Personal Life subforum?

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Alex Frakt
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Personal Life subforum?

Post by Alex Frakt »

Following up on the thread by kayanco at http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... 1&t=141283
kayanco wrote:Are there others forums like Bogleheads, but for other things in life? Which have a good group of people or community, based on sound principles, based on years of experience and research.

For things like:
Life in general (like figuring out what's important in life long terms vs. short term emotions)
Relationships/Family/Friendships ...(Husband, wife, parents, children)
Happiness
Or someone faced a life challenge and found a forum to overcome, etc
Personal development/growth, becoming a better person, etc.

What I mean? And Why I'm asking:

I'm very enamored by the Bolgehead philosophy, given how much counter-intuitive it is, for me personally at least! As in, this forum makes me realize:

That WITHOUT the Boglehead wisdom (forum+books), I'm the type of person who, would tend to do exactly what we are advised NOT to do, e.g.
- hearing friends brag about the profits from individual stock...I might think: Oh I need to buy those! ...
- or ignore index funds, thinking if I follow Cramer, I'd get better returns
- or pick a fund based on past performance...thinking: this fund got best return for the last 10 years, I need to buy this, because it will continue doing so

But THANKS to Boglehead knowledge, I understand that a lot my instinctive thinking (and that of many others, like friends) can be quite wrong!
So I'll always be thankful to this forum, and many of you who helped me understand things (despite my incessant questions :p)

e.g. with stock picking, I have two options:
1. Try to be over-clever and try stock picking, and then learn the harsh lessons myself. But with a price paid.
2. Or, listen to those who have gone through this, or studied others, and written books.

So I'm wondering if there are other forums, which have similar wisdom/lessons learned, for other areas of life. Maybe in other areas as well, I have intuitive thinking that is false or foolhardy, and I'm not realizing now... but will learn a bad lesson years from now when it's too late...and end up with regret.

I hope I made sense :)
Would you be interested in a subforum here for such topics?

If you are, what exactly should it cover? How about member-to-member stuff like house swaps for vacations, classifieds, dating? Would you prefer it to be public like our current subforums (i.e., indexed by search engines, open to anyone to read and post), private (no indexing, can only be viewed by logged in members with a certain number of posts) or something in between?

Please note that I am only talking about personal issues. This is not a question about whether we should have a separate subforum for political or other general interest topics.
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Alex Frakt
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Alex Frakt »

I think I'm talking myself into two forums, a public one to discuss personal life questions as outlined by kayanco and an (opt-in?, separate homepage?) private one for member-to-member requests.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by MathWizard »

Alex Frakt wrote:I think I'm talking myself into two forums, a public one to discuss personal life questions as outlined by kayanco and an (opt-in?, separate homepage?) private one for member-to-member requests.
One of the outstanding features of Bogleheads is its focus on financial issues.
Behavior and family relationships do intersect with this so those are reasonable topics.

I'd be more concerned with moving out of a core competence area.
When I read house swaps, dating, classified, these sounded way outside the normal topics.
Certainly : "My fiance has very different financial goals, how do we reconcile this" is OK.
"Would you like to go in a date" is not, I think.

There are other sites for classified, and I don;t see this site as having something more to offer.
Maybe I'm not reading your intent correctly.

Just my 2 cents, if it is worth that.

Edited to add: I think I have expressed this before, but
This forum is much better (by far) than anything other forum I have found on the internet.
It would have an extremely high bar to clear for something outside financial to be of anything
near the same quality.
Last edited by MathWizard on Tue Jun 17, 2014 12:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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William4u
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by William4u »

This is a very unique forum for a number of reasons...
1. This is the best moderated forum I have ever seen. Without the high quality of the moderation, this site would not have built and maintained the community it has.

2. The forum members come from a wide variety of professions and backgrounds in which they have achieved a significant level of competence and expertise. This makes it a great place to get perspectives on and learn about a wide variety of issues.

3. The forum members are largely savers who "live below/within their means." This is a general indication of maturity and foresight.

4. The forum members have appreciated the empirical evidence in favor of the boglehead philosophy of investing.
For these four reasons (among others), this is a great place to get advice on a wide variety of issues other than investing.

