The Money Mustache Community

General Discussion => Forum Information & FAQs => Topic started by: Mrs MM on February 14, 2012, 09:16:01 AM

Title: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 14, 2012, 09:16:01 AM
Hi everyone!  It's fun to see a little community starting over here already.

Some folks mentioned that we need a link back to the MMM blog.  I totally agree and we will be working on linking the forum and the blog together soon.

I'd like to use this "Forum Ideas" topic for everyone to send me their ideas on anything related to the forum.  That way, I can come to one place and see all your great ideas and start implementing them!  This could be related to the functionality of the forum, any permission issues you see, ideas for new forum topics (I'm thinking a Bicycling area and something for Meet-Ups might be nice), etc...

Both MMM and I are new to this whole forum thing (I've participated in a PHPBB forum for years, but never administered one before), so please send us any advice you might have.

Thanks to all of you for building such a great community!  It's pretty awesome.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 14, 2012, 09:23:42 AM
Hi Mrs.MM!

Thanks for starting this!

Re: permissions issues, I cannot see any categories on the main page of the forum. It was working, but stopped about a half hour ago.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MEJG on February 14, 2012, 09:31:41 AM
Hello Mrs.MM!!
       I think a meetup section or regional category, as well as a minimoneymustache category would be awesome.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 14, 2012, 09:36:06 AM
Hi Mrs.MM!

Thanks for starting this!

Re: permissions issues, I cannot see any categories on the main page of the forum. It was working, but stopped about a half hour ago.

Hmmm... I had that happen to me when I was testing the site as the "minimize" button was accidentally clicked. 

Go to the bar where it says "The Only Category" and on the right is says "Unread Posts" and there's a little plus sign there (which toggles +/-).  Click that and you should be good (if I'm understanding your problem correctly).  Let me know if it works...
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 14, 2012, 09:37:53 AM
Hello Mrs.MM!!
       I think a meetup section or regional category, as well as a minimoneymustache category would be awesome.

Thanks MEJG (what does that stand for anyway?).  :)

I agree with the meetup section.  What would the "minimoneymustache category" contain?  You mean a place for beginner Mustachians?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 14, 2012, 09:40:02 AM
Hi Mrs.MM!

Thanks for starting this!

Re: permissions issues, I cannot see any categories on the main page of the forum. It was working, but stopped about a half hour ago.

Hmmm... I had that happen to me when I was testing the site as the "minimize" button was accidentally clicked. 

Go to the bar where it says "The Only Category" and on the right is says "Unread Posts" and there's a little plus sign there (which toggles +/-).  Click that and you should be good (if I'm understanding your problem correctly).  Let me know if it works...

I feel so embarrassed. That was it. Thanks!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 14, 2012, 09:42:09 AM
I feel so embarrassed. That was it. Thanks!

Don't be embarrassed!  I had the exact same thing happen to me and it took me a while to figure it out.  :)  I'm glad it worked!  I'm sure it will happen to many more folks... I'll see if there's a way to get rid of that "feature".
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MEJG on February 14, 2012, 09:43:52 AM
Thanks MEJG (what does that stand for anyway?).  :)

I agree with the meetup section.  What would the "minimoneymustache category" contain?  You mean a place for beginner Mustachians?

I was thinking a section for discussions centered about children :-) the "should one of us stay home and one us of work 5+ more years, or both work for the next 4 and retire" and the "my child has his/her first job, pro/cons of helping them with a Roth?"

MEJG.... well I try to keep my internet names obscure enough not to be easily recognized so suffice it to say three of the letters are initials and the fourth an stands for an important place.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: RoseRed on February 14, 2012, 09:53:29 AM
A geographically based section would be nice, especially for those of us based outside the US, so that we can swap tips with people who share our currency/shops/laws/interest rates.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: wAs on February 14, 2012, 09:56:47 AM
Love the blog and I'm sure I'll love the forum too. Thanks!

My topic: Ideas/suggestions on leading a spouse or significant other toward musthachian concepts. Need some "sales" tools.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 14, 2012, 10:00:53 AM
I was thinking a section for discussions centered about children :-) the "should one of us stay home and one us of work 5+ more years, or both work for the next 4 and retire" and the "my child has his/her first job, pro/cons of helping them with a Roth?"

Yes!  Good idea about a separate area for those of us with kids.  Once we have a list of new areas, I'll discuss with MMM and we'll add them in.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 14, 2012, 10:01:37 AM
Thanks RoseRed and wAs.  Good ideas!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Sparafusile on February 14, 2012, 10:02:54 AM
A section for book, magazine, website reviews would be nice to see.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: gestalt162 on February 14, 2012, 11:00:36 AM
+1 on the idea for regional forums, which offer the chance for meetups. I would love to meet with my fellow Mustachians in the Western NY area (I know there are a few).
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mike Key on February 14, 2012, 11:08:47 AM
Both MMM and I are new to this whole forum thing (I've participated in a PHPBB forum for years, but never administered one before), so please send us any advice you might have.

I've run and moderated several vbulletin forums over the years. The hardest part is just watching out for spammers/scammers who create a user and then post garbage. That's why a team is the most important aspect. You've already got a thread for moderators, so identifying and having a good core team of community users will help the community grow.

I have a suggestion for a blog/forum tie in. Allow folks to keep posting comments on blog posts, but maybe allow/direct more discussion on articles into the forum. A few of the other sites I follow like Simple Dollar and Nerd Fitness do this.

Basically having one forum section dedicated to followup's or ongoing discussion of an article and it's topic.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Erin on February 14, 2012, 11:44:03 AM
A section for book, magazine, website reviews would be nice to see.

I like this idea :)

Thanks Mrs. MM for starting the forum! I'm sure I will learn a lot from the community.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Balance on February 14, 2012, 12:11:26 PM
This may be something small.  But maybe under everyone's username we can add the city/state they are located in.  I think its important to know where people are geographically as employment/community and real estate activity is different all around the country and the world.  Getting an idea of where the poster is from is really important IMO when analyzing their investment strategies.  Real estate in the Bay Area, Ca (where I live) is so much higher in price to most parts of the country but for the immediate area the somewhat inflated looking prices may be typical. To others around the country the prices may look absurd.  Just as example and my 2 cents. 
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: richschmidt on February 14, 2012, 12:12:53 PM
I'd love to see a different CAPTCHA used during registration.  I couldn't make out half the letters and had to have it read them to me!  That's never happened to me before... so I'm thinking it might be dialed in a bit too tight (or is just poorly implemented).

Just tossing it out there!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 14, 2012, 01:10:22 PM
I'd love to see a different CAPTCHA used during registration.  I couldn't make out half the letters and had to have it read them to me!  That's never happened to me before... so I'm thinking it might be dialed in a bit too tight (or is just poorly implemented).

Just tossing it out there!

Haha!  I agree, but luckily you only have to register once.  :)  I also had to have the letters read to me.  We had issues with spammers getting in at the beginning, so we increased the security a whole bunch. 
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: m741 on February 14, 2012, 01:31:04 PM
I would suggest adding a sub-forum for Journals. On the ERE forum they are among the most popular posts.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Ramses on February 14, 2012, 02:17:23 PM
I would suggest adding a sub-forum for Journals. On the ERE forum they are among the most popular posts.
Agree with this idea. I had started a dedicated thread for myself in some other section and decided to delete and wait for a better section to post instead.

btw, is the site getting hammered because of the forum script now? Cached versions of the site just started appearing with a message from Cloudflare service.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 14, 2012, 05:37:46 PM
I have a suggestion for a blog/forum tie in. Allow folks to keep posting comments on blog posts, but maybe allow/direct more discussion on articles into the forum. A few of the other sites I follow like Simple Dollar and Nerd Fitness do this.


I agree.  It'd be easy for discussion to become fragmented between the blog and forum.

My idea, though I think it'll be controversial and will take people a bit to get used to: it'd be cool if every time a blog was posted, a corresponding thread was made on the forums with the first post pasting in the content and/or linking back to the post.  At the bottom of each post would be a link to that forum thread, for discussion.

That would have a dual purpose of keeping all discussion in that one place, plus encourage people to sign up for the forum for further discussion on MMM's awesome blog posts, which would further grow the community.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: bryceb04 on February 14, 2012, 10:02:28 PM
I'd like to be able to use the forum with tapatalk on my phone. Not sure exactly how that works, but I'll look it up later on my computer. Just wanted to get the idea out there. Comes in super handy for following threads on the go.

Edit: looks like tapatalk does support the simple machines forum engine. Beyond that, they claim a free listing service, I'm not sure what else it would take. It's just an idea. :)

All grammar and typing errors I attribute to my phone. Cheers!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mike Key on February 14, 2012, 10:27:22 PM
I agree.  It'd be easy for discussion to become fragmented between the blog and forum.

My idea, though I think it'll be controversial and will take people a bit to get used to: it'd be cool if every time a blog was posted, a corresponding thread was made on the forums with the first post pasting in the content and/or linking back to the post.  At the bottom of each post would be a link to that forum thread, for discussion.

That would have a dual purpose of keeping all discussion in that one place, plus encourage people to sign up for the forum for further discussion on MMM's awesome blog posts, which would further grow the community.

One of the blogs I read, macrumors.com uses that exact method.


Question, there is no GENERAL TOPICS section. And that would be useful.


I wanted to ask an open question that is related to our money, but doesn't fit into any of the currently existing forums.


So why not a forum for everything else?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Brett on February 15, 2012, 03:44:58 AM
Big thank you Mrs MM for your technical wizardry. A forum is exactly what we all needed to really help us out. Really appreciate the work you've done.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Adventine on February 15, 2012, 05:54:00 AM
Nice, a forum! MMM is one of my favorite personal finance blogs, and I'm glad you guys set up this forum so we Mustachians can all learn from each other.

Can we have mobile versions for the blog and forum, though? I usually browse MMM on my phone, and while the layout looks great on a laptop, it's pretty hard to read on smartphones/tablets. I'm having trouble typing this post on my phone right now.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 15, 2012, 06:26:48 AM
I'd like to be able to use the forum with tapatalk on my phone. Not sure exactly how that works, but I'll look it up later on my computer. Just wanted to get the idea out there. Comes in super handy for following threads on the go.

Edit: looks like tapatalk does support the simple machines forum engine. Beyond that and they claim a free laying service, I'm not sure what else it would take. It's just an idea. :)

All grammar and typing errors I attribute to my phone. Cheers!

+1

Tapatalk support would be cool. They have both an iOS an Android app, and it's not hard to implement, from what I understand.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Sir Sideburns 'Stash-a-lot on February 15, 2012, 10:47:53 AM
Section Title: My Mustache is Bushier Than Yours!

This is where Mustachians would report on their progress growing out full, freedom-fortifying Money Mustaches.  I'm imagining something along the lines of Jacob's Journals section here: http://forum.earlyretirementextreme.com/forum.php?id=9 (http://forum.earlyretirementextreme.com/forum.php?id=9)

Read Akratic's journal (here: http://forum.earlyretirementextreme.com/topic.php?id=85 (http://forum.earlyretirementextreme.com/topic.php?id=85)) for the sort of inspiring showmanship I have in mind, complete with nerdy graphs and such.

Jacob's journals have been a big inspiration for me.  I'd be interested to know how just full and bushy (or dangly or twisty) the Money Mustaches are of my peers here.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Sir Sideburns 'Stash-a-lot on February 15, 2012, 10:57:27 AM
The Search appears not to be working.  I saw a title for a post, DRIPS, but busied myself with reading other posts.  Later, I decided I'd like to read that potentially informative post about DRIPS, but search returned no results.

Here it is, if anyone's interest is now piqued: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/index.php?topic=40.0;topicseen (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/index.php?topic=40.0;topicseen)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MMM on February 15, 2012, 11:04:53 AM
Another note to all of you excellent active forum people!

I am amazed at the amount of talk that is going on in this forum already. The volume is so large, you'd have to spend your entire day here just to keep up!

Luckily, everyone is helping each other and so the whole system is on autopilot. But it means that unlike the main blog comments, I probably won't ever see most of what is written.

If there happens to be a conversation that anyone thinks I should join into, just send me a private message through this forum. Then I can catch up and say hi.

There are many future articles automatically writing themselves within these walls. Dahlink just posted something about alternative cell phone providers that opened my eyes to a whole world of savings I never knew existed for US residents. Stuff like that is bound to happen almost every day now that the previously untapped knowledge of Mustachians has been released.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Sir Sideburns 'Stash-a-lot on February 15, 2012, 11:29:18 AM
The Search appears not to be working.

I may have had my head up my a$$.  It worked fine for me now.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MEJG on February 15, 2012, 12:24:57 PM
Luckily, everyone is helping each other and so the whole system is on autopilot. But it means that unlike the main blog comments, I probably won't ever see most of what is written.

If there happens to be a conversation that anyone thinks I should join into, just send me a private message through this forum. Then I can catch up and say hi.

Mr. MM,

Please please please please read the Ask a Mustacian section!!! Otherwise we will all be forced to contact you via the contact form when we desire your opinion.

Sincerely,
MEJG, who is very envious of your full thick and lustrous 'Stach
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: td on February 15, 2012, 02:01:21 PM
It would be nice to have a place to introduce yourself to the community. Maybe a stand alone category would work for this?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: adam on February 15, 2012, 02:08:22 PM
How about a reputation system?  I know sometimes it can be abused, but it might be worth trying out here.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: drewstees on February 16, 2012, 08:25:50 AM
I have no idea if this is possible, but it would be really nice if there would be a way to "favorite" a thread (or post).  This would allow each of us to individually track whatever nuggets of knowledge we'd like to remember.  Furthermore, it could allow others to search for the "most favorited" threads/posts over the past month, year, all-time, etc. 

With the popularity of the blog itself, I can see this forum getting quite busy, and this would allow a way for us to filter, track, and build a Mustachian library of sorts.  It would also help MMM target his efforts in the forum.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 16, 2012, 08:44:26 AM
Love the blog and I'm sure I'll love the forum too. Thanks!

My topic: Ideas/suggestions on leading a spouse or significant other toward musthachian concepts. Need some "sales" tools.

I think MMM has a big long post dedicated entirely to this topic coming up.. stay tuned!  In the meantime, you can discuss on "Ask a Mustachian".  I think that's an appropriate place for that topic.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 16, 2012, 08:45:10 AM
A section for book, magazine, website reviews would be nice to see.

I think the Reader Recommendations section is the perfect place for that kind of discussion.  :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 16, 2012, 08:49:55 AM
Both MMM and I are new to this whole forum thing (I've participated in a PHPBB forum for years, but never administered one before), so please send us any advice you might have.

I've run and moderated several vbulletin forums over the years. The hardest part is just watching out for spammers/scammers who create a user and then post garbage. That's why a team is the most important aspect. You've already got a thread for moderators, so identifying and having a good core team of community users will help the community grow.

I have a suggestion for a blog/forum tie in. Allow folks to keep posting comments on blog posts, but maybe allow/direct more discussion on articles into the forum. A few of the other sites I follow like Simple Dollar and Nerd Fitness do this.

Basically having one forum section dedicated to followup's or ongoing discussion of an article and it's topic.

Thanks Mr. Key!  Any input you have would be appreciated it.  It looks like we've thwarted the spammers for now.  We'll see...

For the blog/forum tie in, I did add something fun to the blog.  There's not a sidebar section that shows the 5 latest posts on the forum.  MMM himself also figured out how to link the top image on the forum back to the blog.  So, we've got some connections made there.

For the blog post discussion, we might start a section called "Blog Post Discussion" (I'm still in talks with MMM about the new sections we'll be adding).  This way, if anyone would like to continue the discussion here, they can easily add a new title to discuss any particular article.  But, the comments would still be the place to continue the main discussion (since only a very small percentage of readers are actually registered users of the forum).

I think in situations where the comments become a more back and forth conversation, it makes sense to start a discussion here.  Also, if people would like to comment on old articles, the forum might be a good place to start a conversation.

I did see a plugin that allows you to automatically post new topics to the forum for every new blog post, but it seems like it would make more sense for one of you to start a new topic if you actually have something to say.

Let me know what you think...

Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 16, 2012, 08:50:58 AM
This may be something small.  But maybe under everyone's username we can add the city/state they are located in.  I think its important to know where people are geographically as employment/community and real estate activity is different all around the country and the world.  Getting an idea of where the poster is from is really important IMO when analyzing their investment strategies.  Real estate in the Bay Area, Ca (where I live) is so much higher in price to most parts of the country but for the immediate area the somewhat inflated looking prices may be typical. To others around the country the prices may look absurd.  Just as example and my 2 cents.

DONE!!  Your age also automatically appears now if you filled out the date of birth area, so be aware of that.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 16, 2012, 08:51:45 AM
I would suggest adding a sub-forum for Journals. On the ERE forum they are among the most popular posts.

Excellent idea!  We're compiling a list of new sub-forums now and this will definitely be one of them.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 16, 2012, 08:53:33 AM
Nice, a forum! MMM is one of my favorite personal finance blogs, and I'm glad you guys set up this forum so we Mustachians can all learn from each other.

Can we have mobile versions for the blog and forum, though? I usually browse MMM on my phone, and while the layout looks great on a laptop, it's pretty hard to read on smartphones/tablets. I'm having trouble typing this post on my phone right now.

Thanks!

This is on my list, but it's a bit further down... I will look into this "Tapatalk" thing that I've never heard of before too.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 16, 2012, 08:54:54 AM
It would be nice to have a place to introduce yourself to the community. Maybe a stand alone category would work for this?

I think the Welcome to the Forum place is perfect for that.  Since that area is less active, it will probably become a General Discussions / Welcome area.  I could make a sticky for introductions - does that work?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 16, 2012, 08:56:00 AM
I have no idea if this is possible, but it would be really nice if there would be a way to "favorite" a thread (or post).  This would allow each of us to individually track whatever nuggets of knowledge we'd like to remember.  Furthermore, it could allow others to search for the "most favorited" threads/posts over the past month, year, all-time, etc. 

With the popularity of the blog itself, I can see this forum getting quite busy, and this would allow a way for us to filter, track, and build a Mustachian library of sorts.  It would also help MMM target his efforts in the forum.

Great idea!  I know this forum can do a lot, so I'll see if that's built in somewhere...
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 16, 2012, 11:01:54 AM
Whoah Mrs. MMM, you've been busy!


It would be nice to have a place to introduce yourself to the community. Maybe a stand alone category would work for this?

I think the Welcome to the Forum place is perfect for that.  Since that area is less active, it will probably become a General Discussions / Welcome area.  I could make a sticky for introductions - does that work?

That's a great idea - repurpose that forum for general member introductions, and add a sticky with general "Hi, Introduce Yourself" instructions.  Each new member can start their own thread (if so inclined) and say where they are on their Mustachian journey.

the early-retirement.org forum has a similar area.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 16, 2012, 05:02:58 PM
How about an "off topic" or "miscellaneous" section, or something of that nature?

I'm sure everyone here is dying to talk about the LINsanity sweeping the nation!  ;)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: cyclevillian on February 16, 2012, 07:57:55 PM
Idea for a new forum topic: how about an exercise/health section? I know its kind of a broad subject but maybe people could talk about different diets, exercises, health issues, food, healthcare, etc.

BTW, Thanks for the forum! I used to go back and reread posts, now there are all kinds of new topics to discuss and read about. Best blog ever!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MMM on February 16, 2012, 11:37:04 PM
Ahhh.. I just made another change around here that I hope you all like as much as I do.

I increased the number of posts displayed per topic page from 15 (requiring you to page back and forth to read a conversation), up to a more reasonable 999. Now you can simply scroll up and down to read through the conversation, the way your web browser was designed to work!

Web sites that split things unnecessarily into pages are a serious pet peeve of mine!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: EnemyMind on February 16, 2012, 11:44:36 PM
...

Excellent!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MEJG on February 17, 2012, 06:56:34 AM
Ahhh.. I just made another change around here that I hope you all like as much as I do.

I increased the number of posts displayed per topic page from 15 (requiring you to page back and forth to read a conversation), up to a more reasonable 999. Now you can simply scroll up and down to read through the conversation, the way your web browser was designed to work!

Web sites that split things unnecessarily into pages are a serious pet peeve of mine!

I like it!!

Is there a way to number the posts???  I think 15 is too few on a page (personally I like 50)  but in a really long thread one could get lost.  I have a sneaky suspicion we'll have really long threads on this board.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 17, 2012, 08:11:15 AM
Ahhh.. I just made another change around here that I hope you all like as much as I do.

I increased the number of posts displayed per topic page from 15 (requiring you to page back and forth to read a conversation), up to a more reasonable 999. Now you can simply scroll up and down to read through the conversation, the way your web browser was designed to work!

Web sites that split things unnecessarily into pages are a serious pet peeve of mine!

Awesome!  Many forums let you set how many posts you want to see per page, and I always set it to the max.

As an aside, this totally confused me in another thread I swore was two pages, but suddenly was only one, thought posts were getting deleted somehow.  Even posted about it in that thread.  *off to delete that post*

Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Physics on February 17, 2012, 08:59:56 AM
Ahhh.. I just made another change around here that I hope you all like as much as I do.

