Like Windowseat (Nancy), I wish that TMF would provide allow everyone to see the linked posts during the Feste Award contest. It is rather disconcerting to click on a link and get a big, fat "NO."

I am sure that all elite persons from the paid boards who chimed in to this thread (including Leo and OldestInvestor) are as delightfully articulate and erudite as ADrumlinDaisy, who has recently joined METAR (the Macroeconomic Trends and Risks Board) to great acclaim.

Perhaps the free boards seem like the wrong side of the track to paid TMFers (despite the fact that the original mission of The Fool was to provide a free forum for ordinary people to teach each other how to invest, independent of "The Wise" -- professional investment advisors).

Please feel free to visit and even to join METAR.
http://boards.fool.com/macro-economic-trends-and-risks-11490...

I think it would be fair to run candidates from the paid boards if their posts were copied and pasted into the nominating post in their entirety, so everyone could read them.

Of course, that small sample would exclude the deeper body of work over the past year, which people from the free boards would not be able to access on the paid boards.

Wendy