My only concern is overburdening the moderators, who already do so much. A private forum would address this issue, but would probably limit the feedback. So I am currently neutral with regard to the public vs. private forum options, as there are advantages and disadvantages to each.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by FrugalInvestor »

William4u wrote: My only concern is overburdening the moderators, who already do so much.
This would be my primary concern as well.

The more I can interact with the members here on various subjects the better, it's an outstanding group in so many respects. But I wouldn't want to sacrifice the overall quality of Bogleheads.org by doing so.
Last edited by FrugalInvestor on Tue Jun 17, 2014 12:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Grt2bOutdoors »

How can you ensure posts in such a subforum will not turn into an uncivilized conversation. For instance, there is citydata.com where you have forums by state, location, topic, etc. The problem is the policing of comments - imagine such a subforum is created that creates an avalanche of new posters, they don't join for financial reasons but only to surf and comment on those new subforums. The comments can range from civil to street language. I think once you start posting personal life q&a's you dilute the value of the existing forums. My 2 cents fwiw.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by sscritic »

I also think it would be a bad idea. In the past, there have been threads about a potential life partner that start with a one-sided picture. At first, posters responding buy into the one-sided picture. Later, posters start to turn the focus back on the OP. All the amateur psychologists turn out (I among them) to criticize one or both parties.

While these threads can be incredibly amusing for those watching at home, they can be a real burden on the moderators and don't really add anything to the forum.

I guess I even disagree with MathWizard.
Certainly : "My fiance has very different financial goals, how do we reconcile this" is OK
These are the threads that can quickly spin out of control.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by sport »

I would suggest that one of the reasons for the success of the Bogleheads forum is the lack of motivation for personal gain. People contribute altruistically. If you were to open up things, in a private interactive subforum, to an audience as wide as this one, you would get people who are out to get something for themselves. The assets of Bogleheads would be a prime target for such individuals. IMO, you would be opening a "can of worms".

A subforum for personal subjects would work, although I do not think it is necessary. An interactive forum would be a recipe for disaster.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by kayanco »

I fully fully fully, 100% support this idea.

There are many things we can learn from people who have gone thorough or experienced the same things or decision that many people are contemplating.

Just like investing, if someone has tried stockpicking and learnt a harsh lesson, can share that with a younger person and advise them to stick with index funds. Obviously it's up to the person to take that advise or not. BUT at least, they have more awareness.

Same way, in life, someone could be facing a decision or challenge, and someone else could say:
Hey 5 years ago, I faced a similar conundrum and I did X, and now I regret it.
or,
Hey 5 years ago, I faced a similar conundrum and I did Y, and now I'm really happy.

Obviously, the person has to decide for themselves, BUT at least, they have more awareness of how things turned out for others.

....this is just one scenario, to showcase the value of such a sub-forum...
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Barefootgirl »

Maybe I don't get around enough, lol - but the other forums I belong to, that have a "Lounge" section for off topic postings don't seem to experience spamming, off color language or totally bizarre topics, etc. ...maybe because the people allowed to post are already existing members of the overall forum and not the general public.?

I am not sure if it's possible to limit posting privileges to those who already have a certain # of postings on the main forum?

The other forums don't limit topics, but have a notice at the top of the page that product/service shilling and blatant political postings are off limits and will be locked, blocked, tossed, etc.

The communities seem to police themselves pretty well, the threads die off pretty quickly if they are not valuable in some way.

I guess I give people too much credit, lol.

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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Alex Frakt »

A couple of quick points. Don't worry about moderating. Just as when we launched this forum, I'd moderate at the beginning and we'd probably recruit a new mod or two for just this forum.

The question about this diluting the membership is why I asked about public versus private. We can easily set it up so it would be, for example, read only or even invisible except to members with at least 25 posts.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by schuyler74 »

Can someone present a specific example of a post that would be allowed in this proposed new forum that is not allowed in the existing forums? All of the above is too vague for me to understand what we're actually debating.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by sscritic »

I think we need a 10,000+ posts lounge. :)
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by VictoriaF »

sscritic wrote:I think we need a 10,000+ posts lounge. :)
Will people with 20,000 posts be able to share a half of their posts with their favorite members?

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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Grt2bOutdoors »

kayanco wrote:I fully fully fully, 100% support this idea.

There are many things we can learn from people who have gone thorough or experienced the same things or decision that many people are contemplating.