I increased the number of posts displayed per topic page from 15 (requiring you to page back and forth to read a conversation), up to a more reasonable 999. Now you can simply scroll up and down to read through the conversation, the way your web browser was designed to work!

Web sites that split things unnecessarily into pages are a serious pet peeve of mine!

I agree with other posters this is awesome.  The only thing to keep an eye on is as this forum gets more popular, this decision could have big implications on your bandwidth usage (and hence hosting costs).  It shouldn't be a big deal, but if you have a popular thread with a bunch of attached images, it could be needlessly inefficient to load all of them every time for every viewer.  Viewers with slower internet connections might also appreciate an option to dial that back.

Personally I love 999, I have a fat internet pipe and I agree it is much more convenient.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 17, 2012, 09:03:19 AM
Viewers with slower internet connections might also appreciate an option to dial that back.


OOOOhhhhhh yeahh.  That'll be a problem for mobile users.

Well if a mobile solution is set up (like Tapatalk) it won't be a problem, except for those still on 14.4k dialup at home.  :D
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 17, 2012, 09:29:06 AM
Permission Question: Should some of these boards be closed to guests?  I'm wondering specifically about the new "Journals" board.  Let me know what you guys think.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Physics on February 17, 2012, 09:33:44 AM
Permission Question: Should some of these boards be closed to guests?  I'm wondering specifically about the new "Journals" board.  Let me know what you guys think.

Tough call, maybe do that as an experiment.  I agree the journals section would be a good place to start.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: adam on February 17, 2012, 10:54:16 AM
Permission Question: Should some of these boards be closed to guests?  I'm wondering specifically about the new "Journals" board.  Let me know what you guys think.

Tough call, maybe do that as an experiment.  I agree the journals section would be a good place to start.

I have seen where you can make the content of a forum public, but mask the screen names, locations, and signatures of the people posting so it still looks somewhat anonymous to guests.


edit: Personally, before I start putting in actual numbers, I would want to see it locked to members only.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: catalana on February 19, 2012, 03:16:47 AM
Smilies please!  I like smilies  :-)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Miamoo on February 20, 2012, 02:47:28 PM
Oh putz Mrs. MM I just tried to start a new discussiom on foraging.  How do I move that over to saving money on food?  I would really like some responses as I'm trying to learn more . . .
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 20, 2012, 05:24:40 PM
Oh putz Mrs. MM I just tried to start a new discussiom on foraging.  How do I move that over to saving money on food?  I would really like some responses as I'm trying to learn more . . .

I moved it to the Ask A Mustachian forum for you.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: td on February 21, 2012, 12:11:13 PM
It would be nice to have a place to introduce yourself to the community. Maybe a stand alone category would work for this?

I think the Welcome to the Forum place is perfect for that.  Since that area is less active, it will probably become a General Discussions / Welcome area.  I could make a sticky for introductions - does that work?

Thank you! It is nice to see suggestions being acted on.
If at all possible, will you consider securing at the very least the Journals section of the forum from Google and other web crawlers?
I think many people here won't want that to be too easily found depending on how much detail/identifying information is given. Personally, I don't like having to worry about how much information I am giving out that could be used maliciously, although you can never be too careful in this day and age.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: dinko628 on February 21, 2012, 03:16:15 PM
What do people think about the possibility of some sort of job board or something? MMM's post about stickers and hiring an underworked mustachian sparked the idea. I'd much rather work with/for another mustachian than some idiot who's going to be undedicated and putz away his newfound fortunes.


It might be good to put up things if anyone has them...
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: td on February 21, 2012, 05:29:30 PM
What do people think about the possibility of some sort of job board or something? MMM's post about stickers and hiring an underworked mustachian sparked the idea. I'd much rather work with/for another mustachian than some idiot who's going to be undedicated and putz away his newfound fortunes.


It might be good to put up things if anyone has them...

I'd like to see Mustachian job postings as well!
That's got potential.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 21, 2012, 06:15:38 PM
What do people think about the possibility of some sort of job board or something? MMM's post about stickers and hiring an underworked mustachian sparked the idea. I'd much rather work with/for another mustachian than some idiot who's going to be undedicated and putz away his newfound fortunes.


It might be good to put up things if anyone has them...

I'd like to see Mustachian job postings as well!
That's got potential.

Can that go in the Ask a Mustachian section?  I feel with all of us so spread out (some in the same state, but very few in the same cities), it will hardly have any posts, and the more areas, the more e board clutters.  It would be okay for online work, I suppose, but with the prices of virtual assistants and such, I'd feel bad paying a fellow reader a low wage, nor would it be Mustachian of me - or them - to do so.

Or maybe that idea could be combined into the buy/sell/trade section... Make it a classifieds section, which could include bst and job postings...
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: jahoga on February 22, 2012, 06:41:11 AM
What about a referrals page?

I know many of us use online services, including brokerages, etc.

We may as well help each other out if we can, right?

Occasionally a moderator on some forums I've been on is not really a fan of this sort of thing, so I just wanted to put it out there.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 22, 2012, 09:35:50 AM
What do people think about the possibility of some sort of job board or something? MMM's post about stickers and hiring an underworked mustachian sparked the idea. I'd much rather work with/for another mustachian than some idiot who's going to be undedicated and putz away his newfound fortunes.


It might be good to put up things if anyone has them...

I'd like to see Mustachian job postings as well!
That's got potential.

Can that go in the Ask a Mustachian section?  I feel with all of us so spread out (some in the same state, but very few in the same cities), it will hardly have any posts, and the more areas, the more e board clutters.  It would be okay for online work, I suppose, but with the prices of virtual assistants and such, I'd feel bad paying a fellow reader a low wage, nor would it be Mustachian of me - or them - to do so.

Or maybe that idea could be combined into the buy/sell/trade section... Make it a classifieds section, which could include bst and job postings...

Great idea!  That is the intent of the "Mustachian Marketplace" forum, so you can put job postings there.

Here's the description: Connect with fellow readers to make deals. Buy, sell, and trade goods, services, and even jobs. And help build your network of fun people to work with both before and after Early Retirement.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 22, 2012, 09:36:30 AM
Oh putz Mrs. MM I just tried to start a new discussiom on foraging.  How do I move that over to saving money on food?  I would really like some responses as I'm trying to learn more . . .

I moved it to the Ask A Mustachian forum for you.

Thanks for doing that Arebelspy!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 22, 2012, 09:37:27 AM
What about a referrals page?

I know many of us use online services, including brokerages, etc.

We may as well help each other out if we can, right?

Occasionally a moderator on some forums I've been on is not really a fan of this sort of thing, so I just wanted to put it out there.

That should go under Reader Recommendations: What products and services do YOU use? What about books and educational movies or videos? Share your good and bad experiences, and learn from others.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 22, 2012, 09:43:59 AM
It would be nice to have a place to introduce yourself to the community. Maybe a stand alone category would work for this?

I think the Welcome to the Forum place is perfect for that.  Since that area is less active, it will probably become a General Discussions / Welcome area.  I could make a sticky for introductions - does that work?

Thank you! It is nice to see suggestions being acted on.
If at all possible, will you consider securing at the very least the Journals section of the forum from Google and other web crawlers?
I think many people here won't want that to be too easily found depending on how much detail/identifying information is given. Personally, I don't like having to worry about how much information I am giving out that could be used maliciously, although you can never be too careful in this day and age.

I've set the Journals section as not viewable by guests.  The category doesn't even show up to outside users, so unless you're registered and logged in, you won't see it.  I did some testing and it seems to work great.

When a user that is not logged in tries to view journals, they get this message:  "The topic or board you are looking for appears to be either missing or off limits to you.  Please login below or register an account with The Money Mustache Community. "

I'm not sure about the web crawlers... I'll look into that.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 22, 2012, 09:45:05 AM
Smilies please!  I like smilies  :-)

Hmmmm... anyone else?  Both MMM & I are anti-smilies which is why we removed them.  :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 22, 2012, 10:41:37 AM
Smilies please!  I like smilies  :-)

Hmmmm... anyone else?  Both MMM & I are anti-smilies which is why we removed them.  :)

I'm torn.  Some can be okay, but the ones that are too "cartoonish" annoy me.  It's hard to find a good set that doesn't look ridiculous, so I'm tend towards not having them.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: dinko628 on February 22, 2012, 01:34:06 PM
I'm torn.  Some can be okay, but the ones that are too "cartoonish" annoy me.  It's hard to find a good set that doesn't look ridiculous, so I'm tend towards not having them.


I'd have to agree. Some of the other forums I'm on go above and beyond the basic cartoon smilies to have animated ones, words, etc., and it just gets really gimmicky and looks unprofessional. I usually scoff at such things.

I don't think aside from your good old-fashioned text smilies would be appropriate for the level of badassery of this forum ;D. (Plus, text smilies allow for improvisation, like I just did there)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Fizzer on February 25, 2012, 01:16:01 AM
First of all, thanks for the forum! I think it's a great addition to the MMM blog.

Is site bandwidth a big problem? The 192kb max attachment and 128kb max individual attachment seem a little low these days.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Atlas on February 29, 2012, 05:02:10 PM
I didn't read through this whole post, but a ctrl+f did not show any use of the word "favicon", so my suggestion is to update the favicon.ico for the forum to match the MrMoneyMustache.com one.  Or at least something besides the default.

Looking forward to participating in the forum!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 29, 2012, 05:30:31 PM
First of all, thanks for the forum! I think it's a great addition to the MMM blog.

Is site bandwidth a big problem? The 192kb max attachment and 128kb max individual attachment seem a little low these days.

Hi and welcome!  Those are just set to the default setting.  We can probably increase them if needed.  I'm not sure if anyone has used attachments yet...
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 29, 2012, 05:31:20 PM
I didn't read through this whole post, but a ctrl+f did not show any use of the word "favicon", so my suggestion is to update the favicon.ico for the forum to match the MrMoneyMustache.com one.  Or at least something besides the default.

Looking forward to participating in the forum!

Welcome!  Yeah, I've been meaning to change it.  Thanks for the reminder!  I'll search around to see if I can find where that's done.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Bakari on February 29, 2012, 05:54:13 PM
I have an idea which I don't think has been mentioned yet.

A section for philosophy, politics, thought experiments, and flights of fancy.

I have an idea for a post on the application of mustachian principals society wide, but it doesn't really fit into any of the existing categories.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: zinnie on February 29, 2012, 07:59:22 PM
There doesn't seem to be a multi quote- am I just not seeing it? I'd like to be able to respond to multiple posts without having to copy paste to a separate sheet first.

And I second the smileys! Sure, there are a lot of cheesy ones but there are also a lot that are very useful for conveying your point without writing an essay.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Brett on March 24, 2012, 07:51:33 AM
I agree with Zinnie, a multi-quote function would be so useful. It's a right pain copying and pasting quotes, multi-quote would go down a treat. :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on March 24, 2012, 08:31:21 AM
I agree with Zinnie, a multi-quote function would be so useful. It's a right pain copying and pasting quotes, multi-quote would go down a treat. :)

When you click reply (or click quote to start a reply), under the box for your message is the whole thread.  You can click "insert quote" next to each post to pop in a quote from the different replies.

That should do exactly what you two are looking for, unless I'm misunderstanding/mistaken.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Brett on March 24, 2012, 10:21:47 AM
I agree with Zinnie, a multi-quote function would be so useful. It's a right pain copying and pasting quotes, multi-quote would go down a treat. :)

When you click reply (or click quote to start a reply), under the box for your message is the whole thread.  You can click "insert quote" next to each post to pop in a quote from the different replies.

That should do exactly what you two are looking for, unless I'm misunderstanding/mistaken.

Well aren't you just brilliant. I hadn't scrolled beyond the message box until you mentioned that. Thank you.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on April 05, 2012, 12:32:54 PM
My favorite forum has a "First unread post" button at the top of each thread. When I revisit a thread I've been into before, it lets me jump down to the part that's new. I think it's sorely needed here...
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: DC on April 05, 2012, 01:15:47 PM
If any thread you've visited recently has a reply you can go directly to the part you haven't read yet by clicking on the "New" orange button. It's not the solution you're looking for but it's as close as it gets:)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on April 05, 2012, 01:20:55 PM
Actually, that totally addresses my problem. It offers the same functionality I had wanted. I can just middle click all the New buttons and read a bunch of threads that way!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on April 05, 2012, 01:48:44 PM
If any thread you've visited recently has a reply you can go directly to the part you haven't read yet by clicking on the "New" orange button. It's not the solution you're looking for but it's as close as it gets:)

Thanks!!  Glad you guys figured it out so I didn't have to do anything.  :)  I wouldn't have known where to start anyway.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mactrader on April 05, 2012, 01:56:39 PM
Ahhh.. I just made another change around here that I hope you all like as much as I do.

I increased the number of posts displayed per topic page from 15 (requiring you to page back and forth to read a conversation), up to a more reasonable 999. Now you can simply scroll up and down to read through the conversation, the way your web browser was designed to work!

Web sites that split things unnecessarily into pages are a serious pet peeve of mine!

The downside to this is if you load up a thread, it marks it as read even if you haven't had a chance to read all 999 posts. Is there a way to have it so you can mark an individual post as 'read through here'? I have seen it done (very well, at that) on other message boards. Then you just jump right back into where you left off rather than trying to either quickly consume everything that's new, or remember it was that you were reading!

Also, I can't seem to find the setting to specify my time zone, keep having to add 3 hours to everything!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: DC on April 05, 2012, 02:12:35 PM
Thanks!!  Glad you guys figured it out so I didn't have to do anything.  :)  I wouldn't have known where to start anyway.
No worries. I'm more or less at ease with this forum because I moderated a forum with features very similar to this one.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: DC on April 05, 2012, 02:15:54 PM
Also, I can't seem to find the setting to specify my time zone, keep having to add 3 hours to everything!
I'm not sure if the link will work: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/profile/?area=theme;u=17
If it doesn't, follow this: Profile -> Account settings -> Modify Profile -> Look and Layout
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on April 17, 2012, 08:46:23 PM
Forum idea: change the "Welcome" thread to a forum where each new member starts their own thread to introduce themselves.

Having one big thread as it is currently is interesting and fun to read, but it discourages replies and responses.  The only posts that seem appropriate in there are introductions, so replying to someone is out of place. Conversations would get mixed, etc.

I've mentioned this before, but the latest reply in that thread reminded me again.

The latest person to post ended their comment with this:
I've been reading MMM since the first articles and have shared nearly every article with friends and family. Looking for help/advice :)

It's posts like this that make me wish the welcome structure was set up a little different here.  I want to offer a comment on his post, but it doesn't really fit in that thread.

A better idea, IMO, is a welcome forum where a thread like that is a sticky, but individuals are encouraged to start their own thread to introduce themselves.

The early-retirement.org forum does it this way:
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f26/

Here's their sticky about introducing yourself, to give you an idea:
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f26/read-this-before-you-introduce-yourself-27621.html

Then people could actually say "Welcome" back to the individual and comment on their situation.  They'd have their own individual thread for their personal situation.  Like a beginner stepping stone to the journal part of the forum, where one can track their progress.

That seems much better to me, personally, than one big thread that is now up to 99 replies, but no actual meaningful dialogue  and no way to actually welcome people.  As the forum grows, and that thread does, it'll just become a beast.  Better to start to create individual threads now.

Further, it'd be a good way to grow the community, as people would get more engaged, getting their welcome post commented on, instead of (seemingly) ignored.  I just went through the Welcome sticky and 9 people (almost 10% of the people who had posted in that thread) only had a single post, that one single post was all they ever made. 11 more only had two posts, and another 7 had 3 total.  So of the 99 replies, 27% of them have posted 3 or less times.  The welcome is one of te most crucial times to make people actually feel welcome, yet I feel awkward doing so with the current setup.

Thoughts?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on April 17, 2012, 10:27:49 PM
I second arebelspy's suggestion, Mrs MM. The welcome area does need to be more... welcoming.

We're also starting to hit critical mass in some of the subforums and have been getting duplicate threads over and over (like the "what sort of car" and assorted bike threads in the Ask section). There have been a lot of excellent, fat info packed threads on several subforums that are starting to get lost in the shuffle and duplicated to lesser success. You might want to start considering using the sticky thread feature for some of the more common topics and useful threads to help keep the info better organized.

Final thought... I don't know about others feelings on the subject, but there are times where I'd think the Ask and Share subforums might work better as a unified section. After all, they're both about catch-all, general knowledge sharing at their fundamental core.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: napalminator on April 18, 2012, 12:20:29 AM
bikes and cars are pretty popular subjects.... with enough traffic they could probably support their own forums.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: ShavenLlama on April 20, 2012, 01:04:25 PM
How about a Lady 'Stash category? Gardening/ food category? :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on May 29, 2012, 08:56:14 AM
Here's an idea I've seen on other forums: A "Hall of Fame" section for the best posts.

Some posts by Mustachians are so epic - helpful, insightful, and brilliant - that they should be preserved in a separate thread for all to read, rather than get buried.

The way I've generally seen it work is when someone makes a really good post, someone nominates it for the hall of fame, and if it's seconded and agreed by enough people, a moderator copies the post into the HOF subforum.  Only moderators can post there, but everyone can read it, and easily go to it for reading the best posts of all time.  OF ALL TIME.

(http://h.imagehost.org/0137/lolzkanye.jpg)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: dancedancekj on May 29, 2012, 09:07:08 AM
Yo Arebelspy, I'm real happy for you, Imma let you finish...

But I second the Hall of Faming idea
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on May 29, 2012, 01:30:09 PM
Here's an idea I've seen on other forums: A "Hall of Fame" section for the best posts.

Very yes. I even found a pre-existing plugin for SMF (http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1890) to do it with.

Also, we still need some thread stickies with or without topic voting (http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3236). *cough* >.>
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on May 29, 2012, 01:45:46 PM
I don't know... my other forum implemented upvoting and downvoting for frontpage comments and it got waaaaaay catty. It seems to be pretty unproductive, at least over there.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on May 29, 2012, 02:06:30 PM
Perhaps, but we're a pretty civilized community here, even in our discourse. Besides, the plugin lets you disable downvotes. Hard to be catty when you can only give people props.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on May 29, 2012, 02:08:21 PM
That would be a great improvement over what the other site has! Upvotes only has the potential to really be useful and helpful.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on May 29, 2012, 04:24:14 PM
I wasn't even thinking of something as complicated as that, although some "thanks" type systems an thumbs up stuff are kinda cool.

I was just thinking something very simple, when there's an epic post that will quickly be lost (it's in the middle of a thread that will be buried in a week), someone recommends it for the HOF and we make a copy of the post to save, so one can browse the HOF and read brilliant posts packed chock full of Mustachian wisdom and content.

Something fancier would be fine too (as long as we avoid issues grant points out, as systems with "voting" often lead to groupthink... Thus why "thanks" systems can be good, avoids that), but that's separate (and possibly compatible with) the simpler idea I'm thinking of.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Jake D on May 29, 2012, 08:14:25 PM
Thanks for clarifying the "New" posts thing. I came hear just to request a "show first unread" button.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Jake D on May 31, 2012, 06:17:04 PM
Is it possible to change the system so that after posting a reply to a thread, I am returned to the thread? Getting bumped out to the forum home page is a bit jolting.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Rich M on May 31, 2012, 06:25:51 PM
I know Rick Steve's has a travel show on awesomeness, but how about a travel forum?  We could share frugal things in our cities for others and help them save a shootload on their next trip!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on May 31, 2012, 07:23:04 PM
Is it possible to change the system so that after posting a reply to a thread, I am returned to the thread? Getting bumped out to the forum home page is a bit jolting.

Yes. When you click reply (or quote), right under the box you type in, click the + next to "Attachments and other options" and check the "return to this topic" option.

It should remember your setting.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Jake D on May 31, 2012, 10:17:12 PM
Testing, testing...

Thanks a lot!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on June 09, 2012, 07:19:55 PM
Nice, a forum! MMM is one of my favorite personal finance blogs, and I'm glad you guys set up this forum so we Mustachians can all learn from each other.

Can we have mobile versions for the blog and forum, though? I usually browse MMM on my phone, and while the layout looks great on a laptop, it's pretty hard to read on smartphones/tablets. I'm having trouble typing this post on my phone right now.

Thanks!


This is on my list, but it's a bit further down... I will look into this "Tapatalk" thing that I've never heard of before too.

Bump for this suggestion.

Any way we can get tapatalk support (works on android and iOS)?  It has a simple plugin that works with this forum's software (SMF), should be a very quick install.

Really any mobile solution would be great (forum runner, or even just have it reformat on mobile screens), tapatalk is just a common one that's easy to implement.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on June 09, 2012, 08:43:50 PM
Nice, a forum! MMM is one of my favorite personal finance blogs, and I'm glad you guys set up this forum so we Mustachians can all learn from each other.

Can we have mobile versions for the blog and forum, though? I usually browse MMM on my phone, and while the layout looks great on a laptop, it's pretty hard to read on smartphones/tablets. I'm having trouble typing this post on my phone right now.

