Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Sometimes I find myself reading through threads and skipping responses from members who have less than 50 posts. Ironic, since I am way below my own threshold of relevance and yet I like to think my voice is being heard.

I am also guilty of only reading posts from those on my personal ERE-forum Mount Rushmore (if Mt. Rushmore had like, 12 more heads)*

Anyone else find themselves falling into these habits? Is it like how we tend to curate our social media feeds so we only see news that confirms our biases? Or is it more akin to how we carefully choose our friends? It's not like we have the bandwidth to take in all the information from everyone we come across in real life.

Anyway, I will now be making more of an effort to give a fair shake to all posts. Usually, when I slow down and give myself time to digest a whole thread, I pick things up from posts I normally would have glossed over.

* I've also noticed my eye stops more readily when I come across a post where the user has an avatar. I guess what I'm saying is, unless you want the lurkers of ERE to ignore you, post 10 times a day and use a bright avatar. Typing in all caps might help, too.

So those of us who wish to fly under the radar with our mostly regrettable posts quickly forgotten should continue to eschew avatars and post at a rate of less than once a day. Perfect!

If I have a bias it is for people 30+ who have actually done it.

My posts should only be read by those who are skilled at dumpster diving, or the minority audience (tending towards middle-aged British females) who find my style amusing, and my random application of grammar/punctuation semi-tolerable. I always imagine that everybody I only "know" through an internet forum is like one of the characters in Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" comics, so then when I do sometimes meet them in person, I am surprised that they are actually full-size adults.

I have a habit of not looking at usernames (though avatars do jump out). Only when I am replying to someone or multiple people do I make sure to see who it is I am talking with. I look at "Posts:" even less frequently. I confuse the "Joined:" for the post's date.. For posts that are more than a couple sentences I quickly scan it to see if it is worth reading. Some users have a voice I can recognize on these forums (other forums have too many users for me to bother even looking at the username).

Maybe I should set an avatar..

edit: though I do click on "Notifications[]" which leaks some usernames..
edit2: avatar set! 2/5 things you need for #vanlife

When I started lurking these forums, and felt overwhelmed with content, I would preferentially read Jacob's posts. That was a natural place to start but then I got sucked in, and now I read everything...

If I ever filter for regulars, it is in topics which overwhelm my reading bandwidth or where I have less interest. For me it's not about following the "elite" as much as it is about developing and refining my mental models of the more prolific posters. I want to understand how other ERE-minded people think! My goal is to harness the power of the forum's collective wisdom, even when internet access is not available.

At the same time, it's often the occasional posters who ask interesting questions and bring new insight and perspectives. The forum has a nice mix that is pleasant to read and rewarding to follow.

Smashter wrote:I've also noticed my eye stops more readily when I come across a post where the user has an avatar.

Interesting observation. Jacob doesn't use an avatar.... maybe he should set one so people will start listening to what he has to say ;-D

But generally, yeah, I think most people skip posts. Although this is my most-read forum, I still only read maybe half the topics. If the topic is good worth clicking on, I'll usually read all the posts.

Yes, interesting observation.

I've conducted my own unofficial poll and concluded that there is a very high percentage of people on here smarter than me.

I don't have time to read everything, but try to keep my reading to posting ratio proportional to learn more and talk less.

Huh.

No, I don't skip posts. I read content of posts, and if someone has an interesting idea, or the poster's identity is relevant, I scroll up and look at the author.

I surf on my phone, so number of posts isn't even shown, though I think I would recognize any usernames with 50+ posts.

While I enjoy the regulars, it's the new folks who bring some of the best stuff. Alot of the same old questions, but also some very interesting ideas...

Riggerjack wrote:Huh.

While I enjoy the regulars, it's the new folks who bring some of the best stuff. Alot of the same old questions, but also some very interesting ideas...

Yeah, this would suck if it was just a couple older guys talking about sleeping and snoring.

I mostly just look at the "Active Topics" and poke at something that looks interesting. I agree its important to have new voices, particularly from a variety of backgrounds and countries.

It's an interesting exercise to think about this. I don't filter for avatars or number of posts, but I do respond in a positive way to the avatar after developing respect for the (online) person. Being relatively new to the forum world, I keep thinking that Riggerjack, Dragline and JennyPenny look like their avatars. I'd undoubtedly be shocked if I met them in the real world.