Just like investing, if someone has tried stockpicking and learnt a harsh lesson, can share that with a younger person and advise them to stick with index funds. Obviously it's up to the person to take that advise or not. BUT at least, they have more awareness.

Same way, in life, someone could be facing a decision or challenge, and someone else could say:
Hey 5 years ago, I faced a similar conundrum and I did X, and now I regret it.
or,
Hey 5 years ago, I faced a similar conundrum and I did Y, and now I'm really happy.

Obviously, the person has to decide for themselves, BUT at least, they have more awareness of how things turned out for others.

....this is just one scenario, to showcase the value of such a sub-forum...
I can say over the years we've seen some benign questions turn into overheated conversations and those where financially related that then turned into critiques of ones personal life decision-making. You're relatively new to the forum, so your request may be totally innocent and maybe I'm out of place for saying, but shouldn't new subforums be created due to overwhelming demand? It's one thing to give financial advice based on scientific, mathematical and based on actual market history experience. You can defend it. This is the first I'm hearing of others wanting to start-up a personal life do's and don'ts forum with a Bogleheads-eque spin on it. Like Jeff said above, it's not only like opening up a can of worms, I think of it as more of a Pandora's box, once you open it or say it you can't take it back "ever". I just think of someone doing something on a personal level based on someones opinion here, it goes wrong and then they blame the Bogleheads for their short-comings. I'd hate to see the site be associated as an "internet talk-show".
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Alex Frakt »

Barefootgirl wrote:Maybe I don't get around enough, lol - but the other forums I belong to, that have a "Lounge" section for off topic postings don't seem to experience spamming, off color language or totally bizarre topics, etc. ...maybe because the people allowed to post are already existing members of the overall forum and not the general public.?
We started off with a Lounge. So many of the threads were about general quasi-political stuff like global warming that it ended up consuming nearly all of the moderator's time. To rein it in, we converted it to what is now the Personal Consumer subforum and instituted the requirement that topics in all subforums except Investing Theory be limited to the personal.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by sport »

Alex Frakt wrote:
Barefootgirl wrote:Maybe I don't get around enough, lol - but the other forums I belong to, that have a "Lounge" section for off topic postings don't seem to experience spamming, off color language or totally bizarre topics, etc. ...maybe because the people allowed to post are already existing members of the overall forum and not the general public.?
We started off with a Lounge. So many of the threads were about general quasi-political stuff like global warming that it ended up consuming nearly all of the moderator's time. To rein it in, we converted it to what is now the Personal Consumer subforum and instituted the requirement that topics in all subforums except Investing Theory be limited to the personal.
Alex,
IMO, you have answered your own question.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by denovo »

This seems interesting, I am neutral, I wonder how the parameters would be defined and what topics would be verboten.

Could I start a thread ribbing Miami Heat fans?
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by The Wizard »

Two other forums that I'm members of have lounge forums like this. Some of the posts are jokes of the day or "games" of quirky sorts. I don't really participate in the aforementioned stuff.
One exception was when a well-known member of the BonaireTalk (BT) forum passed away and a bunch of us came up with a Celebration Of Life event that BTers from all over the country flew into. So it was worth having it for that.

Still, I think a lounge forum will have issues with medical posts for sure and probably some political ones, so Alex will have to craft a set of rules to deal with this.

I also like the idea of limiting access to the lounge forum to ACTIVE members. 25 posts or more should be fine...
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by goaties »

delete
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Alex Frakt »

I should note that I mine threads like this for ideas. It's not a poll and I'm not making any promises.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by NAVigator »

We have a quasi-personal forum now. In my opinion, sharing recipes and where you buy shoe laces is of little value, and detracts from the purpose of this forum. There are plenty of blogs and other venues for DIY projects, exercising, cooking, hygiene, etc. The Bogleheads have established a solid reputation in the area of financial matters. Attempts to extend discussions to personal areas;
(1) detracts from the goal of providing "investing advice inspired by Jack Bogle"
(2) invites controversy without resolution
(3) attracts a segment of people who hold discussions with no bearing on financial matters
(4) increases the need for monitoring
I would rather not see the Bogleheads forum delve into personal topics.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by traumadoc77 »

I would be for it! This forum is well run so I know it would be done right. If people aren't interested they don't have to read it, but I think a lot of people would.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by denovo »

NAVigator wrote:We

(2) invites controversy without resolution
.
Have you read the threads on CCF's, precious metals, REIT's, whether or not to market weight international equities? :happy
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Austintatious »

Over my time here, I've come to genuinely appreciate the various intellects and personalities of so many posting here, and I must admit that the idea of being able to engage them in a broader range of conversation is quite intriguing. Indeed, I've thought about just that, many times. And I believe the OP's idea that one can learn and benefit much from the thoughts and experiences of others in all kinds of personal matters makes perfect sense, and especially with the pool we have here.

