Happy 7th Anniversary E-R.org!

[REWahoo]

Today is the 7th Anniversary of the beginning of this forum. The first post was inauspicious and certainly lacked fanfare, but it marked the launch of a free forum to discuss FIRECalc, investing, early retirement, the joys of not working and (almost) any other topic under the sun.

Dory36, who created both FIRECalc and the E-R. org forum, gives credit to The Retire Early Home Page for his inspiration to seek early retirement:

Quote:

Originally Posted by dory36 I discovered the REHP (which led me to my own early retirement) completely by accident. I had many of the same bad assumptions that others have reported, and was expecting to work for years longer. A co-worker celebrated his 50th birthday, and the folks at the office papered his office door with "getting old" stuff -- AARP membership forms, webpage printouts on elder care, and so forth. One co-worker taped up a printout of the REHP she had discovered in a search merely for this purpose. I saw that, and looked at the site out of curiosity. *As a result, I retired YEARS before I would have otherwise! Had I not seen that piece of paper. posted on a door as a gag, I'd still be there slogging it out every day... Dory36

From his sign up as the first member of the forum and initial post on the afternoon of June 23, 2002, E-R.org has grown to almost 8,000 members and more than 565,000 posts.

In a real world example of "be careful what you ask for", the success of the forum was more than Dory bargained for. Citing the forum had grown to the point it had become "w*rk", Dory sold the forum (not FIRECalc) to Andy R in early 2007 and moved on to ‘pursue other interests’. He does, however, continue to update FIRECalc to keep it current with the latest available historical market information.

I’m a little sad that Dory is no longer around, but hey, he’s retired – he can do whatever he wants!

[freebird5825]

Thanks for the look-back. That was neat to read the first post.
Happy Anniversary!

[W2R]

Interesting that Dory began the first post

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Originally Posted by dory36 Old-timers might recall that I retired a little over a year ago, and moved aboard my boat for my initial retirement years cruising up and down the east coast.

and ended it

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Originally Posted by dory36 Dory36, resurfacing after a year afloat

I guess he must have brought some people over from the Retire Early Forum and meant old-timers from there. I would have considered anyone participating in the ER-Forum at that time to be an old-timer.

[FinanceDude]

No Soapbox back then? Them's were Prehistoric times............

[bssc]

Happy Birthday. Party at Andy's

[Janet H]

What a cool retrospective It's really interesting to see how the ER has grown these years later. Kudos to Dory for having started a great community.

[HFWR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Want2retire Interesting that Dory began the first post and ended it I guess he must have brought some people over from the Retire Early Forum and meant old-timers from there. I would have considered anyone participating in the ER-Forum at that time to be an old-timer.

Probably meant old-timers from Motley Fool. I followed along for a while on MF, then migrated to intercst's site, then left the hocomania behind to join here four years ago.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FinanceDude No Soapbox back then? Them's were Prehistoric times............

There was a fair amount of rancor, soapbox or no...

[Andy R]

Thanks to Dory for starting this community, the mod team who has helped manage the community and all of our members as well. It's a big group effort and we should all be proud.

[FIREd]

Happy anniversary ER.org.<img src=http://www.getsmileyface.com/sm/party/fest42.gif border=0> I officially joined in 2007 but I had been lurking around for 2-3 years before that.

ER.org has become kinda like family. Like family, it can make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside or it can make me mad like hell. But, like family, I can't stay mad for too long and I always come back...

[bbbamI]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIREdreamer ER.org has become kinda like family. Like family, it can make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside or it can make me mad like hell. But, like family, I can't stay mad for too long and I always come back...

Yeah....I feel the same way.

My new hip waders work well....

[freebird5825]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIREdreamer ...ER.org has become kinda like family. Like family, it can make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside or it can make me mad like hell. But, like family, I can't stay mad for too long and I always come back...

I make jokes to dh2b about my "imaginary friends" here online and ask him if I'm spending way too much time on the Internet. He of course says yes but he would rather see that I am here getting smart about our retirement than looking at naked men (bored housewife syndrome).
Seriously, I value this forum as one of the best educational tools I have ever encountered. I also have very few intellectual outlets here in East Nowhere and this site fulfills that need. You all make me think.
And I try my darndest to make you laugh when things are not going so well on Wall St. YMMV

[clifp]

I remember Dory from the Motley Fool. It is surprising to me that forum has far exceeded the Motley Fools retirement forum in both quality and quantity of members and posts, despite the brand name of the Fool.


I found the MF board a few months after retiring so just about 10 years ago. My journey to ER-Org is similar to HFWRs.
Any other current/former members of the MF Retire Early board,or Intrcsts board?

The intellectual stimulation is really the only thing I miss about w*rk, and this place is an awfully good substitute and unlike work the board has handy ignore feature . Although I seldom feel a need to use it.

One other interesting factoid, over my almost 30 year history of participating in online forums there are only two places I actually signed up with my real name. The MF early retirement forum and this place. Every other place there always seemed to be a enough crazies, that I want to protect my anonyimity. So I used screenname like most of you.

There is something about actually retiring early or being serious about doing it in the future that seems to weed out the nutcases. So I felt comfortable enough to drop the anonymous shield. Of course there are the exceptions H*cus, JWR and few others.

[Khan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HFWR Probably meant old-timers from Motley Fool. I followed along for a while on MF, then migrated to intercst's site, then left the hocomania behind to join here four years ago.

That was approximately my path.

[Gumby]

I lurked on the MF board until they wanted to charge for it. I also lurked on the REHP for awhile. Then I lurked here for probably two years before I actually joined.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gumby I lurked on the MF board until they wanted to charge for it. I also lurked on the REHP for awhile. Then I lurked here for probably two years before I actually joined.

I was also a lurker for a couple of years on the MF board - until they wanted money. When Dory opened up shop I didn't lurk - signed up the first week E-R.org went live.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebird5825 I make jokes to dh2b about my "imaginary friends" here online and ask him if I'm spending way too much time on the Internet. He of course says yes but he would rather see that I am here getting smart about our retirement than looking at naked men (bored housewife syndrome).

You'll have to ask the mods for the secret access key to that forum. I'm there, as well as a lot of the other old favorites.

Ha

[harley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HFWR Probably meant old-timers from Motley Fool. I followed along for a while on MF, then migrated to intercst's site, then left the hocomania behind to join here four years ago.

Me too, although mostly lurking both places. I was backslash back then, and when I bailed on those sites I left the whole forum concept behind for about 4 years until after I actually retired. Got bored one night, went back to REHP, read about this place and wandered over. Glad I did. Happy birthday, ER.org!

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo From his sign up as the first member of the forum and initial post on the afternoon of June 23, 2002, E-R.org has grown to almost 8,000 members and more than 565,000 posts.

I'm relatively sure we have that many posts on just the weight loss thread!

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo In a real world example of "be careful what you ask for", the success of the forum was more than Dory bargained for.

Believe it or not, for the first few years the board's only admin/moderator was... Dory. And only when he was inport with an Internet connection.

[clifp]

Wow the board survived for years with no moderation... How did that happen?

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clifp Wow the board survived for years with no moderation... How did that happen?

I believe the forum was only averaging six or seven posts per day at the time - and eight of them were from *****.