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Preferred Media?


KenDorney

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Before anyone states the obvious, let me explain.  I understand that my asking in one media which they prefer is kind of silly.  I am preaching to the choir or here, and I get that.  But some media crosses over and often members use various types of media to discuss their hobby.

So, I thought it might be interesting to see what others use and why.  I'll simply list below the media I am most aware of and my comments, and would love to hear your comments.

Numisforums, well, I have high hopes for this and think it quite possibly will be the premier place for discussing ancient coins. We shall see!

Cointalk.  As one who was banned (with no warning or explanation), its really not a user friendly place.  One moderator once said it was a 'dictatorship' and if you didnt like it 'leave'.  Yea.  Well, many have and now they are being replaced.  

Reddit.  I kind of like Reddit, but not for coins.  Its really superficial, is quite swamped with 'is this real' posts.  Not a place to really discuss coins.

Twitter.  Yea, I just dont get this.  And I never will.  Its not that I am too old, its just dumb.  Supremely superficial.

I guess what I dont get is the abbreviated communication that seems to have become the norm.  I mean, one tweets or whatever a few words with no context and...???  I dont get it.  I like the long format, where people can truly communicate.

 

So...what other places do members use and why?

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@KenDorney

FB: I do not like FB, period.  I only want to see pics of my Grandkids, look at Calvin & Hobbes, science & astronomy posts, archaeology posts, and some Far Side posts. I am rarely on that site.

CT:  Old news. Let my membership lapse. REALLY enjoyed the site for many years... then, the death-spiral of bickering and uncontrolled troll disease set in during the last couple years.

Reddit:  Nope, rarely use it.

Twitter: Nope, not interested.

NumisForums:  Good job @Restitutor.  Picking up my business.

LinkedIn:  Only for bidness.

News:  I read a dozen or so news sites each morning, across the whole spectrum so that I get a reasonable perspective to issues and apply it to my business world. Usually news written in Asia, North America, Islamic World, and Europe.  Kinda hobby, but I used to read / subscribe to 6 newspapers for years until the WWW opened up.

Sum it up:  For coins, I druther have a dedicated Forum for my Hobby (ala NF).  Not interested in my posts, etc. to be out all over sites (ie FB), for everyone to see and have all of my personal info blasted to the world.

Random Coin, cuz I like this devoted coin Forum:

image.jpeg.0b2bc0564132fabfdb94dc759b7d789a.jpeg

Sicily Mamertini 288-278 BCE AE Pentonkion Mars-Eagle Mercenary Samnites Messana

 

Now, if @Restitutor would develop a cool PET FORUM...  or a Cartoons / jokes forum... to laugh and take my mind away from daily life!

 

 

Edited by Alegandron
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Personally, I don't use Reddit or Twitter. I am on FB but don't discuss coins there. I understand there's an active group though.

I'm mostly on this forum and I'll probably sign up as a supporter soon.

In terms of CT, I'll occasionally respond to a post there, but I'm more active here.

I also have my own website - though that's obviously not for discussion purposes. It is my primary method for displaying my coins online though.

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I’ll tell you what I’ve tried

- https://www.forumancientcoins.com/ .  Great site, good conversation.  Suffers from rules against discussing dealers and auctions.
- http://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/ .  Good for world coins, not for ancients.
- Reddit. I am a moderator on https://www.reddit.com/r/AncientCoins/ but I rarely “moderate.”  Suffers from lack of photos.  Only the thread-starter can have a photo.
- Facebook. I am admin of OrientalNumismaticSociety-NorthAmerica there.  I don’t like Facebook because I must either share my coins with my friends and family, or post in hyper-specific collector groups of unknown membership.
- Instagram.  Suffers from lack of text. https://www.instagram.com/syossetcoin/ is a good dealer/collector to follow.  I have no interest in posting only pictures.
- Twitter.  Discussion of coins confuses my non-collector friends.
- https://zeno.ru/ Good for discussing particular Eastern ancients, but does not have general threads.
- *.blogspot.com.  I maintained http://digitalhn.blogspot.com/ for years but no one was commenting on my posts.  I was unsure if anyone was reading them.  It was hard to check everyone’s blog.
- Discord.  I keep forgetting to check … I log in and find someone talked about something I was interested in three weeks ago.
 