That said, I tend to agree with those believing that the primary focus and, perhaps, even the reputation of the Bogleheads forum would be diminished by such an expansion. Bogleheads is rightly perceived as a top shelf resource for learning, and receiving advice, about investing and personal finance. I fear that broadening the scope of discussion so dramatically would diminish both the quality of the resource, itself, and the reputation the forum has well earned over the years.

Then again, I certainly could have it all wrong. And, I strongly suspect that I would be involved, should it happen.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by roymeo »

Only as a place for the moderators to throw the Diamond, Wedding, Watch threads. If you try to post a new message in the forum, it should pop up one of several random messages: "Isn't there a park somewhere you should be sitting in?", "Why don't you go buy flowers (or some other thoughtful item as appropriate) for some one you love?", "Are all your files backed up and virus protection current? Do you have a physical emergency plan?", etc.

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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by pennstater2005 »

Grt2bOutdoors wrote:How can you ensure posts in such a subforum will not turn into an uncivilized conversation. For instance, there is citydata.com where you have forums by state, location, topic, etc. The problem is the policing of comments - imagine such a subforum is created that creates an avalanche of new posters, they don't join for financial reasons but only to surf and comment on those new subforums. The comments can range from civil to street language. I think once you start posting personal life q&a's you dilute the value of the existing forums. My 2 cents fwiw.
Agree wholeheartedly. If anyone thinks folks here are snarky now.....this will be a whole notha level of snarkiness :twisted:
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Howard Donnelly »

schuyler74 wrote:Can someone present a specific example of a post that would be allowed in this proposed new forum that is not allowed in the existing forums? All of the above is too vague for me to understand what we're actually debating.
How about something like:
Who is your favorite personal development author/speaker, and why?
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Levett »

I don't think it's terribly difficult, presently, to see subtexts in many posts that reveal--accidentally or not--how thus and so deals, or would deal, with a variety of non-financial situations.

Put another way, "personal life" informs the strength of the best posts already.

I happen not to think that there is a "Boglehead Way of Life."

There are just some wise people who post at Bogleheads, as well as other sites.

Lev
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Hayden »

schuyler74 wrote:Can someone present a specific example of a post that would be allowed in this proposed new forum that is not allowed in the existing forums? All of the above is too vague for me to understand what we're actually debating.
How about this. I strive to reduce risk in my life. That has brought me to Bogleheads, and my financial life has benefited enormously for it. In my personal life, I am Vegan. I avoid processed foods as much as I can. Is that really healthier? Am I really reducing my risk? There are so many books on how to eat, it is difficult for a lay person to know what to believe.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by The Wizard »

On further reflection I think what we have now is fine.
The Personal Consumer forum covers much of the territory involved.
And if I want a new GF, I'd probably go to match.com, not here...
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by kayanco »

Grt2bOutdoors wrote:How can you ensure posts in such a subforum will not turn into an uncivilized conversation..
Grt2bOutdoors wrote:...I just think of someone doing something on a personal level based on someones opinion here, it goes wrong and then they blame the Bogleheads for their short-comings.
Personally I feel that any thread, on any topic has potential for abuse, getting out of control, or for someone to post a rude/insensitive comment.
MathWizard wrote:..I'd be more concerned with moving out of a core competence area..
I think most folks would still come here for Financial/Investment topics. Like we have a "Personal Consumer" sub-forum, I doubt folks would come here looking for recipes, or book recommendation. And even if someone did, and then discovered the investing stuff, their life would be all the better for it.
Also, let's say someone "only" cared about financial stuff, and in 5 years, they never even clicked on "Personal Consumer" sub-form....then that's perfectly fine.
Alex Frakt wrote:..So many of the threads were about general quasi-political stuff like global warming that it ended up consuming nearly all of the moderator's time..
I agree with this point. I feel that the topics/questions should be such that someone on this forum would be able to give or receive value. For things like global warming, or life on other planets, I don't think many folks can add value such that it might better the life of someone reading it.

