The Purpose Of A Stamp Forum And Protecting It's Members

The purpose of a Stamp Forum and protecting it's members. First I belong to two other Forums so this is the third. The reason I joined any Forum is to learn. Share my little bit of knowledge and have another place I can SAFELY buy or trade stamps. The other two forums are great.IMO I think the reason Forums exist is a place where Collectors with like interest can come together. To learn and share their experiences so other people/ collectors with like interest can learn and share their experiences and knowledge. Every legitimate Forum should have a membership list available to all members. All of the Forums I belong to maintain such a list. The purpose of requiring a minimum number of posts and most have a number of days also one must belong to the forum before any member can sell, buy or trade is to protect the members from Dealers and scammers joining a forum just for the purpose of advertising their business, selling, or scamming it's members, fellow Stamp Collectors. I never joined StampBoards but appreciate what has been written about it because it warns me to steer clear of that Forum. I live in a remote part of Michigan Population 1,009. I tried to start a Stamp Club but it could never get off the ground because only two collectors showed up for a monthly meeting more than two times. We met monthly and met for 12 months before closing the club down. Myself and one other Lady that spent her winters in Florida came to the Meeting. Several people came to one meeting but all they wanted to do was sell their collection and get out of Stamp collecting. A couple guys that came were small time dealers looking for a way to sell stamps. So Forums are the only way I can belong in a sense to a Stamp Club. An "Electronic Stamp Club" I'll bet nobody else has saw these forums in this light.
"Electronic Stamp Club". The forum must carefully protect members from scammers and thieves lurking to take advantage of Stamp Collectors.I hope I have shed some light as to why we exist on a Stamp Collectors Forum. I appreciate what the SCF represents and hope to belong to this Forum until I can no longer type or see the Computer screen. The support I received from the SCF this past month while my wife battled cancer has been unbelievable. I think "Stamp Community Family" is a fitting name for this Family of Stamp Collectors. Thanks you from the bottom of my heart. Chuck IE : TinMan

If you count the forum down under, I am on 4, though I don't log in down under any more. The problem there is not the people, it's the admins.

But enough about that...

Of the three forums I actually go to, the company here is the best.

Thank you TinMan, for your post.

I agree, and also appreciate the need for checking and waiting to see who a person is and how they act.


I myself am known to act in a typing frenzy , but the happiness of having many opinions and an availability of knowledge from all quarters is invaluable and very nice to have.


I first joined this forum because I couldn't get to the stamp club in my own city here. Now I belong to both SCF and the bricks and mortor club, after years of learning about stamps on here, and hopefully sharing what I learned along the way.

Thanks for being here, thanks to everyone for belonging, and welcome to anyone who wants to join up and learn to their hearts content and let me know something along the way too.

Hi Tinman

Thank you for your post and in particular for your comments about stamp clubs. I used to belong to a couple of clubs but they hold no interest for me anymore. As you stated it was more of buying and selling than of information. Part of that is due to the fact that I specialize in a very small area that seems to be of little interest to anyone else in this area of the country.

apastuszak
I also find myself logging on to the site you mention less and less. Like you I find the people in general are great but some have an attitude. This site is the best I have been on.

Jerry B

This forum family is the best.

This is my only stamp club and the only way I have time with fellow collectors.I use to be a totally isolated collector but not anymore.

Slowly my computer skills have grown and with much encouragement our ebay store has grown as well.

Instead of being bored to the max I now have a Life and can earn some income for the family to top it off.

SCF Rocks!

TinMan you will echo the sentiments of many.
I have no stamp club nearby, and with a young family, new business to run and all the other demands of a busy life, SCF is my stamp lifeline.
I haven't been able to visit much of late (missed y'all!).
SCF is my stamp club, stamp tutorial, stamp store, and social club all rolled into one!

Here in the desert of Oman, it's hard enough posting a letter, let alone worry about stamp clubs. I've learned so much valuable information from the site and made a few friends in the process. This website is my mainstay. I look forward to coming home after work and browsing the site with a cool drink in hand. It makes unwinding that much easier! Now, if only I can dispose of my duplicates as easily as I got them!

