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Quick Links
Private Messaging
Recommending a
Message
My Village Boards
Member Directory
Profile
Passwords
Favorites
Filters
Managing Posts
Visitor Counts
SITE
POLICIES
Abuse Reporting
One Alias Policy
GENERAL
MARKET QUESTIONS
OTC/BB & Pink Sheets
Microcap vs Smallcap
Newbie
OTHER
Request a New Message Board
Generate Discussion on
New Board
SEC Violations
Quote Discrepancies
Ads and Dial-up
SITE
FEATURES
Can I change the font size? It’s too
small and hard for me to read.
Yes. Just go to your Preferences
page, select the font size you want from the drop-down
menu and click ‘apply settings.’ NOTE: This
will change the size of most (but not all) of the text
on our site.
FYI: Other preferences include setting the number of
messages to be displayed on a page, enabling rich text
editor for more options when posting a message (such
as bold, italics, hyperlinks, & other font settings),
editing ‘My Boards,’ etc.
What are Quick Links?
Quick Links appear at the top of every page and are
short cuts to your favorite websites or InvestorVillage
pages of your choice. By default, you have two quick
links which include your Inbox and an option to send
a private message (Send PM).
How do I send a private message to another
member?
There are several ways to “PM” someone.
First, you need to be signed in. Then:
1. Click on the the ‘Send PM’ Quick Link
at the upper left hand of the page you are on. This
will pop-up an entirely blank window, so make sure you
enter the member’s full & correctly spelled
alias in the "To" field.
2. When you are reading a message, you can click the
white “send private message” button located
above the message. Enter your message in the pop-up
window (the message author’s alias will be in
the send to bar by default). Be sure to click send before
closing the window!
3. You can search for a particular member by their
profile in the member directory and click the “send
PM” text link (again, this will automatically
enter the profile alias you are looking at).
4. In your inbox, you can click ‘Send Private
Message’ or you can reply to a private message
sent to you.
How do I view Sent Messages?
There are a couple of ways to view sent messages. First,
on the upper left hand side of your inbox, you will
see the word "Folder" just below the larger
words "Private Messages." To the right of
this word is a drop-down menu with various folder options.
Select "Sent Messages" and click "Go."
Alternatively, in the upper right hand corner is a link
to "View Sent Messages." You can click this
as well.
Why do you show who recommended a message?
For greater transparency and accountability. On many
discussion sites where users have unlimited aliases
and accounts, one abusive tactic is simply to recommend
a message multiple times. We believe this practice dilutes
and distorts the value of such recommendations. On our
boards, not only is the number of recommendations tallied
and displayed, but users can click and view the alias(es)
of the recommenders.
FYI: InvestorVillage message lists are sortable by
number of recommendations. Just click the word “recs”
at the top of the list and the messages will be displayed
in order of the number of recommendations received,
with the most recommended message appearing first. To
get back to the default message display, click on “date
posted.”
There's nothing in the "My Village Boards"
box on my homepage. Should there be?
If you want an easy way to see new activity for your
favorite boards or to access them quickly, you should
add boards to your My Board list. See
Help for My Boards
How do I delete a board from 'My Boards'?
We do not currently have a delete board button in the
My Boards window, but we plan on putting one there soon.
Sorry for the inconvenience. In the meantime, you can
delete a board by going to your Preferences page. You
can get there from the Preferences
page.
Once there, look to the right and under My Boards you
should see a list of the current stocks in your My Boards
list. Click the delete button next to the board(s) you
would like to remove.
Is there some way to find other InvestorVillage
members who follow the same stocks I do?
Yes. Go to the Member
Directory and search for members who Post On or
Follow your stock symbol. Did you know you can also
search member profiles by age, gender, and location?
Why are many of the profiles in the member
directory missing or not available.
Either:
a) the member you are looking up has not yet filled
out a profile, or
b) the member is sharing his/her profile only with
a select group and you are apparently not in that group.
You might politely ask (via private message) to be
included in his/her group—but don’t be offended
if you never get a reply.
I wanted to put my personal contact info in
my profile, but you don’t provide fields for name,
address, phone number or anything like that. Why not?
And is there any chance you might consider adding that?
We designed the profiles specifically so that would
not actively ask for any clearly personally identifiable
information. After all, many users are rightly concerned
about their privacy. However, we have left a sort of
catchall box for ‘Comments’ which a member
may use to provide such information, if he or she is
comfortable doing so.
PLEASE NOTE: InvestorVillage does everything possible
to protect member identity and privacy and we do not
accept responsibility or liability resulting from a
user’s decision to share personally identifiable
information with the public on our site.