Someone who's lived their life responsibly, have enough for comfortable retirement, no debt, etc....I believe they likely have done more things correctly than figuring out 80/20 vs. 70/30, or whether International stock should be 20 or 25%...I think they've also balanced other aspects, faced and overcome personal challenges and hurdles, etc. I think some of these things might help or guide other people in their journey.

(I think if someone had a casual/personal interview with Mr. Bogle or Warren Buffet type of people, I think very likely there might be non-investing life lessons to be learned as well.)
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by beyou »

Wouldn't this be counter to efforts to make the existing forum a charity that is based on financial education ?
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by pennstater2005 »

What are the other administrators and moderators thoughts on this?
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by LadyGeek »

pennstater2005 wrote:What are the other administrators and moderators thoughts on this?
I don't see a need to go beyond what we have already, as it dilutes the purpose of this forum. The appeal of this forum is the quality of the discussions.

We're highly focused on investing and personal finance, and the moderators have the experience to match. We know when a thread on lump sum vs. dollar cost averaging, for example, gets out of hand.

When you get into personal life issues, everything is a blur. Here's an example:

The father spent his life savings funding a 529 plan. Everything was OK until he found out his daughter was giving all the money to her boyfriend. Now, his daughter needs to borrow money to pay for her final year of tuition or she'll drop out of school. BTW, they're living together and may start a family soon. Very soon. Consider the problem from both the father's and daughter's perspectives.

OK, who wants to guess how many posts until a moderator needs to step in? What would the quality of the discussion be like?

Another aspect is that we keep a family-friendly environment in the public forum. A personal life forum might need that relaxed a bit.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Fallible »

Here are my thoughts (though I don't feel I know enough about this subforum idea to make a final decision):

_It appears more moderators are needed for the general forum (a call for more was posted earlier this year) so could enough be assured for a new subforum, especially one apparently intended to be entirely personal?

_I agree with NAVigator that we already have a “quasi-personal" general forum, although the personal I think of is not just recipes and shoe laces, but the 'behavioral' related mainly to what the forum is all about: investing and personal finance, i.e., how and why we behave the way we do with money. I think we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of this area.

_The general forum is already packed with information and it takes time to sift through, more time to adequately prepare a worthwhile reply. I wonder whether a personal subforum won’t be a distraction, or at least one more thing to check out. I, like most others, also frequent other forums on other subjects and, hey, there’s only so much time. Yes, I can just easily ignore the new personal subforum...yeah, sure I can...but I know me and my curiosity better than that.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Mel Lindauer »

LadyGeek wrote:
pennstater2005 wrote:What are the other administrators and moderators thoughts on this?
I don't see a need to go beyond what we have already, as it dilutes the purpose of this forum. The appeal of this forum is the quality of the discussions.

We're highly focused on investing and personal finance, and the moderators have the experience to match. We know when a thread on lump sum vs. dollar cost averaging, for example, gets out of hand.

When you get into personal life issues, everything is a blur. Here's an example:

The father spent his life savings funding a 529 plan. Everything was OK until he found out his daughter was giving all the money to her boyfriend. Now, his daughter needs to borrow money to pay for her final year of tuition or she'll drop out of school. BTW, they're living together and may start a family soon. Very soon. Consider the problem from both the father's and daughter's perspectives.

OK, who wants to guess how many posts until a moderator needs to step in? What would the quality of the discussion be like?

Another aspect is that we keep a family-friendly environment in the public forum. A personal life forum might need that relaxed a bit.
I had planned to stay out of this discussion so as not to influence anyone else. However, since you asked, I'm with Lady Geek on this one. IMO, we need to retain the focus on which this forum was founded and the reason it's flourished. It ain't broke, so let's don't "fix" it.
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fishnskiguy
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by fishnskiguy »

Mel Lindauer wrote:
LadyGeek wrote:
pennstater2005 wrote:What are the other administrators and moderators thoughts on this?
I don't see a need to go beyond what we have already, as it dilutes the purpose of this forum. The appeal of this forum is the quality of the discussions.

