I haven't been a registered member of Coin Talk very long and what my comments are about have probably been discussed before. But it seems each week many new members register, but are seldom heard from later. It appears that less than a hundred members do about 90% of the discussion here. Why is that? Do new members feel intimidated? Do they have a specific question or two and once answered fade away? Everyone has somthing to contribute and often something small leads to very good discussion. I think everyone here agrees that to disagree is fine. I have not seen anyone "attack" someone else or ridicule someone. I don't know any of you people, but you seem okay to me in being courteous. I see people being very helpful, going out of there way to show pictures, other sites than can assist, and humor. When you look at how many people are viewing and how many people are logged in there is always a big difference. I suppose some people who view only and don't register are possibly reluctant to give any person information out on the internet. I also suppose people who are active have seen others who were active in the past stop participating. That makes more sense to me than such a minute number of new members taking part in any discussions. What gives?
Well, there are a ton of one question members. And some members I think just forget they ever registered. I know one guy hadn't logged on for a while, I asked him what was up, and he completely forgot he registered.... coin collectors are old.
well im fairly new here, but i work crazy hours, so i post when i can, i dont know much but am learning and contribute when i can, its not that im intimidated...
It's fairly common that a small percentage of the people who join a community actually stay and participate in the long term. Same as it's a small percentage of the people who visit this site that actually join. If you're curious, there's an interesting article about it that I read a while back.
Wow! Interesting article, explains a lot. However, I'm also having difficulty getting my mood icon and I want it also. Help.
i think people dont post a lot because may of them are fairly new, and come here to learn. i know when i first started out here, i was very quiet. asked questions when i needed help, but didnt offer much help because i felt i didnt know enough to speak up. but after being on here a while, talking with a lot of the great members here, and actually meeting a few members at local coin shows, my knowledge had grown to the point where i felt comfortable enough to speak up and offer opinions. sometimes it just takes a while for people to get in that comfort zone. i know it took me a good 3-4 months.
Oddly, I joined and posted like 10 times or so and moved on for about 3 years before re-discovering the forums when I hurt my back last year. Since then it has been impossible to get rid of me. I think at times people don't have the time to read a lot of internet stuff on top of their other reading. I think what I discovered (and ALWAYS have liked about internet info) is that the information here is dynamic and keeps up with the ever-changing aspects of our hobby. Information in this day and age has a time stamp on it, and from time to time some things come to light and change the conventional way of thinking. That is why I have stayed, and tried to contribute wherever possible. This group is worth a million magazine subscriptions, and it's interactive.
Mike, similar with me. I joined and stayed for a while, then who-knows-what happend (new computer, new school, etc) and I just forgot about it for a good part of a year. Then I got back into it, and once I got back into collecting more, I was here more and more often - but the times that I wasn't actively collecting and learning about coins, there was really no reason to visit the forum.
There are 2 kinds of forum posters on the Internet: 1) those who come online every now and then who have lives offline with social commitments, friends and family that enjoy their company and, 2) those who have few commitments offline and choose to live their lives online. There is always someone around to talk with online 24/7. A happy medium in between the 2 extremes make up most online communities.
I do a lot of posting here, because I do a lot of coin research and sharing. I live on several different sites.
Lots of reasons why -- some are shy and don't post a lot and some post just to post. And if you stay around long enough you will see some very vigorous discussion.
I found this site while reading posts on the "coin forgery eBay" board a few months ago, and have found it extremely entertaining and informative. Getting back into coin collecting after forty years has been an amazing experience. I normally only post when I feel I am actually making a contribution to the discussion, i.e. quality vs. quantity (no "awesome coin" or "cool coin" from me!). I think anyone who is truly interested in numistmatics will return again and again!