I joined here because it seemed to have the most "collective knowledge" and a more friendly and focused U.S. collector base than the other forums had. The other ones are mostly world wide collectors and I don't really collect W.W. stuff. Also, the other boards seemed a bit hostile towards the American members for whatever reason? Seemed more like a fight club than a stamp club so I landed here and have never looked back since! I do pop in at another forum or two just because of a few friends I like to trade with and chit chat.

I also belong to a couple of others including the "downunder" one. Nice people on that other forum but, like a few others, I have had some minor issues with admin. so don't post there as much as I used to. As far as infomation and general sharing and variety of topics, this forum seems to me to be the best and I am really enjoying reading the posts and contributing where I can.

Some interesting comments - I am a member of a couple of Forums but this is the one that I seem to gravitate the most to - the variety of topics and knowledge is vast and is given quite willingly - Like I number of others (by the looks of it) I find myself for a variety of reasons not dialing into the "downunder" one that often anymore - the main reason is that I find it is too "busy" and the layout is not IMO that user friendly

Nice words and sentiment, TinMan.

Well said.

KS

I'm just posting to add my own thoughts, which echo what many others have already said. I am a Googler. Any time I wonder about something, I Google it. That's what led me to SCF when I started becoming interested in stamp collecting.

I lurked around for a couple of weeks before joining, and this is the only stamp forum I belong to because, frankly, there's no reason for me to join another. The members are AMAZINGLY welcoming, helpful, supportive, and generous with their time and knowledge. Anything I've needed, answers to any questions I've had, I've found here.

Appreciate your thoughts and input Tinman.

I belong to as local club and we live in the country, a few miles from town and our members are scattered across the county. We meet only once a month. So, in between, I read and post as often as possible here in the SCF forum.

Like many other SCF members, I think this is a great forum and I get to answer, where I can, and contribute, where I can, on my expertise. The time in between local club meetings is too long and the SCF is a great place to keep in contact and fill the void so to speak.

It is my intention to stay and post as often as possible.

Happy collecting to all

Chimo

Bujutsu

Living on a quite populated area, I'm currently member of three brick and mortar clubs: One in my hometown, Barcelona, where I go usually once a week, there's a good library and sometimes dealers, aside from friends; another in a nearby town (Sant Feliu de Llobregat)we've meetings weekly, but I go there once a month. To end I also belong to a Ripoll (92 km from Barcelona); I go there once a year, but also meet people when I'm there for business, quite often. We, also meet at the Sunday Barcelona Stamp Marked on our city's old town.

Aside from this, I'm on the board of the Catalan Philatelic Federation, being responsible for the Barcelona area (5.5 mio people, 22 clubs). So, I'm pretty much in contact with our fellow philatelists (sometimes, too much!).

Having said this,I find very interesting to be in the SFC, as I learn new things on our hobby daily, have the chance of getting to know a lot of interesting people, finding new items for my collections and keeping my English command working. Not so bad!

I think we all have different reasons for hanging around the SCF. I_Love_Stamps is here for the "friendly and focused US collector base." I'm here to get away from the heavy emphasis on US collecting that is prevalent on the other forum I'm involved with.

Several people want to buy/sell/trade. I have NO interest in that as I am "suffering the folly" of having more stamps than I need, thanks to buying several large collections in the past 10 or so years and then not having enough time to play with them. Even though I've collected since 1960 at age 10, I'm here for the knowledge that is imparted, and I get to share a bit of mine in return.

Tinman- Sorry to hear of your Family medical troubles, but,you are right, SCF does feel welcoming.

I love this forum because it has many WW and non U.S. collectors.

But the U.S. discussion is very good too.

The other forums..
"Virtual Stamp Club"- literally no discussion other than U.S. And some big egos.

"Downunder" Forum- There are some very knowledgeable people there, so I do check it, especially for British Colonies and Australia.

SCF- the "Friendliest" by far. My go-to forum.