Too sickened by coronavirus to continue

[Mdlerth]

I've been a member of this forum for 3+ years, and had followed it for two or three years prior. It presented lots of (mostly) pleasant discussions about a variety of topics related to preparing for and enjoying retirement.

Unfortunately, 99% of threads now are about the coronavirus. Overplaying it, underplaying it, fearmongering, dismissal, speculations, inconclusive data... I can't take any more of it.

As far as I know, I haven't yet contracted the disease. But it doesn't matter. I may not be sick from it, but I'm sick of it. I no longer care about it. I don't want to talk about it, hear about it, read about it or think about it.

Oh, for the days when the controversy was about when to take SS, optimizing one's AA, Medicare Advantage vs Medigap, the 4% rule or, of course, the wisdom or foolishness of annuities.

I was saddened when one of the members whose perspectives I highly valued departed the forum a year or two ago. Danmar said there didn't seem to be anything new here any more. I'm now where he is (other than he's got 100 times as much $$ and is about to enjoy summer in the cool Canadian climate).

It's the same every day. The admins should change the name of the site from "Early Retirement dot org" to "All Covid chat all the time dot org".

It's too bad. I've learned a lot here, shared some personal stories, and received a few thanks. I've also probably been put on "Ignore" a fair number of times, but that's okay; I bear no grudges. Reasonable people can disagree vehemently and still be decent people.

Anyway, I'm gonna sign off for a while. I'll probably check in again in a month or so. If I don't, it's because the discussions haven't changed or maybe the virus took me out. Either way I won't have to hear about it. Au revoir.

 

[ItsAllGood]

You Rock Mdlerth! I'm still hoping it's only temporary

 

[statsman]

Definitely look out for yourself. But I would suggest making it much more than a month to possibly return. I figure a month from now the finger-pointing and Monday morning quarterbacking will be tough to sift through.

Maybe we'll get lucky and a month from now we'll be on our way to opening up most of the country. But there are a lot of obstacles willing to make sure that doesn't happen. Maybe 2021?

 

[REWahoo]

Enjoy your break, hope you return when you are ready.

Unfortunately, 99% of threads now are about the coronavirus.

A bit of an exaggeration, but there is no doubt CV-19 is the number one topic of late. I have to ask: do you think it is realistic to expect this forum wouldn't be dominated by discussions of a disease that is currently threatening the lives of each and every human on the planet? With no proven treatment, no cure and no vaccine?

 

[Bir48die]

Definitely look out for yourself. But I would suggest making it much more than a month to possibly return. I figure a month from now the finger-pointing and Monday morning quarterbacking will be tough to sift through.

Maybe we'll get lucky and a month from now we'll be on our way to opening up most of the country. But there are a lot of obstacles willing to make sure that doesn't happen. Maybe 2021?

Thanks for saying this. I look at the forum maybe 2% if what I used to. I said earlier that I was laughing when one of the moderators I’m mid March said this was going to be limited to three threads on the virus. Not quite

 

[REWahoo]

Are you folks suggesting the mods tell Porky to treat discussions of the coronavirus the same way he treats discussions of politics? That would be interesting...

 

[harley]

No, they're just saying they came here for other reasons than talking/reading about coronavirus, and since the other conversations aren't happening much they're going to take a break. No big deal, I've been thinking about it myself. I'm trying to avoid daily news about the pandemic, and coming here isn't the way to do it. I don't need to have the same mis and information shoveled at me day after day, so just checking in occasionally is good enough. And I'm not just talking about the board, I'm talking about tv and newspapers (and virtual equivalents) and whatever too. I suspect if anything real is discovered I'll hear about it soon enough. For now coronavirus can kiss my ass. I'm sticking my head in the sand.

 

[martyp]

Odd to conclude this now when there is a COVID-19 containment area. It looks pretty easy to avoid the virus talk. In any case, the virus situation seems to be pretty important for those looking to retire, early or otherwise, and those already in retirement. What could be more important and worthy of financial discussion than a shutdown of the world economy?

 

[audreyh1]

The CV threads are kept in their own containment area which you can ignore.....

I’ve noticed more regular threads coming up lately.

But sure, sometimes it’s good to just take a break.

 

[harley]

Odd to conclude this now when there is a COVID-19 containment area. It looks pretty easy to avoid the virus talk. In any case, the virus situation seems to be pretty important for those looking to retire, early or otherwise, and those already in retirement. What could be more important and worthy of financial discussion than a shutdown of the world economy?

Nothing. But not 24/7. And it may be easy to avoid the containment area, but there's not much happening elsewhere. Mostly what did I do today.

The CV threads are kept in their own containment area which you can ignore.....

I’ve noticed more regular threads coming up lately.

That would be nice.

 

[sheldon cornped]

Well, who isn't burned out or sickened by the total consummation? However, I still see where there is still plenty of non-C-19 content streaming in, some of which is still interesting enough to check in and out. It is definitely not off-topic as was implied. We are free to come and go without making a fuss. Reminds me of all the people who threatened to move to Canada because......

