REWahoo
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give
The Beginning
Early-Retirement.org was founded by Dory36, who gives credit to Intercst and his Retire Early Home Page (REHP) website for showing him the way to early retirement:
Dory also joined a small but growing group of individuals on The Motley Fool discussion board who shared his interest in early retirement. When the Motley Fool began to charge a subscription fee, most of the participants scattered to the REHP and other boards. One of these boards was a new site created by Dory and described by BigMoneyJim, the board’s first Admin, as a “…colony founded by Dory on his hobby side-business web server using primitive but friendly CGI bulletin board software.”
The first post on this new Early-Retirement.org website was in June of 2002. Dory had retired (early) and had moved aboard his boat, a 36’ Grand Banks Trawler named Dory by the previous owner, to live his dream of life afloat. This initial post was inauspicious and lacked fanfare, but it marked the launch of a free forum to discuss not only FIRECalc, but also investing, early retirement, the joys of not working and (almost) any other topic under the sun.
Growth and Change
The board grew very slowly - six months after Dory’s first post there were fewer than 75 members. Then the REHP and other FIRE-related discussion boards began to suffer from a number of problems. Some were poorly managed while others focused on limited aspects of investing or early retirement and became less popular. A few closed down entirely. Coincidentally, in November of 2002 Jonathan Clements of the Wall Street Journal published an article mentioning FIRECalc. This, along with the problems mentioned above, helped grow the board to a whopping 280 members by the time E-R.org celebrated its first anniversary.
The next two years saw the board grow five-fold, to more than 1,300 members. From day one, Dory had been the sole moderator on the board even though his “afloat” status saw long stretches where he had no access to the internet or the board. This, combined with increased membership, created the need for changes. As Dory put it,
(Martha, one of those first mods, particularly enjoys what she termed the “slight understatement” in the last line of Dory’s appeal.)
New Ownership and Continued Growth
E-R.org continued to grow rapidly with the total number of posts doubling in the second half of 2005, reaching the 100,000 mark in January of 2006 with this post by brewer12345. By January of 2007 board membership had grown to more than 3,000. While the success of the forum was very gratifying for Dory, there was also a very big down side. As he put it in a February 2007 post,
Media and Other Attention
One of the factors contributing to the growth of E-R.org has been the repeated attention of the financial media to both FIRECalc and board participants. The board and individual members have been contacted numerous times by the mainstream media who are, as Janet H describes it, “…seeking to get a fast 'pulse' on the real world’s opinion of some emergent issue.” The list of media contacts includes the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Bloomberg, Forbes, Money Magazine, Scott Burns’ column, and others. Several board participants have been profiled by the media, including Crazy Connie and Nords, who were featured in a Fortune magazine article showcasing real-life examples of people who had retired in their 40’s and 50’s.
The board also has among its membership a small group of book authors who have published works on the subject of financial independence and early retirement. Two excellent examples are “Work Less, Live More” by Bob Clyatt (ESR Bob) and “The Military Guide to Financial Independence and Retirement” by Doug Nordman (Nords). Both authors were influenced to some degree by the board and sought the advice, counsel and knowledge of forum members while creating their works Both authors were also generous in their acknowledgement of the inspiration and assistance provided them by various board members.
Just as financial writers are eager to mine what they perceive to be the very lucrative E-R.org membership database, those seeking more direct financial gain are drawn here as well. Topics under discussion draw the unwelcome attention of those who believe they can be of assistance to members by offering some product or service. As an example, a protracted forum discussion of annuities often brings a flurry of new registrations from insurance professionals eager to extol the virtues of their particular version of that product, complete with less than subtle hints to send a PM for more information. The reception these new members receive from board members is reminiscent of watching cats entertain themselves with a captured mouse. In fact, dealing with those who register on the board simply to sell something - be it financial products, snake oil or themselves via their own self-serving blog - is a form of entertainment the board has polished to an art form. A classic example is this thread started by a “self-made millionaire” promoting her website. She obviously had no clue as to what awaited her when she introduced herself.
The Soapbox Experiment
Discussions of politics and religion are the third rail of internet discussion boards. Few other subjects can consistently create so much passion, disagreement, rancor, name calling and threats of physical violence. For the many board members not interested in debating these issues these threads can be an unwelcome source of irritation. For those who are passionate about these subjects, these threads are potential points of conflict and can taint discussions throughout the board. Avoiding these subjects altogether helps foster a civil and welcoming atmosphere on the board. This was the goal when the first Community Rules were formalized and published in April of 2008. (Prior to formally documenting this code of conduct the only guideline for participation on the forum was an unwritten rule: “Don’t be a jerk”.)
