Bogleheads® Wiki 2017 annual report

"In a departure from the wiki's policy of neutrality, this content presents the personal viewpoint of David Grabiner."

May 13, 2017 marks the ninth anniversary of the launching of The Bogleheads® Wiki. The wiki was publicly announced on May 21, 2008. Our Wiki statistics page provides us with the following numerical snapshot of our wiki project as of May 3, 2017.

Over the past year, growth in wiki readership has slowed. Historical statistics and a timeline of wiki initiatives can be found in the appendix to this report.

The year in review
The wiki grew by the addition of 19 new pages during the fiscal year. There were several pages added to cover frequently discussed concepts:
 * Assessing risk tolerance
 * Qualified charitable distributions
 * Passive foreign investment company with an outline of the unfavorable tax treatment
 * Reverse mortgages along with a discussion of alternatives
 * Diversification (still a stub)

Among thematic trends, further development of pages devoted to new investors:
 * Getting started
 * Bogleheads® investing start-up kit
 * Books: recommendations and reviews

For a complete list of new pages, refer to the 2016 - 2017 new pages box provided below.

The wiki is also now cited more frequently for reference on forum discussions. Citations such as Tax-efficient fund placement and Paying down loans versus investing give a well-developed reference to complicated topics.

Over the last three years, we have made wiki maintenance easier with hidden categories for pages requiring annual updates for taxes, expenses, and returns. When Vanguard released its 2016 annual returns, or the IRS announced new tax limits for 2017, these categories made it easier for editors to update all pages.

Appendix
The table below provides a history of cumulative annual statistics for The Bogleheads&reg;  Wiki, derived during the annual May anniversary week of the wiki's founding. The spreadsheet component of the table also contains tabs showing the annual statistics for each year.