Thanks!


This is on my list, but it's a bit further down... I will look into this "Tapatalk" thing that I've never heard of before too.

Bump for this suggestion.

Any way we can get tapatalk support (works on android and iOS)?  It has a simple plugin that works with this forum's software (SMF), should be a very quick install.

Really any mobile solution would be great (forum runner, or even just have it reformat on mobile screens), tapatalk is just a common one that's easy to implement.

It's not the most elegant interface, but if you'll notice on the bottom of all the pages here, there's a link in the footer labelled WAP2, linking to https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/index.php?wap2

It's no-frills old school mobile browser formatted, but it does make the forums far easier to use on your mobile.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on June 12, 2012, 02:32:26 PM
Sorry guys... somehow I've been missing all these!  I will read through everything.  Please continue to discuss and figure out how this community can best function.  Summer is busy, but I will be working exclusively on the blog this Fall! (no more part-time job - yay!)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on June 12, 2012, 10:21:48 PM
Sorry guys... somehow I've been missing all these!  I will read through everything.  Please continue to discuss and figure out how this community can best function.  Summer is busy, but I will be working exclusively on the blog this Fall! (no more part-time job - yay!)

Awesome!  Congrats on the (pending) transition from semi- to full time retirement.

I'm sure you'll be busier than ever.  ;)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: rjack on June 29, 2012, 08:08:57 AM
Since I just retired, I would like to see a Forum called "Post FIRE".
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: tammyLav on July 04, 2012, 10:28:14 PM
I would love to see a thread devoted to food & groceries, with recipes etc.. This is a big area for me to improve upon, and I would love a place to see great, delicious and frugal recipes and tips.... Or maybe you could have a stickie that other's could add to (if this exists, sorry but I'm new around here... love your blog! you and Mr MM are an amazing team :-)

. I love delicious fresh and organic food, and I love hearing how others are able to provide for their families on a mustachian budget.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: nevinera on July 05, 2012, 05:59:16 AM
I would love to see a thread devoted to food & groceries, with recipes etc.. This is a big area for me to improve upon, and I would love a place to see great, delicious and frugal recipes and tips.... Or maybe you could have a stickie that other's could add to (if this exists, sorry but I'm new around here... love your blog! you and Mr MM are an amazing team :-)

. I love delicious fresh and organic food, and I love hearing how others are able to provide for their families on a mustachian budget.

I have been scanning the contents of all of the areas looking for cooking and grocery related threads. Food is one of the major things we do (and ought to) spend money on, and I'd love to have a single place to read and discuss that topic :-)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on July 09, 2012, 01:38:33 PM
Any luck finding a new host yet. At least here (Eastern Time), the website is just about impossible to use between 12-4pm.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on July 09, 2012, 04:30:05 PM
Any luck finding a new host yet. At least here (Eastern Time), the website is just about impossible to use between 12-4pm.

+1.  I had quite a bit more trouble today than normal.

As MMM's popularity explodes, it'll be harder and harder to cover the amount of traffic.  I know MMM was looking for a better host... Anyone have any suggestions?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on July 09, 2012, 05:49:48 PM
Any luck finding a new host yet. At least here (Eastern Time), the website is just about impossible to use between 12-4pm.

+1.  I had quite a bit more trouble today than normal.

As MMM's popularity explodes, it'll be harder and harder to cover the amount of traffic.  I know MMM was looking for a better host... Anyone have any suggestions?

I have to admit, I've been dreading these days ever since I heard mention of Bluehost from the get-go, but figured if it was working at the time, why rock the boat... but it's obvious that MMM and our shared community both are outgrowing them.

As for personal recommendations, I've had good luck with Gandi.net (https://www.gandi.net/) in the past for mid-range scalable hosting and I'll be using them for something in the works here shortly. Additionally, I've also had extensive experience over the years with A Small Orange (http://asmallorange.com/), and they've treated me well (probably an excellent mid-range solution if the CPanel crutch is needed). If traffic and server requirements eventually demand the need for actual rackspace (which could be possible - I'm not sure without details), Server Beach (http://www.serverbeach.com/) and The Planet Softlayer (http://www.softlayer.com/) are always excellent choices.

Mrs. MM, I don't entirely know your qualifications and background or your skill-set with systems administration and web hosting, but this sort of thing does tend to hit close to my wheelhouse. If you need someone's brain to pick or need a consultant of some sort... you guys know how to reach me. :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: James on July 09, 2012, 06:12:22 PM
I've been completely blocked out on and off all day, slow access at many times over the last couple weeks as well.  Hopefully something scalable can be found that will work well going forward.  Having been a webmaster myself for many years I understand that it's thankless, behind-the-scenes work and I appreciate your efforts.  :D
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on July 10, 2012, 08:33:00 AM
Not to rock the boat too much, but the outage started for me at 9:30 this morning.

I know MMM mentioned that he likes the 999 posts per page, and I do too, but I think cutting the page size to 25 or 50 posts per page might be a good [interim] solution to decrease the server load somewhat. Then again, maybe that wouldn't help as much as I think it would. I am not a webmaster...
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on July 10, 2012, 09:12:27 AM
Excellent point and you'd be correct, Grant. I'd entirely forgotten about the insane page length settings because I've had my profile set to (I think - can't recall, on WAP forum currently) 15 a page since right after it was implemented. Out of sight, out of mind, eh?

But yes, especially in cases of pages like the superguide, with the current settings, each page load is pulling all posts. This behavior is hammering both the overall necessary bandwidth needed for loading content and killing database performance with massive requests. Trimming back to either 10, 15, or even 25 at the high end could help significantly with performance and extend the need to migrate.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on July 10, 2012, 10:19:23 AM
I personally like 999/post, but cutting it back temporarily is a good idea (or cutting the default, but still letting individuals set it to 999).

I emailed MMM about the issue and pointed him to this thread.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MMM on July 10, 2012, 03:07:46 PM
Thanks everyone! I am serious about this web hosting switcheroo now.

In late June, the blog jumped to a new level of traffic and started bogging to death. I talked to Bluehost and they promised that we'd see better results if I upgraded to the "Pro" plan where the blog would be hosted on a less-busy server. But there was still no guarantee of CPU time availability, which is what had been the bottleneck before.

This upgrade improved the average page loading speed for a while, but didn't eliminate the fact that the blog tends to shut down when it gets more than a couple hundred users on at once.

I don't think it's the forum that is doing most of the loading, since the main blog has many times more readers. But I could be wrong on that - let me at least tune that posts-per-page setting downwards a bit and see what happens.

 I'm also working on finding a new host with all the free time I can gather, but it's tough: you either have no-promises shared webhosting like bluehost and hostgator ($100/year), or you have untested/unknown ones that vary widely in price ($1200/year to $5,000/year+). There are strong but conflicting opinions on each one. According to the guidelines of some web hosts, the MMM blog's traffic level falls into some sort of "Ultra Ridiculous Enterprise" level where prices are so high they don't even list them (example: http://wpengine.com/pricing/). After shutting off most of the blog's income recently, it would be painful to pay a bill like that!

I was thinking of just following the lead of a known-big blog like smartpassiveincome.com, who uses ServInt. Those guys start at $600/year, although with no promises or traffic guidelines (From one of Pat's earlier articles, I think MMM has a much higher number of monthly page views than smartpassiveincome.com).
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on July 10, 2012, 04:17:49 PM
Thanks everyone! I am serious about this web hosting switcheroo now.

In late June, the blog jumped to a new level of traffic and started bogging to death. I talked to Bluehost and they promised that we'd see better results if I upgraded to the "Pro" plan where the blog would be hosted on a less-busy server. But there was still no guarantee of CPU time availability, which is what had been the bottleneck before.

This upgrade improved the average page loading speed for a while, but didn't eliminate the fact that the blog tends to shut down when it gets more than a couple hundred users on at once.

I don't think it's the forum that is doing most of the loading, since the main blog has many times more readers. But I could be wrong on that - let me at least tune that posts-per-page setting downwards a bit and see what happens.

 I'm also working on finding a new host with all the free time I can gather, but it's tough: you either have no-promises shared webhosting like bluehost and hostgator ($100/year), or you have untested/unknown ones that vary widely in price ($1200/year to $5,000/year+). There are strong but conflicting opinions on each one. According to the guidelines of some web hosts, the MMM blog's traffic level falls into some sort of "Ultra Ridiculous Enterprise" level where prices are so high they don't even list them (example: http://wpengine.com/pricing/). After shutting off most of the blog's income recently, it would be painful to pay a bill like that!

I was thinking of just following the lead of a known-big blog like smartpassiveincome.com, who uses ServInt. Those guys start at $600/year, although with no promises or traffic guidelines (From one of Pat's earlier articles, I think MMM has a much higher number of monthly page views than smartpassiveincome.com).

If the bottleneck has been the CPU, it's definitely sounding like all fingers are being pointed at the database and the forums. The thing with forum software like this is that each post is a discrete database entry. This means that in the case of this thread alone with the "all posts/topics on one page" setting, no matter where in the thread you're reading, as of this post, there's at least 118 SQL queries generated just for the posts for each reader to render the entire page each time its pulled up, plus the time it takes to parse and load all that content for the user. This is why forums default to paged layouts for content with traditional message boards like SMF. Switching the default settings back on for paged forum and thread layouts will likely go a long way towards improving performance and reducing load. Similar can be said about the comments on articles, number of articles on each page, and the display settings in WP.

As for other hosts to consider switching to, look into the ones I recommended, MMM. Right now, at least just guessing on your numbers, a VPS solution would probably be your best option for the money and would simplify scaling. Definitely look into Gandi.net, but keep in mind they aren't a CPanel solution... they expect people to know how to (mostly) run their own server instances. Your hosting costs are going to be dictated by support levels, software backend, infrastructure, the SLA and knowledge. Knowledge can impact cost the most, and the more skilled the user and less you need crep like CPanel and tech support hand holding, the cheaper the services. Most non-CPanel based providers almost always have a core of bad reviews centered around users who don't know their ASCII from their elbow... and always take massively positive rackspace provider reviews from providers that have generous referral programs with a grain of salt (no offense).

Server performance tuning and management can be an art, but it can be done. Hope this helps you!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on July 12, 2012, 01:15:41 PM
Performance has been perfectly fine here since the page switch. Have things been going smoother as far as CPU utilization is concerned?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on July 12, 2012, 11:45:34 PM
Thanks everyone! I am serious about this web hosting switcheroo now.

In late June, the blog jumped to a new level of traffic and started bogging to death. I talked to Bluehost and they promised that we'd see better results if I upgraded to the "Pro" plan where the blog would be hosted on a less-busy server. But there was still no guarantee of CPU time availability, which is what had been the bottleneck before.

This upgrade improved the average page loading speed for a while, but didn't eliminate the fact that the blog tends to shut down when it gets more than a couple hundred users on at once.

I don't think it's the forum that is doing most of the loading, since the main blog has many times more readers. But I could be wrong on that - let me at least tune that posts-per-page setting downwards a bit and see what happens.

 I'm also working on finding a new host with all the free time I can gather, but it's tough: you either have no-promises shared webhosting like bluehost and hostgator ($100/year), or you have untested/unknown ones that vary widely in price ($1200/year to $5,000/year+). There are strong but conflicting opinions on each one. According to the guidelines of some web hosts, the MMM blog's traffic level falls into some sort of "Ultra Ridiculous Enterprise" level where prices are so high they don't even list them (example: http://wpengine.com/pricing/). After shutting off most of the blog's income recently, it would be painful to pay a bill like that!

I was thinking of just following the lead of a known-big blog like smartpassiveincome.com, who uses ServInt. Those guys start at $600/year, although with no promises or traffic guidelines (From one of Pat's earlier articles, I think MMM has a much higher number of monthly page views than smartpassiveincome.com).
These sound like really good problems to have...

Another option might be contacting Andy R at Early-Retirement.org.  He's lumped together a bunch of discussion boards under the Social Knowledge brand and has some fairly high traffic numbers.  He might be able to share what works for him.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on July 13, 2012, 03:33:56 PM
These sound like really good problems to have...

Another option might be contacting Andy R at Early-Retirement.org.  He's lumped together a bunch of discussion boards under the Social Knowledge brand and has some fairly high traffic numbers.  He might be able to share what works for him.

They also pay $600/yr. for apps for the e-r.org forum for iOS and android. So to make that worthwhile they must be getting decent revenue off of e-r.org.  They're amazing apps, but it surprised me the other day when I found out the cost of it.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on July 13, 2012, 09:40:45 PM
They also pay $600/yr. for apps for the e-r.org forum for iOS and android.
Yikes.  I hope that includes 24/7 tech support for the users who complain about the formatting and "new threads" display!

In Andy's defense, I wonder if that $600/year includes all the Social Knowledge forums-- not just E-R.org.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on July 14, 2012, 01:25:04 AM
They also pay $600/yr. for apps for the e-r.org forum for iOS and android.
Yikes.  I hope that includes 24/7 tech support for the users who complain about the formatting and "new threads" display!

In Andy's defense, I wonder if that $600/year includes all the Social Knowledge forums-- not just E-R.org.

It's a per site charge, however they do offer bulk discounts for owners of multiple sites.  So I'd imagine he's paying quite a bit less than $600/site, but quite a bit more overall.

More info: http://forumrunner.com/?p=branding

Quote
Branding Cost

The cost for licensing is $599 per year. The license gives you the right to have your Forum Runner branded applications in the iTunes and Google Play app stores for the purchase period. If the purchase period expires and the branded apps are not renewed, the apps will be removed from the app stores and existing installs of the app will not function.

...

Contact us at support@forumrunner.com for information on bulk pricing (multiple forums) or any special needs.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MMM on July 14, 2012, 10:07:10 AM
Update on web host situation: I signed up for a new hosting account at a to-be-named host after a great introductory chat with them, but the order became effed up due to the fact that I was making the order from a Canadian IP address with my US address/credit card information. So I'm still working on that issue - this will be after this weekend then another few days at the cottage where there is a blissful lack of internet access.

I.P.'s points regarding database access are well-taken - except for the fact that the forum is so much less trafficked than the main blog*. After dropping the SimpleMachines posts-per-page number down, I still saw a couple of full-website drops in the following days, even while Google Analytics indicated that virtually nobody was using the forum at the moment. But these are just initial speculations - I'm still having fun learning about it.

 Does anybody know the shell or cPanel method to check the CPU time that has been tied up by the database access for each of these separate parts of the site? I'm guessing there are two different measurements - CPU time used on my actual host by wordpress and simple machines script processes, plus database server time (on another machine somewhere) from the queries my main server is making. (Unless it all runs in one space, partitioned off for me?)

Anyway, the big news is that I turned off the main blog's "all posts since the beginning of time" feature and turned it into a static page instead. That was an obvious resource hog, since it is a very popular page and it does a gigantic loop through the database for every person who reads it. You may laugh at the fact that I allowed that script in the first place, but I guess I was assuming that computers were fast enough these days to not bog down doing a few hundred loops of a "for" statement, a few tens of thousands of times per day. I know, I know, it's all in the number of CPU instructions that REALLY happen for each database query (probably millions), but still.. this blog is TINY compared to a page like the Wall Street Journal or even Lifehacker.com, so I'm surprised that it is slowing down with only 60 pageviews per minute. I mean, even a large-print paperback book could deliver almost as many pageviews per minute to a group of 60 people!

Anyway, it's all learning for me, which makes it all good..

 *There's also a nice "uncorrelated assets" thing going on with the forum where usage ramps up in the evening hours and on weekends, while the main blog traffic is driven purely by people slacking off at work: mostly in the US, mostly during the 9-5 period in the country's four primary time zones.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on July 14, 2012, 11:07:52 AM
I.P.'s points regarding database access are well-taken - except for the fact that the forum is so much less trafficked than the main blog*. After dropping the SimpleMachines posts-per-page number down, I still saw a couple of full-website drops in the following days, even while Google Analytics indicated that virtually nobody was using the forum at the moment. But these are just initial speculations - I'm still having fun learning about it.

One other thing to note about I.P.'s points about having forum pages load only X number of posts to limit the amount of data pulled is that it's not a scalable solution.

That is, based on the traffic the forum gets now, reducing a page from showing 999 ax posts to 25 (or whatever) max posts may temporarily alleviate the strain, however as MMM grows and the forums grow, soon more people pulling those 25 posts will put the same strain as the current amount of users pulling 999 posts.

So it's a temporary fix, at best, and it's good you're switching hosts now to deal with future traffic.

Good luck with the switchover!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on July 15, 2012, 11:41:28 AM
Update on web host situation: I signed up for a new hosting account at a to-be-named host after a great introductory chat with them, but the order became effed up due to the fact that I was making the order from a Canadian IP address with my US address/credit card information. So I'm still working on that issue - this will be after this weekend then another few days at the cottage where there is a blissful lack of internet access.

I.P.'s points regarding database access are well-taken - except for the fact that the forum is so much less trafficked than the main blog*. After dropping the SimpleMachines posts-per-page number down, I still saw a couple of full-website drops in the following days, even while Google Analytics indicated that virtually nobody was using the forum at the moment. But these are just initial speculations - I'm still having fun learning about it.

Does anybody know the shell or cPanel method to check the CPU time that has been tied up by the database access for each of these separate parts of the site? I'm guessing there are two different measurements - CPU time used on my actual host by wordpress and simple machines script processes, plus database server time (on another machine somewhere) from the queries my main server is making. (Unless it all runs in one space, partitioned off for me?)

Anyway, the big news is that I turned off the main blog's "all posts since the beginning of time" feature and turned it into a static page instead. That was an obvious resource hog, since it is a very popular page and it does a gigantic loop through the database for every person who reads it. You may laugh at the fact that I allowed that script in the first place, but I guess I was assuming that computers were fast enough these days to not bog down doing a few hundred loops of a "for" statement, a few tens of thousands of times per day. I know, I know, it's all in the number of CPU instructions that REALLY happen for each database query (probably millions), but still.. this blog is TINY compared to a page like the Wall Street Journal or even Lifehacker.com, so I'm surprised that it is slowing down with only 60 pageviews per minute. I mean, even a large-print paperback book could deliver almost as many pageviews per minute to a group of 60 people!

Anyway, it's all learning for me, which makes it all good..

 *There's also a nice "uncorrelated assets" thing going on with the forum where usage ramps up in the evening hours and on weekends, while the main blog traffic is driven purely by people slacking off at work: mostly in the US, mostly during the 9-5 period in the country's four primary time zones.

It looks like myself and others (Grant at least) have noticed a more consistent performance out of the forums since the initial changes you made, including the default displayed posts in the forum. I've still noticed a couple full-fledged outages since, but when the site is responding the forums do too, now, instead of timing out and throwing Wordpress 404 errors. So, we're down to 503's only now (at least from my observation). Definitely a step in the right direction!

Good to hear you're switching providers, here's hoping it's a good mix of price and performance for you.

There should be some semi-relevant logs in your phpMyAdmin page, but not too complete. From SSH (if Bluehost provides the following utility), give sysstat (https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/33766-sysstat-howto-a-deployment-and-configuration-guide-for-linux-servers) a crank.

I'd also take the time to optimize and clean up the databases if you haven't done so already (preferably before migration): Wordpress guide here (http://wordpress.shadowlantern.com/reducing-cpu/). SMF's primary method of performance enhancement is through using an accelerator like eAccelerator or APC and a few more minor tweaks (http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/websiteperformance/smf.htm). I'm not sure Bluehost provides accelerators like APC, though, as they appear to prefer forcing you to upgrade or boot your account for CPU hogging than let you optimize performance... but it would be worth looking into and utilizing on the new host if available.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on July 16, 2012, 11:51:00 AM
I've still noticed a couple full-fledged outages since, but when the site is responding the forums do too, now, instead of timing out and throwing Wordpress 404 errors. So, we're down to 503's only now (at least from my observation). Definitely a step in the right direction!
For what it's worth, which may be nothing, I get formatted MMM 404 errors and unformatted Wordpress 404 errors about equally often (and seemingly interchangeably, even within the span of a few minutes). I guess that those could indicate different degrees of overloading, depending on how far into the stack the requests get, but I don't know for sure.

I've also gotten 403 (access denied) errors today, but I had never seen them before that. I'm not a webmaster and can't speculate why, but I figured I'd at least note them. I forgot to check whether the blog worked, but it was during the blog's peak hours, so I assume it was related to overall traffic and not just forum traffic.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: JohnGalt on August 08, 2012, 08:08:56 PM

I keep hearing this over and over on the forum and in blog post comments.  I think we need a category for single Mustachians.  It would be a great way to exchange dating tips and, if two Mustachians should happen to realize they live in the same area and choose to meet.....
Anyone know how we could get singles category (not just a thread)?

Just posting this idea over from another post
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: kisserofsinners on August 17, 2012, 09:35:58 AM
I'd love to see a forum for the "softer side of the stach" or "Softer Science"; softer science less numbers. Share beauty tips, discuss building self worth, charities and everything else in life *other* then Making making and not spending money, but that truly improves our lives none the less...