How can I change my password?
Just go to your Preferences
page, (you can find this in the upper left hand
side of the blue tool bar at the top of the page).
On the Preferences page, scroll down and on the left
side of the page you should see an "Account Info" box.
At the bottom of that box, you should see the command
"Change Password" hyperlinked in blue text. Click that
and then on the next page, type in your old password,
followed by your new one. Confirm that and then click
"Update Password."
Is there anything I can do to get my computer
to remember my UserID and Password?
Yes. You need to enable cookies and then check the
Remember My Password option. For more information on
enabling cookies, please read our cookies
page.
How do I view Favorites?
To view messages you have identified as "Favorites",
go to the main message list page for the stock you are
following, and in the green field just above the white
"Prev 40" and "Next 40" buttons on the left side of
the page you should see the word "View." Next to this
is a white field (or box) with the words "All Messages."
That is the default setting. This is also a drop-down
menu. You can select "My Favorite Posts" from this list.
To get back to the normal view, select "All Messages"
from the same View drop-down menu.
I clicked on an author's alias and now I only
see his messages. How do I get back to the full message
list?
Look for the red "RESET FILTER" button on
the main message list page and hit that. This should
do the trick.
How do I edit or delete a message I posted?
We do not currently have an option for editing a message.
However, you can delete a message within 30 minutes
of posting it by clicking the Delete My Post link at
the bottom of the message. This option only shows up
for messages that you post.
Note: If you are outside of the 30
minute delete window, you will be given the option to
use one of your 5 anytime delete credits to delete the
message
How do I add a URL in my message?
If you have the Rich Text Editor enabled, you can either
type or paste in a URL (e.g. http://www.investorvillage.com)
or you can use the Insert Hyperlink Button 
located on the toolbar for advanced options.
Note: To enable the Rich Text Editor,
go to your Preferences page (click the word "Preferences"
in the blue tool bar at the top of your page) and in
the "Message Board Settings" box, change "OFF"
to "ON" for the Rich Text Editor and click
"Apply Settings."
If you are not using the Rich Text Editor, you can
just type in the URL. It must start with www or you
must include http://, https:// for it to automatically
show up as a link in your posted message.
How do I post an image in my message?
The following thread on the iV help board should answer
your question:
http://www1.investorvillage.com/thread.asp?mb=6463&pt=m&pm=161&nm=200&sync=1&tid=566820
I'm having problems posting public messages
on the boards and/or private messages. Can you help
me?
Without knowing the specific details around a given
member's case, we suggest going to one's Preferences
page and turning the Rich Text Editor OFF (assuming
it had been turned ON). There are a few outstanding
incompatibility issues we have yet to resolve, including
one with the Opera browser (using a different browser
in this case might solve the problem).
What is the difference between members and
visitors viewing a board and how accurate is the count
you display?
Unfortunately, it's not easy to give the "right"
answer to this question, because to some extent the
answer depends on what the person asking the question
really wants to know. Counting people who view a given
board is a mix of art and science.
Our counting methodology is in line with industry practice
and standards and we therefore believe it to be fairly
accurate. However, there are a number of variables to
consider when interpreting the information. For example,
we are only giving a 24-hour count. But not everyone
views a given board every single day. Consequently over
the course of a week or a month, the count of unique
viewers of a board is typically much higher than what
you are seeing.
SITE
POLICY QUESTIONS
How do I report another member for insulting
me, using abusive language in a message or other violations
of the user agreement?
Option 1: CLICK THE “REPORT ABUSE” TEXT
LINK: If you read a message which you believe violates
our User Agreement, just click on the “report
abuse” text link (located in the upper right hand
quadrant of the message in blue font). In the pop-up
window, add your comment/report and click send. We will
then review the message and take appropriate action
(which could include deleting the message from the board,
sending the reported member a warning via private messaging,
posting a warning to an unruly board or group, etc.)
Option 2: EMAIL US: If you see activity or behavior
by one or more members on the site that you believe
violates the User Agreement, you may email us at admin@investorvillage.com
. Be sure to include the name(s) of the member(s) you
are reporting as well as the message #(s) of any abusive
posts.
I’ve reported people on other sites,
but nothing ever happened. What can I expect here?
InvestorVillage administrators will give serious consideration
to suspected violations of the User
Agreement brought to our attention. While you may
not always agree with us, you should understand we will
make every effort to act in a timely, fair and reasonable
manner. Ultimately, any disciplinary decision/action
will be made according to our sole discretion.
IV used to give members the ability to report
abuse. What happened to this?