We're highly focused on investing and personal finance, and the moderators have the experience to match. We know when a thread on lump sum vs. dollar cost averaging, for example, gets out of hand.

When you get into personal life issues, everything is a blur. Here's an example:

The father spent his life savings funding a 529 plan. Everything was OK until he found out his daughter was giving all the money to her boyfriend. Now, his daughter needs to borrow money to pay for her final year of tuition or she'll drop out of school. BTW, they're living together and may start a family soon. Very soon. Consider the problem from both the father's and daughter's perspectives.

OK, who wants to guess how many posts until a moderator needs to step in? What would the quality of the discussion be like?

Another aspect is that we keep a family-friendly environment in the public forum. A personal life forum might need that relaxed a bit.
I had planned to stay out of this discussion so as not to influence anyone else. However, since you asked, I'm with Lady Geek on this one. IMO, we need to retain the focus on which this forum was founded and the reason it's flourished. It ain't broke, so let's don't "fix" it.
Exactly.

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Sents
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Sents »

For reasons already stated above, I believe we should not have a personal life subforum. Personal life advice can be kept to private messages between users.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Alex Frakt »

blevine wrote:Wouldn't this be counter to efforts to make the existing forum a charity that is based on financial education ?
There is no such effort. This site is privately owned by myself and Larry Auton. The charity, the John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy, is a separate endeavor. The Center has been established legally. I am not directly involved with it, so I cannot provide any information on their operational status. That said, the Center and this site obviously share a primary mission and I believe that we will provide support for each other when the time comes.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Alex Frakt »

roymeo wrote:Only as a place for the moderators to throw the Diamond, Wedding, Watch threads.
Actually, I was thinking of chucking all the career, college, and private school threads in it.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Alex Frakt »

LadyGeek wrote:I don't see a need to go beyond what we have already, as it dilutes the purpose of this forum.
I never wrote a formal mission statement for the site. But if I had, supporting our community of regular posters and readers would definitely be part of that mission. The question, as always, is how to best achieve that purpose.
countdown
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by countdown »

In my view, a 'personal forum' would lessen the standing and reputation of the Bogleheads forum.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by Levett »

"Actually, I was thinking of chucking all the career, college, and private school threads in it."

Please do!

Lev
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by sscritic »

Don't forget the coaching my kid in soccer threads.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by NAVigator »

Perhaps if the personal forum were separate and ultra-secure, it might work. This could involve two-factor authentication, retinal scan, a key-fob dongle thingie, voice recognition, chip and pin, capcha gotcha, encryption, deception, with anonymity twice-removed, and using the secret decoder cards abandoned by Treasury Direct. If such measures were in place, it would provide a lot of message volume for anyone that could gain access. This might leave the rest of the forum for financial topics.

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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by JamesSFO »

I think hearing that there will be a post minimum, e.g. ~25 range makes me more open to the idea. It would be helpful to understand examples of existing threads that would now go there PLUS examples what new threads that do not/cannot exist today might be in the new forum.
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by sscritic »

Why a subforum of bogleheads? Why not a whole new domain name to keep things separate? We could have a naming contest:

yourlifeormine.org
tellmehowtolive.org
iamclueless.org
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by VictoriaF »

NAVigator wrote:Perhaps if the personal forum were separate and ultra-secure, it might work. This could involve two-factor authentication, retinal scan, a key-fob dongle thingie, voice recognition, chip and pin, capcha gotcha, encryption, deception, with anonymity twice-removed, and using the secret decoder cards abandoned by Treasury Direct. If such measures were in place, it would provide a lot of message volume for anyone that could gain access. This might leave the rest of the forum for financial topics.

Food for thought, all ingest,
Jerry
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Re: Personal Life subforum?

Post by physicsgal »

Being a newly single 34 year old Bogleheads in a world of rampant consumerism, I would love to have a singles section to BH!!! It would be awesome to find an SO who already agrees with me on these values. The biggest topic couples fight over is money so a BH forum can prevent divorce! It would be a great service for those of us who are still dating!

I also think the type of people who post here may have useful answers to many of life's more complicated questions. But I do want to avoid political issues altogether! That gets ugly quickly.
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