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It's been a long, long time...



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 8th 10, 01:12 PM posted to rec.collecting.coins
EricBabula
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1
Default It's been a long, long time...

Hello again, everyone! Yes, I've been on an extended leave of absence
from RCC - sorry about that, if you care. If you're happy about that,
sorry I'm back! Well, not really sorry.

I just started reading RCC on and off, again, and remembered all the
fun discussions we used to have. And I kinda miss it!! Looks like
there might be a couple regulars from years past, still hanging
around! But, it looks like RCC is very quiet - is that true?

I'm reading on groups.google.com, and am not seeing very much traffic
here. I lost my News Feed (Road Runner/Time Warner Cable in WI doesn't
support Newsgroups anymore). I get just a few new posts a week on
Google Groups - that can't be, can it? Anyway - I think I'd like to
find a new News Feed service (FREE if possible), and a Newsreader (I
used to use XNews and liked it - will have to see if that still
works). Is Tera News (Free) still the way others have gone, in order
to get all the RCC posts, including
alt.binaries.pictures.numismatic??? Any other suggestions?

Anyway - so I really haven't done much of anything with coins since I
"left" reading and contributing to RCC. I have big plans to image all
my coins some day, but never seem to get to that. The "Honey-Do" list
never seems to get smaller, no matter how many things I cross off!!
And, the kids are keeping us so busy - the only free time we really
have is Friday nights. Really, the only coin-related thing I've done
is: I've just recently started reading "Crime of 1873 - The Comstock
Connection" - about the Comstock silver mines, and the history leading
up to the creation of the Trade and Morgan Dollars. If anyone recalls,
I tend to be interested in Morgan Dollars above most coins, for
whatever reason. Maybe it's my love of the Wild, Wild West as a youth.
Maybe it's the design of Lady Liberty (not particularly attractive,
but nicely designed) and the Eagle. Maybe it's because I love big,
heavy, shiny silver! I don't know. I do love other coins, too. I have
only collected U.S. coins, though, I do have some coins from other
areas of the world - mostly as gifts from others.

Anywhoo, I'm hoping to be back to RCC, at least on a part-time basis.
If anyone has suggestions on a good, reliable News Feed that'll get me
all the RCC and ABPM posts, I'd much appreciate it! I feel like I'm
missing a ton, here on Google Groups.

Have a Great Day!!!

Eric Babula
Ads
  #2  
Old April 8th 10, 02:57 PM posted to rec.collecting.coins
Mr. Jaggers
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,523
Default It's been a long, long time...

EricBabula wrote:
Hello again, everyone! Yes, I've been on an extended leave of absence
from RCC - sorry about that, if you care. If you're happy about that,
sorry I'm back! Well, not really sorry.

I just started reading RCC on and off, again, and remembered all the
fun discussions we used to have. And I kinda miss it!! Looks like
there might be a couple regulars from years past, still hanging
around! But, it looks like RCC is very quiet - is that true?


Eric, welcome back! I hope this will be the first of many nouveau posts on
your part.

Some of the names on rcc have changed, the range of personalities has not.
I see that you have already been greeted by one of our other regular
members, so I'll spare you the formalities.

It's probably true that coin discussions in these parts have diminished over
the years, which is to be expected, what with changing interests and the
competition from other coin boards. We occasionally drift off into
unrelated topics, which always brings lurkers out of the woodwork,
self-righteously wagging their tongues about how we never talk coins any
more. But, you'll always find someone who will come forward and talk coins,
given a topic.

James the Occasional Numismatist


  #3  
Old April 9th 10, 01:19 AM posted to rec.collecting.coins
Reid Goldsborough[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 357
Default It's been a long, long time...

On 4/8/2010 8:12 AM, EricBabula wrote:

But, it looks like RCC is very quiet - is that true?


RCC is a lot quieter than it has ever been, probably since shortly after
its creation. There's so little traffic relatively speaking that for the
most part dealers as well as collectors don't even bother posting For
Sale messages here anymore. The two guys who used to post news stories
about coins that they found on the Net, a really good source of on-topic
content, don't bother doing that here anymore either. A lot of other
really smart coin people have left too, including some who were here for
a long time.

The reasons are as you'd expect, mostly a continued intensification of
previous trends, which affects all newsgroups, though some more than
others. I'd list them this way in terms of importance: 1) Excessive
chitcat. Here this manifests itself through a handful of people who
appear to have lots of time on their hands or who seem to approach this
group as their primary social outlet in life and who divert nearly every
discussion away from coins to whatever pops in their heads at that
moment, a group that feeds on one another while driving lots of other
people away, 2) Anonymous flaming. A small but disproportionately loud
group seeks every opportunity to show how big and bold they are behind
their anonymous handles, 3) The ending of free newsfeeds by just about
all the major ISPs, in large part a result of the previous two phenomena
and the effect they've had on traffic. Google Groups though is still a
very viable workaround here. I don't know much about the relative merits
of the various free newservers at this moment (it's always changing),
but I use Altopia (www.altopia.com), which starts at $6/month. 4) The
other online discussion groups and blogs about coins that are moderated
and thus reign in libertarian excess, significantly reducing the
negative effects of excessive chitchat and anonymous flaming.

