How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get on With Your Life
Published on - May 13th, 2009 (by J.D. Roth) This is a guest post rom Bill Schultheis, author of The New Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On With Your Life. Schultheis is an investment advisor in Kirkland, Washington. To learn more, visit his website.
What a difference a decade makes.
Ten years ago everyone was chasing the next hot stock. Equity markets were generating double digit annual returns and dot-com companies were doubling overnight. Greed was widespread in the psyche of investors and no one wanted to miss out on the next sure thing: a social epidemic of excitement running rampant.
Everyone was getting rich.
Quickly.
Or so it seemed.
Fast-forward to today and everyone is running for cover. The country is mired in a deep recession and major stock market indices have declined over 40 percent from their highs. Fear has set in with investors of all ages. Our country is now struggling with a social epidemic of pessimism as investors cope with how to build back portfolios that have been sliced in half.
With one eye on the grim economic headlines and the other on a depleted portfolio, there is a tendency to think that everything is out of your control, and, unfortunately, that is when financial paralysis sets in.
Despite all the bad news thrown at us by an overbearing media, the truth is that you are in control of your financial future, and now is the time to recognize it and take charge of it. Why is this so important now? I am not saying this is an opportunity of a lifetime, but because of the significant declines in the stock market, current valuations suggest that the next decade, and beyond, are likely to generate attractive returns in common stocks. Don’t let this next decade pass you by.
In my book, The New Coffeehouse Investor, first introduced in 1999 and now in its third edition, I share three simple principles to guide you in building wealth. These are principles you already know to be true and in your control.
- Save for a rainy day. Establishing your own personal financial plan is paramount to building long-term wealth. In doing so, you create an awareness of whether or not your current saving and spending levels translate into achievable financial goals down the road. If not, what changes need to be made? You might not be able to make enough adjustments immediately to reach your savings goal, but at least you have created an awareness of the gap between today’s current saving and spending levels and your future expectations. Then, when saving and spending choices come up in the future, this financial awareness is at least present at your decision-making table.
- Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The key to building a successful portfolio and reaching your financial goals is to diversify your assets in such a way that you maximize your chances of achieving your goals with a minimum amount of risk. The personal financial plan you have created for yourself brings clarity to your saving and spending issues. It also allows you to determine how to best allocate your investments between stocks, bonds, real estate and other asset classes to achieve a required rate of return based on a level of risk that is appropriate for you in relation to your goals and where you are in your life.
- There is no such thing as a free lunch. Because markets are relatively efficient, any attempt at beating the market through the selection of individual stocks or actively managed mutual funds is likely to prove disastrous to your long-term financial health. The smartest way to build a globally diversified portfolio is through a line-up of low-cost index funds. This investing strategy is at the core of Coffeehouse Investor portfolios. Wall Street will forever tout its stock picking prowess. Don’t let them gamble with your money. Low-cost index funds are the surest way to capture the entire return in any asset class over the long haul.
The benefits of embracing these three principles are straightforward. First, from an investing standpoint, you maximize your return potential in each asset class by capturing its entire return. Second, and more important, it allows you the emotional freedom to turn your attention away from Wall Street and focus on the one component of wealth that matters most of all: How much you save and spend.
The financial media is quick to remind us that we are a nation of irresponsible, overspending consumers, living for today at the expense of saving for tomorrow. Along with the woeful tales of those who spend too much is another story that needs to be told: that of millions of Americans who do want to take responsibility for their saving and investing decisions by making the right choices today.
The problem is that we have been so inundated by the financial industry’s marketing machine over the past quarter century, that we have been brainwashed into thinking that the secret to our long-term financial well being lies in Wall Street’s hands, instead of our own hands. Nothing could be further from the truth.
For Coffeehouse Investors, our three simple principles allow us to be in charge of our own financial future. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
SEARCH FOR RECENT ARTICLES
he called out for the banning of others. Who? me? For what? Lindsay? For what? critter? For what?
This blog was created to help people who want to learn about personal finance topics.
