Bill Tancer writes in Time Online about message boards reacting to John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods misuse of anonomously posted messages about his company .

We're now in an era where MySpace usage is growing at a phenomenal rate, Wikipedia has over five million entries and users are posting their video commentary along with exploding Diet Coke/Mentos videos. Yet message boards devoted to financial information, as well as a myriad of other topics, continue to thrive — even in a time when most mainstream online participation is user reviews and blog commentary. And as we've seen with many Web 2.0 applications, anonymity, a key feature of message board postings, can call into question the veracity and motive of the boards' content.

When used properly message boards are one of many tools to communicate true and insightful information.