Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I'm not married to my suggestion. Feel free to create a 4th round.

For what is worth, the blog uses a plugin called "what would seth godin do". Seth Godin is this kind of genious marketeer. What the plugin does is to display two different messages. The first 4 times someone visits the blog, it shows this:

If you're new here, this blog will give you the tools to become financially independent in 5 years. The gives a good summary of the principles of the strategy. The key to success is to run your personal finances much like a business, thinking about assets and inventory and focusing on efficiency and value for money. Not just any business but a business that's flexible, agile, and adaptable. Conversely most consumers run their personal finances like an inflexible money-losing anti-business always in danger on losing their jobs to the next wave of downsizing.

Here's almost a thousand online journals from people, who are following the ERE strategy tailored to their particular situation (age, children, location, education, goals, ...). Increasing their savings from the usual 5-15% of their income to tens of thousands of dollars each year or typically 40-80% of their income, many accumulate six-figure net-worths within a few years.
Since everybody's situation is different (age, education, location, children, goals, ...) I suggest only spending a brief moment on this blog, which can be thought of as my personal journal, before delving into the forum journals and looking for the crowd's wisdom for your particular situation.

And after the 5th time, it shows this:

If you enjoy the blog, also consider the book which is much better organized and more complete. You can read the first chapter for free,
[...]

If you want to see it in action, delete the earlyretirementextreme cookies (WWSGD) and reload the blog 4 times.

@macg, jacob

"Know what you are talking about" could easily be interpreted as we view ourselves as better. How about " we ask that you perform some research or due diligence before posting opinions or questions"?

"Don't carry a chip on your shoulder" could easily be misinterpreted. Very subjective. And so on.

You already have a Spam policy front and center and a link to a lengthy set of rules. How about taking some of that vinegar away and replacing it with honey? We're curious people, everybody is unique, and we want to hear and learn how you've grown in your life. Please share!

I understand where you are coming from, but I guess I come from a perspective that I'd rather pull in just 2 new people who understand and respect the "vinegar" message, rather than 100 people who don't, because we used a "honey" message. "Spam" isn't the only thing we are filtering here...

I also understand that this might be a minority perspective, and ultimately I'm fine with whatever is decided upon.

Fourth.

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Welcome to the Early Retirement Extreme forums! We’re excited to have you here.

Just a couple of things to get you started:

SPAM has a 0% tolerance here. If you are looking to sell or promote something, find somewhere else please. Don't be evil.

Catch up on the forum rules first. They're not perfect. We have a small community with a focus on informed opinions. We ask that you perform some research or due diligence before posting questions and opinions. Respect other forumites. Make yourself look good. Don't post anything you wouldn't want your family/boss/government/etc. to find out.

First things first, consider introducing yourself! We have a whole section dedicated to intros, so you might want to write a post about yourself and your goals. This is most effective insofar you plan to follow up with more posting elsewhere. If you prefer to lurk for a while, that's fine too. Some lurk for years and years in order to get to know the place. Also check out the nearly one thousand existing journals. They might contain the answers you're looking for.

Once you're ready for active feedback and/or community, starting and maintaining your own journal and commenting on other journals is the best way proceed. Many of us have already been where you are and some of us have already solved your problems. Here are some suggestions on how to succeed with that.

If you're looking for practical next steps a good start is the 21 Day Makeover or committing to a Buy Nothing period.

The link to the ERE wiki is here. If you are getting lost in some of the jargon while reading around the site, there is a page explaining some of the shorthand we are using here. Reading the book ties everything together beyond the blog. Keep in mind that some of the forum discussions ("ERE2") has moved beyond the blog and the book at this point.

Over the years, there's been some good discussions. Here are some of the ERE forum highlights. It is by no means inclusive of all the good posts made throughout the 10+ years this forum has been around, but it is a quick way to find some incredible posts.

Welcome to the community and we hope to hear from you soon!

———

I just knocked out the “don’t waste our time” but around the spam. I tried to make it sound better but it just ended up being a long unnecessary sentence. Then I added the @mathiverse suggestion on concrete steps and changed the ffj suggestion to be more welcoming while saying the same thing.

Fourth looks pretty good. I'd bias towards ffj's thoughts on what's friendly or not. He seems to understand the side of users that feel unwelcome best among those posting in this thread.

Fifth ... and somewhat different.
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Welcome to the Early Retirement Extreme forums!

We're a learning-oriented community with a focus on mastering a productive level of competence in a broad range of subjects in order to make ourselves more resource-efficient and resilient in the face of the growing complexities and uncertainties of the 21st century. Insofar you want to retire really early, we do that too.

Our forum rules are pretty simple. Follow the same standards here that you follow in real life. Act "in good faith". Do your research and make yourself look good. Don't post anything online you wouldn't want your family/boss/colleagues/government/etc. to find out.

If you want to jump right in, write a post about yourself and your interests. This is most effective when you follow up by posting in other threads. Otherwise people may miss your intro post.

