Although I have been a (lurking) member here for some time, I have actively been using the forums for a few weeks now.
I'll start by saying this is a lovely and very well run community, with friendly and welcoming members, and a minimum of confusion and chaos. Well done!
I saw elsewhere (in a thread where someone asked what happens to the money people donate) that part of the forum's intention/mission is to build an ongoing database of philatelic information-- which is a great and worthy goal.
When I introduced myself in the welcome area, quite a few members said they were "looking forward to" me posting photos from my collections-- and I'm looking forward to sharing!
Which brings me to my "suggestion:"
There doesn't seem to be a "Member Stamp Albums" sub-forum here. People's photos from their collections seem to be just mixed in with general discussions about "classic foreign" or "US" or whatever forum heading comes up.
Seems to me... with as many active members as we have here, there'd be "room" for a new sub-forum JUST for members to post pictures/stories about their collections... perhaps with subdivisions into "US" and "Europe" and "Asia" and "Topical collections" and "Postal History" and such.
Not only would it make it easier for members to post collection "stories" in a cohesive manner, it would serve the greater mission of building a cohesive database of philatelic information.
Yes, I know this is a lot of work-- I have run multiple (not stamp related) forums with thousands of members, myself... and I know well that changes don't "just happen." Still, this seems like a site improvement worthy of consideration.
Otherwise, thank you for a great community! ~Peter
Welcome and I agree it would be a great addition to the forum. I have a great WWII collection I would like to "show off". I know it would be a ton of work for the forum to do. Maybe if we had a fundraiser for the forum it would be worth it for them to do. I would donate some stuff to the cause.
Quote: building a cohesive database of philatelic information.
I'm all for that. There are so many wonderful images in here that can't be found because they haven't been tagged in some way (e.g., a year, a catalogue number, etc.). In my view Nethryk sets a standard. I can find, in some way, every image he has put on here and be rewarded for the effort.
The problem with this is that we get very disorganized very quickly. Members will post their "widget" stamps, then a whole detailed conversation evolves about widget stamps. This good knowledge is then basically worthless because its not in the "widget" forum where people will look.
I see it happen all the time in the avatar forum. That's why I only do avatars only once a month or so now. I used to subscribe to the entire support forum, but got tired of checking every single time someone posted. Someone posts an avatar, then a whole discussion starts about it and I get an email for every one. I turned the subscription off and just check occasionally now.
I like the idea of being able to see what others have, but I understand and agree with what bobby is saying. Quite a few here have their own sites where various collection items are posted. On these sites, each owner takes care of their own. I think a good compromise would be that if an SCF member wants to display a lot of their material, then they create their own site. On this site have a separate thread where one can post just the link to his/her sire and a short 30 words or less description. No discussion on this thread - any discussion concerning a specific SCF member's site should take place on that site.
I actually am "forum dad" on several forums NOT related to stamp collecting... and I know it's tough to get members to agree to post their messages. And the notifications DO get rather tiresome... I get upwards of 200 a day, still.
And I do have web sites and blogs and flickr/photobucket accounts where I have a lot of my stamp photos, so that will work. Mostly I was prompted to ask because so many members welcomed me to the site with comments like "looking forward to seeing some of your collections!" and I got to wondering... but WHERE?
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Posted 02/21/2012 3:53 pm
