the first thing to note is that, for me, much of the "return" with Strawman is not directly financial. Yes, there are bills to pay and mouths to feed, but beyond a reasonable level of self-reliance the real value lies in things like community, idea generation and a desire to be a force for good (in what is typically a morally bankrupt industry).

That's why we've always eschewed advertising, upselling and corporate affiliations (Sharesight being the notable exception). We've never received a cent in promoting any listed company, even though there's (very) good money to be made there. The last thing ASX investors need is yet another compromised shill for stocks, products and services that are only likely to do harm.

I'm not trying to virtue signal here -- I desire material success as much as the next person. But the obvious paths one could take here are, to my mind, corrosive to longer term value. Further, it morphs the enterprise into one that is optimised for recruitment and NOT results. Sadly, it's just more profitable to churn & burn; which is why the most successful players in this space are more skilled at marketing than anything else.

The other sad truth is that I don't really have any good ideas for growth that also preserve our independence and focus on member wellbeing.

We could enter new markets, add more data/features, integrate 3rd party services (such as broking), branch into other assets classes and financial services etc etc.. But most of this is really more about ego, and would do little to improve member outcomes.

So I always end up returning to what, for desperate want of a better term, is the Strawman mission statement: To empower members to make more informed decisions and improve financial outcomes.

And this is best served NOT through fancier tools or a broader range of services, but rather by doubling down on what makes Strawman special. For me, that's the community itself. Anything that strengthens that is important. Anything that doesn't is a distraction.

From a infrastructure perspective, that's largely about providing a safe space to share and challenge ideas in a manner that is both practical and intuitive. So while we're always open to adding more tools and features, if it doesn't further this goal it's really just vanity.

From a content perspective, it's about incentivising, prioritising and rewarding high-signal material. Adding more content for the sake of it just ends up creating a lot of noise and diluting the stuff that really matters. The world is awash with data -- it's wisdom that's in short supply.

But that's only my opinion. What matters more is what you think.

With membership fees our only real source of funds, and given our apathy for marketing, member retention is paramount. And that is best served by ensuring you find genuine value in your membership.

So, if you have any thoughts or feedback -- good or bad -- please let us know. Either here in the forums, or via direct message or email if you prefer a more private conversation (andrew@strawman.com).

With your help, we're hoping to make 2024 the best year yet for our members!

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topowl
7 months ago

You know what, I think you nailed it.

There is enough noise out there.

Maybe where Strawman is at right now is enough.

Hopefully, the model ticks all the boxes you need it to financially.

My only disappointment would be to see the gradual creeping in of shameless pumping, manipulation attempts, and endless circular arguments about trial phase speccy biotechs.

It's a slippery slope.

Having an alternative to the other forum "that shall not be named" is a godsend.

Happy NY !

Appreciate all the hard work !!

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mikebrisy
7 months ago

Happy New Year @Strawman and to all StrawPeople.

Like you, i've taken some time off investing apart from keeping a weather eye out for any surprise announcements. It is good to recharge. In reality, I'll not be that active during January and until reporting season, dividing my time instead between the beach, holiday reading, and teaching some summer uni. courses. Of course, I'll also be doing some preparatory research in the run up to results, but overall am content with where my RL portfolio is at for the moment. (I'm getting better at doing nothing more often).

Regarding the Strawman platform, here's my two pennies worth. The value here for me is the uncluttered ability to read the views and perspectives of the community. It has just the right level of functionality to search Members and Companies, and I like the valuation tool/tracker. Adding replies to Straws has been a big positive in 2023.

If I had one wish, it would be to be better able to track (Save? Bookmark?) favourite straws / posts. Sometimes, there are nuggets posted by others which I can't fully digest at a point in time, and then struggle to find at a later date. Its not usually a problem, as you can usually find it by returning to the Forum topic or Member activity.

Other than that, less is certainly more from my perspective. In fact, I'd be willing to pay more to preserve the simplicity and clarity of the existing platform, as that is the true value add for me, and not more features, bells, whistles or integrations. Others will of course have their own views, but that's mine.

