I'm disappointed - in you !

I did not read the whole thread, but I think Lehigh should win something...as many others should but Paul stands out..........

 

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I post on another forum that uses the same basic set up, and they have a feature where you can say "Thanks" to any member for any post, not just the opening post.

Perhaps that could be brought over here and whatever post gets the most "Thanks" would win the award?

I know it still works because that forum still has it in use.

It is public though, and I'm not sure there is any way to get an automatic tally, it might have to be something where the moderators see a lot of "thanks" at the bottom of the post, and count up the new "thanks" for the week.

For what it's worth, I've nominated two posts. I would have nominated at least two more but I couldn't remember if there was a limit on nominations and I also couldn't remember where the thread to find the info was, so I refrained in fear of making all my nominations null and void.

It didn't occur to me to simply PM Doug and ask...It came to me while reading this thread....Oops

 

That's true. I feel it has little to do with being American; I think it's human nature.

Well, of course one doesn't have a protest march when they're happy and satisfied about something, but we do have marches about how wonderful this country is ... on the 4th of July, Thanksgiving Macy's parade, Veteran's Day, etc.

We Americans have always been a self-critical, cantankerous lot. Look at all the rancor surrounding the founding of the Mint ! Look at the derision and ridicule heaped upon the Chain cent when it came out. The press used some very cruel prose for 2nd president John Adams.

It's nothing new.

 

Those are very good questions, Vess. It's possible the update was pushed by supposed better Internet security in the newer version; one can only hotfix so much before one needs a new install. I dunno; I'm only postulatin'.

 

I can't find a TOTW add on either

Hi Guys,

Maybe I can shed a little bit of light on the issue of software not being available to nominate a TOTW. vBulletin is a commercial software program that is used by many online forums including CoinTalk and NumisSociety. Jelsoft Enterprises makes the vBulletin software and then third parties write modifications or hacks for the software to be expanded and offer additional features like the TOTW and mood feature. Since these mods are made by a 3rd party and not the software developer they don't always work as promised. :rolling: vBulletin periodically updates their software to fix bugs and/or add features and then the mods you have installed on your forum might not work any longer once the software is updated. I'm guessing this is what happened to the TOTW feature that CT used to have. It's kind of like when Windows Vista came out and all of a sudden your printer wouldn't print with the new updated software. It was supposed to be a step forward, but as many of us recall it was two steps back. :computer: Since the software developer isn't making the mods you are at the mercy of a 3rd party unpaid, volunteer developer to develop, test and update a product that works as advertised that they're not making a dime off of. I'm speaking from experience when I tell you that these mods often do NOT work as described. We crashed our whole forum a while back adding what was supposed to be a relatively simple modification. It took five minutes to download and install the mod and 5 hours of tech support at the cost of several hundred dollars to undo the damage that one installed mod caused.:crying: Some of you might know that Garrett started his own coin forum a few months back and we're running a newer version of vBulletin than CoinTalk is and we've also been unable to find a viable option for a TOTW add on. There just isn't one out there right now that works as described. I'm looking for one for our site and I told Doug if/when I find one I'll let him know so CoinTalk can also add it to this site. :thumb:

 

I joined this forum for coin advice and entertainment. I don't have time, or the ambition to critique a thread. It would just turn into a popularity contest anyway. The success or failure of a thread depends on the amount of comments received. I'm not here to pat anybody on the back and I don't expect it.

I would say that the actual number of people that complained is equal to the number of people who have participated so far. Most people don't care.

As for the attitude of the OP, it sounds like you're complaining because all your hard work went unnoticed. That happens in life all the time. People shouldn't be scolded because we didn't jump at your idea. Some things work, and some things don't. You're a moderator. You took the job. You have a responsibility to this forum. People shouldn't be judged because they don't want to participate. You had a solution for what you thought was important. It didn't go over with the population here. Don't get mad. Find another solution. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

 

With all due respect. You were not a member here when the TOTW was active. It was extremely successful and almost every core member of the forum participated either by creating threads or voting and commenting in them. The TOTW Hall of Fame was even more popular and made it very easy to reference some of the very best educational threads created by some very knowledgeable Cointalk members

Have you ever read this thread?

Exhibit-Half Cents-1804-January 1st 2009-Fish

I am very confident that your answer is no. This is one of the finest numismatic threads I have ever read on any forum. It received a record 49 nominations for TOTW. Now here is the kicker. If the TOTW still existed, this thread would still be at the top of the TOTW Hall of Fame and chances are good that almost every regular member of Cointalk would have read it. The loss of information with the end of the TOTW can not be understated and quite honestly if ticks me off that you say that most people really don't care.

I submit that most of those that don't care about TOTW being gone are new members like yourself who have no idea what you are missing. The great TOTW threads are buried in the thousands of other threads waiting for someone to use the search feature which happens about as much as someone sends a PM to Doug for the clinker award.

 

By time I joined here, that was no longer in affect.

Would you like me to ask the owner of the other site where or what he did to keep that feature? Because he just updated last month and still has it.

(They actually have a lot more features than CoinTalk does....but some of them would not translate. It's not a numismatic based message board, rather it is a NASCAR message board.) To be fair though most of the other features that they do have are not popular, even though they all do work. The general forum just does what they want to do, and ignore pretty much anything else. The video posting and spoiler posting is used occasionally, though. Even I ignore most of them as I don't feel they really add anything to the conversation.

 

I must not be the only one who thinks my way, or there would be no thread here to respond to.

I looked at that thread you posted Lehigh. It is very informative, but unless you collect half cents, it means absolutely nothing. I didn't know this forum was a contest to see who has the best or worst thread.