The "lady stach" thread was AMAZ-BALLS and it got a little too think for me to get in there without feeling like a thread jacker...It's also hella long now and could easily be broken up into smaller chunks.

Why not call it "lady Stach"? Because i don't really consider myself a lady and i also think that men have just as much to gain from the conversation. Calling it that might create a barrier to entry for some of our more macho mustachians. Plenty of guys here are still working and i'd imagine lots in offices where grooming standers might go beyond the UMG's abilities. There's been plenty of conversations about charities scattered around as is. And EVERYONE should read Bicycle's post about smiling and inner beauty (i think i'll go re-read it now...).

So yeah, let's get softer and share feeling and shit, while building the badassity. :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on August 17, 2012, 09:54:04 AM
I'd love a permanent off-topic thread to chat about day-to-day random life, sports, weather, or whatever.

In fact, if there's no objections, I might create one.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on August 17, 2012, 10:21:52 AM
I'd love a permanent off-topic thread to chat about day-to-day random life, sports, weather, or whatever.

In fact, if there's no objections, I might create one.

Even a whole forum category.  One thread might be a little much for all that.

I know you're just dying to discuss football.  ;)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on August 17, 2012, 10:22:48 AM
Yeah, you got me. Me and my undying love of football.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on August 17, 2012, 01:05:47 PM
If there's an undeniable need for a category that you all agree on, and if you're a moderator and can add a category, then please go ahead!  I'm having trouble keeping up with everything, although I do have this on my to-do list.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on August 17, 2012, 02:30:17 PM
If there's an undeniable need for a category that you all agree on, and if you're a moderator and can add a category, then please go ahead!  I'm having trouble keeping up with everything, although I do have this on my to-do list.

Cool, done!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on August 27, 2012, 07:38:06 PM
Is there a way to prevent users from including links on their first post, or something like that? It's awfully spammy lately...
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MMM on August 30, 2012, 08:45:43 PM
I'll look into that right now, as I've been noticing all the spam you have been deleting too.

At the minimum, I could make the "skill-testing question" a bit more difficult for the typical spammer to answer. Just adding that thing in the first place seemed to eliminate 90% of the fake sign-ups we immediately started getting when this forum first went up.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MMM on September 03, 2012, 09:18:08 PM
Update: I added two more skill-testing questions. They may be a little TOO hard, since they require a cursory knowledge of the blog itself (what state does Mr. Money Mustache live in, for example).

We can see if this eliminates the spam, and if it ends up eliminating all new users, which would probably mean I've made them too hard. Unless the 1400 existing registered users would prefer to keep it as an exclusive club :-)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on September 03, 2012, 09:47:08 PM
Update: I added two more skill-testing questions. They may be a little TOO hard, since they require a cursory knowledge of the blog itself (what state does Mr. Money Mustache live in, for example).

We can see if this eliminates the spam, and if it ends up eliminating all new users, which would probably mean I've made them too hard. Unless the 1400 existing registered users would prefer to keep it as an exclusive club :-)

Nope. The more the merrier!

As long as they can google it, I'd think that's an okay question.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: focusaurus on September 26, 2012, 03:35:00 PM
Suggestion: http://money.stackexchange.com/ (http://money.stackexchange.com/).

If you haven't seen the stack exchange software, it is a LEAPS AND BOUNDS improvement over discussion forum software like this for questions with specific answers. I am a huge fan of the software, which grew out of the http://stackoverflow.com (http://stackoverflow.com) site where computer programmers ask questions and get specific answers. This would be great for certain types of questions, but the forum as is would be better for some things. We could create tags like #frugality, #badassity, #mrmoneymustache, etc.

Better on Stack Exchange:


Better on a traditional discussion forum:


Quick list of things that make stack exchange so vastly better (the full list is LONG, the authors solved almost every problem with old school PHPBB style discussion forums):

Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on September 26, 2012, 05:54:49 PM
StackExchange seems great for answering questions.

But not for discussions and building a community.

I'd rather repeat the answers a few times or link to old threads a few times and get the camaraderie of chatting with other Mustachians than give up the latter to not have to do the former.

IMO.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: lauren_knows on September 26, 2012, 06:19:20 PM

I'd rather repeat the answers a few times or link to old threads a few times and get the camaraderie of chatting with other Mustachians than give up the latter to not have to do the former.

IMO.

+1 to this.  There's not nearly enough volume here yet that "veterans" will be mad at repeat questions.  I was very active in the Crossfit "Newbie" forums awhile back (shoot, I even wrote the FAQ), and people were endlessly complaining about repeat questions.  It's the nature of a discussion forum!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on September 27, 2012, 12:54:30 AM
This would be great for certain types of questions...
Better on Stack Exchange:
  • What is the best checking account?
  • What is the best index fund?
  • What bike lights should I get?
  • Is it better for me to pay off my student loan faster vs. investing?
A Dilbert perspective on this software would be that it must have already created the best forums with the answers.  Can you point us to a forum or two that might actually already have the best answers to these types of questions?  I'd rather see it in action before trying it here.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on September 27, 2012, 07:14:25 AM
A Dilbert perspective on this software would be that it must have already created the best forums with the answers.  Can you point us to a forum or two that might actually already have the best answers to these types of questions?  I'd rather see it in action before trying it here.

I'm sure many would love the correct answer to the pay off the mortgage versus invest question.  ;)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: focusaurus on September 27, 2012, 08:42:34 AM
This would be great for certain types of questions...

A Dilbert perspective on this software would be that it must have already created the best forums with the answers.  Can you point us to a forum or two that might actually already have the best answers to these types of questions?  I'd rather see it in action before trying it here.

Here are some good examples:

http://money.stackexchange.com/questions/16397/are-previous-home-owners-eligible-to-be-defined-as-first-time-home-buyers

And since this is personally relevant to me right now since I'm switching from Chase to ING Direct, here's a question with a great answer:

http://money.stackexchange.com/questions/15914/common-practice-to-closing-a-checking-and-savings-account
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on September 27, 2012, 10:38:53 PM
Here are some good examples:
Thanks.

I'm sure many would love the correct answer to the pay off the mortgage versus invest question.  ;)
Yeah, I bet it gets a little gnarly with 100-post topics.  But it'd be a big help in a thread like "Funny Joke Thursday"!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: fnord on October 09, 2012, 06:09:39 AM
How about a baby-clothes (and toys) gifting/trading/sharing forum?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on October 09, 2012, 07:07:07 AM
That might be a good thread for the Mustachian Marketplace forum.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Self-employed-swami on October 17, 2012, 02:11:16 PM
Update: I added two more skill-testing questions. They may be a little TOO hard, since they require a cursory knowledge of the blog itself (what state does Mr. Money Mustache live in, for example).

We can see if this eliminates the spam, and if it ends up eliminating all new users, which would probably mean I've made them too hard. Unless the 1400 existing registered users would prefer to keep it as an exclusive club :-)

I'd only been reading the blog for 2 days when I signed up for the forum, and I got the questions without having to google, or look back at anything.

:)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: giggles on November 06, 2012, 01:25:39 PM
how about a "refer a friend" section?  I have seen this develop within threads for products like credit cards so MMM member get receive/share bonuses, and it would be great to be able to see all these offers in one place.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: PolarBeer on December 04, 2012, 03:26:33 PM
I support a "Food/groceries etc" category as well. I'm currently looking for threads about those topics and its hard to navigate.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on December 04, 2012, 05:29:00 PM
Polar Beer, check out the search function. Hit it with a query like "Costco" or "quinoa", and you'll get a lot further than just searching "groceries" would get you.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on December 09, 2012, 02:55:14 PM
I've noticed that the forum doesn't auto-URL things correctly if they contain punctuation. See for example:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/just-bought-a-2005-yaris-for-$1400!/
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: sugarwater on December 16, 2012, 05:17:25 AM
On another forum i'm on, there is a button on the top bar for named 'new posts' for looking at all new topics and posts that were update recently no matter the category. I think that'd be a good idea for frequent users
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on December 16, 2012, 08:14:01 AM
On another forum i'm on, there is a button on the top bar for named 'new posts' for looking at all new topics and posts that were update recently no matter the category. I think that'd be a good idea for frequent users

We already have that, actually. Near the very top of the page to the left where it says Hello sugarwater (in your case) in big bold text right under the MMM banner? Right under that, you have links for both Show unread posts since last visit (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/unread/) and Show new replies to your posts (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/unreadreplies/).
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on January 13, 2013, 11:23:41 AM
We've got a lot of sticky-quality material on this site. I've collected some on my signature, but I think IP Daley's thread and the monthly biking threads are both definitely sticky quality, and I'd argue some of the others are as well.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on January 13, 2013, 12:55:06 PM
We've got a lot of sticky-quality material on this site. I've collected some on my signature, but I think IP Daley's thread and the monthly biking threads are both definitely sticky quality, and I'd argue some of the others are as well.

I'm all for stickying stuff, but rather than random threads I'd think summary type threads would be better.

I.e. A new post that gets stickied that has links to threads with frugality tips.  A stickied post with links to threads on the topic of happiness (or whatever).  Like your thread, which is stickied, that has links to all the MMM reader's blogs, is a great "summary" type thread.

If you, or anyone wants to volunteer and make some posts like that, I think stickying them is a great idea!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on January 13, 2013, 05:56:09 PM
We've got a lot of sticky-quality material on this site. I've collected some on my signature, but I think IP Daley's thread and the monthly biking threads are both definitely sticky quality, and I'd argue some of the others are as well.
I spent a lot of time doing both on Early-Retirement.org:  http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f47/

I found them quite useful for myself ("Now where's that post about Bill Bernstein's Retirement Calculator from Hell?  Ah, there it is.") and for a few other of the more long-term members who'd also link to them.

If new members ever read them, they never said anything.  Objective evidence was that they hardly ever read them, although lurkers may have been doing so.  But usually you'd get a post like "Hey, guys, I'm going to ask about a bunch of topics that you discuss nearly every day.  Gee, you know what?  You ought to have some way of archiving the answers to frequently asked questions!!"

Another way to handle the topic could be to write up your material in your own blog or in a guest post for another blog-- MMM or someone else's.  (No self-promotion intended.)  That way your thoughts are still written up in an indexed & searchable format, they can be easily linked to from a number of sources, and you'd find out if you have a blog in you.

Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on January 13, 2013, 06:00:43 PM
If new members ever read them, they never said anything.

Sorry. They were locked, so no easy way to say that I read and appreciated them when I first joined those forums a year or two ago.

I read at least half of them, maybe a bit more.  I remember opening like 60+ tabs at once from links from those threads and reading through a bunch of old ones.

Thanks for your work on creating them.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on January 13, 2013, 10:08:31 PM
I read at least half of them, maybe a bit more.  I remember opening like 60+ tabs at once from links from those threads and reading through a bunch of old ones.
Thanks for your work on creating them.
Hey, good to hear.  Thanks.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: FiveSigmas on January 14, 2013, 12:02:17 AM
We've got a lot of sticky-quality material on this site. I've collected some on my signature, but I think IP Daley's thread and the monthly biking threads are both definitely sticky quality, and I'd argue some of the others are as well.
I spent a lot of time doing both on Early-Retirement.org:  http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f47/

I found them quite useful for myself ("Now where's that post about Bill Bernstein's Retirement Calculator from Hell?  Ah, there it is.") and for a few other of the more long-term members who'd also link to them.

If new members ever read them, they never said anything.  Objective evidence was that they hardly ever read them, although lurkers may have been doing so.  But usually you'd get a post like "Hey, guys, I'm going to ask about a bunch of topics that you discuss nearly every day.  Gee, you know what?  You ought to have some way of archiving the answers to frequently asked questions!!"

That sounds like a good argument for having a "like" button. Sometimes I don't want to clutter a thread with yet another "thanks!" message, but I still want to show appreciation for the post.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on January 14, 2013, 09:21:49 AM
That sounds like a good argument for having a "like" button. Sometimes I don't want to clutter a thread with yet another "thanks!" message, but I still want to show appreciation for the post.
vBulletin forum software has a "Thanks" button, but unlike the "Like" button it doesn't show up on the thread.  "Thanks" lets the reader send a short message to the writer, and it shows up in the writer's private notification area.  Other readers can't even tell that a "Thanks" has been sent.

Ironically most of my "Thanks" came from a post I'd written as a moderator:  "Read this before you post!"  The irony was that the ones thanking me seemed to be the most likely to be unable to follow any of the advice that they'd just allegedly read.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: momo on January 23, 2013, 03:43:49 PM
Here are my 10 cents:

- Create a vote up thread (much like a thank you feature) and conversely a vote down.
- Create a forum feature that enables users to receive all updates on any topic based on keywords. E.g. Roth. Users would customize what topics they receive notifications for and the frequency.
- Create an ignore user(s) feature.
- Create a Mustachian Forum Place to “Trade” physical goods. Of course participation is voluntary and users do not hold MMM liable for any damages.
- Create a section that organizes the FAQ topics and have that section required reading by new forum users before unlocking the rest of the forum.
- Create a Mustachian group deals. Many of us are savvy shoppers who specialize in certain areas. It would be great if we can share on this collective pool of resources.
- Create a virtual convention (or live gathering) where we have expert panels and guest speakers on various Mustachian topics.
- Enable embedding html links instead of listing out the entire url.
- Create a required counter under each users name (instead of the squares) indicating retirement and debt free (DF) status/goal. Eg pending on X. DF on X. DF since X. Retired since X. This could be simple as bar graph or pie chart.

Thanks for considering these ideas. Cheers!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on January 23, 2013, 10:01:32 PM
Here are my 10 cents

- (can't help with this one)
- (can't help with this one)
- Under Profile settings, select "Buddies/Ignore List" under "Modify Profile" on the left side.
- Try the Mustachian Marketplace (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/mustachian-marketplace/)
- (can't help with this one)
- Not sure if I follow.
- (can't help with this one)
- Already possible with bbcode. Highlight text you want to turn into a link, press the little globe with paper icon button, you'll get url bbcode tags. Edit thusly:
Code: [Select]
[url=http://www.tld.url/webpage.html]link text[/url]- (can't help with this one)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on January 24, 2013, 11:19:33 AM
Not to be that guy, but isn't 9 ideas 18 cents?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Kenoryn on February 02, 2013, 02:55:26 PM
I would love to have a recipe section for people to share their favourite inexpensive recipes.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on February 03, 2013, 07:20:53 AM
Was the site down for a couple of hours last night?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 03, 2013, 08:05:37 AM
Was the site down for a couple of hours last night?

Yes.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: momo on February 04, 2013, 10:47:58 AM
Here are my 10 cents

- (can't help with this one)
- (can't help with this one)
- Under Profile settings, select "Buddies/Ignore List" under "Modify Profile" on the left side.
- Try the Mustachian Marketplace (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/mustachian-marketplace/)
- (can't help with this one)
- Not sure if I follow. *Basically a real-time MMM forum deals that we are aware of and we post/share with others. Think fatwallet, nerdwallet and other real-time sites that collect deals but with a stronger focus on MMM values instead of simply spending.*
- (can't help with this one)
- Already possible with bbcode. Highlight text you want to turn into a link, press the little globe with paper icon button, you'll get url bbcode tags. Edit thusly:
Code: [Select]
[url=http://www.tld.url/webpage.html]link text[/url]
- (can't help with this one)

@ I.P. Daley: Thanks for sharing. Are you a mod or someone who can implement actual site improvements?

Is there anyone on this thread who is? I'd like to hear their ideas too. Thanks!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 04, 2013, 11:09:22 AM
Is there anyone on this thread who is?

Mods don't have the ability to change the forum options, only add/delete categories, and modify/move/remove posts.

Only a forum administrator (which would be Mr. or Mrs. MM), not moderator, could make those type of changes.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on February 04, 2013, 11:14:15 AM
@ I.P. Daley: Thanks for sharing. Are you a mod or someone who can implement actual site improvements?

Nope, just smarter than your av-a-rage bear user.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: momo on February 04, 2013, 01:22:34 PM
Is there anyone on this thread who is?

Mods don't have the ability to change the forum options, only add/delete categories, and modify/move/remove posts.

Only a forum administrator (which would be Mr. or Mrs. MM), not moderator, could make those type of changes.

arebelspy: Thanks for clarifying. Hopefully the MMM team reads the suggestions from time-to-time. Thanks.

I.P. Daley: Thanks Yogi!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on February 09, 2013, 04:28:28 PM
In case I'm not over my lifetime suggestion limit: make the forum header image change with the blog header. I love the scratchy turntables with great-grandpa Ulysses, honest, but a little variety is nice too.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on February 10, 2013, 03:44:08 PM
Hey everyone,

Thanks for the suggestions!  I agree that the logo needs to change.  Easy stuff like that I can do right away, but many of the suggestions require me to look into things and figure out how they work, so it probably won't happen very quickly.

If something is broken or really urgent, please PM me to make sure I get it.

Thanks again!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: sheepstache on February 13, 2013, 08:40:32 PM
I would like to vote against having a publicly-visible "like" or "vote up/down" option.  While I understand the desire to give a +1 without cluttering a thread, I think on the more political or contentious subjects it would just degrade the discussion to the level of a popularity contest.  (I suppose the same argument could be made against internet discussions in general yet the mustache community manages to rise above it.  The tool is as good as the tool-user.  Still, why tempt temptation.)

I would like to recommend a "show most recent posts" option.  That is, not the most recent unread posts, and not the most recent posts by category, but all most recent posts regardless of category.  The problem is I'll read a thread, not comment on it, then think of a comment I would like to add later, but I can't find the thread again because I originally read it via "show unread posts since last visit" and didn't note which category it was in--OH SNAP, I just realized that is a feature all the way down at the bottom if you go to the home page.  Nevermind.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 14, 2013, 07:05:20 AM
I agree.  Discussions aren't, and shouldn't be, popularity contests.  Often I get much value out of the contrary and minority opinions, which we don't want to drive away.

A "thanks" button that I've seen on forums is about the farthest I'd go on that concept, and I'm not even convinced that's necessary.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: aclarridge on February 19, 2013, 09:12:45 AM
Hi all - I posted this idea in another thread and got a couple positive responses but I don't know if any mods saw it, so I'm now posting it in the proper place.

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/debt-free-car-project/msg49553/#msg49553

Upon further thought it could be something like "Mustachian Transportation", rather than just automobiles. What do you all think?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on February 19, 2013, 11:32:34 AM
I don't know... I almost think fewer categories are better. We had this discussion in this thread a page or so ago about a food forum, which was proposed for much the same reason.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: aclarridge on February 20, 2013, 08:57:00 AM
We have one for Real Estate and Landlording though. I guess the rationale is that we spend much more on houses than we do on cars? That would be a fair point.

I understand where you're coming from - the line needs to be drawn somewhere, and we can't have a forum category for every aspect of life. But think about it this way: basic human needs are food/shelter/clothing/community and in our modern world I'd say transportation as well. We've got the shelter covered, the "community" part is covered by several categories and indeed by the forum itself, and clothing is a relatively minor expense, but food and transportation are missing. They're pretty fundamental.

Yes, people can still post about them in other categories, but making their own separate categories will probably encourage more posting/discussion which benefits everybody.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: yolfer on February 20, 2013, 04:54:14 PM
I couldn't find this anywhere, but is there a list of the possible "ranks" that people can attain by posting more?

My unscientific research shows that...

Just joined = Stubble
50 Posts = Bristles
100 Posts = Handlebar
250 Posts = Magnum
500 Posts = Sr Mustachian

Maybe I'm missing some? Or are there secret levels that have yet to be unlocked? I work on a web game for a living so this stuff is important to me!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on February 20, 2013, 05:02:03 PM
Correctamundo; there's also mod and admin but those aren't point based.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on February 20, 2013, 09:00:02 PM
I couldn't find this anywhere, but is there a list of the possible "ranks" that people can attain by posting more?
Maybe I'm missing some? Or are there secret levels that have yet to be unlocked? I work on a web game for a living so this stuff is important to me!
Imagine if all the posts we've made over the years on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, blogs, discussion boards, bulletin boards, chat rooms... could all be totaled up in a single place.  Maybe Google could track it and give out extra free storage for e-mail, or maybe Amazon could offer free shipping for everyone over 100,000 posts.

Oh, but wait, then people would start favoring quantity over quality.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 20, 2013, 09:57:39 PM
I couldn't find this anywhere, but is there a list of the possible "ranks" that people can attain by posting more?
Maybe I'm missing some? Or are there secret levels that have yet to be unlocked? I work on a web game for a living so this stuff is important to me!
Imagine if all the posts we've made over the years on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, blogs, discussion boards, bulletin boards, chat rooms... could all be totaled up in a single place.  Maybe Google could track it and give out extra free storage for e-mail, or maybe Amazon could offer free shipping for everyone over 100,000 posts.

Oh, but wait, then people would start favoring quantity over quality.

+1 (posts to my name.)