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FB: Never used It.

Twitter: Never Used It.


Coin Community Forum: Where I spent the most time, as a lurker.

PCGS: Dead, stopped lurking long ago

Instagram: Where I frequent & most active on.

Cointalk: Long time lurker. Lot's of content & activity, but too much arguing over the silliest of things. Almost like a school play yard. Immaturity among many of the members.

NumisForums: OK so far, trying to be a bit more active then lurking.

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I agree with what has already been said about reddit, CoinTalk, and NumisForums so no need for me to repeat things.

Facebook - I deleted my account a few years ago and have no desire to go back. Meta's other products (Instagram, WhatsApp) are already pushing me away by the day with their tactics to increase "engagement".

Discord - This one has been a bit of a revelation as I never thought it would work well for coins but that was probably because I had mostly come from forums and reddit. It has ended up being my main focus and the most enjoyable place for me to chat about coins. The main server for ancients is quite popular now and it does suffer a little bit from what the r/AncientCoins subreddit turned into but it's great for following auctions, seeing new coins everyone has bought, and asking questions about all sorts of things that you may not normally want to start a thread about. You can also easily create group chats with a small number of users to discuss topics in more depth. The main server has a buy & sell channel, a write-up channel, and a Top 10 Coins of the Year channel for the annual event in December where you are assigned a specific day in which only you will share your top 10.

The downsides of Discord are obvious. As it's more suited for free flowing conversations it can be difficult to have multiple conversations on different topics in the same "channel" (e.g. "Greek Coins") at the same time. It's also not as good of a historical resource where you can go back and easily find discussions about certain topics. It is possible but usually requires you to have been present in the conversation originally so you know what to search for. But I think that's why it complements participating in a forum quite well, they each have their pros and cons.

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Nothing new to add. But its nice to meet new people here that were banned on CT. 

This forum: I really like it so far! So big thanks Restitutor.

CT: liked it a lot, but many moved here. Me too.

Forum: use it primarily for the photo album.

Reddit: ancients, i watch it now and then. I dont participate. 

FB: recently joined two groups, but im not active there. In general,FB annoys me a lot. I dont use it for other purposes. 

Twitter: no

Instagram: no again

 

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Since 2014 I've spent most of my coin-focused time online at Coin Community Family's ancient/medieval subforum. Sadly, there was a major exodus there years ago (as some here will recall) due to a moderator's dumb actions. CCF's loss was CT's gain at that time, just as CT's current loss is Numis Forums' gain. CCF's ancient/medieval section never fully recovered from that incident - it has had low traffic ever since. But to this day it remains a great board for the few regulars (like Spaniard) who contribute. It's a small group there - but supportive and friendly. My own activity there, however, has somewhat lessened of late.

I've occasionally contributed at CT, but not much, through the years. Same with Forum Ancient Coins - where I still contribute occasionally, although the "Parthia and Other Eastern Coins" subforum (my coin collecting area) is near death - the last post being from early February. Still, I lurk at Forum each week, especially in the "Other Metal Antiquities" section moderated by Shawn Caza, who is incredibly knowledgeable. I also maintain my galleries there.

 

I regularly peruse posts at AncientArtifacts and Parthia-L - and joined each recently. There's not much activity these days at Parthia-L, unfortunately. I did just make my first post there a few days back, though. 

 

I'm also a member of World of Coins, but with so many other options - and so little free time, I don't get there much...

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Quite a lot of interesting responses! The stereotypical teen uses a lot of social media and im no exception 😂 Most of my free time goes to the study and discussion of numismatics and history though. Here are my personal experiences:

Reddit: A nice place for looking at other members coins, but quite flooded with "Found this in my granddads attic, is it real?"- posts, so im not using it a lot anymore. Helped me a lot at the start though!

Instagram: I use it for posting a little "gallery" of all my coins and following experienced collectors, but its terrible for discussion usually

Discord: Great place for discussing with more experienced collectors, and sometimes even making friends. Chatting with other members has taught me a lot!