 

The TOTW gave incentive via competition to many knowledgeable members to post educational and interesting numismatic threads. I don't expect you to understand since you have very little to offer in that regard. You come here, ask your novice questions, expect us to indulge you repeatedly, and don't think you need to give back to the Cointalk community.

Contrary to your own selfish reasons for joining this forum, advice & entertainment, many of the members of this forum are actually interested in learning about coins. I can't think of one other person who read Fish's thread about half cents who said it was meaningless. Fish summarizes years of research in a fantastic article and your response is, I am not interested. Perhaps you are more interested in getting a local E-Bay seller to hand deliver you a $10 item so that you can avoid the shipping costs that you agreed to in the terms of the auction.

I only have one last thing to say to you at this point. Read the title of this thread.

 

Well, I read it all. I too feel there is still a better solution to this problem then sending a PM to Doug. Or on the other hand, posting in a thread. Neither are any easier, but one will actively remind people to nominate threads.

If it makes me a bad person, so be it, but I haven't written a thread on those counterfeit coins I picked up about a year ago since the award left. I was drawn to the aspect of getting a vote, that to me; was someone recognizing what I had to say, and interpreting it in a way that was comfortable to them.
And they expressed it to me. I liked that.

But like I said, I haven't wrote a thread on those coins since then, even though they were well received when I wrote them.

 

Lehigh is right on the money... one of the first things I did when joining this forum was to spend quite a bit of time reviewing many of the great threads listed in the TOTW Hall of Fame. The TOTW weekly posts also brought my attention to great threads going on that week that may have escaped my attention. I don't read every thread in every sub-forum here. But when I would see a few folks voting for a thread that I hadn't seen, I would definitely check it out.

 

Pilkenton, the way this forum used to be, a fantastic thread would never go unnoticed.
The TOTW were really never a popularity contest, it was a way for members to compete if you will, to see who could write up the best thread, there was a little spot for how many awards you won on your postbit, and that used to mean something. It also was a great way to teach, it inspired members to do the best that they could to teach.

About a year ago I wrote up this thread:

http://www.cointalk.com/t52923/

I worked so hard to write up that thread, and I'm pretty sure I could do a much better job at writing the thread now.
I won a TOTW award. That one single award gave me the inspiration to go on in collecting, I had something to prove, and you know what, I did what I needed to do.

Pilkenton, I used to be a nut case. I thought I knew it all, and I made the most useless threads and posts, and fought big time with Lehigh96 and Hobo, I fought with Clembo as well, really, I put on my sparring gear against everybody. I made a fool of myself and what I knew, and guess what, those butt-whoppings I got made me a better numismatist, and a better person.

I came back to CoinTalk after a small hiatus, determined to prove that I could win a TOTW, in other words, right a meaningful thread, and try to share something I knew with others, and I dug down deep and read and studied some material, and I wrote a thread.

By winning that award I had made a friend, Lehigh96. I came to him and showed him I'd won the award, and I did get a pat on the back. I felt accepted by CoinTalk, and I felt confident in helping others and really showing what I think, withing reason of course.

This one little award did so much for me, and I know it sounds ridiculously silly. Pilkenton, this was more than just a popularity contest, because guess what. I wasn't famous at the time. I was infamous.

 

Travis, my young friend, "you've come a long way baby!" And I really mean it! You're an amazing young man, and an asset to CoinTalk, that's for sure. Keep up the good work. :hug:

 

I too miss the ease of use of the Thread of the Week format and the inspiration received from reading some great posts. Fish's post was great because I learned something I didn't know before, and that was valuable even though I don't own a half cent.

That kind of inspiration led me to write several historical context threads, among other topics, regarding a few Conder tokens I acquired. These threads were recognized by forum members as TOTW winners. I don't say that to brag in any way, but only to say that I don't feel as motivated now to spend the time to write an informative thread that will likely be drowned out by "look what I saw on ebay" threads. I understand that many now don't care about this loss or think me an axx for saying that, but I think it was a golden moment to see threads by members who clearly had something interesting and valuable to share. IMO, those kind of threads made this place special.

And yes, Doug, you've presented an alternative path but it ain't the same in my book.

 

First off, I'd like to thank FreakyG's mom for the most informative post in this thread. That's all I was looking for, since I'm not at all familiar with forum platforms or their workings.

Lehigh pretty much covered everything I would have said. I'd just like to add that I never viewed it as a popularity contest. I'm not that popular here and I won a couple of them. They did NOT take anything away from the rest of the threads on the forum. All the rest went about their business and served their purpose as they do now. What it DID do is recognize the exceptional threads all week. So you could miss 5 days of activity on the forum, come back on the 6th and see the best of what you missed. Now the good stuff is unrecognized and mostly missed unless you're lucky enough to be on the forums that day.

It's not the end of the world for me. But knowing what we had and lost is a very legitimate reason for people to be disappointed. Even though the mods have no control over this. Lets just let it go.

 

I too liked the ease of the button on TOTW, and though I too won a couple TOTW's (which I appreciated very much!) and was inspired even more to keep writing, I didn't and don't write for any kind of recognition. I write because I like to and with the hope that it helps someone. It's my way of giving back to the coin world.

I had a few mentors that took a lot of time to teach me, answer my never-ending questions, let me set up with them to learn the buy/sell ropes, taught me how to grade, how to keep track of coins, etc., so I feel by writing and posting on forums that it's a way to repay what was given to me, to help others like I was helped, to help the novice get started in the right direction, and to better enjoy the wonderful world of coins.

And FWIW, I also agree that it was great to have the "better" threads posted in one place where you could check them, to see what others thought was important or worthy of recognition, especially the ones that were recognized from other parts of this forum that I don't usually check, like world and foreign coins.