What happened with the FEATURED threads ?

Have I ever told you how I discovered Cointalk ? About three years ago, I was searching on the web for an « ancient coin discussions forum ». I already knew FAC but was looking for something more friendly and relax. My research brought me on the home page of CT, the featured threads page. I started reading an excellent topic written by @Curtisimo and said to myself : wow ! What an interesting and informative site ! I wanted to be part of it, so I became a member and started participating ans sharing with a fantastic community of coin lovers.
For working and family reasons, I wasn’t very present the last 6 months. I sadly missed many excellent write-up from friends here. But it’s not really a problem, we have the featured threads page, don’t we ? Not really. These well researched threads have become (yes I’ll use the word I don’t like…) rarities. In the last 4 months, between September and December, only 20 featured writings ( I’m referring to the ancient forum section). For the same period in 2020, I counted at least 60…Does it means that the quality of educative topics is going down dramatically ? I don’t think so. In fact I’m sure it’s not the case. Here’s my theory : I believe there are only two members of CT’s staff who featured threads in the ancient section, @Peter T Davis and @lordmarcovan . Like myself, they have been busier outside this place in the last months. So they missed many excellent threads. And so did I. What is also sad is that I reported (to be featured) some write-up in the past, but if our two favorite guys weren’t online the request vanished and remained unanswered. I think that we are slowly loosing what is a strength on CT…
Am I the only one feeling this way ?

Since we’re a forum of coin’s show off, I present a specimen depicting 2 different character, in honor of our 2 « featuring threads » staff members...

Vabalathus / Aurelian

 

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I find that the featured threads come and go in waves. Mods have to be informed something is worth featuring, and sometimes they go on a rampage and feature a bunch of threads. Then at other times they are more idle. I personally feel like there has been an explosion in the last two years. It used to be @AncientJoe had an insurmountable number of featured threads, but now 13 other members have surpassed him (many of them “newer” members).

anyway, it comes and goes, and as always is dependent on the quality of threads we create. Lord knows I haven’t put in the effort lately as I used to…

 

I have ten featured threads, mostly when I took the time to write a more scholarly article than a quick post, haven't seen as many recently on CT though. In my case I have been exceedingly busy over the past 12 months. I don't believe the quality of threads has gone down though. If anything, with Covid isolation and the hot ancient coin market we should be seeing more...

 

Agreed, and to each their own : some thread one has initiated and feels is worth featuring will not attract a lot of attention from other members even though being informative and documented, thus will not be reported to mods, while others will be the other way round
I have initiated some threads that have been featured to my surprise, and others that weren't although I had a strong feeling they would be.

In the end, it's not an issue, featured or not the search engine allows to find almost everything you want

Q

 

Dominic, I've noticed the same thing you have, fewer quality threads have been selected as Featured . It would be great to hear from the moderators why this is so . Sometimes it takes these moderators a long time to react to the threads that have been posted . A good example is a thread I posted in the U.S. Coin forum on HOBO NICKELS on September 2, 2019, see the link below. This article had a lot of activity (5 pages of comments), & well over a year later Peter T. Davis gave it Featured status.
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/hobo-nickels.346226/

 

Agreed. I think the featured threads are the best publicity for CT. It’s also true that we can use the search fonction, but it’s hard to look for a subject you don’t even know exists. For example, I’m thinking about a superb series of topics written by @Claudius_Gothicus about his favorite Emperor… never featured…

 

The easy thing to do is to go to the search window up right of the web page, type "Claudius" in the search window, tick the "search titles only" box and type "Claudius_gothicus" in the "posted by member" window. Don't forget to tick the "search this forum only" box. You should get what you want, regardless of featuring

Q

 

Might have something to do with the banning of certain members contributing threads that are worthy of being featured

 

Thanks for the shoutout @Ocatarinetabellatchitchix . I am glad one of my write ups helped lead to this board gaining such a fantastic member.

I think it would be good if the featured threads weren’t the only way to easily categorize helpful threads. For instance, you can’t search featured threads by poster or subject and there are hundreds of them. You simply have to go page by page which is somewhat unwieldy.

A few years ago I attempted to start a thread I hoped would become an index of helpful threads in the same way as the Top 10 Index. I called it CT Scholar or some-such and included a game component because I like that sort of thing. The hope was we could categorize particularly helpful threads by subject, poster and eventually by year. I asked members to post in the thread or PM me threads to add to the list. I had only one person do so (@Ryro ) and I honestly got disheartened and gave up on the endeavor.

My point is, perhaps it is not just the mods that are driving the inconsistency. If members want to see more featured threads we should;

1. Participate in well written and researched threads even if they are outside our typical area of interest. Questions and general comments can be just as helpful as detailed expert feedback sometimes. I have seen great Parthian / eastern / Byzantine threads sink like a stone far too often. I could do better in this regard too.
2. Nominate threads that we think are worthy instead of assuming others will do so. Send follow ups to the mods if needed.

 

Nice suggestions @Curtisimo. Do you also remember this fantastic thread by Warren (@Valentinian ) ?
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/selected-cointalk-ancient-coin-threads.344620/

So much work was done to classified many featured threads by categories :
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/threads.html

 

Great call out O-cat! I've been saying it for a bit. Simply scroll through the featured threads and you'll see that there used to be more threads being featured in shorter time frames than us the case recently.
And there has been some GREAT content on CT ancients as of late
We're coming off of another excellent Saturnalia, if I'm not mistaken we had more top tens this year than any and I know a guy whoes knowledgeable aaaand highly entertaining, if not outlandish, who's been cranking em out:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ea...y-hands-on-it-was-of-grave-importance.392535/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/im...t-butts-butt-theres-this-bun-fun-post.392383/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/recent-rare-hole-fillers-in-my-collection.392249/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/th...jor-auction-house-doesnt-get-it-right.392065/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/sa...ious-coin-christian-cross-coincidence.392016/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-...-friend-fare-thee-well-mom-diva-leana.391935/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/an...n-customs-limbo-to-keep-it-fun-a-poll.391848/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/wh...ns-or-my-latest-man-movie-guns-n-buns.391671/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/th...ctive-of-sextus-coins-and-rock-n-roll.391473/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-countermark-post.391374/

... and that's just from the beginning of this month until now.

Let alone posts from virtuoso historians like @Jochen1
Everything this guy posts should be featured. And rightly so as they used to be.
Frankly, whenever I finish reading a thread of his I feel like I should be paying money for this kind of knowledge and ancient enlightenment
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/homonoia.392472/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-turtle.392158/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/gerusia-the-council-of-elders.391734/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/boule-the-holy-city-council.391733/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/eros-und-the-club-of-herakles.391488/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/apollo-and-the-hyperboreans.391347/

I just hope that all the mods and folks that keep this awesome train on its tracks are all doing OK . Health and mental health are more pertinent now then in the before-fore times.
I'm gonna take @Curtisimo 's advice and make sure to follow up more than once on really good, featurable threads