CT: Didn't ever get in due to the horrendous gatekeeping and banning of new accounts, but sometimes I like to look up a topic that interests me and stick "Cointalk" at the end, to see some nice threads about these topics.

NumisForums: it has everything I liked about cointalk, with many of the major issues gone (hopefully at least). Not that many threads and long writeups yet, but an amazing forum!

Thats about it, but let's not forget about the websites of some of the people here, which are also really interesting, especially the pages of @dougsmit, @TIF and @Kaleun96!

 

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I was active on FORVM for years before everyone left (joined there in 2004). It used to have a great community. Still reply there occasionally. ancients.info used to be good too before it closed.

I post to Victor's Late Roman Bronze sometimes since that's my collecting area, but it's pretty quiet (too specialized, perhaps).

I'm curious what the ancients discussion is like on FaceBook, but I have never joined, and never will.

I've got nothing against Reddit or Twitter but agree neither place has much to offer for coin discussion.

I browse some of the foreign language boards, most frequently Nummus (https://www.nummus-bibleii.com) which has a great LRB community, as well as a very useful coin database.

I occasionally correspond privately with other collectors.

Discussion forums are all about discussion/community, which is why this place is off to a great start. The software here is good too - modern feature set. I realized the moderation at CoinTalk was awful before starting to post there not so long ago, but the active community was the draw. So here we have the good without the bad!

 

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I've never used any of the social media platforms such as FB, twitter,reddit etc....and probably won't...

As a complete novice of ancients, I joined CCF many years ago and still look in everyday. Not much movement but a small group of knowledgeable collectors are friendly and helpful....

I'm also a member of World of coins which is really informative for my Kashmir collection in particular with a couple of experts present..

CT I found clicky and brash, I did try to settle but always felt I was treading on eggshells...It shows its true colours as the ridiculous pin at the top of the ancient forum is still there after more than a year!

I'm really enjoying NVMIS FORVMS. There's lots of diversity, friendly and above all a large section of the members have the same memories of what happened on the "other forum" and I'm sure this will help in the future....

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The problem with many of the standard social media platform options (FB, reddit, discord, twitter, etc.) as opposed to a forum is the terrible lack of organization (threads, quoting, image posting etc. just doesn't work as well).  That's why CT was so great for me.  Forvm became old and clunky (I hardly used it), plus I preferred the more informal atmosphere at CT.  (Lots of great old threads at Forvm though!)

But NumisForums promises to surpass them all easily, for pre-milled collectors at least (with world being the niche instead of the other way around, and U.S. coins basically absent).  Which is good, we need our own place.  It's slick, well organized, friendly, and its norms seem to be brought about through cooperation rather than top-heavy mods. The organization, where you can choose which forum topics to browse, is excellent and most welcome.

In short I'm thrilled with the new place and I'm sure it will continue to be a smashing success.

58 minutes ago, Heliodromus said:

I post to Victor's Late Roman Bronze sometimes since that's my collecting area, but it's pretty quiet (too specialized, perhaps).

I really like this forum but it's too inactive for me to think to check it regularly; also a bit clunky/old style.  I wonder if @Victor Clark might be interested in migrating it here in some way?  Maybe not as a subforum (like the checkbox things we already have: Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman etc.) but something a little more separate, though still within NumisForums? (Is there such a thing available here, @Restitutor?  Might be useful for other purposes too.)  I think it would get a lot more action.

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I'm a member of another forum (different hobby). No FB, no Twitter, Instagram, etc. Reddit very occasionally (maybe once every few months).

I enjoyed my time at CoinTalk and I still check in there every now and then. I wasn't involved personally in the recent drama, and I didn't want to be. When the bulk of the ancient coin discussion migrated here I was happy to be invited and continue participating in an active discussion forum. So far this has been a very nice place!

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1 hour ago, Severus Alexander said:
2 hours ago, Heliodromus said:

I post to Victor's Late Roman Bronze sometimes since that's my collecting area, but it's pretty quiet (too specialized, perhaps).