Those of us seeking to use the blog for that purpose have a right to be protected from those who want to block us from using it for that purpose.
It’s the same at all of the discussion boards at which the Goons have blocked the discussions. The published rules at those sites are there for a reason. The published rules should be enforced in a reasonable manner.
Rob
loading....
Saying “thank you” to someone does not mean that you think they are above you. It means you are grateful for something they did that helped you.It’s not just that I am owed the “thank you” in a personal sense. That’s part of it. But it is the entire community that benefits if the thank yous are spoken.
It would help if you would reflect on why it is that the idea of saying “thank you” to a fellow community member causes you so much pain, Caring Soul.
I have obtained benefits from interactions with thousands of my fellow community members. I believe that each and every one of them is entitled to my gratitude.
I have even learned from the Goons. I post regularly at the “Goon Central” board founded by Greaney. Only yesterday Drip Guy had a post where he compared the stock market to the market in which cars are sold. Thinking about that question led me to development of a podcast entitled “Why the Stock Market Does Not Set Prices Properly (Even Though Other Markets Do). Is Drip Guy not entitled to my thanks for having done that (regardless of the Smear Campaigns that he has been leading against me for many years now)?
The Goon idea seems to be that anyone who reports the safe withdrawal rate accurately is an enemy or that anyone who reports on the flaws in the Passive model is an enemy. No. That is defensiveness. In the extreme.
When I share with you what I have learned about investing, that’s a help to you. You can benefit from it. If you do not find value in the insights that I put forward, you of course always have the option of not making use of them. But even in those cases it benefits you for me to offer them because my insights attract new community members to the boards and to the blogs and those new members will over time offer insights too and sooner or later you will benefit from one of them.
There is a reason why it has been the cultural norm for a long, long time for people to say “thank you” when someone does something nice for them. You lose nothing when you say the words “thank you,” Caring Soul. You gain. Saying those words helps you as well as the person to whom they are directed and all of your fellow community members. Saying “thank you” is a win/win/win/win/win. There are no losers whatsoever.
If you continue to participate in our community discussions, there will be times when I will say “thank you” to you and there will be times when you will say “thank you” to me. That’s a 100 percent normal situation.
In no field other than stock investing would any of what I am saying here be viewed as even a tiny bit “controversial.” The hundreds of millions of dollars that were spent promoting the Passive Investing concept have messed some of us up big time.
Rob
loading....
There is no insight in the history of this board as important as the one that I have put forward.
Has there even been another post in the history of the internet that generated even a tiny fraction of the number of responses that we have seen put forward in response to my post of May 13, 2002, Caring Soul?
I didn’t ask to be the one to put forward The Post Heard ‘Round the World.
But I sure am not going to pretend that I ashamed of having seen that honor fall to me. I work this stuff hard. The entire idea is to come up with the ones that have staying power, the ones that changes people’s lives, the ones that change the history of personal finance. I certainly am not going to apologize for winning the MVP award after working for years just to make it to the major leagues. That’s a little dream that came true for me. If you stick around, you’ll have your turn.
It is my screen-name on that one. It might be yours on the next one.
If it is your name on the next one, I hope that I will have the grace to step forward and pronounce a big “Thank You, Man!” in your direction. Even if the post that you put forward and that causes such a commotion happens to be one showing that some investing idea that I once believed in turns out not to stand up to scrutiny.
It’s easy to respond in grace when the post that causes the commotion is in line with your own thinking. It’s harder when it is not. It is the right thing to do in both sets of circumstances.
And of course you knew that before I said it. And of course everyone else reading these words knew it before I said it.
So what is it precisely that is the source of all the “controversy”?
Rob
loading....
Mucakneebaba.
Schra!
Schranana!
SCRRANANA POO!
Teeka Poo! Swoopa Poo!
Poonaisey!
Do you care to argue otherwise given all that we have seen appear before our eyes during the first seven years of our discussions?
Rob
loading....
it flashes “red hot danger signals” on our common sense meter.
This part is perfectly reasonable. It is helpful to the entire community for skeptics to put forward such posts.
