1) I offer my comments on an article in the St. Petersburg Times entitled Jack Bogle Weighs in with the Bogleheads. I observe that: “This board was created by a group of highly abusive posters who destroyed the Vanguard Diehards board because it permitted honest posting on Bogle’s views on the effect of valuations on long-term returns (some of Bogle’s views are highly controversial at times of high stock prices).” This prompts a number of “defenders” of Passive Investing to put forward abusive posts. One argues that: “Rob, there are 5,000 members at Bogleheads. They seem to be doing just fine, with many posts every day. Are the site owners really abusive or is this sour grapes on your part since your participation isn’t wanted?”

2) Money Magazine endorses the Bogleheads.com site, listing it as “one of the best 28 web sites” in its December 2007 issue. Reporter Pat Regnier ignores my e-mail offering to discuss my experiences at the board with him. In that e-mail, I explained that: “One of the “leaders” of the board (Mel Lindauer, co-author of The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing) took great offense to my posting on the valuations question and organized a long-running smear campaign against me and those who posted in support of me. This smear campaign grew so intense and ugly that the new Bogleheads board was formed as a means for community members who wanted to escape the ugliness to be able to do so.”

3) Jim Wiandt, Publisher of IndexUinverse.com, writes at his blog: “What is it with guys named Rob? Longtime index agitator Rob Arnott has now been joined on these pages by a Vanguard Diehard agitator named Rob Bennett….” These words were at a later time removed from the article. The many comments critical of the ban on honest posting on valuations imposed by the “leaders” of the Bogleheads.com board were also removed from the comments section for the article that is the focus of the blog entry. Finally, the article that I wrote for IndexUniverse.com at Jim’s invitation (A New Approach to Staying the Course) was spiked. Jim observes that: “I’m actually excited that we will likely be pulled a bit in the Bogleheads’/Diehards’ direction.”

4) IndexUniverse.com sees over two dozen comments appear (many have since been removed) in response to an article entitled “The Long Road: Diehard II,” many criticizing it for ignoring the ban on honest posting on valuations that caused the destruction of the board (and a good number applauding this too). Pete Elm, a longtime contributor to the board, writes that: “Lindauer (the reference is to Mel Lindauer, co-author of The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing) threatened bodily harm to more than one poster on the Morningstar forum.” The comment is removed. JohnDCraig, another long-time poster (now banned) says: “What actually caused the M* forum decline, and that of other forums before it, was the amazing level of hocus bashing. Hocus’ activity seems to generate enormous cult followings of attackers…. People often want to psychoanalyze hocus, but they should instead try and psychoanalyze the cults…. There were no holds barred for this cult; any attacks and insults against hocus were fair game, and M* did nothing to stop these (now mainstream) attacks even though they did violate M* express policies.”

5) I post a Letter to the Editor at .www.Early-Retirement-Planning-Insights.com entitled The Rule of 20-20. I say: “The usual advice is that a young person should not care too much about valuations because he has lots of time to recover from a big price drop. I question this idea. If the young person views the investing game as a lifetime game, he sees that time periods in which losses dominate are followed by time periods in which huge gains over short periods of time are possible. The young person’s big opportunity is that time period in which big gains are possible. He should be planning for that in the time when big losses are likely rather than comforting himself with talk that the losses aren’t so bad because he has time to recover.”

Today’s Passion: Too much heaviosity above. Let’s go light. How about a list of My Ten Favorite Financial Freedom Movies?

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