(...sorry, couldn't resist. And you're lucky I'm not making this parenthetical comment a separate post to rub in the silliness.)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: uspsfanalan on March 07, 2013, 03:21:31 PM
I'm sure it's been suggested already but I second the idea of having a thread devoted to biking. Biking is a such a large part of MMM/ERE that it deserves its own page. Biking shows up in some of the other areas like market place, ask a mustacian, throw down the gauntlet. I'd rather see all of the biking or most of the biking in one place.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: adam on March 15, 2013, 08:27:19 AM
Maybe its just me, but my SENT private messages are not being saved.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on March 15, 2013, 08:37:02 AM
Adam-

Profile > Account Settings in the top menu.

Under "Modify Profile" on the left side header, select "Personal Messaging", then tick the box next to "Save a copy of each personal message in my sent items by default." ...and press the "Change Profile" button.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: adam on March 15, 2013, 09:01:35 AM
i.p.

Found it, thanks.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: GoStumpy on March 21, 2013, 07:39:06 PM
Can't find an answer anywhere...

What happened to the "Recent unread posts" and "New replies to your posts" that were at the top of the page two weeks ago?

Did something change?  Is there another way now?

Thanks!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on March 21, 2013, 07:44:08 PM
Can't find an answer anywhere...

What happened to the "Recent unread posts" and "New replies to your posts" that were at the top of the page two weeks ago?

Did something change?  Is there another way now?

Thanks!

Maximize your window if at all possible (at least 1200px wide), and to the right of the banner in the upper right hand corner, you should see a little carat (v) pointing downward. Click it so it's pointing up (^), and that should get you sorted!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: GoStumpy on March 21, 2013, 07:46:28 PM
Ahaa!!!  THANK YOU!  I thought it'd be something simple :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: mikefixac on April 02, 2013, 03:55:49 PM
Hello Mrs MM, if you do read this.

Where I would spend my effort would be in spicing up the comment area. Both here on the forum and the blog itself. This is where I see the chance for even faster growth than you're already experiencing.

For instance, go to popular newspapers and blogs and see how they handle the comments. Like buttons, Dislike buttons, ability to read comments that are either the oldest, newest, or most liked or most replied. (How about a feature being able to read the most Disliked too.)

I enjoy MMM's blog, but the comments are what really can put the meat on the bone, adding even more depth and personal experience.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on April 02, 2013, 04:28:01 PM
I don't know how many of those features would really be productive -- in my experience, comment systems tend to encourage cattiness. Getting a -10 on a post can be really discouraging to someone with an honest but unpopular opinion, too.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: AnonymousCoward on April 03, 2013, 05:04:53 PM
The main site hasn't had a favicon since the hosting switch, and the forum still uses the boring default.

This cute little mustache (http://www.favicon.cc/favicon/665/588/favicon.png) is free to use without attribution under the creative commons license.

http://www.favicon.cc/?action=icon&file_id=588665 (http://www.favicon.cc/?action=icon&file_id=588665)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: nktokyo on May 05, 2013, 05:41:56 AM
A like button
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: yolfer on May 06, 2013, 02:24:20 PM
A like button

*like*
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: nktokyo on May 09, 2013, 08:46:25 PM
How about a mobile skin. There are lots that look great on Mobile for SF. I'm happy to help pick one out, test etc.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: PolarBeer on May 14, 2013, 03:57:16 AM
On the technical side, the only thing I'm missing is a mobile format so that I can read on my phone without excessive side scrolling.

I don't think "likes", "reputation" or similar stuff is a good idea at all.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on May 14, 2013, 05:51:55 AM
On the technical side, the only thing I'm missing is a mobile format so that I can read on my phone without excessive side scrolling.

I don't think "likes", "reputation" or similar stuff is a good idea at all.

Down at the bottom of the page, in the footer section, click the WAP2 (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/index.php?wap2) link.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: momo on May 15, 2013, 01:47:50 PM
Is there a way we can block select threads and specific users directly from the thread and/or user posts? Thanks.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on May 15, 2013, 03:06:35 PM
The forum ignore list is global (applies to all threads on the site) and only hides posts from your eyes, not prevents them from appearing for all readers. So no, there isn't a way to do that currently.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on May 15, 2013, 09:43:56 PM
The forum ignore list is global (applies to all threads on the site) and only hides posts from your eyes, not prevents them from appearing for all readers.
I didn't even realize this software had an ignore list.  Thanks, that solves a problem.  For me, anyway!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: KulshanGirl on May 31, 2013, 12:27:14 PM
Copied from the discussion on how to meet single mustachians ....

Maybe the "Personals" forum could be changed to something like "Single and Mustachian" where single people could talk about topics pertaining to mustache-building on your own.  I would like to discuss things like that, and people could interact and identify fellow singles in a less "seeking" kind of way. The current Personals area seems really CraigsListy to me.   

It'd be as easy as just changing the name. :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: nktokyo on May 31, 2013, 11:58:37 PM
On the technical side, the only thing I'm missing is a mobile format so that I can read on my phone without excessive side scrolling.

I don't think "likes", "reputation" or similar stuff is a good idea at all.

Down at the bottom of the page, in the footer section, click the WAP2 (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/index.php?wap2) link.

Thanks but that is a bit rough. It would be good to get a proper skin with the same functionality as the full site skin. I'm happy to test this out and help set it up if doing so would mean it got used. Cheers
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: juliesunday on June 04, 2013, 12:46:55 PM
Hi there MMM! I'm sure someone has suggested this but the Lady Staches section seems like it could be its own forum, since I've seen a wide variety of topics covered (bras, makeup, nail polish, hairstyling, etc!).
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: momo on June 05, 2013, 04:29:16 PM
Is there a way to save or favorite users and their specific posts but not the entire thread?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: momo on June 05, 2013, 04:32:00 PM
The forum ignore list is global (applies to all threads on the site) and only hides posts from your eyes, not prevents them from appearing for all readers. So no, there isn't a way to do that currently.

So what can users do if they want to ignore all postings by specific users?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on June 05, 2013, 04:38:20 PM
Add them to your ignore list. You won't see them, but everyone else still will.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: momo on June 07, 2013, 04:58:40 PM
Add them to your ignore list. You won't see them, but everyone else still will.

Where can that be done? Thanks.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on June 07, 2013, 08:15:55 PM
See attached.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on June 17, 2013, 08:27:22 PM
So I had a 1MB .png I wanted to upload and I was getting an "attachment too large" error, but it's supposed to accept up to 10MB files. Any idea what's behind that?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on June 17, 2013, 08:29:37 PM
So I had a 1MB .png I wanted to upload and I was getting an "attachment too large" error, but it's supposed to accept up to 10MB files. Any idea what's behind that?

PM kworthington
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: ender on June 23, 2013, 08:45:32 AM
Is there a "View New Posts" function somewhere?

If not, I would like to suggest this :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on June 23, 2013, 12:40:50 PM
Is there a "View New Posts" function somewhere?

If not, I would like to suggest this :)

There is.  At the top, where it says hello and your name, and has your avatar picture.

If you don't see it cick the grey down arrow all the way on the right under the header banner picture.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: ender on June 23, 2013, 08:54:17 PM
There is.  At the top, where it says hello and your name, and has your avatar picture.

If you don't see it cick the grey down arrow all the way on the right under the header banner picture.

Great!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Vilx- on June 25, 2013, 02:45:19 AM
Crazy forum idea for the technically adventurous: adopt Discourse (http://www.discourse.org/). It's a new project, but it's been a public beta for nearly 6 months now so many bugs are ironed out already. And it's AWESOME.

They actively use it themselves too (http://meta.discourse.org/), and there's a partnership offer (http://www.discourse.org/buy/) available. I'm not quite sure on the nitty-gritty details, but what I can understand from the website is that if you agree to run this in production and tell them of all the bugs you find, they promise to fix them real quickly and help you with whatever technical stuff they can. You basically get the white-glove platinum-level 24/7 support and a box of cookies. For free. They'll even host it on their own ridiculously overpowered servers (http://blog.discourse.org/2013/04/the-discourse-servers/). They want to find 3 partners and so far I've only read of one (http://blog.discourse.org/2013/04/our-first-partner-how-to-geek/), so I assume the other 2 positions are open.

I think it could be interesting. And maybe it could let you reduce your own hosting costs?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: TKE Super Dave on June 25, 2013, 09:30:14 AM
I would really like to see a sticky that would give you some definitions of some of the common abbreviations.

I keep seeing FIRE and DH used and a few other without knowing what they mean.

I've figured out FIRE stands for Financial Independent Retired Early, but for the life of me DH escapes my best guesses. I under stand it means spouse but I'd still like to know what the acronym stands for.

I think having this would help people new to this forum and new to FIRE in general.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: jambongris on June 25, 2013, 09:48:24 AM
I would really like to see a sticky that would give you some definitions of some of the common abbreviations.

I keep seeing FIRE and DH used and a few other without knowing what they mean.

I've figured out FIRE stands for Financial Independent Retired Early, but for the life of me DH escapes my best guesses. I under stand it means spouse but I'd still like to know what the acronym stands for.

I think having this would help people new to this forum and new to FIRE in general.

I believe DH is short for Dear Husband.

You may find acronymfinder.com useful although it seems to return a lot of results.

http://www.acronymfinder.com/DH.html  (http://www.acronymfinder.com/DH.html)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: yolfer on June 25, 2013, 03:18:48 PM
I would really like to see a sticky that would give you some definitions of some of the common abbreviations.

I keep seeing FIRE and DH used and a few other without knowing what they mean.

I've figured out FIRE stands for Financial Independent Retired Early, but for the life of me DH escapes my best guesses. I under stand it means spouse but I'd still like to know what the acronym stands for.

I think having this would help people new to this forum and new to FIRE in general.

I believe DH is short for Dear Husband.

You may find acronymfinder.com useful although it seems to return a lot of results.

http://www.acronymfinder.com/DH.html  (http://www.acronymfinder.com/DH.html)

Also...

DD = Dear Daughter
DS = Dear Son

I wonder why you rarely see a husband refer to his "DW"? Perhaps I speak for most men when I say that those acronyms are idiotic. "Son" is 3 characters, just 1 more than "DS" so why bother? That extra millisecond is really gonna go to good use on another task!

Some other relevant acronyms:

PE = Price/earnings
ER = Expense ratio

I'm sure there are plenty more we throw around here without considering that not everyone knows them.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: screaser on June 26, 2013, 09:04:39 AM
I'd like to use this "Forum Ideas" topic for everyone to send me their ideas on anything related to the forum. 

Hi there! I'm new to the forum, but I'm very surprised that there isn't a section dedicated to sharing inexpensive but tasty recipes -- anyone else agree that this would be a useful area? I'm certainly willing to contribute a couple of my favorite cheap paleo meals!

-steve
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Russ on June 26, 2013, 10:29:33 AM
I'd like to use this "Forum Ideas" topic for everyone to send me their ideas on anything related to the forum. 

Hi there! I'm new to the forum, but I'm very surprised that there isn't a section dedicated to sharing inexpensive but tasty recipes -- anyone else agree that this would be a useful area? I'm certainly willing to contribute a couple of my favorite cheap paleo meals!

-steve

These should hold you over for a while:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/mustachian-breakfast-ideas (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/mustachian-breakfast-ideas)
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/bread-machine-recipes/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/bread-machine-recipes/)
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/mmm-recipe-thread-inexpensive-recipes-for-a-big-appetite/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/mmm-recipe-thread-inexpensive-recipes-for-a-big-appetite/)
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/paleo-wallet-friendly-recipes/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/paleo-wallet-friendly-recipes/)
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/mustachian-cooking-recipes-healthy-inexpensive (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/mustachian-cooking-recipes-healthy-inexpensive)
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/pizza-stone-recipes/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/pizza-stone-recipes/)
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/recipes-for-a-busy-college-student/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/recipes-for-a-busy-college-student/)
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/mustachian-recipes/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/mustachian-recipes/)
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/recipe-share/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/recipe-share/)
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/killing-the-grocery-bill-share-your-meal-plans (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/killing-the-grocery-bill-share-your-meal-plans)
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/building-a-vegetarian-cooking-repertoire (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/building-a-vegetarian-cooking-repertoire)
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/recipes/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/recipes/)
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/off-topic/what-are-you-eating-right-now/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/off-topic/what-are-you-eating-right-now/)

13 threads in the history of the forum do not make a category IMO, but you might get a sticky if you ask for it.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: screaser on June 26, 2013, 10:54:24 AM
13 threads in the history of the forum do not make a category IMO, but you might get a sticky if you ask for it.

Good point... and thanks very much for compiling those links!

-steve
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Xtal on July 12, 2013, 02:47:18 AM
How about a "Side Hustle Corner"?

I think a lot of us would like to share ideas on how to start a small side business or retirement "fun" work. 

Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: brighteye on July 12, 2013, 02:58:10 AM
I found the Lady Staches thread awesome, but it is really long now. Some place to discuss those topics separately would be great. But I would not call the section Lady Staches, instead choose a neutral name so as not to dicourage the male commenters.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: brighteye on July 12, 2013, 03:04:29 AM
...oh and I would love to hear/read about life after ER/FIRE. I am not there yet but it would be a big motivation!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on July 13, 2013, 05:50:51 PM
...oh and I would love to hear/read about life after ER/FIRE. I am not there yet but it would be a big motivation!
The best implementation of that concept that I've seen is the Early-Retirement.org thread "What did you do today?"
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f29/what-did-you-do-today-37868.html

It grew out of the typical ER question "But... whaddya DO all day?!?"
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on July 13, 2013, 06:44:48 PM
And, since it's 600+ pages long, over 12,000 replies, just reading it could answer the question what do you do all day?  ;)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on July 20, 2013, 05:40:21 PM
And, since it's 600+ pages long, over 12,000 replies, just reading it could answer the question what do you do all day?  ;)
Well, sure, but here you'd get to learn what financially independent badass mustachians are relentlessly optimizing all day...
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: tomsang on August 16, 2013, 02:44:04 PM
And, since it's 600+ pages long, over 12,000 replies, just reading it could answer the question what do you do all day?  ;)
Well, sure, but here you'd get to learn what financially independent badass mustachians are relentlessly optimizing all day...

Nords, everytime I read a post about the useful information that people received out of your manual, I have meant to dig through your forum.  This has been going on for months, but frankly it intimidates me in size and scope.  Am I being a wussypants or is their a table of contents or a way not read 16 pages of 773 posts?  Thanks for putting this together, I will tackle this topic! 
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: tomsang on August 16, 2013, 02:54:38 PM
I know we have lots of topics on SWR, but I think it would be cool to have a conference call recorded or Chat with bo_knows, Wade Pfau, Bill(Firecalc), and others to talk about the knowledge and resarch around SWR. If this is something that people are interested in, then I probably can obtain an 800 number recordable chat number, reach out to the various parties to determine their interest, etc.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on August 16, 2013, 04:45:46 PM
That would be hella cool.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: kkbmustang on August 17, 2013, 07:36:38 PM
Thanks Grant - didn't know you could implement an ignore list.

I'll second the separate forums for ladystaches and side hustles. Also the recordable chat number idea.

Could someone tech savvy do a video that walks you through how to use the forum for newbies? I know my former employer had those on our intranet on how to navigate our internal electronic data rooms. They helped a lot, especially in the beginning of the implementation.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on August 17, 2013, 11:13:56 PM
And, since it's 600+ pages long, over 12,000 replies, just reading it could answer the question what do you do all day?  ;)
Well, sure, but here you'd get to learn what financially independent badass mustachians are relentlessly optimizing all day...

Nords, everytime I read a post about the useful information that people received out of your manual, I have meant to dig through your forum.  This has been going on for months, but frankly it intimidates me in size and scope.  Am I being a wussypants or is their a table of contents or a way not read 16 pages of 773 posts?  Thanks for putting this together, I will tackle this topic!
For Early-Retirement.org, I'd just start with the FAQ archives:  http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f47/  But that's not my forum; the site was started by Dory36 and is now owned by Andy R.

"The Military Guide" might be at your local library, and you can read the first chapter online at Impact Publications:
http://www.impactpublications.com/eproducts/chapter_excerpts/8026_chapter_1.pdf

The first six months of posts at The-Military-Guide.com excerpt the book's content (minus the personal stories & checklists).  After that your best bet is to subscribe to the RSS feed or e-mail, search by keywords or the categories, or... just ask me a question.

The blog is going through some theme changes this weekend, and we have a big announcement coming at 5 AM HST Monday.  It's all good.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: notquitefrugal on August 18, 2013, 09:11:26 PM
I like the "new" icon next to topics, but wish there were a "new" icon next to individual posts so I could tell which posts in a given thread I haven't read yet.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on August 18, 2013, 09:12:34 PM
I like the "new" icon next to topics, but wish there were a "new" icon next to individual posts so I could tell which posts in a given thread I haven't read yet.

Click that new icon, and it will take you to the first post you haven't read.  All the ones below that are new.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: notquitefrugal on August 18, 2013, 10:32:48 PM
I like the "new" icon next to topics, but wish there were a "new" icon next to individual posts so I could tell which posts in a given thread I haven't read yet.

Click that new icon, and it will take you to the first post you haven't read.  All the ones below that are new.

You learn something new every day... Thanks!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on August 21, 2013, 06:18:17 PM
Is there a way we could get spoilertags? Something like this (http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1438)?

Also, are we any closer to resolving the issue where the forum mangles any links that have special punctuation in them? I know the Bogleheads site links get destroyed pretty often...
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: notquitefrugal on August 30, 2013, 10:51:46 AM
Is there any way to "forget" tracking a topic I've replied to so that it no longer shows up under "Show new replies to your posts?"
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on August 30, 2013, 05:17:00 PM
I wish.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on August 30, 2013, 11:03:25 PM
Is there any way to "forget" tracking a topic I've replied to so that it no longer shows up under "Show new replies to your posts?"
I wish.
Moderators & admins, does this version of SMF include an "Ignore thread" feature?  It already has "Ignore poster" so maybe they implemented the thread version as well.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: EMP on September 03, 2013, 01:50:27 PM
What about an Asset,Liability or Junk board?  If you are considering buying something but are on the fence about it's potential usefulness/your turnaround you put up your list of pros and cons and you can let the community tell you if it's a good idea or bad idea.

Full disclosure, I was thinking about the expensive gear hanging out in my basement that could be making us some $$$, but is currently being clutter. 
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Deimyts on September 11, 2013, 03:46:35 PM
Quote
I think a lot of us would like to share ideas on how to start a small side business or retirement "fun" work.

I second this one - I feel really out of my depth on this topic, and it's of great interest to me since I need to boost my income to have any hope of getting rid of debt in a timely manner.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Justin234 on October 24, 2013, 01:22:29 AM
Quote
I think a lot of us would like to share ideas on how to start a small side business or retirement "fun" work.

I second this one - I feel really out of my depth on this topic, and it's of great interest to me since I need to boost my income to have any hope of getting rid of debt in a timely manner.

I just came here to mention this idea and find that the most recent comment is the same idea - wondering if it would be worthwhile to have a "Self-Employment" category. I thought of this when commenting on the issue of Solo 401(k) in the investor's area. Seems there are a lot of issues around small business - how to manage accounts, deal with taxes, when to hire a CPA, etc., marketing, or just general brainstorming - that might be addressed collectively. Of course there would be some overlap with other areas (e.g. the Solo 401(k) topic), but overall I think it would be a good way to encourage people to start out on their own.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: cbgg on October 25, 2013, 06:26:58 PM
1) Do something to differentiate up dates by the origional poster.  For example, put a box around any updates they add.
2) Thread responses.
3) Once you've posed, don't kick back to the forum, go back to the topic.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on October 27, 2013, 12:02:08 PM
3) Once you've posed, don't kick back to the forum, go back to the topic.
(https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/forum-information-faqs/forum-ideas/?action=dlattach;attach=2141;image)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Gero1369 on December 16, 2013, 07:23:57 AM
Hi.  I just joined and had a bit of an issue registering.

Looking quickly, I didn't see any 'issues' thread or anything, but the forum registration form asks the user to "Complete the phrase: Financial freedom through...", then you're left to enter the mysterious field.  It took me a google search to complete by finding the OLD 'NEW' BANNER THREAD!  Please substitute a different question.  I'm sure that other not so savvy internets users would like to join and are having the same difficulty.

Just a pain point that I'd like to point out.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on December 16, 2013, 08:19:05 AM
Hi.  I just joined and had a bit of an issue registering.

Looking quickly, I didn't see any 'issues' thread or anything, but the forum registration form asks the user to "Complete the phrase: Financial freedom through...", then you're left to enter the mysterious field.  It took me a google search to complete by finding the OLD 'NEW' BANNER THREAD!  Please substitute a different question.  I'm sure that other not so savvy internets users would like to join and are having the same difficulty.

Just a pain point that I'd like to point out.

It's still on the current banner.  Look at the coin.

It is subtle though, I'll grant you.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Charlotte on December 26, 2013, 04:08:39 AM
I would love a glossary for us newbies. There are seemingly enough obscure acronyms to confuse even military mustachians.