You’ve told us what you believe and why you believe it. Now please stop.
This part is entirely uncalled for. All community members have both a right and a responsibility to post their sincere views. All of us suffer when community members with one set of beliefs seek to silence community members with another set of beliefs.
In my opinion, you are putting others at risk that might decide that your approach somehow is time-tested and peer-reviewed.
You are permitted to have whatever opinion you please on this subject. You are not permitted under the community norms to employ abusive tactics to “protect” the “others” for whom you here express concern. The “others” are permitted to make their own decisions on these matters, after hearing both points of view expressed in civil and reasoned discussions.
Rob
loading....
unless your strategy flashed “sell” in late 1999 (rather than 1996) and “buy” in late 2002 (rather than not yet), then what makes it a great strategy?
What makes it a great strategy is that it beats the alternative in nine out of ten 30-year returns sequences, often by a very wide margin. I write for people interested in learning how to retire early. Valuation-Informed Indexing permits the middle-class investor following it to retire five years sooner than he could if he followed a Passive Indexing strategy.
As someone has already pointed out, 10 years is too long for someone to be out of the market given an average accumulation period of around 30 years, regardless of the danger zone or a bear market being buried in that ten year period
It’s for each investor to decide whether he is willing to go with a low stock allocation for up to 10 years in exchange for being able to retire five years sooner. Long-term strategies are not for everyone. But there have been hundreds of community members who have expressed great interest. There have been thousands who have expressed a desire that honest posting be permitted on all of the discussion boards and blogs at which these ideas have been discussed.
Rob
loading....
Please give it a rest – the rest of us tire of hearing it.
There are a small number of Passive Investing Dogmatists who grew “tired” of hearing about the flaws in the Passive Model about 30 seconds into the discussions.
The vast majority of community members is tired only of the ugly tactics that have been employed by a small group of Passive Investing Dogmatists to block the discussions. I’m very much with the majority re this one. I grew tired of the trash posting on the afternoon of May 13, 2002.
Rob
loading....
you would have ended up with an extra $100k or so following a simple buy, hold, rebalance strategy.
For a short time, yes. But then you would have fallen far, far behind in the huge stock crash that inevitably follows each trip we make to insanely dangerous stock prices. Every dollar you hold onto by following the Rational model is a dollar that you can invest in stocks when they are again selling at reasonable prices. The Valuation-Informed Indexer earns compounding returns on that differential for the remainder of his investing lifetime.
How can you espouse that your method is superior?
The most important thing is that Valuation-Informed Indexing satisfies the common-sense test. The idea that there is no need to adjust your stock allocation when prices go to insanely dangerous levels fails this test.
The other thing is that the historical data confirms what common sense tells us must be so.
How has it worked for you?
I am far ahead of where I would have been had I followed a Passive strategy. I will of course go even farther ahead over the coming decades as the compounding returns phenomenon has a chance to work its magic.
Rob
loading....
the tone of your postings tend to be respectful
I am grateful that the poster who first put forward those words was kind enough to acknowledge this and that you implicitly acknowledge it as well by endorsing the words of the original poster, Caring Soul.
Rob
loading....
Rob/hocus: “Has there even been another post in the history of the internet that generated even a tiny fraction of the number of responses that we have seen put forward in response to my post of May 13, 2002, Caring Soul?”
Any crank who persistently responds to posts with false statements can make a thread go on forever. This one is an example. Once the website eventually bans, Rob, he continues to make false statements by calling it a “ban on honest posting” instead of a ban on Rob/hocus’ deception.
Rob/hocus: “I have not seen one post yet thanking me for my contribuition[sic].”
That says it all.
loading....
The actual quote:
“Rob — please stop
Traveler1 02-20-2007, 8:29 AM | Post #2344966
You need to understand that this is getting a little ridiculous and tiresome for those of us who haven’t put you on our ignore list yet.
We all understand that you believe you have the secret to long term wealth and long term market timing. Through your P/E 10 analysis, you will be able to correctly get in and out of the market over the long term. Fine, we get it. Please give it a rest – the rest of us tire of hearing it.
