An Evening Of Old-School Stamp Trading...

I spent several hours last night with Magguss (another SCF member) viewing each others collection, trading stamps, telling stories behind philatelic finds, and discussing SCF topics. We only live a few blocks from each other and connected here through SCF. It was the first time in a long time that I've been able to sit down with another collector and just enjoy stamp collecting.

Has anybody else connected with members here and traded or talked stamps?

Yes. I have met a few people from here while working at shows. And I have sat down to trade with Dan as well(revenuecollector).

Revcollector - That's awesome...I wish we all could do it more!

Southpaw and I live in the same town and we get together for lunch, spin stories, and do a bit of trading. Speaking of that, we are over due for another lunch!
Don

We sure are Don. I'm fighting a horrible cold right now but let's get together in the near future

Good Morning Don,
Is there a way for members like myself to identify other members of SCF that live in my area? I hesitated to ask this as I understand privacy issues, etc., but how cool would that be to get in touch with others who share a common philatelic bond in our own backyard?
Thanks!
Greg

Hi Greg,
Currently there is no 'map' or sort/filter in location capability. You can click on a users name and in their profile you can see their hometown/city.
Don

That would be way cool. Ideally it would be some sort of visual map construct where members could stick a virtual "pin" in the map where they are located, thus giving a general geographic location without having to identify the exact city name for privacy purposes.

Thanks Don. I looked at the Members listing and saw the only way to ID local philatelists is to click on each name and see where they are from...I also realized rather quickly that 242 pages of searching would be a daunting task. revenuecollector's idea of a members' map would be awesome.

If there was a "city" field in the members list, then you could at least sort the list by city and identify anyone living in your city.

I only see a "country" field in the member list, but if you click on an individual member, seems like they can enter their city.

There should be an opt-out option for any changes to profile fields. I'm a "bowling alone" type of collector and my philatelic specialties are not conducive to trading anyway. My desired participation is occasional posting here and belonging to several philatelic societies. I do not belong to any local clubs nor do I want to.

I concur with the opt out and frankly the default ought to be to opt out. This is because this would also be a good tool for malicious purposes.
Don

Melic and myself live both in Catalonia, at about a 40 minuts driving (quite close, even for our standards!). Once every two or three months, I go to his House and we spend the afternoon chatting and looking at cinderellas.

This was written before I saw this thread expanded. I welcome private emails from anyone in the Tampa Bay region to explore this possibility. Trading is possible but certainly not essential. I would just enjoy meeting up with others who participate in this hobby.

Note that there might also be legal exposure for the owners of the forum. I know that dating or matchmaking websites face 'professional liability' legal exposures if someone gets hurt or ends up with damages due to the website hooking them up.
If nothing else, it might require more expensive insurance coverage.
Don

Don,

Not if any mechanism only performs general visual geographic localization as I suggest, rather than identifying a specific city name. No need to go overboard. I'm a member of countless forums that have cities part of the member profile and display that in the members lists. I've yet to hear of a single instance where that information was used for nefarious purposes and the forum owner was attempted to be, let alone actually, held accountable.

The key is to not get too specific.