See: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f47/acronyms-and-slang-frequently-used-on-the-forum-34884.html

:)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on December 27, 2013, 07:00:11 AM
We have one too, in the faq thread in this category.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: hownowbrowncow on January 17, 2014, 12:44:38 AM
Lots of vehicle related questions lately in the Ask a Mustachian category.  Not complaining - I'm consumer of them. 

Suggest starting a vehicle or transportation forum since it would awesome to have that stuff in one place.  Along with shelter and food, your wheels or lack thereof play a big role in your 'stache.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on January 17, 2014, 05:51:46 AM
New forums seldom get 'all' of the threads on a topic - instead you'll get half of vehicle posts in the shiny new category, a quarter in Ask a Mustachian, a handful in Antimustachian Wall of Shame and Comedy and Welcome and General Discussion...
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: AlmostIndependent on January 18, 2014, 03:25:16 PM
Copied from the discussion on how to meet single mustachians ....

Maybe the "Personals" forum could be changed to something like "Single and Mustachian" where single people could talk about topics pertaining to mustache-building on your own.  I would like to discuss things like that, and people could interact and identify fellow singles in a less "seeking" kind of way. The current Personals area seems really CraigsListy to me.   

It'd be as easy as just changing the name. :)

I second this idea.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: notquitefrugal on January 19, 2014, 02:54:57 PM

Maybe the "Personals" forum could be changed to something like "Single and Mustachian" where single people could talk about topics pertaining to mustache-building on your own. 

I second this idea.

Third!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: NinetyFour on January 19, 2014, 03:04:58 PM
Fourth!!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on January 19, 2014, 10:59:54 PM
Done.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MDM on February 27, 2014, 01:23:21 PM
One can "Show unread posts since last visit" in the Forum.

Is there an analogous function, e.g. "Show all unread replies since last visit" for the Blog? 

Sorry if this has been asked and answered elsewhere but forum searches for "new blog replies", etc. came up empty.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 27, 2014, 01:52:45 PM
You mean unread blog comments?  No, not to my knowledge.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MDM on February 27, 2014, 01:58:02 PM
Yes, that's what I meant. 

Is this the best place to propose such a function?

I have great faith that it "could" be done by someone with enough skill, but don't know how difficult (or useful) it would be....
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: momo on February 28, 2014, 07:26:16 PM
Is there a way to save posts , not whole threads and favorite them for future reference? Thank you.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on February 28, 2014, 08:12:59 PM
Is there a way to save posts , not whole threads and favorite them for future reference? Thank you.

Depending on your browser there should be a little star, or maybe a button that says "add bookmark" or something to that effect.  ;)

(If you click on the "subject" of that post, within the thread, it'll take you to a link that goes directly to that post - I.e. It loads the thread then jumps down the page to that post.  Then you can bookmark that.)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Cromacster on March 19, 2014, 10:47:49 AM
Proposal:  Identify professional entities that are using the forum.

The forum is gaining some attention from investment firms, banks, wealth managers, whoever else as seen in recent threads, articles, and lawsuits.  The mods are trying to encourage civilized discussion with these entities.

One method I have seen other forums use is to Identify those users with tag, Like "Professional Entity" in place of magnum, handlebar etc.  Some forums have these firms pay for this right to be active on otherwise free forums.  Whether or not this would work or be accepted, I suppose thats up to the mods and the community.

I'd guess this has already been discussed among the mods, but in the chance that it has not I thought I would throw it out there.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: swick on March 19, 2014, 12:50:49 PM
Proposal:  Identify professional entities that are using the forum.

The forum is gaining some attention from investment firms, banks, wealth managers, whoever else as seen in recent threads, articles, and lawsuits.  The mods are trying to encourage civilized discussion with these entities.

One method I have seen other forums use is to Identify those users with tag, Like "Professional Entity" in place of magnum, handlebar etc.  Some forums have these firms pay for this right to be active on otherwise free forums.  Whether or not this would work or be accepted, I suppose thats up to the mods and the community.

I'd guess this has already been discussed among the mods, but in the chance that it has not I thought I would throw it out there.

Really good idea. Copied your comments into a new MOD thread to be discussed :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Fireman on March 22, 2014, 04:29:51 PM
Proposal:  Identify professional entities that are using the forum.

The forum is gaining some attention from investment firms, banks, wealth managers, whoever else as seen in recent threads, articles, and lawsuits.  The mods are trying to encourage civilized discussion with these entities.

One method I have seen other forums use is to Identify those users with tag, Like "Professional Entity" in place of magnum, handlebar etc.  Some forums have these firms pay for this right to be active on otherwise free forums.  Whether or not this would work or be accepted, I suppose thats up to the mods and the community.

I'd guess this has already been discussed among the mods, but in the chance that it has not I thought I would throw it out there.

Only problem is...it seems most of the Professional Entities are hiding behind anonymity and shilling instead of promoting their product from the front.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Will on March 24, 2014, 11:08:24 AM
I doubt that anything can be done, but as I was browsing the forums, I noticed a relatively new forum member is already a "Senior Mustachian" by virtue of posting a crazy amount of stuff in a short amount of time.  Not that all of my posts are well thought out or incredibly relevant, but I've been here almost 2 years and I am Magnum whilst someone here 2 months is Senior.  I just think it would be nice if there was a way to add a time element to the rankings.   Not that I really care or that this matters.  First world problems...
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MDM on March 24, 2014, 11:32:53 AM
FWIW, here are the current Top 10 in posts/day since registering:
Username Position Date Registered
MrCashHandlebar3/6/2014
soccerluvof4Senior Mustachian1/18/2014
frugalnachoBristles3/19/2014
arebelspyGlobal Moderator2/14/2012
ThegoblinchiefSenior Mustachian12/19/2013
warfreak2Magnum2/2/2014
oldtoyotaSenior Mustachian5/5/2013
JamesqfSenior Mustachian5/22/2012
phredHandlebar2/7/2014
SporkSenior Mustachian1/31/2013

Perhaps apropos of nothing, but there it is.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Workinghard on April 07, 2014, 07:58:26 AM
I didn't  read all the posts, so I apologize if this is a duplicate request. I think it would be be great having a spreadsheet/model forum for those who are Excel challenged. Course someone would need to review the examples being submitted since those needing/wanting spreadsheets wouldn't be able to ascertain accuracy.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on April 07, 2014, 10:44:09 AM
Does that really need a whole forum rather than an individual thread if somebody has excel questions?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Cheddar Stacker on April 07, 2014, 11:18:15 AM
FWIW, here are the current Top 10 in posts/day since registering:
Username Position Date Registered
MrCashHandlebar3/6/2014
soccerluvof4Senior Mustachian1/18/2014
frugalnachoBristles3/19/2014
arebelspyGlobal Moderator2/14/2012
ThegoblinchiefSenior Mustachian12/19/2013
warfreak2Magnum2/2/2014
oldtoyotaSenior Mustachian5/5/2013
JamesqfSenior Mustachian5/22/2012
phredHandlebar2/7/2014
SporkSenior Mustachian1/31/2013

Perhaps apropos of nothing, but there it is.

Where does one find such interesting stats? I poked around a bit but couldn't replicate this. Please enlighten me MDM, or MODS.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MDM on April 07, 2014, 02:25:58 PM
Where does one find such interesting stats? I poked around a bit but couldn't replicate this. Please enlighten me MDM, or MODS.
Under Members, View the Memberlist.
1. Copy & paste the header info into Excel.
2. Select all the member information on the first page.  Copy and "paste special text" into Excel.
3. Go to the next memberlist page.
Repeat steps 2 & 3 until done.

Add a column in Excel with (e.g. for row 4) formula =K4/($L$1-J4), where col. K is Posts, col. J is Date Registered, and cell L1 is today's date.

Sort and filter to one's heart's content.

Chart showing the posts/day for the ~200 people who average at least 1 post/day:
(http://s28.postimg.org/uopputxy5/screenshot_4.png) (http://postimage.org/)

List of those registered for at least 1 year and averaging 2.0 (rounded to the tenths) or higher:
arebelspy
Jamesqf
Spork
grantmeaname
dragoncar
Rural
Another Reader
GuitarStv
matchewed
mpbaker22
I.P. Daley
Meadow Lark
daverobev
brewer12345
tooqk4u22
Nords
Russ

No great surprises to anyone who has read the forums much :).
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Workinghard on April 07, 2014, 02:44:29 PM
I was thinking it would be nice if the Excel gurus shared their spreadsheets so people (like me)could save them and plug in their own specific numbers. I've started collecting spreadsheets and models.

Does that really need a whole forum rather than an individual thread if somebody has excel questions?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on April 19, 2014, 03:02:02 PM
We should get a favicon. It's weird having a blank one. Some little mustache or some dollar signs?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: marty998 on April 19, 2014, 03:38:13 PM
I was thinking it would be nice if the Excel gurus shared their spreadsheets so people (like me)could save them and plug in their own specific numbers. I've started collecting spreadsheets and models.

Does that really need a whole forum rather than an individual thread if somebody has excel questions?

I did start a thread somewhere....ahh here it is

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/spreadsheet-collection/msg67067/#msg67067
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MDM on April 19, 2014, 04:05:19 PM
I did start a thread somewhere....ahh here it is

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/spreadsheet-collection/msg67067/#msg67067
Ok, added one to that thread.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on April 19, 2014, 11:03:41 PM
We should get a favicon. It's weird having a blank one.
I thought that was the favicon.  Very Zen.  And these days, almost unique.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on May 14, 2014, 02:53:47 AM
Here's a feature request: is it possible to make it so that search terms are included in the search url, such that I can search "abcde" and then paste some link to my search in a thread and let people look through the same articles I am?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on May 14, 2014, 07:51:29 AM
Here's a feature request: is it possible to make it so that search terms are included in the search url, such that I can search "abcde" and then paste some link to my search in a thread and let people look through the same articles I am?

Good idea.  Until then: how about a Google search with the url operator for the MMM site in it?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on May 15, 2014, 05:48:19 AM
It can pull up whole pages but not individual posts, so I don't think it's a good substitute. It also can't search by user.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on May 26, 2014, 02:20:29 AM
I don't remember where we ended up on this last time I brought it up, but I've noticed the forum cuts off URLs when it gets to quotation marks and dollar signs. Is there a reasonably simple fix for that?

There are a number of ways to really cut the cost of higher ed.  I posted an extensive thread on the subject here. http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/college-education-the-$6000-bachelors-degree/msg115000/

To the OP......great job! I'm sure your parents must be proud of you, well done!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Russ on May 26, 2014, 07:54:30 AM
the preview button. also fixes quote tags. /grump

I don't remember there being an actual solution to this, but maybe there is one now
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on May 26, 2014, 08:04:03 AM
Just slap
Code: [Select]
[url][/url] around the link.  Or highlight the link and press the URL button.

But yes, it would be nice if that wasn't necessary and the forum software automatically fixed it.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: marty998 on May 31, 2014, 05:57:52 PM
I know this is a silly request but can we ask everyone to turn off the ridiculous "sent from my iphone" or "sent from my ipad using tapatalk" lines that seem to be infiltrating people's posts.

I don't care if you have typed up your spiel on an icrap* device. Don't feel the need to tell the world that you have.

thanks
Marty

* In a somewhat tragic twist of irony, I am writing this on a macbook.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Cromacster on June 19, 2014, 12:18:28 PM
Has the idea of limiting picture sizes been discussed?  I did a brief search but could not find anything.  The way SMF handles large pictures in a thread is fairly clumsy.  I find it pretty annoying when people post 4288 X 2295 sized pictures that only half showup in the screen.  Yes they be viewed by scrolling, but when viewing something its nice to view the whole picture.

I've seen some forums that automatically resize to a size that fits the screen, but allows you to click on it again to view the full size.  Or other forums that just won't let you upload a picture if it is to large a size.

Just something I've thought about.  If this bothers no one else I will just have to deal. 

Thanks for reading.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on June 19, 2014, 12:34:48 PM
Has the idea of limiting picture sizes been discussed?  I did a brief search but could not find anything.  The way SMF handles large pictures in a thread is fairly clumsy.  I find it pretty annoying when people post 4288 X 2295 sized pictures that only half showup in the screen.  Yes they be viewed by scrolling, but when viewing something its nice to view the whole picture.

I've seen some forums that automatically resize to a size that fits the screen, but allows you to click on it again to view the full size.  Or other forums that just won't let you upload a picture if it is to large a size.

Just something I've thought about.  If this bothers no one else I will just have to deal. 

Thanks for reading.

Looks like some CSS could do it: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=505050.0

Otherwise SMF may have a plugin or something.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Joggernot on June 28, 2014, 07:47:17 PM
I would really like to see a "Thanks" button that allows others to thank someone for their post.  This is implemented in the ecomodder.com forum and works very well.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on July 08, 2014, 02:38:43 PM
So say a person disappeared from the memberlist but all (or many) of their posts stuck around. Is that a temporary banhammer or a weird bug in the forum software?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on July 08, 2014, 05:47:06 PM
So say a person disappeared from the memberlist but all (or many) of their posts stuck around. Is that a temporary banhammer or a weird bug in the forum software?

If an account is deleted, it does not delete all of their posts.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on July 09, 2014, 03:28:39 PM
I know. But I thought that you couldn't click the username to go to that person's profile.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on July 09, 2014, 06:49:28 PM
I know. But I thought that you couldn't click the username to go to that person's profile.

Yeah, once that happens their name usually becomes unclickable, and they no longer have a profile.

I don't know why someone would still show up with a profile, but not be on the member list.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on July 29, 2014, 03:33:05 PM
Hey, I'm hitting the character limit on the blogroll. Would it be possible to insert a new post in the #2 position or otherwise circumvent that limit? I've got the archived blogs at the end of the thread where they can be buried now, unfortunately.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on August 05, 2014, 11:01:28 PM
Hey, I'm hitting the character limit on the blogroll. Would it be possible to insert a new post in the #2 position or otherwise circumvent that limit? I've got the archived blogs at the end of the thread where they can be buried now, unfortunately.

I can't think of a way.  Even if I split everything after to a new post, then create a new second post in the thread, then re-merge it, it'll order it by time stamp, so now that new second post will move all the way to the end.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Russ on August 05, 2014, 11:05:43 PM
just take out all the vowels
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on August 05, 2014, 11:38:25 PM
just take out all the vowels

It's proven that your mind fills them in anyways.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on August 06, 2014, 08:43:10 PM
jst tk t ll th vwls
t's prvn tht yr mnd flls thm n nws.
Thr w g,   fxd t fr y.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on August 08, 2014, 08:10:23 AM
jst tk t ll th vwls
t's prvn tht yr mnd flls thm n nws.
Thr w g,   fxd t fr y.

Thnks.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Cheddar Stacker on August 10, 2014, 07:34:55 AM
Forum Thread Hall of Fame
or
Mods Favorite Threads

We have a sticky thread for the best of MMM. Why not have one for the best of the forum?

In another thread Zelda01 linked to this: Our Mustachian Sacred Cows (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/our-mustachian-sacred-cows/).

I hadn't seen this thread, and it was a great one. I'm sure there are hundreds of great ones out there I missed, particularly because I along with many other members were not around at the beginning of the forum.

Has anyone ever proposed or thought about this? Maybe we have  sticky thread, members nominate great old threads, and the mods can supervise, veto, add some of the best to a list somewhere??
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Captain and Mrs Slow on October 27, 2014, 03:50:32 AM
I'm an active member on another super popular forum and there are a few ideas that I think could be imported here.

1. Encourage and enable searching: how many times have the same questions been asked

2. Merging of threads: this is the number one thing that keeps Toy Town from spiralling out of control. See the text at the top of this post

http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=93207&view=findpost&p=3290634

3. Encourage the use of old threads, there are some threads on TT that date back to 2002 the founding of the board. For example Just noticed yesterday how many threads there are on real estate vs the stock market.

OK this one is a bit long at 68 pages but it's still going strong after 5 years

http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=279097&st=2025

3. More sub forums: 

- Real Estate and land lording can easily be split into regions US Canada/Australia/New Zealand rest of the world as a start. Since the US one one would be the most popular split further into specific interests

- DIY could be split according the specific areas again the more popular the more you can split it down

- Mustachian Marketplace: again by region


Again an example from TT

http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/

This is a great forum but it's popularity is making it a bit unweildly.



Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Captain and Mrs Slow on November 16, 2014, 04:16:15 AM
What is the proper way to insert a link, in other words, hide it behind text.

This blog software seems to use a funny method, googled it and nothing showed up.

Thanks
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on November 16, 2014, 07:20:29 AM

What is the proper way to insert a link, in other words, hide it behind text.

This blog software seems to use a funny method, googled it and nothing showed up.

Thanks

You put [ url ] around a link (and / url to close it) and then after the first url put an equals sign and put the site and between the brackets put the text you want.

Since that won't make sense without an example:
This links to Google (http://www.google.com).

Click quote on this post (so you can see the code) and look at the above line. [ Url=link ] text [/ url ] (without the spaces).
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Louisville on January 02, 2015, 06:11:34 AM
As the website has grown in popluarity, there areof course lot's no new comers to the forum. We should welcome those with questions, and assign value to the posts of others with opinions.
That said, I also have to say the quality of imformation in the forum has declined sharply. For every awesome contributor like Sol or arebelspy, we now have a bunch of nonsense purveyors like Cathy and skyhigh. And these folks are dissemenating not only information that is contrary to the spirit of MMM (to me at least), but is often downright incorrect.  And they're profilific.
I understand that the point of all this is to communicate ideas to as many as possible, but is there no way to keep things from getting watered down?
Just musing, I guess.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Louisville on January 02, 2015, 06:19:53 AM
As the website has grown in popluarity, there areof course lot's no new comers to the forum. We should welcome those with questions, and assign value to the posts of others with opinions.
That said, I also have to say the quality of imformation in the forum has declined sharply. For every awesome contributor like Sol or arebelspy, we now have a bunch of nonsense purveyors like Cathy and skyhigh. And these folks are dissemenating not only information that is contrary to the spirit of MMM (to me at least), but is often downright incorrect.  And they're profilific.
I understand that the point of all this is to communicate ideas to as many as possible, but is there no way to keep things from getting watered down?
Just musing, I guess.
Thinking about this further, I suppose I shouldn't complain. I am, mostly, a consumer of this forum rather than a contributor.  And I think the only answer to the question I posed above is to drown out the nonsense with solid posts of my own, which I already know I'm not going to spend the time and effort to do...
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Cheddar Stacker on January 02, 2015, 07:40:02 AM
I think we all just need to keep our bullshit monitors on at all times. Don't base any actions solely on advice you get here, particularly if it's contrary to what others here have said.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: matchewed on January 02, 2015, 12:01:04 PM
You may not like an individual's advice but the awesome thing about allowing people to say what they want is you get a plethora of ideas to choose from. As Cheddar Stacker says use some discretion in choosing what to listen to. There is also a block function if you don't like a person's posts. I have a few individuals on it and I'm sure I'm on others. :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Philociraptor on January 06, 2015, 10:59:33 AM
I know the mods are already busy, but could we get some Bogleheads Forum-style moderation on topic titles? Very vague titles don't tell forum readers what to expect. Looking at the Recent Unread Posts we have...


These could be made more useful by adding text in brackets, like so:


Thoughts?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on January 06, 2015, 11:46:16 AM
I know the mods are already busy, but could we get some Bogleheads Forum-style moderation on topic titles? Very vague titles don't tell forum readers what to expect. Looking at the Recent Unread Posts we have...

  • Am i worrying too much w/o reason?
  • Advise me please
  • Are you making a mistake
  • Newbie Needs Help

These could be made more useful by adding text in brackets, like so:

  • Am i worrying too much w/o reason? [Differing values with spouse]
  • Advise me please [Investment Allocation]
  • Are you making a mistake [Home Mortgage Payoff]
  • Newbie Needs Help [Choosing Funds]

Thoughts?
Some of us appreciate this forum for its free-wheeling, anarchic, chaotic, and lightly moderated style.  I think that few things inhibit posters more than a long list of format requirements.  After years of being a moderator, I'm also convinced that the less moderating done by moderators leads to a better forum for everyone.  I'd hate to be assigned as the "Moderator In Charge Of Explaining Cryptic Titles", and I'd certainly object to moderators helpfully clarifying my carefully-crafted ledes.

If I wanted more Bogleheads Forum-style moderation on topic titles then I'd do all my reading at the Bogleheads forum.

Once again, this type of suggestion is like going over to your buddy's house to watch the game, sitting on their couch imbibing their frosty beverages and hors d'oeuvre, looking around the room, and saying "Y'know, this place would be a lot nicer if you straightened it up and labeled everything so that I could figure out what it means."

But that's just my opinion. 
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: matchewed on January 07, 2015, 11:20:27 AM
I know the mods are already busy, but could we get some Bogleheads Forum-style moderation on topic titles? Very vague titles don't tell forum readers what to expect. Looking at the Recent Unread Posts we have...