Yes, as you point out, the tone of your postings tend to be respectful, and they on the surface appear to be ’seeking truth’ and ‘healthy debate’, but this has gone into a very non-healthy realm. Others here that are smarter than I am have been patient and tried to point out some obvious flaws in your plan. But, you just continue with your exhaustive rhetoric about regression analysis and being valuation informed in such a manner that implies everyone else is wrong (see the title of this thread) and you are right. That is ridiculous.”
(See response 200 for full quote.)
Now, the way Rob report the same quote in response 209:
“the tone of your postings tend to be respectful”.
As we have already seen above, you simply can’t trust any of Rob’s quotes. Most of Rob’s quotes are sliced down to fractions of sentences, sometimes single words, taken completely out of context and applied in whatever way it takes to make Rob look good or at least inoffensive. He is totally shameless.
He did that right in front of your eyes by misquoting something right on this page. Now imagine how much liberty he takes when he refers to a misquote from some nebulous space like “the post archives” or “the historical data” – two of his favorites.
loading....
Rob/hocus: “I have not seen one post yet thanking me for my contribuition[sic].” That says it all.
That comment was made about one particular thread that appeared at a board at which community members were aware that the Goons had threatened to kill the loved ones of any poster who dared to “cross” them by posting honestly on the SWR topic. There were hundreds of posters in that community who had thanked me for my contributions in the investing area at earlier times and who obviously would have been happy to do so again had the ban on honest posting there been lifted.
It is obviously absurd to look at the posts that appear at a board at which a ban on honest posting is in effect and to use what appears at that board as some sort of indication of the true beliefs of that posting community. One of the reasons why the standard practice is to permit honest posting is so that we can find out what members of a posting community truly believe about the various topics being discussed.
Rob
loading....
See response 200 for full quote.
I agree with this recommendation.
Rob
loading....
“That comment was made about one particular thread that appeared at a board at which community members were aware that the Goons had threatened to kill the loved ones of any poster who dared to “cross” them by posting honestly on the SWR topic.”
Rob, the only death threats that I or anyone else who follows hocomania have actually seen are the ones you made. It is totally shameless to suggest that they were made by someone else.
“There were hundreds of posters in that community who had thanked me for my contributions in the investing area at earlier times and who obviously would have been happy to do so again had the ban on honest posting there been lifted.”
Reality check: this forum was given to Rob/hocus when he was banned from the serious investment forums at the same site. hocus was the moderator there and he deleted any posts he didn’t like. Many of the “other” posters there later turned out to be names hocus admitted to using to support himself.
Nonetheless, even at this forum, hocus was frustrated that he couldn’t get real people (ie not his sock puppets) to thank him.
“It is obviously absurd to look at the posts that appear at a board at which a ban on honest posting is in effect and to use what appears at that board as some sort of indication of the true beliefs of that posting community. One of the reasons why the standard practice is to permit honest posting is so that we can find out what members of a posting community truly believe about the various topics being discussed.”
Once again: Rob was the moderator and the only death threats I have seen are the ones Rob made. If Rob can document other death threats – please do.
Please note: I don’t think that Rob would carry out his threats. I think he is only nasty on the internet and is likely very shy (and possibly paranoid) in real life. That is why I suggested that he get out and meet real people above.
loading....
If Rob can document other death threats – please do.
I’ve done this on scores of occasions. And of course anyone who wanted to check the record could check for himself or herself. The bottom line is that it makes no difference. If the sort of thing we see on this thread does not prompt people to take action, documented cases of death threats will not prompt people to take action.
When the Goons were attacking the Vanguard Diehards board, there was a long-time poster there who asked “Where have all these abusive posters come from?” I explained that John Greaney (the owner of the http://www.RetireEarlyHomePage.com site and the author of one of the Old School retirement studies) became upset at the reaction of the Retire Early board community at Motley Fool when I pointed out the errors in the Old School studies. There were too many good posters there for him to destroy the community through the stuff his Goons are using here, so he used death threats to drive all the good posters out of the community. Then he did the rest with the sort of thing we see here.
