Shared portfolios, stock-picking contests and plenty of polls fill these message boards for contrarian value investors. An annual subscription ($150) gets you access to the posts of more than 1,100 other active value investors on topics ranging from IPOs to Mortgage REITs. However, unlike run-of-the mill boards, this site tracks and rates member recommendations, so you can see the performance of a member's strong buy stocks as compared to the performance of that member's sell recommendations. You can even conduct your own community polls to find out, say, whether members agree with a consensus earnings-per-share estimates on Apple or any other company. Other nice features are the ability to create your own private groups for discussion, and the ability to ignore posters or topics. There are quarterly stock-picking contests like one that challenged posters to create the best three stock portfolios. Site recently added annual stock-picking contests.

BEST: Click on members text link in the upper left of the home page to see who's online right now.

WORST: Some links are misleading. Click on a member name and you don't get a member profile. Instead, you are sent to a list of that member's recent posts.