The Fool's seeding of the boards with 1000 free subscriptions will likely avoid a precipitous drop in board activity but charging those most responsible for the Fool's popularity may be remembered as the point where the Fool “jumped the shark.”

Now?

C'mon Ed....now? You think The Motley Fool is JUST getting around to jumping the shark?

Have you even read some of the postings over the last few years? Look around, Ed! If you're looking for someone to take your bet on THIS being the time that the Fool jumped the shark, you're going to be looking for a long time.

I've been here for nearly five years. And in my time I've seen and heard people refer to The Motley Fool jumping the shark when we:

- Left AOL to start our own website, Fool.com

- started a syndicated newspaper column ("Those guys are only on the internet, they'll never make it in newspapers.")

- started a nationally syndicated radio show ("Don't they realize no one wants to listen to them? The Fool is to be read, not heard!")

- started to send David and Tom Gardner out on the road to give public speeches (search TheStreet.com for an article in 1998 by Cory Johnson, in which Mr. Johnson essentially says TMF is dead because we've started to broaden to other media. Of course, this was well before TheStreet.com started publishing books and producing a radio show)

- launched The Motley Fool UK

To quote Yul Brenner, "et cetera, et cetera, et cetera." I could go on and on, but why bother?

Ed....You want to predict the death of The Motley Fool?

Get in line. :-)