Still, as you're finding, there are still nuggets to be found here. You
just have to pan harder for them these days, and they're fewer and
farther between. The nuggets are mostly at the very beginning of
threads, before they've been swept into irrelevance by the chitchat,
mostly, and the flaming.

--

Consumer: http://rg.ancients.info/guide
Connoisseur: http://rg.ancients.info/glom
Counterfeit: http://rg.ancients.info/bogos
  #5  
Old April 9th 10, 01:26 AM posted to rec.collecting.coins
Scurvy Dog[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 22
Default It's been a long, long time...


"Reid Goldsborough" wrote in message
...
A lot of other really smart coin people have left too, including some who
were here for a long time.


Unfortunately you aren't among them...


  #6  
Old April 9th 10, 02:59 AM posted to rec.collecting.coins
Reid Goldsborough[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 357
Default It's been a long, long time...

On 4/8/2010 8:19 PM, Reid Goldsborough wrote:
4) The other online discussion groups and blogs about coins that are
moderated
and thus reign in libertarian excess, significantly reducing the
negative effects of excessive chitchat and anonymous flaming.


This should have read rein in. Again. g

--

Consumer: http://rg.ancients.info/guide
Connoisseur: http://rg.ancients.info/glom
Counterfeit: http://rg.ancients.info/bogos
  #7  
Old April 9th 10, 04:35 AM posted to rec.collecting.coins
Mr. Jaggers
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,523
Default It's been a long, long time...

Reid Goldsborough wrote:
On 4/8/2010 8:12 AM, EricBabula wrote:

But, it looks like RCC is very quiet - is that true?


RCC is a lot quieter than it has ever been, probably since shortly
after its creation. There's so little traffic relatively speaking
that for the most part dealers as well as collectors don't even
bother posting For Sale messages here anymore. The two guys who used
to post news stories about coins that they found on the Net, a really
good source of on-topic content, don't bother doing that here anymore
either. A lot of other really smart coin people have left too,
including some who were here for a long time.

The reasons are as you'd expect, mostly a continued intensification of
previous trends, which affects all newsgroups, though some more than
others. I'd list them this way in terms of importance:


[appropriate snips made in following]

1) Excessive chitchat [misspelling corrected].

2) Anonymous flaming.

3) The ending of free newsfeeds by just about all the major ISPs.

#3 is eminently valid as a reason to explain why many people have left
permanently. But to say that #1 trumps #2 is absurd, Reid. And WTH are you
to determine what is "excessive"?

James the Chitchatter



  #8  
Old April 9th 10, 06:14 AM posted to rec.collecting.coins
Reid Goldsborough[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 357
Default It's been a long, long time...

On 4/8/2010 11:35 PM, Mr. Jaggers wrote:

1) Excessive chitchat [misspelling corrected].

2) Anonymous flaming.

3) The ending of free newsfeeds by just about all the major ISPs.

#3 is eminently valid as a reason to explain why many people have left
permanently. But to say that #1 trumps #2 is absurd, Reid. And WTH are you
to determine what is "excessive"?


The main reason that ISPs have canceled Usenet feeds is falling
popularity, and the main reasons that Usenet popularity has fallen so
precipitously over the past half decade or so, I'd say, are excessive
chitchat and anonymous flaming and the availability of other types of
online forums that aren't beset to the same extent by these problems.
All this is according to my observations, but others have observed
likewise. It's also my observation that the excessive chitchat is more
serious a problem because it takes up far more verbal space and is the
more likely reason any given on-topic conversation is diverted, though
it's not characterized of course by the nasty emotional violence of flaming.

James the Chitchatter


You're right about that, I'm afraid, and are more likely than anyone
here to be the first to respond to a thread, as far as I can see, and
more likely than anyone to divert it to whatever you happen to want to
chat about.

You ask "WTH" am I to determine what's excessive chitchat. Well, I'm a
long-time participant here, and like all participants I have to right to
offer opinion, which is what this is, a response to an observation of
the original poster in this thread. This is a ... discussion. But I've
put no quantitative qualifier on "excessive." It's subjective. Again, in
my view, according to my observations, the chitchat here is excessive.
Others may feel differently, and that's their right too, of course. You
obviously feel differently. Some significant percentage of those who
have left this newsgroup in significant numbers, I would say, don't.
There are other reasons too that people leave, external factors. I'm
largely a lurker here, these days, but if I had to point to one cause
above all others for this group's decline, I'd say it's the convulsion
of unrestrained and largely unthinking off-topic chatter, the profligate
paroxysm of prattle by a small group of those here about anything and
everything unrelated to coins. That was fun.

Some diversion is only human nature, as I said earlier. This is a
discussion group, after all, and people go off on tangents. But it all
has to do with signal to noise, with whether or not there's enough
that's engaging to make any given online discussion group worth
returning to. And the unfortunate reality, the undeniable reality, is
that increasingly people find that this group is not worth returning to.