Good luck to all for 2024. May we all prosper (i.e., beat the market, and more generally).

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edgescape
7 months ago

Happy new year as well from me.

You can add speccy software, tech, industrials, miners and explorers to "speccy biotechs"

You can choose to ignore these companies or make the effort to determine some arbitrage or why things are going wrong.

I hope to learn better in this for the year forward.

@Strawman On the subject of new features, how is the company ignore filter progressing? Maybe that is a feature we should pay extra for ;)



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trabs76
7 months ago

Happy new year all.

Really happy with the current platform and agree that too many bells and whistles or additional services could dilute the value. Whilst I’m not an active contributor (partly time poor and secondly not overly confident expressing my views) I find the service super valuable, in particular the interviews, uncovering hidden gems and the constructive contributions/insights from members. My new year resolution is to be more active on the platform.   

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UncleWally
7 months ago

Happy New Year everyone.

I totally agree with you @mikebrisy re your desire to be able to save/bookmark favorite nuggets. There have been occasions where I recalled past commentary and wished I could retrieve it. There's a lot of wisdom on this site and it would be good to be able to go find those nuggets from time to time.

Something to think about.

Cheers UW

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Remorhaz
7 months ago

Happy New Year everyone

I'm not sure I have any "sensible" suggestions... however one thing that pops to mind (tho I have no idea at all how it could be incorporated) is that by nature Strawman is very equities focused (I mean smaller cap aussie equities is the mantra :)). Was just wondering if there'd be some rational way to somehow incorporate discussion or otherwise on other asset classes (e.g. fixed income, alternatives, etc). Most of this is likely not listed or it's wrapped in unlisted funds, otc, etc so I'm not even sure how it could even be incorporated from any sort of index or tracking perspective. Obviously many people on Strawman are here for the (small cap) equity discussion and the younger crowd may have close to 100% equity portfolios; but some of us "oldies" might want to consider other things in our real world portfolios :)

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Strawman
7 months ago

Thanks all for the feedback and suggestions.

Keep 'em coming!

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Solvetheriddle
7 months ago

Happy New year everyone 2023 ended up pretty well (finance-wise anyway) despite all the worry, let's hope for a good 2024.

re Strawman, it does some great work, the positives for me are the quality of the contributions, there is much more accountability and therefore reasoned thought than on other platforms. less cheerleading, chest-beating, self-congratulatory nonsense you get on other sites.

my issues are navigating the data, ie finding stuff, often double or triple similar entries under different headings, I don't know why I can't reply to some posts but can reply to others, why my trades go through sometimes and not other times, not big concerns and i dont sweat about it but indexing data could help.

i still would like to see a lot more information from members on the industries from which they come, eg what biz models work, what doesnt, who are the leaders who isnt, products etc. People are prepared to write about industries after a few hours of research when there is (IMO) years of real-world experience out there that could be shared. I could give a detailed breakdown of the funds mgt industry, but it's not exactly software, IT or health is it. thats all i have, all the best for 2024.

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Bradbury
7 months ago

I have no experience in website design, but could there be additional fields to in the user profile which cover occupation / experience etc which is searchable.

This would allow for targeted tags or direct messages ( for those opted in) ?

Not sure on what the uptake/ engagement with this would be like but I would get involved.

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shearman
7 months ago

I agree with @PinchOfSalt

Showing the price at time of post would be the most useful feature. Works very well in Hot Copper.

When reading posts it does two things:

  • Gives you context for how things were at time of the post
  • For older valuation posts - you can quickly understand how their prediction turned out (if you know current price)

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shearman
7 months ago

Just expanding on @Solvetheriddle 's idea re member knowledge.

One of the things that the strawman platform could help the community do is collate/share information on companies.

We all individually do our research on how companies work and collection information.

If there was a way to collect and collate this (like Wikipedia) it would help us all come up to speed with companies a lot quicker

To be clear Im talking about factual information like info on

  • Company Overview
  • Company History
  • Business Model
  • Management Team and Board
  • Products
  • Acquisition History - incl cost, rev, profit
  • Cap Raise History
  • Competitors
  • Risks
  • Moats

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