 

[martyp]

And of course, of you want to talk about something old or new you can always post a new question. If you are clever about the title people will go there.

 

[chris2008]

Thanks for your contributions.
Come back soon!

 

[Alan]

Thanks for your contributions.
Come back soon!

+1

As Audrey points above, anyone can go to the Covid forum and from the forum drop down menu select “Ignore Forum” then you wouldn’t have to see any threads or posts related to Covid.

 

[Closet_Gamer]

I guess we all view this differently. Partly due to time on my hands, my engagement in the forum of late has increased.

Setting aside the human toll, this is potentially the largest economic event of our lifetimes (let's hope). We're pushing more and more in the zone of negative interest rates. We've seen oil trading below $0. The central banks and governments are printing money so fast I've lost count of how many trillions have been created/committed, etc and we're just getting warmed up. Realistic ranges for turning the economy back on range from later this year to several years.

It is against that backdrop that I'm considering how to shepherd a portfolio I've built for 25 years and how this impacts my plans to hang it up in a few years.

I think this forum is more valuable than ever and the discussions here, while of course leavened with off track topics and opinions, are well informed, thoughtful and serve to stabilize my thinking and (perhaps more importantly) anchor my emotional responses to thoughtfully maintain my investing disciplines.

Enjoy your time way OP. Hope you return.

 

[FIREd]

The CV threads are kept in their own containment area which you can ignore.....

That's exactly why the CV threads were segregated from the rest of the forum, to give people the ability to ignore the topic altogether. By now I'd probably have the "containment area" on ignore if I wasn't a moderator...

 

[Oz investor]

well i could always switch to real fear-mongering
and chat about the global economy , the housing markets , the impact on pension funds , international trade and supply ramifications , the huge debt bubble/bailout/inflation pressures , the coming EU implosion ... happy topics like that , after all most of these topics were obvious around September 17th

but at least some can find something to laugh about with the virus , and i am a secret optimist ... it could always be worse

 

[Oz investor]

Thanks for your contributions.
Come back soon!

+ 1

 

[bmcgonig]

I'm sick of it too. But it's in my best interest to keep up.

I want to know as much as I can about antibody tests. I want to know as much as I can about face masks. I want to know as much as I can about lockdowns. I want to know as much as I can about symptoms.

So anywhere I can get good information about these and other things is good with me.

 

[target2019]

I skip over the threads of Covid often. I have some on ignore. I'll try ignoring the entirety for awhile.
Good day mdlerth...

 

[Winemaker]

I guess HaHa and TromboneAl got tired, too. Stay safe, stay well, hope to see you back in a while.

 

[gauss]

I valued the C19 threads. I can always choose not to read them. I noticed that they indeed have a separate section. Is it clear to people how/if they can hide this whole area if the discussion is upsetting?

If ER.org bans them like political discussion I feel that it would be a loss. I have several years invested in the forum and the trust developed. I would hate to have to find something else for C19, especially in the 'heat of battle'.

-gauss

Looks like Alan has answered the question above! I just confirmed that it works. I ignored the whole forum and all of the posts disappeared. I then unignored the forum and they returned. This was on a W7 laptop in Chrome. Thanks

As Audrey points above, anyone can go to the Covid forum and from the forum drop down menu select “Ignore Forum” then you wouldn’t have to see any threads or posts related to Covid.

 

[Midpack]

I’ve just been looking at ER.org a little less lately, realized I was reading about coronavirus too much, and some posts I’m not proud of. Since we’re all locked down, many other activities are restricted so it’s easy to fall into the coronavirus trap. OTOH new information comes slowly, so no reason to focus too much on Covid-19. I’ll just ignore the forum if necessary, and maybe other topics are coming back anyway. I just did a “New Posts” and only 8 of 25 were from the Covid-19 forum, 17 were other forums. Hope the OP is back soon, the Covid-19 posts may have peaked?

 

[aaronc879]

It seems to me that Covid-19 has a lot of impact on many peoples finances so talking about it hear makes perfect sense. The threads that talk about Covid-19 seem pretty obvious by the thread name so if you're not interested then don't click on that thread. Don't see where the problem is.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Haven't changed habits at all. Easy to NOT look at what one does not want to. If I had a small niggle (a Very, Very Minor one), it would be that one is automatically subscribed after a posting, (Yes I know there is a setting to turn it off) but there is no way around it otherwise, one could miss something on a thread that one WANTS to be subscribed to. Even if there was a "Do you want to subscribe to this thread option after a first post", that would be too cumbersome and would most likely become a niggle too. So the current ways works just fine with a little management and self control.

How I manage it is, I regularly update my subscriptions and delete the ones I really do not want but felt compelled to comment on... once. They will appear in the latest posting list if I want to check on them.