The Motley Fool: Gone Wise?

[BigMoneyJim]

I rarely browse TMF anymore. I never paid for the boards, and the articles went downhill fast after they went pay. (A lot of this was due to laying off writers, of course, but they have been plugging their advisory services more and more since the boards went pay.) But today I checked and saw that they are closing out their real money portfolios and pushing their newsletter (for pay, of course) and their Money Advisor service.

I figure the downfall of the market also took a lot of attention away from them; that is being in stocks is not as exciting or en vogue anymore so their audience was shrinking anyway (?). Then again the realization that internet advertising was way overpriced caused problems, too.

Is it just me, or have they flipped 180 degrees from empowering individuals to enlighten themselves to encouraging people to buy their advice in services and newsletters?

What I really want to know is: How are the message boards now? Specifically the REHP one? Is it still decent? Did it slow down?

I've considered paying for the boards from time to time, but I just get the feeling that TMF is a sinking ship and not worth the money.

Thanks,
BigMoneyJim

 

[arrete]

I actually paid last year, getting 2 years for $30, then got comped another year a couple of weeks ago, so I still need to get my money's worth out of them.

Is it just me, or have they flipped 180 degrees from empowering individuals to enlighten themselves to encouraging people to buy their advice in services and newsletters?

Yep - I never read that stuff anymore. I just stick to the message boards - REHP, LYBM, and a couple of others. REHP has evolved as all boards do. So many of the nitty gritty early retirement questions were discussed in the first couple of years. Though these subjects will come up again, especially from newbies, people will often be directed to a previous post that explained whatever the question is. We still get a lot of discussion, though. Lot more political posts (I Ignore Thread these posts) and we have been having an ongoing flap about the "true" Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR), but life goes on more or less as usual. Right now we are having the old, but always feisty "Rent vs Buy" discussion. Having new voices chime in makes it interesting.

As far as the long term survival of the TMF, dunno. I think they comped practically everyone on the REHP because intercst said he was taking a hike if too many interesting people left.

When people talked about leaving, I always pointed them to this board (do I get points for that, Dory?).

This board has the advantage of lack of political posts and Dory has made up a nice bunch of categories, which makes it easier to scan. Not to mention the smileys : I just have too many cyberfriends on the other board to give it up completely.

If you want to take a free peek, try the Guest sign up which allows you to read the boards. I don't know the rules about being a guest except you can't post. However, if you do so, make sure to read the REHP FAQs. Dory wrote the first part

http://boards.fool.com/?ref=topnav

arrete