For instance, with bulletin boards, we wanted to find a community of smart and active investors without much of the chatter you'll find on many boards. In terms of bonds, we looked for sites that offered investors a broad education on the subject as well as tools to find the latest fixed income offerings. You'll find pretty much a buy and hold philosophy among its members. The community is highly intellectual for the most part. And communities have also been formed offline, for instance one thread might meet about a company in their local hometown or when a company has their annual meeting they might meet before or after, outside of the thread.
Bulletin boards are really only one of the many tools out there.
It should definitely give you only an idea or something to think about in regards to a specific stock. But investors should never entirely rely on bulletin board posts or messages. While many of the posters at Motley Fool, Silicon Investors, and Raging Bull have top-notch comments, not every poster is as informed as the next. If you read a news tip on the message board, you'll want to follow up by checking press releases and newspapers, or other sources for company news. While bulletin boards are great places to get ideas, they should never be your only reference for stock information.