The discussion below happened after I moved the previously public discussion of tax filings for US IMGA investors to the new private investor group. Based on the feedback I decided to keep the tax filing discussion in the public forum and moved the discussion about whether or not to move it to this new thread.
Original discussion below:
Now that there’s a private investor group for IMGA investors, make sure you join that and continue the discussion there… 
I realize you’re trying to push the private groups, but why?
What advantage is there to taking this thread to the private forum? There already has been useful interaction between this thread and another investment group’s tax statement
I agree. Because I’m not a member of any of the groups, I feel like I might miss out on some good information because I am not invested in any of those groups.
On the other hand, I think it might help people share things more freely. As a middle group, what about putting this on the forum for nomadgate members only?
So I’ve been trying to balance the private vs public space as best as possible by admitting those who either are in the process of investing or have completed their investment into the private groups to encourage more open discussions there.
For anything that isn’t as sensitive you can also create a thread anywhere on Nomad Gate with the relevant tag (in this case imga) and group members will still by default be watching those threads. This could be in the public or logged-in only sections.
Perhaps you’re right that this particular thread could live outside the private group given that it’s also a publicly available fund.
Thanks, Thomas. I do understand what you are trying to do. I think it is a very tough balance. And I honestly do not know where I would come out if I were you. I just wanted to add my perspective and acknowledge that something is lost doing it this way.
It’s not just this thread. As another example, I am invested in rehabilitation real estate on the interior. I am not invested with Mercan or any of the other “bigger” real estate investors groups. However, I’m sure that there’s probably lots of good information in those threads that might apply more broadly to people who invest in similar investment types, on issues such as taxes, process of how real estate investments in Portugal work generally, etc. Similarly, I could probably answer some questions on that thread from a different perspective.
In an ideal world, those tangential issues would get broken out in a different thread, but things do not work that way and it’s hard to have you and your staff moderate it all.
I don’t really see the point of private investor groups as a whole, honestly. Just post publicly
Some people really don’t want it known that they are investors, or don’t want to be concerned that what they say will be misconstrued by people who aren’t investors, or don’t want to deal with drive-by commentary. Sometimes there is stuff about a fund or investment that you want to talk with other investors about but really dno’t want publicly known since it might not be in your best interest.
Sure it’s a loss to the broader community that there is information not being shared, but these people are also not under any particular obligation to share. Is it better to facilitate the conversation these people want to have, or specifically not facilitate it and then not have the conversations happen at all? No good answer.
As someone that came in late to the GV program this forum has been invaluable to get up to speed and to hear opinions on investments, lawyers, banks, etc.
There have been some people I reached out to via DM to get more information and insight on one of their posts where I could see there was more to it than what was written. They have all been great in providing greater insight, in confidence.
All this would be lost if everyone split into closed groups. And, while possible, it’s unlikely people in closed groups would think to post information that would be helpful back into the public forum.
Names here are obfuscated so I’m not sure the issue with posting information here as no confidentiality is breeched.
There isn’t any easy solution, and it’s clear which side I’m on, but the value of the collective knowledge of those past and present who contribute gets diluted if everyone breaks off into private groups.
My 2 cents.
I agree that the open information sharing is a large part of what makes the community useful, and I hope 95%+ of the communication will still take place openly. Even when specific investments are discussed (hence why group members by default will be “tracking” any topic discussing their investment anywhere on the forum).
Still, the fact remains that many feel the need for a more private space than a completely open forum for discussing certain aspects of their investment. Private groups have been forming off-site for years anyway, and while I understand that need I see several issues with it, in particular these two are major ones:
The first one I think is quite obvious how creating groups on Nomad Gate can help. You can even join the private groups with an anonymous account, and even if you use your main account that’s just your username which can be whatever you want.
The second one I hope will to a large extent be mitigated by having the private groups on the same platform as the public discussion. Even if you’re mainly motivated to come back to discuss your investment, you’ll still see the public discussion going on and hopefully chip in whenever you have something to add.
But yeah, it’s a difficult balance to strike, and based on your feedback I think at the very least it makes sense to keep this tax filing discussion out in the open. I’ll move it back here and move this discussion to a new thread.