  • Am i worrying too much w/o reason?
  • Advise me please
  • Are you making a mistake
  • Newbie Needs Help

These could be made more useful by adding text in brackets, like so:

  • Am i worrying too much w/o reason? [Differing values with spouse]
  • Advise me please [Investment Allocation]
  • Are you making a mistake [Home Mortgage Payoff]
  • Newbie Needs Help [Choosing Funds]

Thoughts?
Some of us appreciate this forum for its free-wheeling, anarchic, chaotic, and lightly moderated style.  I think that few things inhibit posters more than a long list of format requirements.  After years of being a moderator, I'm also convinced that the less moderating done by moderators leads to a better forum for everyone.  I'd hate to be assigned as the "Moderator In Charge Of Explaining Cryptic Titles", and I'd certainly object to moderators helpfully clarifying my carefully-crafted ledes.

If I wanted more Bogleheads Forum-style moderation on topic titles then I'd do all my reading at the Bogleheads forum.

Once again, this type of suggestion is like going over to your buddy's house to watch the game, sitting on their couch imbibing their frosty beverages and hors d'oeuvre, looking around the room, and saying "Y'know, this place would be a lot nicer if you straightened it up and labeled everything so that I could figure out what it means."

But that's just my opinion.

I have to agree, some of the appeal with this forum is the fairly hands off approach. I'm sure not everyone sees it that way but IMO keeping the rules simple is good for the diversity you see even if it comes with some confusion.
Title: Please consider: Sub Forum for People who are FIRE
Post by: Unionville on January 14, 2015, 03:03:25 PM
Moderator, Can you *please* consider adding a subforum category for people who are already FIRE.  I posted this idea on the general forum and received several positive responses about doing this. People who are FIRE often have new unexpected issues arise, and it's hard to dig through all the regular comments to locate FIRE people.  I compare it to going on a diet: Everyone is there to support you until you reach your goal, but then everyone assumes you don't need help anymore.

Here are just a few supportive comments I received:

• "I think it would be motivational to the waiting-to-FIRE population to see the already-FIREd community grow, rather than just see them disappear."

• "I have also struggled to fit in to the forum after I hit FI.  There is so much tactical talk about 'what you did to save money', but not strategic talk like what are the pros and cons of RE (especially if you have young kids, your spouse works, etc.)."

•" I get no sympathy when trying to bring up challenges in FI. "

• "I find the FI has left me in a state without direction and a bit confused."

•" I know sometimes I feel like I should be on another forum since I'm already FIRE'd."

•"If the FIREd community isn't large enough to support its own sub-forum, maybe that community will presumably grow with time."

• "As I become more solidly FI and move towards RE, I find myself less interested in "tactics" level topics (make your own soap) and am mostly interested in "strategy" level posts (best place to retire, how to transition, etc.) "

• "If I was newly-FIREd, I'm pretty sure I'd start spending more time on that sub-forum. "

• "Having an FI category is certainly a better option than "oh, you're FIREd? Sorry you don't fit in so much here anymore, you might want to move over to early-retirement.org"

To read the whole string of comments see: http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/is-there-a-group-on-this-forum-for-people-that-achieved-fi/new/?topicseen#new


Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Russ on January 14, 2015, 03:11:25 PM
I know the mods are already busy, but could we get some Bogleheads Forum-style moderation on topic titles? Very vague titles don't tell forum readers what to expect. Looking at the Recent Unread Posts we have...

  • Am i worrying too much w/o reason?
  • Advise me please
  • Are you making a mistake
  • Newbie Needs Help

These could be made more useful by adding text in brackets, like so:

  • Am i worrying too much w/o reason? [Differing values with spouse]
  • Advise me please [Investment Allocation]
  • Are you making a mistake [Home Mortgage Payoff]
  • Newbie Needs Help [Choosing Funds]

Thoughts?

yeah I'm pretty against this
I read another forum where a topic will be locked if it doesn't have a descriptive enough title and it's a shitshow
and I don't want to rewrite everyone's topics for them
Title: Re: Please consider: Sub Forum for People who are FIRE
Post by: Russ on January 14, 2015, 03:23:04 PM
Moderator, Can you *please* consider adding a subforum category for people who are already FIRE.  I posted this idea on the general forum and received several positive responses about doing this. People who are FIRE often have new unexpected issues arise, and it's hard to dig through all the regular comments to locate FIRE people.  I compare it to going on a diet: Everyone is there to support you until you reach your goal, but then everyone assumes you don't need help anymore.

Here are just a few supportive comments I received:

• "I think it would be motivational to the waiting-to-FIRE population to see the already-FIREd community grow, rather than just see them disappear."

• "I have also struggled to fit in to the forum after I hit FI.  There is so much tactical talk about 'what you did to save money', but not strategic talk like what are the pros and cons of RE (especially if you have young kids, your spouse works, etc.)."

•" I get no sympathy when trying to bring up challenges in FI. "

• "I find the FI has left me in a state without direction and a bit confused."

•" I know sometimes I feel like I should be on another forum since I'm already FIRE'd."

•"If the FIREd community isn't large enough to support its own sub-forum, maybe that community will presumably grow with time."

• "As I become more solidly FI and move towards RE, I find myself less interested in "tactics" level topics (make your own soap) and am mostly interested in "strategy" level posts (best place to retire, how to transition, etc.) "

• "If I was newly-FIREd, I'm pretty sure I'd start spending more time on that sub-forum. "

• "Having an FI category is certainly a better option than "oh, you're FIREd? Sorry you don't fit in so much here anymore, you might want to move over to early-retirement.org"

To read the whole string of comments see: http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/is-there-a-group-on-this-forum-for-people-that-achieved-fi/new/?topicseen#new

see other responses to requests for subforums. If there is not enough volume to support it, it's not happening. Perhaps when we have more retirees here.
Title: Re: Please consider: Sub Forum for People who are FIRE
Post by: Nords on January 14, 2015, 04:49:38 PM
Moderator, Can you *please* consider adding a subforum category for people who are already FIRE.  I posted this idea on the general forum and received several positive responses about doing this. People who are FIRE often have new unexpected issues arise, and it's hard to dig through all the regular comments to locate FIRE people.  I compare it to going on a diet: Everyone is there to support you until you reach your goal, but then everyone assumes you don't need help anymore.

Here are just a few supportive comments I received:

• "I think it would be motivational to the waiting-to-FIRE population to see the already-FIREd community grow, rather than just see them disappear."

• "I have also struggled to fit in to the forum after I hit FI.  There is so much tactical talk about 'what you did to save money', but not strategic talk like what are the pros and cons of RE (especially if you have young kids, your spouse works, etc.)."

•" I get no sympathy when trying to bring up challenges in FI. "

• "I find the FI has left me in a state without direction and a bit confused."

•" I know sometimes I feel like I should be on another forum since I'm already FIRE'd."

•"If the FIREd community isn't large enough to support its own sub-forum, maybe that community will presumably grow with time."

• "As I become more solidly FI and move towards RE, I find myself less interested in "tactics" level topics (make your own soap) and am mostly interested in "strategy" level posts (best place to retire, how to transition, etc.) "

• "If I was newly-FIREd, I'm pretty sure I'd start spending more time on that sub-forum. "

• "Having an FI category is certainly a better option than "oh, you're FIREd? Sorry you don't fit in so much here anymore, you might want to move over to early-retirement.org"

To read the whole string of comments see: http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/is-there-a-group-on-this-forum-for-people-that-achieved-fi/new/?topicseen#new

see other responses to requests for subforums. If there is not enough volume to support it, it's not happening. Perhaps when we have more retirees here.
I'm already FIRE, and I'd be happy to be able to just check the threads in a forum about "the good problems to have when you're FIRE".

One of the reasons that I'm not on here every day is because over 200 threads are updated here every day.  While I may be FIRE, I'm also busy with other things.  By the time I realize it's been a few days, there are 800 threads for me to page through instead of just one sub-forum.

Jeremy & Winnie at GoCurryCracker, RootofGood, Arebelspy... I'm sure I'm overlooking a dozen other FIRE posters.

And before any of the moderators start grumbling about the additional work of adding a subforum, let's remember that I agree that moderators should not be made to edit thread titles for clarity.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on January 14, 2015, 08:10:34 PM
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/post-fire/
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: RootofGood on January 14, 2015, 08:59:31 PM
Nifty.  Just made the second post to the new post-fire forum.  Arebelspy, did you pull the plug and retire officially? Or you're the FI part of FIRE?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on January 14, 2015, 09:40:12 PM
Nifty.  Just made the second post to the new post-fire forum.  Arebelspy, did you pull the plug and retire officially? Or you're the FI part of FIRE?

The latter.  The former is imminent.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: JohnnyDollar on January 14, 2015, 10:09:24 PM
I would be interested in more boglish terms of service to keep the forums on topic.  Freewheeling is one thing but IMHO the signal to noise ratio is dropping.   Perhaps a 'mute poster' feature, or some strictly moderated areas and a way to filter out the off topic category?  maybe moving 'off topic' to a separate category which we can ignore in toto would work.

Personally I tend to moderate with a heavy hand, but if irrelevant persistent and inflammatory is part of the culture ,  let's at least make it easy to filter out.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Nords on January 15, 2015, 12:16:09 AM
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/post-fire/
Thanks. 

Now we can put up or go back to the previous arrangements...
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on January 15, 2015, 07:44:53 AM
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/post-fire/
Thanks. 

Now we can put up or go back to the previous arrangements...

Indeed. If there's not much activity, I'll likely just re-sort those threads into the other appropriate subforums and remove that one to reduce the clutter. I'm still not sure of the need, but I'm fine giving it a trial run.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: RootofGood on January 15, 2015, 09:44:35 AM
The latter.  The former is imminent.

Awesome!  Congrats!  Now you can hang out in the FIRE social club forum (that's what the new subforum is for, right?).  Nords is in charge of bringing the weather. 
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Unionville on January 15, 2015, 08:58:03 PM
I would really like to see a sticky that would give you some definitions of some of the common abbreviations.

I keep seeing FIRE and DH used and a few other without knowing what they mean.

I've figured out FIRE stands for Financial Independent Retired Early, but for the life of me DH escapes my best guesses. I under stand it means spouse but I'd still like to know what the acronym stands for.

I think having this would help people new to this forum and new to FIRE in general.

I agree.  It took me forever to figure out SAHM (stay at home mom) and I have no clue what OMY is.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MDM on January 15, 2015, 09:56:09 PM
I agree.  It took me forever to figure out SAHM (stay at home mom) and I have no clue what OMY is.

One More Year (referring to those who really are FI but don't believe it and decide to work just OMY...).

See http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/acronyms-on-these-forums/ and links therein (particularly http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/forum-information-faqs/frequently-asked-questions/ and http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f47/acronyms-and-slang-frequently-used-on-the-forum-34884.html).

Good luck!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: kittrad on January 22, 2015, 11:40:00 AM
OMY - New acronym for me this early of the year. :) (https://imagicon.info/cat/6-4/1.gif)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Ynari on January 30, 2015, 08:00:54 AM
Sorry if this has been suggested before, but is there any way to have an "ignore all posts by this user" function?

One of my other forums has it, and it makes life SO much easier when I really dislike someone's writing style/attitude/consistent lack of relevant input/etc. This forum is lightly moderated so some subtle trolls pop up, and it has made it very hard to visit the forum when one of them gets active and starts posting in tons of threads. Since I try not to feed the trolls (and would only make things worse by responding), I take a hiatus when that happens, but it'd be really nice to be able to hide all their posts.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on January 30, 2015, 08:14:29 AM
Sorry if this has been suggested before, but is there any way to have an "ignore all posts by this user" function?

See attached.

(http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=11.0;attach=1237;image) (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/forum-information-faqs/forum-ideas/?action=dlattach;attach=1236;image)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Ynari on January 30, 2015, 09:30:29 AM
Oh, thank you. That's a lot more hidden than I'm used to.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on January 30, 2015, 10:15:46 AM
Oh, thank you. That's a lot more hidden than I'm used to.

It is a touch, but it's there. :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on January 30, 2015, 06:54:16 PM
I feel so vicariously helpful! I'm counting this as my good turn for the day!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Mrs MM on January 31, 2015, 07:21:27 PM
Thanks so much to all of you for this great community and for keeping it running!! I haven't checked in in ages and it's nice to see that this thread is still going and stuff is being taken care of without me. We really really really appreciate it. Thank you!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Captain and Mrs Slow on February 09, 2015, 01:17:17 AM
Moderating depends a lot of the purpose of the forum. Another busy forum I'm on (for expats in Germany) the same questions get asked so often that they highly encourage you to search and add to existing threads as there is so much relevant information.

As Ms MM said this is more like a noisy bar and both ways have their advantages

One change you could implement is to allow members to edit titles.
Two is would be really nice to encourage people to not excessively quote, it only takes a moment to clean up a post, see what I just posted below. 

Thanks so much to all of you for this great community and for keeping it running!! I haven't checked in in ages

I see you have a life eh, unlike some of us:)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on February 09, 2015, 10:54:07 AM
One change you could implement is to allow members to edit titles.
Do you mean thread titles or user categories? Members can already edit the titles of threads they created.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: brooklynguy on February 17, 2015, 07:49:06 AM
Should the "Post-FIRE" subforum have a "Welcome to the FIRE Club" sticky thread, where new early retirees can announce their arrival to FIRE status?  I guess there's no reason we can't stick to the pattern of having each person start a new thread (or piggyback on someone else's) to make their FIRE declaration as long as the flow of new retirees remains relatively low, but hopefully one day that trickle will turn into a flood.  And it seems appropriate to have a one-stop-shop for FIRE announcements.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: rpr on February 24, 2015, 01:34:22 PM
At the top of each page we have:

Show unread posts since last visit.
Show new replies to your posts.

Is it also possible to have the following?

Show all threads
Show all threads in which I have participated

This would list all topics (whether read or unread) from all sub-forums.

Thanks.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Little Benny on February 26, 2015, 11:12:12 AM
I searched a bit to see if we had something on this, and the closest I could get was the Mustachians around the web section.  What about a Mustachian siting section?  I like on the south side of the Denver Metro area and yesterday I saw TWO separate cyclists riding on my way home from work.  It was about 16 degrees out and the wind was blowing the blizzard like snow completely sideways.  I wanted to get out of my comfy old CRV and ask them if they were Mustachians!!!!  Badasses, for sure.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MDM on February 26, 2015, 11:15:21 AM
What about a Mustachian siting section?
Is http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/meetups-and-social-events/mustache-map!/ close enough?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Little Benny on February 26, 2015, 12:37:03 PM
Very cool, there's a Stasher close to me.  I was thinking more about a space where we could congratulate people we witnessed exhibiting Stashy behavior (although not often easy to see).  No worries, just a thought from a newbie.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: seattlecyclone on March 12, 2015, 09:03:08 AM
I wonder if some sort of country-specific investing subforums might make sense. I see a lot of Canadians and Australians talking about their own special tax-minimization investment strategies. This is great, of course, but I know nothing about superannuation plans, RRSPs, etc., and don't want have to skim past threads discussing them. Just the same, I'm sure the folks in other countries would like to be able to avoid clicking into threads only to find that it's yet another American asking about how to best use a Roth IRA.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: yoga mama on March 13, 2015, 12:10:46 PM
This must be a programming suggestion - the other forum I read (a mommy site, essentially) has a feature that when you click on a post you've already read, it automatically takes you to the last post since you've opened the thread.  It is AWESOME, especially for reading some longer threads or checking in on one you haven't looked at for a while.  Any chances of something like that here?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on March 13, 2015, 12:24:00 PM
Any chances of something like that here?

Click on the orange [NEW] button after the title listing.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: yoga mama on March 13, 2015, 01:54:09 PM
Cool, thank you!  :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on March 20, 2015, 09:49:14 AM
Nope, but you could start a thread with what you're looking for and people might be able to suggest some.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on March 20, 2015, 10:30:54 AM
Thanks arebelspy, I will. I am always hesitant to start a thread as it seems that almost everything I think to ask has been answered somewhere else already. Often the trouble is finding it, as the search always gives me an error (I think it's just my computer, but it happens every time).

If it's a specific "I'd like to read journals or blogs of people who are in situation X, Y, and Z, can you suggest any?" that probably hasn't been asked before.  :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: StetsTerhune on April 04, 2015, 07:28:51 AM
I don't know if there's actually enough interest in this to make it worthwhile, but I'very been looking at the post-fire sub-forum and wishing there was a "within a year of fire" sub-forum. I feel like there's a lot of us around here.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: deborah on April 04, 2015, 03:43:55 PM
There is of course the "class of 2015" thread http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/class-of-2015/msg612075/#msg612075
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on April 05, 2015, 11:06:05 AM
New button in the post reply screen? New button in the post reply screen!

Spoiler: show
Yay spoilers!


Spoiler: show
Thanks, Rebs. :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on April 05, 2015, 11:28:31 AM
Spoiler: show
Thanks kworthington for the install and I.P. for the suggestion/reminder.  :)


Also great use of new tags:

Bleeping out the
Spoiler: show
           
awesome words.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on April 05, 2015, 11:35:20 AM
Bleeping out the
Spoiler: show
           
awesome words.

Redaction, in my posts?
Spoiler: show
                       
?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MDM on April 21, 2015, 09:39:23 PM
Are there statistics available that (quantitatively) address the issues noted in http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/forum-information-faqs/forum-is-very-erratic-lately/?

If so it "would be interesting" to have them available - easy to say when someone else would have to do it, but still true.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Financial Planner Dude on April 22, 2015, 01:48:20 AM

I know the mods are already busy, but could we get some Bogleheads Forum-style moderation on topic titles? Very vague titles don't tell forum readers what to expect. Looking at the Recent Unread Posts we have...


A lot depends on what the feel of the forum is. I'm an expat in Germany and belong to another super popular forum Toy Town Germany and the moderators put in a huge effort to keep it clean and organized, but that’s because it’s more like a knowledge base than a chatty forum. The search function is the secret sause. For example I may search a specific tax question and usually it’s already been discussed so I will simply continue the thread.

Here’s a great example (http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=344691&view=findpost&p=3347054)

Search doesn’t work as well here. I had some questions regarding board games so did a search found nothing started a new thread and then got complaints that it’s been discussed before, several times.

MMM feels more like a dinner conversation with a half dozen topics going on at the same time. But it doesn’t mean they can’t improve things

2 small steps which I think would make a HUGE difference

1. More sub forums - Investing Canada for example
2. Allow members to edit titles for clarity
3. Make inserting links easier
4. Ask people not to quote excessive - to me re quoting a 6 answer thread to add one line is way to excessive!!!!!

On number notice how I EDITED the quote, much clean

Second thing would be

Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on April 22, 2015, 08:18:03 AM
2 small steps which I think would make a HUGE difference

1. More sub forums - Investing Canada for example
2. Allow members to edit titles for clarity
3. Make inserting links easier
4. Ask people not to quote excessive - to me re quoting a 6 answer thread to add one line is way to excessive!!!!!

On number notice how I EDITED the quote, much clean

Second thing would be

1. Too many subforms split conversations. But it is under consideration as the forum grows larger.
2. Already available. Edit the first post's title.
3. Already available. Click the url button. Or just paste in your link.
4. That's up to individual people. Most of us clean up our quotes. We're not going to police people who don't though.

I like how you said two small things, then listed four, then had a "second" thing that left us hanging. :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MDM on April 30, 2015, 11:43:44 PM
Are there statistics available that (quantitatively) address the issues noted in http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/forum-information-faqs/forum-is-very-erratic-lately/?

If so it "would be interesting" to have them available - easy to say when someone else would have to do it, but still true.

Bump.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on May 01, 2015, 08:05:57 AM
Not that I know of.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: BBub on May 21, 2015, 08:55:36 AM
Small forum optimization suggestion.  Could the 2 links "show unread posts since last visit" and "show new replies to your post" be added at the bottom of each page?  When checking my threads, I get to the bottom of a given post then have to scroll back up to the top to get back to the new replies page.  Not a huge deal, but it would be nice to have these links at both the bottom of each page to make things a bit quicker.  Especially when using a smartphone.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: metastache on May 21, 2015, 12:06:13 PM
A few folks over the past couple of years have offered the idea of favoriting posts, and it has generated interest from at least one moderator. I think favoriting alone could take the forum to the next level.

Favoriting would allow us to create a personal list of great posts tailored to our own interests and situations, as well as an aggregate list of everybody's favorite posts. As a user, I have found that it is hard for me to keep track of topics and posts I'm interested in, and it's also hard for me to find the gems of posts that are buried in the past 3 years of awesome content. I know there is value in hard work, but making this curated content easier to save and access has the potential improve the lives of many readers.

For example, www.metafilter.com (http://www.metafilter.com) does a good job of allowing members to favorite posts. They catalog favorites into personal favorites, most favorited of the past 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, and all time.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: forummm on May 23, 2015, 07:54:45 AM
I have an idea where the forum doesn't go offline for 15 hours.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Spondulix on June 02, 2015, 09:34:04 PM
May not be possible... but how about: number of posts shouldn't include journal section. I think there's a difference between interacting with the forum and writing hundreds of posts about yourself (especially if it's heavy-handed on personal stuff). Although, I do know there is some useful conversation that happens over there!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Johnez on August 07, 2015, 01:55:30 PM
I've an idea: Automobile Forum.

