I block. Here’s why.
Three pointers and next steps.
ValueAnalyst on Twitter hosts the highest quality TSLA discussion, because I’ve been fortunate enough to attract many “followers” with deep insight. These excellent accounts must be provided with a safe zone, in which they discuss ideas among each other and continuously move the ball forward.
There are two types of threats to achieving this goal:
- FUDsters who try to use my platform to spread FUD to my followers; and
- Accounts with low signal-to-noise ratios.
FUD
Too many online platforms take a passive approach to moderating, one in which bad actors are allowed to frustrate the excellent ones, which then leads to a downward spiral. In contrast, I actively search for FUDsters using the markers I shared in Open Letter to Tesla Bulls and block them.
Signal-to-noise
The page is open to public, so everyone is welcome to read the discussions, but just like a board would not grant a seat to anyone or a company would not hire all applicants, in order to ensure the highest quality discussion, I don’t allow people interrupt others with half-baked, erratic mumbo jumbo. The following three actions greatly increase signal-to-noise ratio:
- Ensure what you state as facts are, in fact, facts. Practice this simple but crucial step on your own time, in order to avoid wasting anyone else’s time. More importantly, you’d be surprised at how much your argument improves just in the process of digging deeper into facts;
- Don’t react, but take the time to think. Check your ego at the home page, put yourself in the other person’s shoes to first fully understand their position, identify the point of divergence between your arguments, and only then reply, while also practicing the following:
- Minimize the number of characters; not the number of tweets, or sentences, or words, but the number of characters. Each character takes up time, and if everyone optimizes their tweets by self-editing, then we can together achieve efficient communication, which is the quickest path to better conclusions.
Finally, if you were blocked, you can get unblocked by convincing two accounts I follow that you should be part of the discussion.
Personal Commitment
I’m far from perfect, and in an effort to live up to the above standards, I will reduce the number of my tweets by one-third from 1,260 in August to less than 800 in September, and then to 500 in October, while also increasing my productivity on other platforms. I’ll be looking at you to keep me in line.
