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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;wiggam007, post: 794368, member: 18436&quot;]Well I agree with many of the points that have been made on this thread, I will share a couple that I haven&#039;t seen pointed out.</p><p><br /></p><p>The pro is that of community.&nbsp; Now, this might seem like what many people have said about how we are bringing all of these different collectors together, but I see it on more of a personal level.&nbsp; Many of the technological aspects could be duplicated by a website, such as the vast amount of information, or from a discussion stand point the email listserv.&nbsp; However, with these you rarely get the sense of community that comes from a forum.&nbsp; There are many people on here that I consider friends and trust even though I don&#039;t know them in person.&nbsp; In addition, for those on the General Discussion portion of the board, how often do we see a people wishing each other a happy birthday, lamenting over their latest bought of bad weather, or coming for comfort after some misfortune?&nbsp; The reason we see these posts is because of the great sense of community we have here.&nbsp; This can even take form in the real world.&nbsp; Recently, a member was running a contest.&nbsp; When he failed to log on for the end of the contest many of the posters there became worried to the point of having a local law enforcement office do a check on the member to make sure he was ok.&nbsp; While this is something you might expect in a local coin club, it is not something you would see anywhere else on the internet.</p><p><br /></p><p>For the con, I am going to go out on a limb and say technology.&nbsp; The fact is that, while many people have accepted the internet and use it in their lives, many have also not been able to access the internet.&nbsp; My mom can barely use her email, my uncle doesn&#039;t have internet, and my grandmother doesn&#039;t have a computer.&nbsp; If these people were coin collectors, think of all the information that would be lost to the community.&nbsp; I was honestly surprised when I took a look at the Coin Talk age poll that was posted on here.&nbsp; You would expect that the majority of people here would be young people raised on the internet.&nbsp; Instead, it appears to reflect the general age dispersion of the whole collecting community.&nbsp; Yet, many of you probably know people like the members of my family who also collect coins who will never get on to the internet and come to forums such as this.&nbsp; However, unlike the other issues with this technology that people have brought up and simply said that it will always be, the con presented here will not always be.&nbsp; First, people can always learn if they are willing.&nbsp; It took my mom awhile to learn how to email people, but she kept trying and got it down.&nbsp; Similarly we can always help others to better understand this technology and join the community.&nbsp; Second, as we all grow older, a greater and greater population of computer literate people will begin to dominate the hobby to the point that the vast majority will understand the technology and will be able to join forums such as this one.&nbsp; I feel that we are lucky to have people like Rick Snow who posts YouTube videos of coins and events as well as others who have embraced the technology right now, but also feel that as time progresses this group will become even greater and bring the online coin community to greater heights.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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