Why Make It Free For People Who Don't Contribute To The Hobby ?

We see a lot of complain about Amos Scott online catalogue. Many peoples will like to see it free. We have a lot of small websites where peoples can get sometime quite specialize information. But for someone to maintain such website it cost something, they also purchase books and invest quite a bit in their collection to because expert in the field.

So why peoples will get this for free ?

I can see I real specialized website where contributors will have free access and non-contributor charge a small fees to at least help contributors a little bit.

We so many peoples coming here asking for free ID of their stamps and don't even have to spent a single cent on catalogue, so they don't contribute.

What form a such informative website can take.

I didn't buy a stamp catalogue or book until some weeks after joining this site. Now I have a small library. The generosity and friendliness I found here is what encouraged me to get serious about the hobby, even if moderately. (I'm no expert--I know that much!--but I enjoy helping people here when I can.)

Are you as miserable in real life as you present yourself here?

The fact that so many people happily contribute their time to help others finesses the question of whether/not they should be paypal'd a micropayment for each service rendered.

If you need to see greed, imagine them enjoying their awesome power to help others more than they would ever enjoy a coin.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I'm not quite clear. You have people's who want the free stuff and don't contribute . By contributing I means helping other too

So why people will have website fees to help people who don't help?

Simple you don't want to help and contribute to the hobby . Well we don't give you free stuff and you have to pay if you want info


My main problem is people's who want to make money selling stamps . Ar not even collector . We make all the hard work for them for free .

wow--people-peoples and people's--In my opinion, you are helping the peoples..er..people learn about said hobby. I was a collector and still am in a small way..but sell more stamps than I collect. I have spent many years on Iran, long story, and still send emails on how to tell real/valid Iran stamps from others, without any expectations of sales---Life is good. Maybe they will contribute or not--so be it---power to the peoples...people..collect and sell stamps!

Few people expect to get something like full blown online access to the Scott Catalog for free. Scott pays a full time staff to develop the catalog every year and they have a reasonable expectation to recoup those costs and make a profit. Catalog publishers provide a valuable service and they deserve to be compensated for it.

When it comes to collector-to-collector sharing of knowledge, why not share it freely? In theory the giver of knowledge (or stamps or literature or what have you) gives it freely of his own free will. Who am I to say they shouldn't share it? People who don't have much knowledge or experience naturally wouldn't have as much to contribute. As they grow and mature in the hobby, partly through the assistance of others, hopefully they'll share in turn.

Keep in mind that I'm not talking about this forum where it's cost nothing to give free information to help . I'm talking about a website that cost to maintain with high valuable info done by people's who have invest a lot . Stuff for expert level not beginner

Exemple steiners charge for his page . Why it will be different for let say Austrian revenuesf catalogue and specialized pages

Amos and other catalog publishers faced the same issue(s) as every other print publisher when the internet became widespread. Suddenly anyone could publish anything that could be seen by millions of people. Traditional print publishers, across every part of the industry, had to reinvent how they did business. Newspapers folded. Print magazines like Sports illustrated and Time lost huge numbers of subscribers. Imagine trying to be an encyclopedia publisher in the age of the internet.

Some catalog publishers, like SG, tried to open online market places. Amos made some poorly implemented attempts at digital catalogs. In my opinion, they should have instead worked on developing high traffic web sites. The basic catalogs should be offered for free on their sites; they should offer either subscriptions or pay-per-view for more detailed info (specialized catalog info), advanced search capabilities, downloadable album pages, ad-free viewing, etc.

But companies like Amos (Scott) instead have tried to maintain their legacy business models. The result is that most people now either ask for identification of stamps on forums like this or send traffic to web sites like worldstamp.com or Mystic. The task of basic stamp identification is something that can be done quickly and easily online. It is difficult to compete with 'instant and free'. Instead of competing with the internet, companies like Amos and SG should have used it to drive large amounts of traffic to their web sites. If they offered free, basic online catalogs then we all would be telling folks 'go to SG/Amos web site to identify your stamp'.

The issue of 'givers' and 'takers' has always existed in society. Some people are willing to contribute and others are not; this forum is a good example. We have some great 'giving' folks who are willing to either donate money to keep the site running or donate their time to helping others. There are also some 'takers' who use the site without giving anything back. On a personal level, I try to help anyone who appears to want to learn. I simply stop replying to those I think are taking advantage of the community; I see little value in arguing with them. (It is not like I am going to change a selfish person into an altruistic person.)
Don
APS #094826

It isn't IMHO.

-k-


Very good answer Don!

Peter

I wish members here would not be rude when someone - probably a person whose native language is not English - asks a question or tries to make a point. I realize most of us are not that way, but come on folks, show some tolerance and respect. Also, as a thought, consider using as few acronyms as possible (particularly on first reference). What does IMHO mean? SG? Spelling it all out makes it much clearer for all.

centerstage98, agree with you....I hate acronyms !

Sorry, I thought the context of the sentence/post would make it apparent that SG = Stanley Gibbons
Don

Well said Don! Especially here:




Oh congratulations - I see a moderator badge

I am not one who would say that Amos should publish information for free. Yet for those who do publish websites with free information, the information provided may serve long-term and less tangible goals of increasing interest in philately and/or in a particular area of philately. For example, the International Meter Society published an International Catalog of Postage Meter Stamps. It did not have quite the detailed of existing specialty catalogs, but is still widely useful in identifying and understanding meters and may draw some into a more specialized level of study in this field.