From the beginning, religious debate has been off-limits and both Dory36 and the moderators intervened whenever they saw a conversation take a turn down that path. By contrast, political discussions are more complex as there is no clear line separating politics from the many financial issues effecting retirement. For example, taxes have a huge impact on retirement income and taxes are set by our political leaders. How can you have a discussion of tax policy without involving politics?
Politically charged discussions tend to peak on a two-year cycle as we approach national elections in the US, especially when choosing a President. The 2004 election spawned particularly vehement discussions, often turning very personal and combative. Some members objected strongly to allowing these discussions to go on while others complained of “censorship” if the mods stepped in when discussions became unpleasant. The moderation team, not immune to their own political beliefs, struggled to find a balance between a free-for-all donnybrook and stifling legitimate board discussion. One frequently recommended solution was the creation a separate forum on the board, a forum designated specifically for political discussions. This would allow members who did not wish to participate to place the “politics forum” on ignore.
After months of discussion by both the membership and the moderators, a decision was reached to add a politics forum to the board. In April of 2008 the Soap Box was created as an experiment to allow discussion of “… issues concerning public policy, prominent political figures, and topics about governmental conduct.”
The experiment succeeded in confirming that political discussions unrelated to FIRE were not conducive to forum health.
In the months leading up to the November 2008 Presidential elections it became obvious to the moderators the new Soap Box had created more problems than it had solved. Many discussions, no matter how benign initially, turned partisan and quickly ruffled the feathers of those with opposing political philosophies. The opinions and strongly-held beliefs of many of the members participating in the Soap Box sparked heated discussions, often openly hostile and distinctly unpleasant. To make matters worse, these exchanges spilled over into other areas of the board upsetting the many members who wished to avoid political discussions entirely.
The moderators agreed the Soap Box needed to go and once again sought a middle ground to facilitate reasoned discussions involving topics inseparable from politics. A decision was reached to discontinue the Soap Box on January 1, 2009 and create a new FIRE Related Political Topics forum where politics could be discussed provided “…the focus is predominantly opinion based, concerning public policy, prominent political figures, or topics about governmental conduct. Posts must be related to the subject of early retirement in more than a tenuous fashion.” The “be nice” section of the Community Rules was reemphasized and the moderation team was determined to prevent the new forum from following the same unfortunate path that led to the demise of the Soap Box.
As expected, this change was met with mixed reactions. Some expressed their thanks the Soap Box was gone while those who spent much of their time posting to the Soap Box were upset by the loss. A few members, primarily those who posted exclusively on political subjects, left the forum entirely. Others protested but were eventually convinced the decision wasn’t going to be reversed and continued to participate within the new forum rules.
The new FIRE Related Political Topics forum received its first real test during the November 2010 election cycle. Compared to the tenor of the board during the previous three elections cycles, the atmosphere was markedly improved and relatively few moderator actions were required.
Whattya DO all day?
Although there are many often repeated questions relating to financial independence and early retirement, one of the most frequent is how will the early retiree occupy all that free time. This has been discussed so often that “Whattya DO all day?” has become a board catchphrase and led to the creation of one of the longest running and most popular threads on the forum, “What did you do today?”
Started by Khan in the “Life after FIRE” forum, the initial post was a cartoon celebrating the simple joys of early retirement. From there the topic began to be taken literally as members, retired or not, shared their daily activities, accomplishments, trials and tribulations. This peek into the lives of board members struck a chord and has more than 10,000 posts with no sign of slowing down.
Who the heck is Jennifer?
The primary function of the board is to assist, encourage and support those who have an interest in financial independence and early retirement. Second only to “FIRE support” is the board’s ongoing success in providing amusement and, not infrequently, genuine belly laughs. As one member is fond of saying, “Where else can you get so much for your entertainment dollar?”
It would follow that a second very popular and long-running threads is “It’s funny joke Thursday”, started in 2005 by the board’s most prolific poster. The board’s most-viewed thread, the ‘joke thread’ totals more than 3,000 posts and is still going strong. Some members profess placing everything else on the board on “ignore” and only reading this thread – but that’s probably a joke.