In response to that post, one of the Passive Investing dogmatists contacted Morningstar. Not to ask that something be done about the death threats and about the attacks on the Vanguard Diehards board. To object that the death threats were being reported! This individual believed that letting people know that death threats are being used to destroy a board community is a terrible, terrible thing, but that death threats themselves are a nothingburger. Morningstar contacted me and asked for links to the death threats. I provided them. So they took action to protect the board community there, right?
Not right. They said that the death threats took place at another board and it was not their problem. I said that I agree with that but that, given that they did not want to get involved in the business of another board community, they should ask Mel Lindauer to stop linking over to the Greaney board regularly and inviting the Goons to come over to the Vanguard Diehards board to do their dirty work there. I asked Morningstar if they would like me to let them know each time Mel did this so that they could take action. I received no response to that e-mail.
There has never been any problem documenting the Campaign of Terror against the Retire Early and Indexing communities or now against the entire personal finance blog community. The problem has always been getting people who believe in Passive Investing to take action against Goon posters who in at least a nominal sense are posting in defense of Passive Investing. What we need is for some Passive Investing advocates who are repulsed by these tactics to work up the will to want to disassociate the Passive Investing advocates from all this ugliness.
It naturally gets worse the longer it goes on. If Motley Fool had taken action in June 2002, when they were alerted to the problem, the problem would have been solved in June 2002. The same solution that was available to us then is available to us now — taking effective action against the Goon posters.
There is obviously nothing that can be done at this point to erase what has happened over the past seven years. I do not have a magic wand. I have offered on numerous occasions to do all that I can short of posting dishonestly on the retirement numbers to help out anyone who is in need of helping out. I am obviously not able to do the job without help. It is obvious that not one person (least of all the Goons) benefits from us permitting this to continue. And yet it does.
I do what I can. i urge constructive and positive steps. I can do no more and I can do no less.
As noted above, the stuff on the other side of the black mountain is good enough to make what we have had to struggle through for seven years now worth it 50 times over. We will get there. I hope soon. But I am confident that we will all get there one way or another sooner or later.
It shouldn’t be so hard. I think that much is more than fair to say.
Rob
loading....
I don’t think that Rob would carry out his threats.
I’ll carry out my “threat” to report the retirement numbers accurately, Lindsay. You can count on that much.
Rob
loading....
So we can take #215 as: “No”?
——————–
http://www.passionsaving.com/200702.html#e372
loading....
So we can take #215 as: “No”?
When Morningstar asked me to provide the links, I provided the links.
If J.D. asks me to provide the links, I will provide the links.
If some other person with the influence needed to bring the Campaign of Terror against our boards and our blogs to an end asks me to provide the links, I will provide the links.
I provided the police with the links when they asked. There’s a blog entry in which I set forth the text of one of my e-mails to the Purcellville police. That contains a link to one of the death threats:
http://arichlife.passionsaving.com/2009/01/22/my-e-mail-to-the-virginia-police-re-the-campaign-of-terror-against-our-board-communities/
That’s enough for any reasonable person.
Rob
loading....
“I’ve done this on scores of occasions. And of course anyone who wanted to check the record could check for himself or herself. The bottom line is that it makes no difference.”
“That’s enough for any reasonable person.”
Thank you for admitting that there were no actual death threats besides the ones you made, Rob. Given that months have gone by with no action from the Police, congress, the FBI and everyone else you claim to have pestered, it looks like everyone is in agreement on this.
loading....
Rob: “If you read the work of Bogle and Bernstein (and of many other Passive Investing advocates) carefully, you see that they often try to speak in code to their more sophisticated readers to let them know that Passive can never work in the real world.”
Remember when Helter Skelter was code that told Charles Manson what to do?
loading....
Given that months have gone by with no action from the Police, congress, the FBI and everyone else you claim to have pestered, it looks like everyone is in agreement on this.
Humans have made mistakes before and humans will make mistakes again, Lindsay.
