The long-anticipated move by the popular Diehards.org to sever the last of its most visible ties to Morningstar.com has finally taken place.

The Bogleheads site, which started as the most well-read discussion forum at the Chicago-based funds research giant a decade ago, over the weekend dropped its split-screen policy. In the old format, Morningstar's existing Diehards discussion forum shared equal billing with the new Bogleheads forum.

But as of the weekend of June 1, when visitors go to the independent diehards.org, they'll only see one main forum - that of the Bogleheads.

The redesigned site also has dropped the "Diehards" moniker. It's now simply calling itself the "Bogleheads" in honor of indexing maverick and Vanguard Group founder John Bogle. The site's address has also been changed to www.bogleheads.org.

The site always had a "Bogleheads" teaser at the top. Now, it's official - both in address and name.

"When we decided to break off and start our own independent site, one of the original ideas was to call it Bogleheads," said Alex Frakt, the site's administrator. "The reason why we switched it now was to avoid confusion. It better reflects our investment philosophy."

The Saga Continues...

Perhaps the most interesting change, however, is that now viewers can't compare for themselves how many more discussions are going on at Bogleheads compared with Morningstar. That's an ongoing saga which continues to sever any lasting ties between indexed investors and Morningstar. (See related article.)

"It would appear that after a 15-month trial separation, the divorce is now final. Visitation rights are provided via a link to the M* site," wrote a Bogleheads poster named Stebul.

But another, calling himself Petrocelli, disagreed. "As one of the very first people to join this forum, I always enjoyed the ability to ‘one stop shop' by logging in to Diehards.org," he said.

Murfields pointed out that a link to Morningstar's Diehards site, along with several other places of interest, were still listed to the side. "I think the page and the creators should be praised. My only suggestion would be more use of black print," he said, referring to the more colorful new layout.

Longtime Diehards member Michael gave a resounding thumbs-up to the revamped Bogleheads site. "Outstanding update, IMO. Why take up half the screen with a dinosaur when a simple link to it is more than sufficient?"

He added: "The fat lady is warming up at the old M* site. Will the last Boglehead to leave please turn out the lights?"

In a post, Frakt explained the decision more fully.

"Several factors contributed to the remake of the homepage and elimination of the M* post links ... but the primary one is that the content of the few remaining M* posts no longer justified 50% of the space on the forum homepage. The new interface allows us to nearly double the number of posts that can be seen without scrolling while also providing a set of links to content both on and off this site that better serve our members than the small number of helpful posts on M*."

Frakt also pointed out that the changes were made in conjunction with the site's full advisory panel. (All of the Bogleheads contributors serve in unpaid, volunteer roles and the site's maintained on a nonprofit basis.)

"Other factors that went into the decision include a desire to reduce confusion and present a cleaner and more consistent interface now that the site consists of more than just the forum and an attempt to increase performance by discontinuing the large amounts of processing that is necessary to extract and index the M* listings," Frakt wrote, noting that Bogleheads now includes a wide assortment of different sections.

Those include: a library of favorite books and other reference materials; a separate Wiki offering that categorizes and provides quick links to popular topics and discussions; and a way to view individual posts by name.

Pressed for Space

One of the Bogleheads' moderators and a leading force in the Diehards community, Mel Lindauer, emphasized how cramped for space the ever-growing Bogleheads had become in recent months.

For example, he says, on a recent day at the old site, he found 633 new posts covering 117 different discussion threads. "However, only seven of those 117 conversations showed up on the first page, since this forum only had half the page, and many of the post titles and information ran two-three lines deep," Lindauer observed.

By comparison, when he viewed a beta test of the new format's homepage, it displayed 17 threads, or 2.5 times as many. Plus, room existed for more links and information on the side of the page, Lindauer added.

He contrasted that with the right side of the old Bogleheads site, where Morningstar forum's showed 62 posts in 15 threads. It had less than 10% of the Bogleheads' number of posts, Lindauer noted, yet took up half the space.

"IMO, we're definitely making the right move for the future of the Bogleheads forum and for the investors who visit this site. I feel that the change means that everyone who visits our forum will be better served and will have an opportunity to become a more informed investor as a result," Lindauer said.