Of course the humor on the board isn’t limited to the joke thread; the forum is filled with it. Few threads, no matter how heavy the initial subject, escape a humorous twist or turn. Perhaps there is no better example of just such a thread than this one started by Dory36: This is as weird (and sick) as it gets
This thread also exemplifies another personality trait of the forum: thread hijacking. While many forums have specific rules prohibiting any attempt to vary from the initial subject, no such rule exists at E-R.org. “Threadjacking” is a high art form on the board with the underlying concept that if the subject bears discussing, thread participants will eventually steer it back on course. This free-wheeling, often irreverent approach, combined with the irrepressible sense of humor displayed by many posters, does occasionally irritate new members – until they understand this is merely part of the entertainment package provided by the forum – free of charge!
A few of the more memorable events, running gags, and enduring legends include dryer sheets, Cute Fuzzy Bunny (CFB) posting photos of animals with food on their heads, unclemick making reference to the Norwegian widow or tossing in helpful “heh, heh, heh – psst…Wellesley” investment advice, bacon (the board’s version of crack cocaine) and of course Day of the Jennifer - but there are many, many others. Although these links can provide insight, the only way to truly understand and appreciate what has transpired here is to have been there at the time – or to become an active E-R.org member and participate in the creation of new experiences!
The History Continues
Whatever the reasons, the chemistry found at E-R.org has proven to be highly successful.
It is unlikely Dory36 envisioned his small board of fewer than 75 members in 2002 would grow to more than 10,000 by the end of 2010. Or that the number of posts per month would increase from a light sprinkle to a torrent of more than 17,000! Growth hasn’t been linear; it has ebbed and flowed with both the election cycle and especially with the economy. The economic downturn in 2008 was mirrored on the board – something to be expected when the hopes of early retirement for so many suddenly dimmed. As the economy and the markets began to improve, increases in the volume of posts and new membership registrations reflected this upswing. By October of 2010 more than 400 new members per month were joining the board in order to learn, participate and, just perhaps, become the next Cute Fuzzy Bunny.
Early-Retirement.org was founded by Dory36, who gives credit to Intercst and his Retire Early Home Page (REHP) website for showing him the way to early retirement:
Inspired by what he saw at the REHP, Dory began to develop a web-based program he called FIRECalc (Financially Independent, Retire Early Calculator) to attempt to answer the question, "With what I have today, and what it costs me to live, can I retire and maintain the same lifestyle?". According to Dory, “The goal was to provide some additional options to the explorations made possible by a spreadsheet offered by Intercst on REHP, and make it a user-friendly web application rather than a spreadsheet.”
Dory also joined a small but growing group of individuals on The Motley Fool discussion board who shared his interest in early retirement. When the Motley Fool began to charge a subscription fee, most of the participants scattered to the REHP and other boards. One of these boards was a new site created by Dory and described by BigMoneyJim, the board’s first Admin, as a “…colony founded by Dory on his hobby side-business web server using primitive but friendly CGI bulletin board software.”
The first post on this new Early-Retirement.org website was in June of 2002. Dory had retired (early) and had moved aboard his boat, a 36’ Grand Banks Trawler named Dory by the previous owner, to live his dream of life afloat. This initial post was inauspicious and lacked fanfare, but it marked the launch of a free forum to discuss not only FIRECalc, but also investing, early retirement, the joys of not working and (almost) any other topic under the sun.
Growth and Change
The board grew very slowly - six months after Dory’s first post there were fewer than 75 members. Then the REHP and other FIRE-related discussion boards began to suffer from a number of problems. Some were poorly managed while others focused on limited aspects of investing or early retirement and became less popular. A few closed down entirely. Coincidentally, in November of 2002 Jonathan Clements of the Wall Street Journal published an article mentioning FIRECalc. This, along with the problems mentioned above, helped grow the board to a whopping 280 members by the time E-R.org celebrated its first anniversary.
The next two years saw the board grow five-fold, to more than 1,300 members. From day one, Dory had been the sole moderator on the board even though his “afloat” status saw long stretches where he had no access to the internet or the board. This, combined with increased membership, created the need for changes. As Dory put it,
The above message was sent to a group of long-time board participants in July of 2005 asking if they would agree to be moderators for the forum – the first of what has become a long line of volunteers contributing to the success of E-R.org. That first group of mods included Cut-Throat, Laurence, Nords, Martha, and REWahoo.
(Martha, one of those first mods, particularly enjoys what she termed the “slight understatement” in the last line of Dory’s appeal.)