If humans were perfect, there would have been no out-of-control bull market. If humans were perfect, there would have been no stock crash. If humans were perfect, we wouldn’t have directed hundreds of millions of dollars to the promotion of an investing strategy that will in all likelihood be causing millions of failed retirements in days to come.
The other side of the story is that humans have an optimistic, caring, generous, strong, intelligent side too. You may see us some wonderful things coming about as a result of this economic crisis before the last word is written on the last page. My bet is that you will see just that.
Don’t count us out just yet, my Goon friend.
Rob
loading....
Remember when Helter Skelter was code that told Charles Manson what to do?
Chapter Two of the book “The Four Pillars of Investing” is in my assessment the best chapter ever written in any investing book that I have read. I have re-read Chapter Two four times during the first seven years of our discussions and each time I have discovered new investing insights as a result. Chapter Two is essentially a primer on the principles of Rational Investing.
I have a funny hunch that it wasn’t Charles Manson who wrote Chapter Two.
And the White Album is my least favorite Beatles album in any event. The Beatles put out a good number of singles that contained a greater number of first-rate songs.
Rob
loading....
“I have a funny hunch that it wasn’t Charles Manson who wrote Chapter Two.”
No, it was Charles Manson who read it. Try to keep the analogy straight.
loading....
“There is obviously nothing that can be done at this point to erase what has happened over the past seven years. I do not have a magic wand. I have offered on numerous occasions to do all that I can short of posting dishonestly on the retirement numbers to help out anyone who is in need of helping out. I am obviously not able to do the job without help. It is obvious that not one person (least of all the Goons) benefits from us permitting this to continue. And yet it does.”
Rob, I suggested earlier a psychiatrist, a support group, or just getting out and meeting people in real life. I still think any of these would be a good first step in recovering. You must surely agree that whatever you’ve done so far hasn’t made anything better. You are just as angry now as you were a year ago and as you were five years ago. All that has changed is that you are banned from many more places.
loading....
You must surely agree that whatever you’ve done so far hasn’t made anything better.
I don’t agree at all, Lindsay.
We wouldn’t have The Stock-Return Predictor today if a good number of us had not continued on despite the ugly stuff brought to the table by the Goons. We wouldn’t have The Retirement Risk Evaluator today if a good number of us had not continued on despite the ugly stuff brought to the table by the Goons. We wouldn’t have The Investor’s Scenario Surfer today if a good number of us had not continued on despite the ugly stuff brought to the table by the Goons. We wouldn’t have The Investment Strategy Tester today if a good number of us had not continued on despite the ugly stuff brought to the table by the Goons. We wouldn’t have Valuation-Informed Indexing today if a good number of us had not continued on despite the ugly stuff brought to the table by the Goons. We wouldn’t have the Rational Investing Model for understanding how stock investing works today if a good number of us had not continued on despite the ugly stuff brought to the table by the Goons.
It is easier to tear down than it is to build up.
But the work product that comes from building up lasts a whole big bunch longer.
I am proud of the May 13, 2002, post. I am proud of all the wonderful stuff that has followed from the discussions started by it. And I am proud that I was the first community member to speak up in strong terms urging action to put an end to the Campaign of Terror against our discussion-board and blog communities.
I certainly wish that none of the ugly stuff had happened. But I wouldn’t give up the thousands of exciting investment insights that we have developed together for anything. That stuff is true gold. It is working together with my fellow community members to mine that gold that makes it all worthwhile.
You focus far too much on the negative, my Goon friend.
Rob
loading....
And we’ve only just begun!
Rob
loading....
“It is easier to tear down than it is to build up.”
Why not try the harder path instead, Rob? 7 years of tearing down web forums because they might have “goons” and tearing down experts because they might be “goon sympathizers” hasn’t gotten you anywhere.
“I am proud of the May 13, 2002, post. I am proud of all the wonderful stuff that has followed from the discussions started by it. And I am proud that I was the first community member to speak up in strong terms urging action to put an end to the Campaign of Terror against our discussion-board and blog communities.”
