At their worst, message boards can subject you to mindless braying or outright stock scams. But at their best, they provide meaty insights on just about every stock imaginable.

Legitimate institutions historically have been defenseless in the face of outright fraud.

Most message boards have few readers. Suing that person might be the best way to publicize the negative statement.

Even a casual reader of the financial pages knows that microcaps are a perennial headache for regulators and, above all, for investors because they have been prone to abuse by stock manipulators.

Broadcasts from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange have propelled once-obscure financial journalists such as Maria Bartiromo to celebrity status and made CNBC to investors what ESPN is to sports fans.

It's not okay to lie about people and particularly not okay to hurl the worst imaginable names at people just because you think you might not like their politics.