New Ownership and Continued Growth
E-R.org continued to grow rapidly with the total number of posts doubling in the second half of 2005, reaching the 100,000 mark in January of 2006 with this post by brewer12345. By January of 2007 board membership had grown to more than 3,000. While the success of the forum was very gratifying for Dory, there was also a very big down side. As he put it in a February 2007 post,
Dory went on to announce he’d found a buyer for the forum and that Andy R and his growing Social Knowledge organization would be the new owner. Understandably there was a great deal of concern regarding the change – going from a “labor of love” forum to a commercially owned site filled with advertising was greeted with a great deal of skepticism. Andy R and Admin Janet H focused on addressing members concerns, improving the software (adding an “ignore member” feature, etc.) and working to preserve what Andy R described as the unique personality of E-R.org. With a few bumps and bruises, the board survived the transition and continued to grow and gain membership.
Media and Other Attention
One of the factors contributing to the growth of E-R.org has been the repeated attention of the financial media to both FIRECalc and board participants. The board and individual members have been contacted numerous times by the mainstream media who are, as Janet H describes it, “…seeking to get a fast 'pulse' on the real world’s opinion of some emergent issue.” The list of media contacts includes the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Bloomberg, Forbes, Money Magazine, Scott Burns’ column, and others. Several board participants have been profiled by the media, including Crazy Connie and Nords, who were featured in a Fortune magazine article showcasing real-life examples of people who had retired in their 40’s and 50’s.
The board also has among its membership a small group of book authors who have published works on the subject of financial independence and early retirement. Two excellent examples are “Work Less, Live More” by Bob Clyatt (ESR Bob) and “The Military Guide to Financial Independence and Retirement” by Doug Nordman (Nords). Both authors were influenced to some degree by the board and sought the advice, counsel and knowledge of forum members while creating their works Both authors were also generous in their acknowledgement of the inspiration and assistance provided them by various board members.
Just as financial writers are eager to mine what they perceive to be the very lucrative E-R.org membership database, those seeking more direct financial gain are drawn here as well. Topics under discussion draw the unwelcome attention of those who believe they can be of assistance to members by offering some product or service. As an example, a protracted forum discussion of annuities often brings a flurry of new registrations from insurance professionals eager to extol the virtues of their particular version of that product, complete with less than subtle hints to send a PM for more information. The reception these new members receive from board members is reminiscent of watching cats entertain themselves with a captured mouse. In fact, dealing with those who register on the board simply to sell something - be it financial products, snake oil or themselves via their own self-serving blog - is a form of entertainment the board has polished to an art form. A classic example is this thread started by a “self-made millionaire” promoting her website. She obviously had no clue as to what awaited her when she introduced herself.
The Soapbox Experiment
Discussions of politics and religion are the third rail of internet discussion boards. Few other subjects can consistently create so much passion, disagreement, rancor, name calling and threats of physical violence. For the many board members not interested in debating these issues these threads can be an unwelcome source of irritation. For those who are passionate about these subjects, these threads are potential points of conflict and can taint discussions throughout the board. Avoiding these subjects altogether helps foster a civil and welcoming atmosphere on the board. This was the goal when the first Community Rules were formalized and published in April of 2008. (Prior to formally documenting this code of conduct the only guideline for participation on the forum was an unwritten rule: “Don’t be a jerk”.)
From the beginning, religious debate has been off-limits and both Dory36 and the moderators intervened whenever they saw a conversation take a turn down that path. By contrast, political discussions are more complex as there is no clear line separating politics from the many financial issues effecting retirement. For example, taxes have a huge impact on retirement income and taxes are set by our political leaders. How can you have a discussion of tax policy without involving politics?
Politically charged discussions tend to peak on a two-year cycle as we approach national elections in the US, especially when choosing a President. The 2004 election spawned particularly vehement discussions, often turning very personal and combative. Some members objected strongly to allowing these discussions to go on while others complained of “censorship” if the mods stepped in when discussions became unpleasant. The moderation team, not immune to their own political beliefs, struggled to find a balance between a free-for-all donnybrook and stifling legitimate board discussion. One frequently recommended solution was the creation a separate forum on the board, a forum designated specifically for political discussions. This would allow members who did not wish to participate to place the “politics forum” on ignore.
After months of discussion by both the membership and the moderators, a decision was reached to add a politics forum to the board. In April of 2008 the Soap Box was created as an experiment to allow discussion of “… issues concerning public policy, prominent political figures, and topics about governmental conduct.”
The experiment succeeded in confirming that political discussions unrelated to FIRE were not conducive to forum health.
In the months leading up to the November 2008 Presidential elections it became obvious to the moderators the new Soap Box had created more problems than it had solved. Many discussions, no matter how benign initially, turned partisan and quickly ruffled the feathers of those with opposing political philosophies. The opinions and strongly-held beliefs of many of the members participating in the Soap Box sparked heated discussions, often openly hostile and distinctly unpleasant. To make matters worse, these exchanges spilled over into other areas of the board upsetting the many members who wished to avoid political discussions entirely.
