Bogleheads® Wiki 2011 annual report

"In a departure from the wiki's policy of neutrality, this content presents the personal viewpoint of LadyGeek and Blbarnitz."

May 13, 2011 marks the third 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 9, 2011. Historical statistics and a timeline of wiki initiatives can be found in the appendix to this report.

A large majority of the wiki's most viewed pages are long standing pages, many of which are prominently displayed on the forum and wiki main pages. The following table highlights the more frequently viewed pages which were added to the wiki over the recently concluded year. New page creation is, of course, not the sole measure of wiki editing activity, since existing pages are always subject to updating and improvement.

The Year in Review
This was the year that the wiki extended its outreach into multimedia and alternative distribution channels. We added YouTube.com videos, live wikinvest charts, and RSS feeds. We provided a Facebook FAQ for our Bogleheads.org Facebook page, as well as a consolidation of our local chapter's Yahoo Groups.

The most significant enhancement is the RSS feed; ubiquitous throughout the internet. Each Bogleheads™ author's blog (RSS feed) is listed on their respective wiki page, as well as the recently organized News and blogs page, which includes Vanguard. Blogs appear on the wiki's main page and update daily, providing equality of exposure and an interesting variety of content.

In February 2011 we updated the graphical interface of the wiki, giving it a similar shape and feel to the familiar interface Wikipedia utilizes.

Ongoing wiki projects
In a continuing, long term project, the Vanguard fund distribution articles are being overhauled. Using data from fund reports, SEC filings (EDGAR database), and following this distribution methodology, each article contains:
 * Summary of tax impacts
 * Historical distributions: Dividends, short-term gains, long-term gains, qualified dividends, foreign tax credit
 * Accounting data analysis: spreadsheets and detailed notes.

A second long term project, the series of videos explaining basic Bogleheads™ principles, is nearing completion. Nine of the segments have been completed.


 * 1) Introduction
 * 2) Develop a workable Plan (Rule #1)
 * 3) Invest early and often (Rule #2)
 * 4) Never bear too much or too little risk (Rule #3)
 * 5) Diversify! (Rule #4)
 * 6) Never try to time the market (Rule #5)
 * 7) Use index funds when possible (Rule #6)
 * 8) Keep Costs Low (Rule #7)
 * 9) Minimize taxes (Rule #8)

Two segments remain to finish this project.
 * 1) Keep it simple (Rule #9)
 * 2) Stay the Course (Rule #10)

An example of collaboration
The wiki's lifeblood centers on community member contributions to the enterprise. A recent update of one of the wiki's most frequented articles, Principles of Tax-Efficient Fund Placement, received a good deal of positive comment on the forum, along with a helpful dollop of constructive criticism. What forum members do not fully realize is that the editing changes you see on this page were the result of four wiki members' contemporaneous collaboration on the page. No single editor could have executed the present updated page as a single initiative; the mix of contributions melded into the present page incarnation. The usual result of wiki page collaboration was realized in this instance: the sum somehow becomes greater than the individual contributed parts. Suffice it to say, we welcome continual support, constructive criticism, contributions and participation from our community of investors.

Appendix
The table below provides cumulative annual statistics for The Bogleheads™ Wiki, derived during the annual May anniversary week of the wiki's founding.