If you're looking for active feedback and/or community, starting and maintaining your own journal and actively commenting on other journals is the best way proceed. Many of us have already been where you are and some of us have already solved your problems. Here are some suggestions on how to succeed with that.

If you prefer to lurk for a while, that's fine too. Some lurk for years and years in order to get to know the place. Also check out the nearly one thousand existing journals. They might contain the answers you're looking for. If not, you can always ask on the forum. Feel free to revive any thread on the board.

Understanding everything that is discussed on the forums is a ongoing learning process. The forum contains a wide range of perspectives. Some of us have been at it for many years. Others are just getting started. Reading the ERE book ties everything together beyond the blog posts. If you're totally new to these ideas consider 21 Day Makeover or committing to a Buy Nothing period.

If you feel lost in all the technical jargon, consider (re)reading the ERE book and remember that google is your friend. Keep in mind that some of the forum discussions ("ERE2") has moved beyond the blog and the book at this point.

Over the years, there's been some good discussions. Here are some of the ERE forum highlights. It is by no means inclusive of all the good posts made throughout the 10+ years this forum has been around, but it is a quick way to find some incredible posts.

Welcome to the community and we hope to hear from you soon!

jacob wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 29, 2022 1:04 pm

We're a learning-oriented community with a focus on mastering a productive level of competence in a broad range of subjects in order to make ourselves more resource-efficient and resilient in the face of the growing complexities and uncertainties of the 21st century. Insofar you want to retire really early, we do that too.

That is true, though we are trying to entice them to join, so burying the bait might not be good. Also, Grammarly doesn't like me quoting you. It says it should be "insofar as you".

Dream of Freedom wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 29, 2022 1:23 pm

That is true, though we are trying to entice them to join, so burying the bait might not be good.

The bait being FI?

Well, The FI bait is in the URL, so I think it's all right to not begin the paragraph with it. I quite like that paragraph.

I would put a link to the wiki jargon page in the relevant paragraph as it was before. That was a good thing for people who are less engineer-y. There is a subset of non-engineers that are much worse at googling for random stuff than one would expect ime.

EDIT: Adding the link to the jargon page as before lowers the barrier to getting a good enough summary and also points to good sources for jargon that is not in the book such like most of the models we refer to here (Kegan, MBTI, etc).

Six, just slight edit Mathiverse wants.
----

Welcome to the Early Retirement Extreme forums!

We're a learning-oriented community with a focus on mastering a productive level of competence in a broad range of subjects in order to make ourselves more resource-efficient and resilient in the face of the growing complexities and uncertainties of the 21st century. Insofar you want to retire really early, we do that too.

Our forum rules are pretty simple. Follow the same standards here that you follow in real life. Act "in good faith". Do your research and make yourself look good. Don't post anything online you wouldn't want your family/boss/colleagues/government/etc. to find out.

If you want to jump right in, write a post about yourself and your interests. This is most effective when you follow up by posting in other threads. Otherwise people may miss your intro post.

If you're looking for active feedback and/or community, starting and maintaining your own journal and actively commenting on other journals is the best way proceed. Many of us have already been where you are and some of us have already solved your problems. Here are some suggestions on how to succeed with that.

If you prefer to lurk for a while, that's fine too. Some lurk for years and years in order to get to know the place. Also check out the nearly one thousand existing journals. They might contain the answers you're looking for. If not, you can always ask on the forum. Feel free to revive any thread on the board.

Understanding everything that is discussed on the forums is a ongoing learning process. The forum contains a wide range of perspectives. Some of us have been at it for many years. Others are just getting started. Reading the ERE book ties everything together beyond the blog posts. If you're totally new to these ideas consider 21 Day Makeover or committing to a Buy Nothing period.

If you feel lost in all the technical jargon, consider (re)reading the ERE book and remember that google is your friend. Keep in mind that some of the forum discussions ("ERE2") has moved beyond the blog and the book at this point. We keep a list of frequently used terms and abbreviations which can help you out as well.

Over the years, there's been some good discussions. Here are some of the ERE forum highlights. It is by no means inclusive of all the good posts made throughout the 10+ years this forum has been around, but it is a quick way to find some incredible posts.

Welcome to the community and we hope to hear from you soon!

Lets not lower the barrier so much that we start attracting the "too long, didn't read, have opinion anyway"-demographics.

I like v5 and v6 and think either is good enough for posting. I also really like the description and think it more encompasses the vibe around here these days too.

We're a learning-oriented community with a focus on mastering a productive level of competence in a broad range of subjects in order to make ourselves more resource-efficient and resilient in the face of the growing complexities and uncertainties of the 21st century. Insofar you want to retire really early, we do that too.

v6 is good.

I edited this somewhat heavily. It could still need some clean up. This is probably as pretty as I can make it.
https://wiki.earlyretirementextreme.com ... reviations

ARGH. There's a 255 character limit on email signatures.

I'll put it version 6 up as a global sticky announcement instead.