The moderators agreed the Soap Box needed to go and once again sought a middle ground to facilitate reasoned discussions involving topics inseparable from politics. A decision was reached to discontinue the Soap Box on January 1, 2009 and create a new FIRE Related Political Topics forum where politics could be discussed provided “…the focus is predominantly opinion based, concerning public policy, prominent political figures, or topics about governmental conduct. Posts must be related to the subject of early retirement in more than a tenuous fashion.” The “be nice” section of the Community Rules was reemphasized and the moderation team was determined to prevent the new forum from following the same unfortunate path that led to the demise of the Soap Box.
As expected, this change was met with mixed reactions. Some expressed their thanks the Soap Box was gone while those who spent much of their time posting to the Soap Box were upset by the loss. A few members, primarily those who posted exclusively on political subjects, left the forum entirely. Others protested but were eventually convinced the decision wasn’t going to be reversed and continued to participate within the new forum rules.
The new FIRE Related Political Topics forum received its first real test during the November 2010 election cycle. Compared to the tenor of the board during the previous three elections cycles, the atmosphere was markedly improved and relatively few moderator actions were required.
Whattya DO all day?
Although there are many often repeated questions relating to financial independence and early retirement, one of the most frequent is how will the early retiree occupy all that free time. This has been discussed so often that “Whattya DO all day?” has become a board catchphrase and led to the creation of one of the longest running and most popular threads on the forum, “What did you do today?”
Started by Khan in the “Life after FIRE” forum, the initial post was a cartoon celebrating the simple joys of early retirement. From there the topic began to be taken literally as members, retired or not, shared their daily activities, accomplishments, trials and tribulations. This peek into the lives of board members struck a chord and has more than 10,000 posts with no sign of slowing down.
Who the heck is Jennifer?
The primary function of the board is to assist, encourage and support those who have an interest in financial independence and early retirement. Second only to “FIRE support” is the board’s ongoing success in providing amusement and, not infrequently, genuine belly laughs. As one member is fond of saying, “Where else can you get so much for your entertainment dollar?”
It would follow that a second very popular and long-running threads is “It’s funny joke Thursday”, started in 2005 by the board’s most prolific poster. The board’s most-viewed thread, the ‘joke thread’ totals more than 3,000 posts and is still going strong. Some members profess placing everything else on the board on “ignore” and only reading this thread – but that’s probably a joke.
Of course the humor on the board isn’t limited to the joke thread; the forum is filled with it. Few threads, no matter how heavy the initial subject, escape a humorous twist or turn. Perhaps there is no better example of just such a thread than this one started by Dory36: This is as weird (and sick) as it gets
This thread also exemplifies another personality trait of the forum: thread hijacking. While many forums have specific rules prohibiting any attempt to vary from the initial subject, no such rule exists at E-R.org. “Threadjacking” is a high art form on the board with the underlying concept that if the subject bears discussing, thread participants will eventually steer it back on course. This free-wheeling, often irreverent approach, combined with the irrepressible sense of humor displayed by many posters, does occasionally irritate new members – until they understand this is merely part of the entertainment package provided by the forum – free of charge!
A few of the more memorable events, running gags, and enduring legends include dryer sheets, Cute Fuzzy Bunny (CFB) posting photos of animals with food on their heads, unclemick making reference to the Norwegian widow or tossing in helpful “heh, heh, heh – psst…Wellesley” investment advice, bacon (the board’s version of crack cocaine) and of course Day of the Jennifer - but there are many, many others. Although these links can provide insight, the only way to truly understand and appreciate what has transpired here is to have been there at the time – or to become an active E-R.org member and participate in the creation of new experiences!
The History Continues
Whatever the reasons, the chemistry found at E-R.org has proven to be highly successful.
It is unlikely Dory36 envisioned his small board of fewer than 75 members in 2002 would grow to more than 10,000 by the end of 2010. Or that the number of posts per month would increase from a light sprinkle to a torrent of more than 17,000! Growth hasn’t been linear; it has ebbed and flowed with both the election cycle and especially with the economy. The economic downturn in 2008 was mirrored on the board – something to be expected when the hopes of early retirement for so many suddenly dimmed. As the economy and the markets began to improve, increases in the volume of posts and new membership registrations reflected this upswing. By October of 2010 more than 400 new members per month were joining the board in order to learn, participate and, just perhaps, become the next Cute Fuzzy Bunny.
Last edited:
