Comments on: The Simple Dollar Morning Roundup: Spurring Discussion Edition

By: m360

m360 — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 06:22:28 +0000

I wouldn’t mind seeing forums on this site. Trent has a lot of great ideas/info to share and we can still post to the daily blogs, I hope, but it might be fun and informative as well. I have found that sharing opinions, hints, etc. with each other can help build an individuals knolege and get people thinking. A colaborative approach could benefit readers and Trent too. Although posting comments to the articles is good, it’s one sided. If I wanted advice feedback, etc about a topic, I could post it and get a variety of responses and Trent could look at all the forums and get ideas about topics and give his feedback as well. It’s worth a try at least.

By: Anna

Anna — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:58:01 +0000

Agree with MVP. My time is limited (that’s why this post is short). It’s much more efficient to look in on recent posts and comments. You can get lost wandering in forums.

By: MVP

MVP — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 02:46:47 +0000

Nah to forums. I don’t have time to check out all the various possible forum topics and posts. I do however have time to look in on PF blog posts day to day. I’d much rather comment on YOUR posts and read other commenters, er, comments. Hope that makes sense…

By: Marta

Marta — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:42:13 +0000

I vote not to have forums – they tend to be overrun by the same people.
As a Minneapolis resident, I’d say you can find a pretty nice house for $300,000+ in the city in a decent neighborhood (probably South Mpls or Longfellow area). In the outer suburbs you could easily get a good-size home for $200,000-$225,000. And I agree, compared to major metropolitan areas, Minneapolis is cheap.

By: Farley

Farley — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:27:44 +0000

Personally I like the idea of forums. I use them a lot for other subjects and while it is often the same group of people posting in most topics it is still a more diverse pool of opinions.

I would now want you to stop doing your posts though. One of the nicest things about TSD is that there are frequent updates which makes it more fun to check a few times a day.

Thanks for all the hard work.

By: Sabrina's Money Matters

Sabrina's Money Matters — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:05:52 +0000

Speaking of real estate investment, would you invest if you were in debt?

By: Sabrina's Money Matters

Sabrina's Money Matters — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:03:47 +0000

With home prices like that elsewhere it really lights a fire in me to get after real estate investing here in Texas, I just bought new construction for $134,000, Boy do I feel lucky!

By: Louise

Louise — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:53:41 +0000

Median price of a home under $300,000? Yeah, I’d consider that cheap.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:15:17 +0000

In the last Money Magazine, Middleton was named the best small town to live in. That’s sort of funny because Middleton is effectively just part of Madison. You can drive from one block to the next and cross from Madison to Middleton without realizing it. Madison is actually made up of several smaller towns like Middleton, although the population for Madison itself is a little over 200,000.

I would keep the current format which makes it easy to read and view the comments.

By: guinness416

guinness416 — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:33:19 +0000

I would probably read and post on a forum, but agree with the person above who suggests your time might be better spent here. I’m not tremendously impressed with the getrichslowly forum, which often seems to me to be the same 10 people posting in every topic, and the Iwillteachyoutoberich forum is dead.

By: TylerK

TylerK — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:26:47 +0000

I think a forum would be a good idea. Your posts tend to spark related but separate ideas, and a forum would be a good place to discuss them with like-minded people.

By: Trent

Trent — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:47:50 +0000

That’s why I mentioned the thought here rather than just going ahead and doing it, to see what the readers think – you guys are at least as important as I am to the success of TSD, so your input is valued.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:36:33 +0000

Copying JD? Don’t! You are doing fine as it is. All a forum is going to do is lead others away from your main posts. Keep everything the way it is – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

By: Modern-Worker

Modern-Worker — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:26:51 +0000

I’m going against the grain on this one apparently, and strongly recommend you create a board/forum. Leo at ZenHabits did this recently and it’s been a positive success so far. I feel you’ll be limiting discussion here by not opening a board.

By: christiana

christiana — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:58:39 +0000

Um. Unless I’ve been taking crazy pills, Minneapolis is definitely NOT cheap. Sure, it’s a little less expensive than Chicago, but not by much.

http://realestate.msn.com/Rentals/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=568217

(I defintely don’t think a median home price of $298k is ‘cheap’.)

By: Lauren

Lauren — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:57:06 +0000

This is the first site My husband and I have really stuck with and we agree we think its wonderful the way it is!

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:49:38 +0000

Yeah, don’t bother with the forum, IMO.

By: Dave M

Dave M — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:46:16 +0000

I agree wholeheartedly with Jeremy – keep the post-and-comments format!

By: Seth Miller

Seth Miller — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:30:01 +0000

My wife and I were just talking about checking out Madison a little more closely as we are looking for a completely different place to try for grad school. I’m glad to hear it has your support as well.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:29:55 +0000

Hey Trent,

Discussion boards are not as up to date – often – as a lively blog / site like this one. They also tend to attract more spam like comments.

My advice, stick to what you’re doing – some people will clamor for a discussion board, but it won’t add too much to your site – at least that’s what I think.