Rob, please discuss this with a psychiatrist or support group.
loading....
So hocus won’t supply evidence of death threats against him, won’t detail his personal finances using his system, and won’t even attempt to explain his system?
We can all go home now.
BTW: I urge all to go to the hocus website
http://arichlife.passionsaving.com/
and listen to some of his more than 100 hours of podcasts explaining his system.
loading....
listen to some of his more than 100 hours of podcasts explaining his system.
No suggestion could be more fair, critter. I thank you.
And you are right to believe that some will find no value there. Some will. But some will not.
And that’s as it should be.
Rob
loading....
Rob/hocus: “There were hundreds of posters in that community who had thanked me for my contributions”
Rob/hocus: “I have not seen one post yet thanking me for my contribuition[sic].”
Well, take your pick. If there were thankers, you’ll notice that they’re never around. In the Rob/hocus universe, this is due to a worldwide conspiracy to suppress Rob. Somehow all of the people allegedly yearning to thank Rob are afraid of what someone else will say on the Internet if they do so. Oddly enough, this is true even at Rob’s blog where posts that don’t praise him simply don’t get past the moderator (Rob). At various times, Rob has estimated the conspiracy to consist of well over one billion people. At other times, he has estimated the conspiracy to be as few as 3 people. Rob keeps changing the size of the conspiracy just like he changes the number of people who have thanked him. Rob seems to just insert whatever number makes today’s claim sound the way he wants it to sound.
“It is obviously absurd to look at the posts that appear at a board at which a ban on honest posting is in effect and to use what appears at that board as some sort of indication of the true beliefs of that posting community.”
Yes, the only true arbiter of the true beliefs of the community is Rob Bennett. Reading what the community actually writes cannot possibly compare to how Rob WANTS them to write. Never mind that the community has consistently either banned Rob or moved to a new “hocus-free” website after hocomania grips their site. Never mind that even though Rob has ceaselessly spammed his web site for years, the community members have somehow never found their way to his little slice of heaven. Never mind that Rob sends emails to site owners asking that people who disagree with him be removed. Never mind that Rob has asked the police, congress, the EFF, and the FBI to force website owners to comply with his demands. Never mind that Rob tried to hire a professional PR woman, but after she spent time reviewing his site, she wasn’t willing to be paid to promote it.* It is Rob who truly knows what they think.
*Footnote: Rob documents this experience as the time he learned that goons are not just an Internet phenomenon. They exist outside the internet too because he talked to her on the phone. By choosing not to work for Rob, she proved that she was yet another goon.
loading....
Somehow all of the people allegedly yearning to thank Rob are afraid of what someone else will say on the Internet if they do so.
There’s no question but that many people are concerned today about internet predators.
Here’s a link to a cover article in Forbes describing the problem and suggesting that legislation is going to be needed in this area:
http://members.forbes.com/forbes/2007/1015/074.html
All blog owners who invite community interaction should be helping solve this problem, in my view. Community interaction adds a lot to a site. Those who take the gift incur a responsibility to pay something back from time to time too.
I believe that we need legislation to deal with the ruthlessly abusive tactics that have been used against the Retire Early and Indexing discussion-board communities and a good number of blogs in the personal finance field. This stuff is NoWheresVille.
Rob
loading....
“I believe that we need legislation to deal with the ruthlessly abusive tactics that have been used against the Retire Early and Indexing discussion-board communities and a good number of blogs in the personal finance field. This stuff is NoWheresVille.”
How would illegalizing your tactics help us, Rob? No one takes you seriously anyway. Most of the major sites have already banned you anyway so it sounds moot. Right now those who find you amusing can tune in and the rest can tune out.
“There’s no question but that many people are concerned today about internet predators.”
Again, Rob, that excuse works only if people take you seriously. Instead the reaction to you seems to run from amusing crank to medium annoyance. While you did threaten the granddaughter of a moderator once, I don’t think anyone ever expected you to carry it out. For one thing, there’s the practical matter that you have admitted that you can’t afford an airline ticket.
loading....