Discussion of an online group's internal dynamics ... common topic. It
too can become excessive. But I'm not going to try to quantify that either.

--

Consumer: http://rg.ancients.info/guide
Connoisseur: http://rg.ancients.info/glom
Counterfeit: http://rg.ancients.info/bogos
  #9  
Old April 9th 10, 10:26 AM posted to rec.collecting.coins
Farmer Dave
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10
Default It's been a long, long time...

On Thu, 8 Apr 2010 22:35:46 -0500, "Mr. Jaggers"
lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com wrote:

Reid Goldsborough wrote:
On 4/8/2010 8:12 AM, EricBabula wrote:

But, it looks like RCC is very quiet - is that true?


RCC is a lot quieter than it has ever been, probably since shortly
after its creation. There's so little traffic relatively speaking
that for the most part dealers as well as collectors don't even
bother posting For Sale messages here anymore. The two guys who used
to post news stories about coins that they found on the Net, a really
good source of on-topic content, don't bother doing that here anymore
either. A lot of other really smart coin people have left too,
including some who were here for a long time.

The reasons are as you'd expect, mostly a continued intensification of
previous trends, which affects all newsgroups, though some more than
others. I'd list them this way in terms of importance:


[appropriate snips made in following]

1) Excessive chitchat [misspelling corrected].

2) Anonymous flaming.

3) The ending of free newsfeeds by just about all the major ISPs.

#3 is eminently valid as a reason to explain why many people have left
permanently. But to say that #1 trumps #2 is absurd, Reid. And WTH are you
to determine what is "excessive"?

James the Chitchatter


I thought this was a coin group and not an Inglish class!!

  #10  
Old April 9th 10, 11:45 AM posted to rec.collecting.coins
Mr. Jaggers
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,523
Default It's been a long, long time...

Reid Goldsborough wrote:
On 4/8/2010 11:35 PM, Mr. Jaggers wrote:

1) Excessive chitchat [misspelling corrected].

2) Anonymous flaming.

3) The ending of free newsfeeds by just about all the major ISPs.

#3 is eminently valid as a reason to explain why many people have
left permanently. But to say that #1 trumps #2 is absurd, Reid. And WTH
are you to determine what is "excessive"?


The main reason that ISPs have canceled Usenet feeds is falling
popularity, and the main reasons that Usenet popularity has fallen so
precipitously over the past half decade or so, I'd say, are excessive
chitchat and anonymous flaming and the availability of other types of
online forums that aren't beset to the same extent by these problems.


You obviously haven't read Facebook lately.

All this is according to my observations, but others have observed
likewise. It's also my observation that the excessive chitchat is more
serious a problem because it takes up far more verbal space and is the
more likely reason any given on-topic conversation is diverted, though
it's not characterized of course by the nasty emotional violence of
flaming.


Let's see, what are in the process of doing...could it be...taking up verbal
space? Why is yours OK, but mine is not?

James the Chitchatter


You're right about that, I'm afraid, and are more likely than anyone
here to be the first to respond to a thread, as far as I can see, and
more likely than anyone to divert it to whatever you happen to want to
chat about.


I can't help it if I get here before you do.

You ask "WTH" am I to determine what's excessive chitchat. Well, I'm a
long-time participant here, and like all participants I have to right
to offer opinion, which is what this is, a response to an observation
of the original poster in this thread. This is a ... discussion. But I've
put no quantitative qualifier on "excessive." It's subjective. Again,
in my view, according to my observations, the chitchat here is excessive.
Others may feel differently, and that's their right too, of course.
You obviously feel differently. Some significant percentage of those
who have left this newsgroup in significant numbers, I would say, don't.
There are other reasons too that people leave, external factors. I'm
largely a lurker here, these days, but if I had to point to one cause
above all others for this group's decline, I'd say it's the convulsion
of unrestrained and largely unthinking off-topic chatter, the
profligate paroxysm of prattle by a small group of those here about
anything and everything unrelated to coins. That was fun.


Hmm, why did the name William Safire suddenly pop into mind?

Anyway, I have previously observed that my own coin-related posts of late
have garnered extremely limited participation by either the regulars or the
unseen and unknowable army of lurkers out there. You're certainly welcome
to initiate some numismatic threads of your own and see if you can do any
better.

Some diversion is only human nature, as I said earlier. This is a
discussion group, after all, and people go off on tangents. But it all
has to do with signal to noise, with whether or not there's enough
that's engaging to make any given online discussion group worth
returning to. And the unfortunate reality, the undeniable reality, is
that increasingly people find that this group is not worth returning
to.


Let me see if I have this straight. Your contributions represent signal,
while mine represent noise, is that about it?

Discussion of an online group's internal dynamics ... common topic. It
too can become excessive. But I'm not going to try to quantify that
either.


It is my sole opinion that discussion of an online group's internal dynamics
just became excessive with the above sentence. But WTH am I to try to
define that adjective? It would just take up more verbal space. Besides,
Mirriam-Webster can do it so much better than I.

James the Reference Librarian


 




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