How can we let others know that this forum exists?
Hi Gumardee, its a problem. The less that is posted the less that the regulars visit and the lower the likelihood that new blood comes in to replace those that no longer visit.
Like is Trout still grey nomading? He hasn't even visited in over a year and he was once the biggest poster here with over 10% of all posts plus when you add all the responses to his posts he was probably responsible for another 10%.
Maybe a few of us regulars need to submit articles to CAB etc and have in the references this forum. The more times ACF references appears in CAB or other things that collectors might read the more chance that some will come to see the wealth of knowledge in all the past threads and to ask questions. I'd hate to see this forum wither as that would leave no decent Australian website to discus coins.
Yes,Forum has the wobbles but is the last Oz. one standing and has lasted a lot longer than the other attempts,i think about 3 i know of. Opening it up to the Public would help where they can read Posts without joining up like the US Forum.
There is a 'Trout' posting on Whirlpool,hard to say if its the Trout from here.
Quote from: 'Basilstate' pid='126288' dateline='1652011734'Opening it up to the Public would help where they can read Posts without joining up like the US Forum.
Public Forums already exist, but not much traffic there either.
Trouble is that social media has supplanted forums. There are many, many, many active coin groups on Facebook. Their app has huge penetration and traction among users, compared with having to remember to log into forums and actually check them.
Totally agree Markn. I'm wondering if we should all drop the ACF name in the Facebook pages. That might help.
The main advantage to having an "open-access forum" is Google hits. Somebody types in a question to Google, and if people have asked a similar question here on this forum, Google can't see it. We're invisible. With open-access forums like CU and CCF, Google finds those discussions - and this directs new customers to them. CCF has never been more popular, both in terms of numbers of hits and in terms of new member signups per day, than it is now, which is quite astonishing given how old the platform is - and their admins put this down to the combination of Google optimization, and the sheer amount of information on the forum that Google can find.
Without that, this forum is kind of relying on the "manual Google" of personal references. It's entirely reasonable to go onto a facility like Facebook where people are talking about coin X, and if there's already some good discussion on coin X here, to post "Over on the ACF forum, there's a good thread with lots of information about these coins", and post a link to this forum's discussion. People won't be able to actually follow the link until and unless they sign up here, but people will at least know the forum exists, and some of its content.
One thing you shouldn't do, however, is "recruitment threads". Don't post on the Facebook group or any other coin forum, "Hey, why not join the ACF forum". This is considered "spamming", and group moderators and admins universally hate it when someone joins a group, just to try to recruit people to join some other group. Not only will that get your post deleted and your membership of that group banned, in all likelihood it would get ACF put onto a website blacklist where any future mention of this forum would get red-flagged and auto-deleted.
Quote from: 'Sapyx' pid='126595' dateline='1657259922'The main advantage to having an "open-access forum" is Google hits. Somebody types in a question to Google, and if people have asked a similar question here on this forum, Google can't see it. We're invisible. With open-access forums like CU and CCF, Google finds those discussions - and this directs new customers to them. CCF has never been more popular, both in terms of numbers of hits and in terms of new member signups per day, than it is now, which is quite astonishing given how old the platform is - and their admins put this down to the combination of Google optimization, and the sheer amount of information on the forum that Google can find.
Exactly,Forums are still the best way to go as far as finding/posting Info. and Pics.
Mark is correct about FB taking over,and i use it, but find it clunky especialy when trying to access old posts.
If this was an open Forum we would get all the newbies that post on the US Forum,as stated that's what shows on Google.
Quote from: 'Basilstate' pid='126596' dateline='1657326545'Mark is correct about FB taking over,and i use it, but find it clunky especialy when trying to access old posts.
Yes I've never figured that out - Facebook's search doesn't seem that good.
On FB people can delete their old posts, which of course leads to a loss of historical info. (Not sure what FB does to posts if a user deletes their account, but I'd assume it's the same). People can find the forum public page and comment, which, if they are truly interested will result in valued replies, which should result in a new member. I think there may be a lot of "OMG I found a 1988 HH $2 coin" people on FB. (Thanks media .... not). So I feel the member numbers on FB are inflated due to that. I really feel a serious collector, will "seek and find" the forum. I don't mind that at times there are a "few" posts as it gives you time to reflect upon those. If it was 100 posts, perhaps we'd miss the point that some of the very valued members were trying to make in amongst the "multitude". Just my 2 bobs worth
FB and I don't play well together. First it wants a mobile phone number which I don't have. If you get passed that then it wants your photo which I am not giving it. They can shove it.
I had a few moments to spare and was going through the Album section, some really interesting images amongst them. Bit surprised this isn't utilised abit more. Haven't finished viewing them all yet. I remembered I had to delete my old album as a lot of them were in photobucket and and old scans etc, the pics really needed redoing again anyway. :) Then I couldn't get back in and rejoined. Some items refreshed the memory , :)
I can understand advertising may bring in some of the wrong attention like google and other bots, begging emails from people in Sri Lanka and the dreamers with a 1976 2 cent coin, who are convinced its worth $10,000 and "REAR" because they saw one like it on Feebay.
But you have to crack eggs to get omelettes.
It's a tough one. I was talking to a guy at work this week who has a V8. I went to show him some of my old exploits back in the day when I turbo charged my LS1 powered Calais.
I went to LS1.com.au which was an amazing forum I was a big part of the V8 scene in the 00's-10's.
It was gone.
An absolutely incredible information source, which grew with the community as we learned to crack the ECU and start unleashing the power out of an amazing engine.
Now there is nothing.
The forum died, and its legacy has as well.
Forgotten to time.
It don't want to sound dramatic, but it is so sad.
Bugger, and Web Archive doesn't back forums up very well.
Increase the image size limits, increase amount of image storage and update just everything. A more visual board, may attract more viewers. I would also keep moderation nice and easy as far too many internet forums suffer from over moderation and forum board bans are too common for anyone with any diversity of opinion.
I don't use this forum that much but do value it as a resource if I do research on some coin subject.
Also enjoy the chat about this and that, keeps me up with coin stuff as i have little contact with the hobby.
I probably would have used it more if I could get my head around attaching photos.
Don't try to tell me how to do it, it's one of those things (like mathematics) that my brain can't cope with!
Some sort of 'one click paste the jpg here' I could probably cope with.
I know my family cannot believe there are some things i can't do. Mathematics and talking to stupid people are at the top of the list!
I think the moderation is well done, i use other sites where the slanging sets in by stupid idiots with no vlaue at all.
Fred.
Thanks Fred.
Totally agree Fred. An "ADD IMAGE" button would certainly make it a lot easier.
Even I could cope with an "Add image" button.
Me too, its a no brainer. Many boards had a similar system like this and people were happy to store images on 3rd party sites like Photobucket, imgur and tinypic, but then around 2016 - 2017 they all got ad fuxated and Photobucket took down millions of images overnight and wanted to charge $400USD a year to host pictures and then backed down, but backed up again. We all fled to imgur (I was on Stampboards and as some of you may know, lots of stamp images we uploaded).
Then Imgur decided to go ads crazy and show memes, some of which were R18 and NSFW which made it hard for us and finally Stampboards gave in and allowed us to add images from our files. That was around 2021.