It seems there is a new  automobile thread every day and it might benefit people looking for the perfect car to have all the car threads in one place to compare. Also it might be a great place for people to discuss repairs, mods, or hacks relating to automobiles. I think a specific section would flourish and encourage discussion and growth that might easily be lost in some of the bigger forum sections (General, Ask A Mustachian, etc.)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: TonyV. on August 07, 2015, 03:57:56 PM
I can't seem to find a section in the forums on the awesome things you all do for hobbies/fun that are extremely cheap/free. I'll use the example of Geocaching for one. It can be done totally free or you can purchase a membership for around $20-$30/year. It's an awesome thing to do that is readily available around the world and can be done by bike, hiking or just simply walking around town. If you haven't heard of it, I would HIGHLY suggest you go to Geocaching.com and look into it! It's fun for everyone of all age groups also!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: TonyV. on August 07, 2015, 04:01:08 PM
A few folks over the past couple of years have offered the idea of favoriting posts, and it has generated interest from at least one moderator. I think favoriting alone could take the forum to the next level.

Favoriting would allow us to create a personal list of great posts tailored to our own interests and situations, as well as an aggregate list of everybody's favorite posts. As a user, I have found that it is hard for me to keep track of topics and posts I'm interested in, and it's also hard for me to find the gems of posts that are buried in the past 3 years of awesome content. I know there is value in hard work, but making this curated content easier to save and access has the potential improve the lives of many readers.

For example, www.metafilter.com (http://www.metafilter.com) does a good job of allowing members to favorite posts. They catalog favorites into personal favorites, most favorited of the past 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, and all time.
  how about an agree button as well? :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: KittyCat on August 07, 2015, 04:22:38 PM
A few folks over the past couple of years have offered the idea of favoriting posts, and it has generated interest from at least one moderator. I think favoriting alone could take the forum to the next level.

Favoriting would allow us to create a personal list of great posts tailored to our own interests and situations, as well as an aggregate list of everybody's favorite posts. As a user, I have found that it is hard for me to keep track of topics and posts I'm interested in, and it's also hard for me to find the gems of posts that are buried in the past 3 years of awesome content. I know there is value in hard work, but making this curated content easier to save and access has the potential improve the lives of many readers.

For example, www.metafilter.com (http://www.metafilter.com) does a good job of allowing members to favorite posts. They catalog favorites into personal favorites, most favorited of the past 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, and all time.

Perhaps this is implicit in metastache's suggestion, but I have found myself desiring a location where I can save and find followed/favorite topics/threads (vs individual posts)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Barbarossa on August 09, 2015, 08:45:57 PM
Hi Mrs MM! 

I love the forum, and the blog, and the ideas.  But I just signed up and posted a "Say Hi" post, only to find it on page 47.  No one is ever going to read it there!  It looks at first glance like the oldest posts are listed first, at least on some threads.  Maybe it would be a good idea to switch the order in which they are posted so we can read the most current one? 

Either way, thanks for the opportunity!

B
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on August 09, 2015, 09:35:52 PM
I just signed up and posted a "Say Hi" post, only to find it on page 47.  No one is ever going to read it there!

Don't assume, it's impolite. Responses in long threads still get read and responded to in this community. :)

That said, the intro thread is really only meant to be a place to say hi and briefly introduce yourself. If you want a case study done (as it appears you're kind of on the edge of doing), it needs to be posted as a new topic in the Ask a Mustachian (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/) sub-board, and it will greatly help not just yourself but everyone else seeking to help if you read the guidelines on how to post a case study first (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/how-to-write-a-%27case-study%27-topic/). If a case study isn't entirely what you're after, you might also consider starting a journal (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/journals/) as well.... or do both!

I would also highly recommend you give all the sticky threads (the orange ones) in the Forum Information & FAQs (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/forum-information-faqs/) board here a read as well. To that end, you should give all the stickied threads throughout all the boards a read as you may find many useful bits scattered about.

It looks at first glance like the oldest posts are listed first, at least on some threads.  Maybe it would be a good idea to switch the order in which they are posted so we can read the most current one? 

This is a user preference thing if you really want to roll that way.

Profile > Look and Layout > (x) Show most recent posts at the top.

Anyway, welcome to the forums!
Title: Marketplace for Mustachian businesses?
Post by: livrocentral on August 21, 2015, 03:13:33 PM
It seems like the Marketplace forum is generally intended for person-to-person transactions rather than advertising business services. Assuming that is correct, would there be interest in a separate forum topic where Mustachians could advertise their business ventures to other willing Mustachians? I assume many are business owners and those services might be of interest to others.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on August 22, 2015, 03:24:24 AM
That subforum is already tiny and really slow... Wouldn't splitting it in two make it really tiny and really slow?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Vanchica on August 25, 2015, 07:41:12 AM
The was a suggestion a few pages back of a "Sidehustle" subforum or category- did that happen? I'm on the hunt :)

Many thanks.....
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: brooklynguy on September 24, 2015, 12:47:45 PM
The forum configurations should be modified to restrict the ability of a user to delete an entire thread if another user has also posted in that thread.

I already started a stand-alone thread about this issue (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/forum-information-faqs/deleting-threads/), but, as discussed in that thread, I'm having trouble getting this suggestion taken under consideration by whoever is the appropriate person or group of people to take it under consideration, so now I'm posting it here to give that a try.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Johnez on September 24, 2015, 07:20:54 PM
The forum configurations should be modified to restrict the ability of a user to delete an entire thread if another user has also posted in that thread.

I already started a stand-alone thread about this issue (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/forum-information-faqs/deleting-threads/), but, as discussed in that thread, I'm having trouble getting this suggestion taken under consideration by whoever is the appropriate person or group of people to take it under consideration, so now I'm posting it here to give that a try.

Very much agreed.  Some valuable information has been lost because of OPs getting to delete an entire thread. 
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: kittrad on September 26, 2015, 02:25:31 PM
Count me in on that. Hope it gets considered soon. (https://imagicon.info/cat/6-4/1.gif)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: arebelspy on October 23, 2015, 12:03:38 PM
MOD NOTE: That change has been made.  See brooklynguy's link for more information.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: CloserToFree on January 28, 2016, 07:17:39 PM
I'm not sure if this has already been suggested (my attempts at searches in the forum keep timing out or not working), but would it be possible to make the forum threads more mobile-friendly?  Larger text, optimized for smaller screens?  I'm often reading on my phone and everything shows up super tiny -- and no "reader view" is available (it is for the blog, which makes it much more mobile-reader-friendly).  I'm not a tech person so have no idea how hard this is, but wanted to throw it out there!  Thanks for maintaining the forum, it's an incredible resource and community!!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on January 28, 2016, 08:10:56 PM
Bottom of the page where it says WAP2.

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/index.php?wap2 (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/index.php?wap2)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: alsoknownasDean on January 29, 2016, 04:09:21 AM
I'm not sure if this has already been suggested (my attempts at searches in the forum keep timing out or not working), but would it be possible to make the forum threads more mobile-friendly?  Larger text, optimized for smaller screens?  I'm often reading on my phone and everything shows up super tiny -- and no "reader view" is available (it is for the blog, which makes it much more mobile-reader-friendly).  I'm not a tech person so have no idea how hard this is, but wanted to throw it out there!  Thanks for maintaining the forum, it's an incredible resource and community!!

I access the forums on my phone using the Tapatalk app, but otherwise there's WAP2 as per Daley's link.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: CloserToFree on January 29, 2016, 11:16:37 AM
Bottom of the page where it says WAP2.

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/index.php?wap2 (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/index.php?wap2)

Thank you, thank you! Had no idea that was lurking down there.  Works great on my phone.  Will also look into Tapatalk too, per alsoknownasDean's suggestion. 
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: scottyinco on February 03, 2016, 09:55:01 AM
I'd love to see a different CAPTCHA used during registration.  I couldn't make out half the letters and had to have it read them to me!  That's never happened to me before... so I'm thinking it might be dialed in a bit too tight (or is just poorly implemented).

Just tossing it out there!

I had the same issue trying to create an account today.  I couldn't make out the letters and then it would never read it to me, either.  Took about 15 tries to get one that I got right.  And I just had my eyes checked, and they're good. :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: JordanOfGilead on February 03, 2016, 10:41:06 AM
I've an idea: Automobile Forum.

It seems there is a new  automobile thread every day and it might benefit people looking for the perfect car to have all the car threads in one place to compare. Also it might be a great place for people to discuss repairs, mods, or hacks relating to automobiles. I think a specific section would flourish and encourage discussion and growth that might easily be lost in some of the bigger forum sections (General, Ask A Mustachian, etc.)
I came over to this post to suggest almost exactly the same thing, but with a twist. Would it be possible to divide the DIY section into sub-topics? Automotive, home improvement, landscaping/gardening, etc.?

I have found myself looking on here for mustachian alternatives to auto advice found on car forums (a lot of people on the auto forums I follow have the "throw money at it until it works/goes fast" mentality), but have to dig through pages and pages of other DIY projects before finding something remotely similar.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: undercover on June 22, 2016, 10:20:00 AM
A few folks over the past couple of years have offered the idea of favoriting posts, and it has generated interest from at least one moderator. I think favoriting alone could take the forum to the next level.

Favoriting would allow us to create a personal list of great posts tailored to our own interests and situations, as well as an aggregate list of everybody's favorite posts. As a user, I have found that it is hard for me to keep track of topics and posts I'm interested in, and it's also hard for me to find the gems of posts that are buried in the past 3 years of awesome content. I know there is value in hard work, but making this curated content easier to save and access has the potential improve the lives of many readers.

For example, www.metafilter.com (http://www.metafilter.com) does a good job of allowing members to favorite posts. They catalog favorites into personal favorites, most favorited of the past 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, and all time.

I'm still scratching my head as to why this hasn't been done. It doesn't even have to be so elaborate - just implement a "Like" button". It's so useful as it prevents other people from quoting and posting basically the same message over and over when they agree with it.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: matchewed on June 28, 2016, 10:06:35 AM
A few folks over the past couple of years have offered the idea of favoriting posts, and it has generated interest from at least one moderator. I think favoriting alone could take the forum to the next level.

Favoriting would allow us to create a personal list of great posts tailored to our own interests and situations, as well as an aggregate list of everybody's favorite posts. As a user, I have found that it is hard for me to keep track of topics and posts I'm interested in, and it's also hard for me to find the gems of posts that are buried in the past 3 years of awesome content. I know there is value in hard work, but making this curated content easier to save and access has the potential improve the lives of many readers.

For example, www.metafilter.com (http://www.metafilter.com) does a good job of allowing members to favorite posts. They catalog favorites into personal favorites, most favorited of the past 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, and all time.

I'm still scratching my head as to why this hasn't been done. It doesn't even have to be so elaborate - just implement a "Like" button". It's so useful as it prevents other people from quoting and posting basically the same message over and over when they agree with it.

If the whole purpose is solely to organize posts that you like then just use bookmarks in your browser of choice. Like buttons just encourage or exacerbate the echo chamber effect and doesn't provide a value.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: dougules on August 05, 2016, 09:54:59 AM
Is there any way to add a thread to a personal watch list or something?  I've been posting just to follow a thread like I see some people doing, but if there's a way to follow without cluttering up the thread I'd like to do that. 

If that doesn't exist, how hard would it be to add as a feature?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on August 05, 2016, 10:04:09 AM
Is there any way to add a thread to a personal watch list or something?  I've been posting just to follow a thread like I see some people doing, but if there's a way to follow without cluttering up the thread I'd like to do that. 

If that doesn't exist, how hard would it be to add as a feature?

You see that "Notify" button near the top and bottom right of the page next to "Reply"? There you go.

Settings in your profile for this feature are here (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/profile/?area=notification).
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: dougules on August 05, 2016, 10:15:56 AM
Is there any way to add a thread to a personal watch list or something?  I've been posting just to follow a thread like I see some people doing, but if there's a way to follow without cluttering up the thread I'd like to do that. 

If that doesn't exist, how hard would it be to add as a feature?

You see that "Notify" button near the top and bottom right of the page next to "Reply"? There you go.

Settings in your profile for this feature are here (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/profile/?area=notification).

Thanks. 
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: dougules on September 07, 2016, 03:39:06 PM
Is there any way to add a thread to a personal watch list or something?  I've been posting just to follow a thread like I see some people doing, but if there's a way to follow without cluttering up the thread I'd like to do that. 

If that doesn't exist, how hard would it be to add as a feature?

You see that "Notify" button near the top and bottom right of the page next to "Reply"? There you go.

Settings in your profile for this feature are here (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/profile/?area=notification).

I've been using this idea, but it doesn't seem that great to be honest.  For one thing I'd like to be able to turn emails off.  Also, you have to drill down so far to get to it.  Are there any other options? 
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: matchewed on October 11, 2016, 05:31:38 AM
Is there any way to add a thread to a personal watch list or something?  I've been posting just to follow a thread like I see some people doing, but if there's a way to follow without cluttering up the thread I'd like to do that. 

If that doesn't exist, how hard would it be to add as a feature?

You see that "Notify" button near the top and bottom right of the page next to "Reply"? There you go.

Settings in your profile for this feature are here (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/profile/?area=notification).

I've been using this idea, but it doesn't seem that great to be honest.  For one thing I'd like to be able to turn emails off.  Also, you have to drill down so far to get to it.  Are there any other options? 

Did you look at the settings that I.P. posted?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: CloserToFree on December 09, 2016, 07:27:24 PM
Not sure if this has been suggested already, but it'd be great if there were a way to look at recent posts and filter out the "Journals" ones.  I follow the journals I'm interested in and prefer to be able to look at a list of active threads of specific topics being discussed.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: CanuckExpat on December 15, 2016, 10:32:54 PM
Not sure if this has been suggested already, but it'd be great if there were a way to look at recent posts and filter out the "Journals" ones.  I follow the journals I'm interested in and prefer to be able to look at a list of active threads of specific topics being discussed.

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/forum-information-faqs/show-unread-posts-without-journals/
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: DeskJockey2028 on May 12, 2017, 07:50:22 AM
Is there sufficient interest to perhaps have a new forum under the Money Mustache Community are for those who discovered FIRE after 40? My post ( https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/are-there-other-folks-here-who-didn't-discover-fire-until-after-40/ ) got a bunch of responses and it seems like there's quite a few of us. I'd love to ask some specific questions for the over 40 crowd (SS stuff, pensions, health insurance, etc.) but it's hard to do it in a single thread as they're getting overlooked.

If there's not enough interest, no worries - I can always post questions like "For those over 40, blah blah blah".

Thanks!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: dougules on August 30, 2017, 11:08:10 AM
This may have already been brought up, but is there a mechanism to get people to split off a new threat when a tangent topic goes sailing down a rabbit hole and completely hijacks?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: almcclur on January 15, 2018, 10:00:51 AM
I haven't read through all the suggestions so I'm sorry if this was mentioned already, but..

Could we please have a LIKE button on posts? Or upvote, reddit-style?
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: RichMoose on January 25, 2018, 01:36:29 PM
MODS: Would you consider putting a Child Board under Investor Alley for Canadian Investors?

Thanks!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: simonsez on September 11, 2019, 07:59:08 AM
Thoughts on a stickied post for best checking/savings/money market/CDs?  There must be dozens if not hundreds of threads on this topic and it would be cool to see a thread always at the top in Investor Alley that has the latest and greatest on how Mustachians are getting a decent bang for their buck for short-to-medium term stashing.

Also, maybe the same thing for credit cards but I think the bank account is a bigger priority.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: MDM on September 11, 2019, 12:11:47 PM
Thoughts on a stickied post for best checking/savings/money market/CDs?
There is the link to "...consider one of these online banks: http://www.magnifymoney.com/blog/earning-interest/best-online-savings-accounts275921001" in the Investment Order (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/investment-order/msg1333153/#msg1333153) sticky.  That may not fulfill everything desired, but perhaps addresses some of it.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: simonsez on September 11, 2019, 04:54:18 PM
Thoughts on a stickied post for best checking/savings/money market/CDs?
There is the link to "...consider one of these online banks: http://www.magnifymoney.com/blog/earning-interest/best-online-savings-accounts275921001" in the Investment Order (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/investment-order/msg1333153/#msg1333153) sticky.  That may not fulfill everything desired, but perhaps addresses some of it.
Thanks MDM.  That's a good site and along with Nerdwallet, rounds the bases pretty well.  Since that link is itself on a sticky, that is an indirect way to keep on top of it. 

Of course I'd prefer regular forum discussion on who is doing what and any pleasant surprises/unanticipated challenges that go along with opening/closing accounts that stays relevant but the links are adequate (provided they stay current).
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: dandarc on April 30, 2020, 12:08:03 PM
Suggestion: don't let users change their username's freely - that should require moderator approval.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: simonsez on October 02, 2020, 12:37:35 PM
Not sure how unwieldy this would be (as I honestly don't know how prevalent mega backdoor Roths are) - but would it be helpful if we had a sticky post for knowing which large employers allow at least after-tax 401k contributions and possibly in-service distributions of these after-tax contributions?

I'm envisioning a table* of large companies (S&P 500 companies?), cities, large school districts, states, or any other large employer that have the mega backdoor Roth available to them.  It seems like this is something difficult to research on the outside but if we had forum members with experience doing so all in one place, it might be helpful?

* Perhaps five columns: one for #, one for employer name, one for state or geographic area in which this is occurring, one for ability to put checkmarks (or x marks, whatever) on whether the employer allows after-tax 401k contributions, and the last one for ability to put checkmarks on whether the employer allows in-service distributions of these after-tax contributions.  Possibly a 6th column to know the year in which it last happened just to try and keep up with policies.

Any follow-up post of someone with experience doing a mega backdoor Roth at a new company, city, school district, etc. would then be added to the table at the top.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: alsoknownasDean on January 01, 2021, 03:31:28 AM
This is probably one of those really obscure suggestions, but is there a way to change the Time Offset (in Profile - Look and Layout) to a list of time zones, ideally those by location?

The current Time Offset doesn't take changes due to daylight savings into account, at least on the client end and possibly the server end.

I've just updated mine and the timestamp on posts has just moved two hours ahead :)
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: cdub on January 18, 2023, 11:29:08 PM
Any thought put towards upgrading this forum to Xenforo?

Yes it's not free but it's much better on mobile and I'm on my phone most of the time now. :) This site is really hard to use in my phone.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on January 19, 2023, 10:25:02 AM
Any thought put towards upgrading this forum to Xenforo?

Yes it's not free but it's much better on mobile and I'm on my phone most of the time now. :) This site is really hard to use in my phone.

To be fair to everyone involved, asking to change and migrate an entire forum with the size and history this has to an entirely different system is kind of a really big ask.

The default SMF theme that's set here isn't great on mobile, but there are other themes installed on this instance that are considerably more mobile friendly.

Go here: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/profile/?area=theme
Or manually navigate to Profile > Look and Layout

Change the forum theme to something like SunRise, which has both a light and dark mode and an excellent responsive design layout, and reasonably large and intuitive finger pokey UI elements... mostly. Except for the ham-handed ad layout that still breaks horizontal scroll, but that's a whole other kettle of fish and a far more reasonable bug/feature request to make to whomever's actually doing the sysadmin stuff these days. That should help things quite a bit.

And if you're still not satisfied with that, you can always go ultra old-skool with SMF's old mobile WAP2 interface, which has the added benefit of excising all images and using very little data:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/index.php?wap2

Hope that helps.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: dandarc on January 19, 2023, 10:30:59 AM
Is Tapatalk still a thing with this forum? An app that allows more mobile friendly experience.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: grantmeaname on January 19, 2023, 12:12:06 PM
Yeah, Tapatalk is still around, although the ad load has gotten pretty heavy.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: dandarc on January 19, 2023, 01:16:09 PM
Wow - that wap2 actually I really like - thanks for that Daley!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: cdub on January 19, 2023, 01:52:16 PM

To be fair to everyone involved, asking to change and migrate an entire forum with the size and history this has to an entirely different system is kind of a really big ask.


Hey it was just a question - it wasn't a you must to this. Ha. This forum software is so old but it still works I guess. I'll check out those other styles.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: cdub on January 19, 2023, 01:54:53 PM
Oh Sunrise is much better. Thank u!
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on January 19, 2023, 03:09:56 PM
Wow - that wap2 actually I really like - thanks for that Daley!

Yup, yup.



Oh Sunrise is much better. Thank u!

You bet. Amazing how much a theme can impact modern mobile accessibility. Still doesn't exactly fix the deep nested quote issue, but that's more of a community culture problem than technical.
Title: Re: Forum Ideas
Post by: Daley on February 06, 2023, 12:34:27 PM
I just had a thought that might help better deal with the whole people joining just to argue in the Off Topic section that might actually help reduce or eliminate the need for a post-count to participate.

Make the Off Topic section registered user readable only, like the Journals are.

Just a thought. Don't know who to tag anymore for a change like this, though.