I almost always read the journals, because they're personal stories. Nothing more fascinating than that, though admittedly my eyes cross every time they see a graph. This is purely my own limitation. Then I browse active topics. Really, though: it's all about the stories for me.

I have gaps when I don't read and when I do I go to Active Topics then see whats been busy recently as my short cut. The topic name attracts first and then I look at who started it (if its a new thread to me) and who posted last. I might look at how many posts there have been so far (the raw number). I tend not to read things about investment from US perspective (I am UK) and as @zalo/@olaz has so many threads, often several started at one time, I generally don't read his threads unless there are some answers there already (I am interested in the answers) or his question is one which particularly appeals. He has so many questions that he throws out but is usually very specific about what the topic is in the title so I can pass over the things of least interest. Thanks to everyone who is specific in their title.

There are some topics that I will call my DH over to look at listen to even before I have clicked the link - updates on things like the DIY ventures of @ffj and @cmonkey. If Jacob is showing as starting a thread or responding to one most recently I will always read that (try to read it anyway, my unscientific brain does not alwa ys understand. There are some people I always read if they have started or recently commented on a thread. These are a blend of new and experienced posters. @halfmoon is one that I am really enjoying and through his comments on her threads @farm_or. I read anything by @7w5 so its really interesting that I am part of the audience she writes for ...

My posts should only be read by those who are skilled at dumpster diving, or the minority audience (tending towards middle-aged British females) who find my style amusing, and my random application of grammar/punctuation semi-tolerable.

I always sit up and pay attention to people like @dragline and @jennypenny. I like to read the stories of women, and also those in the UK, and often those who are older or have made it to ERE. Comments by @riggerjack and @sclass can have me laughing out loud, others make me really question my assumptions. I will hone in on former regulars who are making a comeback after a break (what is happening with @spoonman?). I may look up someone to search posts (most recent) if I think I have missed something from them.

The thing that is most exceptional about this forum (for me) is that virtually every post is interesting to me. I can be lured into reading an extensive thread on something I thought I had no interest in and learn from this. Keeps me coming back even when I should be elsewhere ...

Smashter wrote: I guess what I'm saying is, unless you want the lurkers of ERE to ignore you, post 10 times a day and use a bright avatar. Typing in all caps might help, too.

OK.

If only I was better at filtering what I read, perhaps I'd spend more time away from the computer.

I tend to pay more attention when users have an avatar or a red name. I think this is just because, on reading, I can easier place the particular 'voice' of the forum-dweller.

For some reason the forum keeps throwing an error when I try to link to an avatar, although I do pay attention to size/pixel limits/whatever.

On the climate change topic I was only reading Jacob's post after a few pages.

I tend to read posts of people who have more than 500 messages or are here for longer than 3-4 years. This also is more fluid than my description.

Ideas presented here are quite hardcore and I try to catch who is real and who is trolling. OK, maybe I am paranoic , but given conditions I have selected people who can be role models. I hope that way I am not being trolled. Still, I can not believe I discuss with people 2-3x older than me.

I also like people who use paragraphs, that means that they can convey some message deeper. I hate walls of text.

English prime is also a thing, but users who do that is n=1 .

You can friend/foe someone from their user page by clicking on their username. Its like follow/block. I haven't tried it.

The friend thing really doesn't do anything useful at all. The foe collapses a user's posts such that you specifically have to click the post to display it.
Quotes aren't collapsed though.

If the topic and direction the follow up discussion goes interests me I'll read the whole thing. What I don't have a lot of patience for is following large numbers of links, especially when they show up largely because two participants are in disagreement and trying to back their viewpoint versus their opponents. I don't mind that people do that, I just don't read the links often. Also I probably read tracts of pessimism/cynicism (if they aren't at least a little humorous) with a little less engagement than I do other things, but I don't filter people. Sometimes the ideas/questions of the newer and less ERE-educated folks provide fresh and useful perspectives that cause me to look at old subjects in a new light. The more viewing perspectives the better for me.

In part my general attitude might be because I showed up here with a well-developed plan that was already a couple years in-work seeking peer-to-peer camaraderie and idea exchange rather than looking for help/guidance in how to chart a path and get started. Certainly someone in that situation whose goal is to get on an aggressive ERE path shouldn't listen to much of what I, for example, have to say!