I really like this forum but it's too inactive for me to think to check it regularly; also a bit clunky/old style.  I wonder if @Victor Clark might be interested in migrating it here in some way?  Maybe not as a subforum (like the checkbox things we already have: Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman etc.) but something a little more separate, though still within NumisForums? (Is there such a thing available here, @Restitutor?  Might be useful for other purposes too.)  I think it would get a lot more action.

Just a proviso: this would only be a good idea if it were possible to choose two or more forums for your post to be included in, e.g. Roman AND Late Roman.  (Same applies to @Al Kowsky's suggestion elsewhere to add a "migration period" forum, which would require being able to choose Roman, Migration Period, and Medieval for the same new post.)

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Numisforums. I see a lot of great stuff happening here already and a lot of great people, including some who are very respected in the hobby. I've got high hopes that this will be the "it" place for ancients 🙂

Cointalk.  Was banned. Was a member for 10+ years. I'm done. The can pound sand.

Reddit.  I like it for random stuff. I belong to a bunch of subreddits for different hobbies and news. Not a great place for coins. I post my CRH stuff there and occasionally in the ancients subreddit. There isn't much interaction though. It was a great place at the beginning of the Ukraine invasion for up-to-the minute goings on. It has its nasty dark places though and a fair share of trolls.

Twitter. I have one. I mainly follow news sources and people on the ground in certain places. Definitely don't use it like most people. Have never thought of using it in a coin related way. 

Facebook. Can't stand it. I have one but never log in.

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CT- I know some people have different taste here, but CT has been the source for my hobby so far, and the ancient forum there allowed me to contribute so much in regards the neglected numismatic region of South India.

Reddit- r/ancientcoins r/coins r/silverbugs- these subreddits were the reason why I started collecting coins.

Youtube- not so much for ancient coins, but definitely a great source to watch ancient history, it's my go to source to look up on emperors/kingdoms along with Wikipedia.

Coin community fourm- not so much in terms of contributions, but it's good to look at once in awhile. 

Numisforums- Tbh not much to say since I've only joined this week. 

Facebook- Not that interested

Twitter- Not a user

Edited by JayAg47
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3 minutes ago, JayAg47 said:

CT- I know some people have different taste here, but CT has been the source for my hobby so far, and the ancient forum there allowed me contribute so much in regards the neglected numismatic region of South India.

Reddit- r/ancientcoins r/coins r/silverbugs- these subreddits were the reason why I started collecting coins.

Youtube- not so much for ancient coins, but definitely a great source to watch ancient history, it's my go to source to look up on emperors/kingdoms along with Wikipedia.

Coin community fourm- not so much in terms of contributions, but it's good to look at once in awhile. 

Numisforums- Tbh not much to say since I've only joined this week. 

Facebook- Not that interested

Twitter- Not a user

Welcome, @JayAg47! It's good to see you here. 

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I really enjoyed the 2 1/2 years I spent posting at Coin Talk -- apart from everything else, it was a wonderful distraction at the height of the pandemic! -- but it was time to go, for reasons that have been exhaustively discussed both there and here.  I am extremely pleased with this forum so far, and very grateful to @Restitutor for setting it up.  I have high hopes that it will continue to grow and flourish. 

I do visit the Forvm discussion boards on occasion, and the website in general is incredibly useful for Numiswiki and the Fake Coin Reports and other resources, but participation in those boards has been sparse for a long time. And I don't think it was ever the kind of place that was conducive to the sorts of lively and prolonged threads that we used to have at Coin Talk and have here now.  Even if some people at Forvm denigrate that sort of thread as "not serious" and mere "show and tell"!  In my opinion, what's wrong with showing and telling about beautiful and amazing coins?

I've belonged to the ancient coins Facebook group for some time (in addition to the ancient coin sales group), and enjoy looking at the coins people post and reading the advice of some of the experts there like Zach Beasley, Brad Bowlin, and Barry Murphy. And Ken too, if I'm not mistaken! Again, however, although people do "show and tell" there, others rarely follow up with their own contributions, so conversations tend to be rather short. (Except for the frequent "is this genuine" posts.) I've posted there on occasion myself, but not often. Why? Because I admit that the idea of posting a lot of photos of my collection under my real name, for anyone who joins the group to see, makes me feel a bit queasy. I know that if someone really wanted to find out who I am from my posts at CT or here, they could probably do so without much difficulty, but at least there's the illusion of anonymity!