The "Report Abuse" button is still there, it's just
been moved to the lower right hand side of a given message
(so for shorter messages you may have to scroll down).
It now appears in red letters.
I picked a really stupid alias when I signed
up. Can it be changed, please?
As a general rule No. Please don’t take this personally
but we strictly enforce our one-alias policy in an effort
to deter abusive behavior on our boards. We allow only
one alias per account for the life of the account (even
if it is terminated for some reason and renewed at a
later date). However, as with any rule there are exceptions.
If you feel that you have a valid reason to change your
alias, please contact admin@investorvillage.com with
your request and based on a review of the situation,
the change may be allowed.
Also, if you have not posted any messages, you may
change your alias from the Preferences
page.
GENERAL
MARKET QUESTIONS
I noticed several other stock discussion sites
do not provide message boards for OTCBB & "Pink
Sheet" stocks but you do. Why is that?
Good question. You’ll have to ask the other
sites why they don’t. We do because we believe
investors have the right to discuss any stocks there
are interested in, regardless of perceived or actual
risk. In fact, we believe investors owe it to themselves
to track down information anywhere they can find it--especially
when considering micrcocap stocks with little or no
analyst coverage and limited information sources, such
as is often the case with OTCBB & Pink Sheet stocks--always
with a duty to independently verify whatever claims
they run across.
What’s the difference between microcap
and smallcap?
Unfortunately, the definitions are not standardized.
In fact, these are rather fluid terms which are used
primarily to orient an investor to the size of a company.
Micrcocaps tend to be really small—some places
define it as a stock with a market cap under $200 million.
Small caps are often defined as somewhere between $200
million up to about $1 billion. See how our glossary
defines it.
What’s a newbie?
A ‘newbie’ is someone new to something.
For our purposes, it most likely refers to someone who
is:
a) new to the stock market;
b) new to a particular stock;
c) new to stock message boards;or
d) new to our site and/or one of our boards.
OTHER
Can I request a message board for an OTCBB
stock you don't already have a board for? If so, how
do I do that and how long should I wait for the board
to go up?
Yes, you may request
a message board for any stock we don't already have
in our system. We do everything we can to get a board
up and running as soon as possible. Usual wait time
is anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days, depending
on when we receive the request. Requests made during
off-hours (such as late at night or weekends) will usually
take longer to process.
I’ve recently requested a new board for
a microcap company. What can I do to get more people
to start talking with me?
Consider doing one or more of the following:
a) share a link to the board with other serious investors
you think may be interested in discussing the stock
b) share your own research on the new board—this
is a great way to introduce the stock to other InvestorVillage
users—you never know who may decide to join you;
and
c) if you are really feeling adventurous, contact the
company, particularly their Investor Relations (IR)
representative, and let them know we have a moderated
board where their shareholders are welcome to come to
discuss the stock.
How do I report someone for suspected violations
of SEC rules and regulations?
We hope you never have to do this. But if you do, you
can go here.
Why is your home page showing incorrect values
for the Dow?
It's not. Most people are more familiar with the DJIA
(Dow Jones Industrial Average) quote than the actual
NYSE Composite, since most financial sites and other
financial media show the DJIA when they are talking
about the broader market. What we are showing is correct,
it's just that this is the NYSE Composite Index quote
which is different from the Dow Jones Industrial Average
quote, which might be what you were thinking of.
Here's what our investment glossary has to say on the
subject:
Definition:
"DJIA. The most widely used indicator of the overall
condition of the stock market, a price-weighted average
of 30 actively traded blue chip stocks, primarily industrials.
The 30 stocks are chosen by the editors of the Wall
Street Journal (which is published by Dow Jones &
Company), a practice that dates back to the beginning
of the century. The Dow was officially started by Charles
Dow in 1896, at which time it consisted of only 11 stocks.
The Dow is computed using a price-weighted indexing
system, rather than the more common market cap-weighted
indexing system. Simply put, the editors at WSJ add
up the prices of all the stocks and then divide by the
number of stocks in the index. (In actuality, the divisor
is much higher today in order to account for stock splits
that have occurred in the past.)"
The NYSE Composite Index is different and is defined
as follows:
"A market-value weighted index of all stocks on
the NYSE."
I have dial-up and some of the ads you guys
are serving up are slowing my page-loading times down
to a crawl. It's really killing me and I don't know
how much longer I can put up with it. Can you help me?
If you are on dial-up or having severe issues that
you believe could be related to the ads we are serving
up, please contact us with detailed information about
your particular case and we will work with you to resolve
your problem on an individual basis. 404-584-0108.
