[viking]

Peter, would it be possible to have a closed Forum section for Investors only (by invitation)*? Many investor participants here are concerned about giving away "secrets" that the borrowers could pick up to fudge their applications...
(see here for example: http://www.lendacademy.com/forum/index.php?topic=1023.msg6537#msg6537)

*) Investor status could be cleared by viewing the participant's activity here, cleared by Rev as a subscriber etc....

[edward]

+1

[ee1x]

I like this idea but how will the minimum criteria be set? Can somebody buy a single $25 note and be considered an investor? How much activity should we see from them on this forum? How do we rate the quality of their posts?

[Zach]

Personally, this seems kind of unnecessary. The odds that someone would try to find this forum in order to game the system and destroy their credit intentionally is probably a very rare occurrence. As ee1x points out, there would be no real way to regulate a password secured section of the forum and determine eligibility for membership. Just my two cents.

[New Jersey Guy]

How much activity should we see from them on this forum?

There are over 4,600 registered users on this board.
However, only 28 people have over 50 posts.
You're one of them.

I have to agree with ee1x.
There are over 6,000 posts on this Forum.
Even if somebody came here with the intentions of trying to gain an advantage over the system, it would take them days to sift through the information to find anything that might be even slightly useful.

[rawraw]

There are 6000 spam accounts, too.

[TravelingPennies]

Many forum participants may not mind mind posting "sensitive" information. However, there are several participants that hesitate because they feel that it may unfairly help the borrower. The point of a private forum is to encourage such posts that may otherwise not be posted on a public forum

To make it simple (and as suggested originally), how about a private forum for subscribers to IR? It would be easier for Rev to have it hosted here rather than setting up something new on IR's site (we may want Rev to work on IR improvements, not on hosting a forum). This is if Peter don't mind of course... In addition to Rev, Peter may add non-IR subscribers on a case-by-case basis.

[rev]

I agree we could have a more private board. A borrower may find the information here good enough to spread the word. Professional borrowers have their forums on the internet too...

[Dennis]

Really, just how much can someone fudge their application to make much of a difference?  All the factual information (credit score, payment history, employment, DTI, etc.) can't be fudged and that's what most of us (at least I hope) use to determine what we invest in.  What is written by the borrower in addition to the factual information is the only thing that can be fudged, but if the factual information doesn't back up what is written, then I hope we're all smart enough to figure that out.

[MoneyTree]

from: Dennis on April 30, 2013, 02:24:33 AM

[Peter]

I am not against the idea but I wonder how effective it would be. If a borrower is really looking to scam investors they could always register on any private forum as well. There is no practical way to means test everyone to ensure that we keep out scammers.

I believe I can setup a section of the site that is password protected and therefore not crawled by Google but anyone will still be able to register.

I tend to agree with zpbsfg and New Jersey Guy that this seems unnecessary.

[writing2reality]

Like several of you, I don't know the benefit from having a member's only area for investors. As Dennis said, how much can be altered by the borrower if most investors are relying on credit history and other items that are verified by a third party via a credit pull? Do you really weigh the verbage in a listing that much? Especially considering an increasing number of applicants don't bother putting anything in the description?

I mean, in reality, how many borrowers have sought out Lend Academy, found the forum, and then drilled down into the multitude of investor posts to find some small details about how they describe their loan might benefit their funding or misrepresent their creditworthiness? I'd say slim to none, and slim's out of town...

[TravelingPennies]

The reward seems very low given all notes get funded regardless - at least that's what I remember reading . It's lending club review they need to game

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

[TravelingPennies]

That is a good point rawraw. All loans at LC are being funded now within 3 days so if they can get past the LC underwriting they are good to go. At Prosper there are still a few loans not being funded but by my estimates over 90% are getting funded there.