I've never read anything about coins on Reddit or Twitter. I'm not a huge fan of either place in general.

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Numisforums- Great start and heading in the right direction.  Excellent.

Cointalk- Devolving thanks to a lack of leadership/morals.

FB- Stay off the home page and go to your favorite groups.

Forvm-  Good help for ID'ing problem coins. I also use the Gallery.

 

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Numisforums - great start! Enjoying it here so far. Will be even better if we get a Numismatic Literature sub going (@Restitutor 🙂)

CoinTalk -Was never able to join despite months of trying last year - always the same "server error, try again later". Admins never responded to my help requests. Gave up.

Forvm - joined last year. Has its good and bad points, like anywhere. I was initially active but less so now. There are some very good people there and the expertise level is excellent, but for whatever reason it's quieter than perhaps it should be (or used to be?). Sometimes there's a really interesting thread, but generally I find there's too much emphasis on fake detection. They're very good at it and I know it's important, but often it seems every other conversation is about fakes. Also, the site interface is now quite old and a bit fragile. However, it is being generously and freely provided by the dealer-owner so I shouldn't really criticize it too much.

Facebook - joined a couple of groups to test the waters but didn't really go very far with it. Inactive. 

Reddit/Twitter/Instagram - never have, and likely never will.

Discord - never even heard of it

 

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CoinTalk - have had almost entirely positive experiences there, with lots of helpful advice IDing coins.  I stuck to the World Coins forum, which was a little less active than the Ancients one, but rarely had drama that I saw.  Hopefully this site will have an active World and Non-Western section as well!  Sad to hear that so many familiar faces were treated unfairly there.  I did "ignore" a few users whose interests were too different from mine or were needlessly prolific, which improved my quality of life.

Facebook - wouldn't want to use for coin stuff since it's in my real name, so mostly for photos of my kids

Instagram - for my other life as an amateur artist.  No coin photos from me

Twitter - I don't use it, it seems to not bring out the best in people.

Here - seems like a friendly place so far!  Thanks to @Restitutor for setting it up.

And I try to post some kind of coin photo with as many posts as I can, so here's one!

 

 

Antigua farthing token 1836.jpg

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2 hours ago, JayAg47 said:

CT- I know some people have different taste here, but CT has been the source for my hobby so far, and the ancient forum there allowed me to contribute so much in regards the neglected numismatic region of South India.

@JayAg47, what made CT great was the community (including you!) in the Ancients forum.  Since everyone has mostly moved here, I think you'll have the best chance of reproducing your good experience here now.  (Of course some good coin citizens still haven't made the move.  Personally I would really like to see @Bing here for example.  I hope others might do what it takes to make him feel welcome.  The norm here is still no politics, as it should be, though encouraged in a very different and more positive way.)

In fact, NumisForums promises to be significantly better than CT even with regard to community, both by avoiding arbitrary banning decisions and by having BETTER SOFTWARE so as to avoid mistakes like these:

35 minutes ago, rNumis said:

CoinTalk -Was never able to join despite months of trying last year - always the same "server error, try again later". Admins never responded to my help requests. Gave up.

... which I think have been responsible for preventing or eliminating membership for many, including @Steve.

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49 minutes ago, rNumis said:

Facebook - joined a couple of groups to test the waters but didn't really go very far with it. Inactive. 

There are several Facebook groups of which I am only on two.  I realize many people hate Facebook, Wal-Mart, Amazon and anyone that finds a way to make money from their activities. Some of the things I have seen mentioned as faults, I consider benefits.  Some days I am in the mood for pile on threads and some days I'm not. 

YouTube has some good videos but they will let anyone post there.  Proof:

The promised Roman video has not happened yet. Maybe; maybe not. 

Coins mean a lot less to me lately but I have several interest other than coins on FB and YT.  If I could only use one venue, it would be YouTube (cameras, cooking, photography, etc.).  There is a lot of trash on YouTube. There is a good series on coins that I do recommend:

https://www.youtube.com/c/ClassicalNumismatics

 

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