Quiet?

[Sylvester 26]

Where is everyone? This forum used to be a real hive of activity. I used to struggle to keep up.

It seems eerily still these days.

[Rob 3,191]

I guess people use social media, which is ok for a single response, but a chocolate teapot as a source of coherently assembled opinions that are organised along the thread topic. I presume the internet has so much info available that many people feel they have all the info they need.

What is obvious is the lack of visitors asking questions, which seems counterintuitive given the significant increase in collectors  of modern coins. At any coin fair you will see a reasonable number of kids going round the tables. I presume they get all their info from social media. Whilst you can reasonably expect the majority of collectors to be middle aged and up, the vast majority of collectors do have access to the internet, so why they don't interact with others is beyond me.

A parallel problem to that of forums is happening to many numismatic societies. The South Manchester decided last meeting to only have one meeting a month compared to 2 a month in autumn and spring. The reason - numbers have dropped off such that there is no longer a critical mass of members to fill the schedule with talks. There is a near total absence of younger people coming through. At the last meeting, I was the spring chicken, and I get a state pension.

 

[Sylvester 26]

A symptom of the drive to a cashless society? I don't think many young people use cash in everyday transactions, if at all. I guess with no exposure to coinage, there'd be no reason to have their interest sparked by it? I can only think of it as that. Believe it or not, but twenty years ago this forum had a core group of teenage members leading a lot of the discussions! So there was interest from the younger groups once upon a time. In fact, there were quite a few robustly attended forums in the 2000s, very few seem to be left.

 

[Coinery 1,224]

Rather than an exposure to cash, it was the affordable access to a tangible history for me, that’s how I came to coins.

I agree though, it is disappointingly quiet on here nowadays.

[Citizen H 74]

ahahahah..An there I was thinking I was overloading forum with all the newbie input... I have slowed down as I'm trying to rationalise what relevant and what isn't. oh and thank you everyone who have assisted during the first few weeks, its been great help. all the best "H"   

[TomGoodheart 407]

Afraid I'm guilty of the 'social media' thing and so here less often.

There are a number of specialised Facebook groups which, while many are set up as a selling platform by the administrator, do get a reasonable amount of traffic. I frequent a specialist group for Charles I coinage and several for hammered and early milled because that's where my interests lie. Probably of little interest to the many(?) penny enthusiasts here, but I've certainly contributed to the Charles I group quite frequently and it's where quite a few of my Charles I contacts congregate..

There are also groups for numismatic literature and historical medals, which again though specialised fall within my interests and a few detectorist groups where I try to identify items. I also admit that I frequent many of these groups to spot potential purchases since there are a number of well known dealers who are also members there. Some, like Tim Medhurst rely heavily on social media (he's primarily on Instagram I believe) and it's not uncommon for  things to never reach a dealer's website, having found a buyer on a Facebook group.

I'm not saying that's an ideal situation, it's all too easy to miss something because you don't happen to be a member of a particular group, but I accept that's the way of it (even Spink sell stuff on Facebook now).  Plus I'm chronically online anyway, so it's just a few more pages to visit in a day. And if it results in a bit more knowledge, whether a collector ticket identified or a potential contact spotted, a possible new source of material or an item added to the collection, all to the good.

[Sylvester 26]

Wow such a shift. I don't touch Facebook with a barge pole, or any social media to be fair.

I for myself have not been a frequent visitor here for many a years, one reason being it became a bit of a copper coin collectors specialist forum, whereas I've mostly been a silver collector, so there was little for me to post constructively on. That been said, work takes up the bulk of my time anyway to be fair.

It seems times have changed!

[Paddy 1,842]

I am also a social media refusenik, so forums like this are my natural habitat. Although I do collect GB bronze and copper, I also like all the GB silver and some older foreign pieces too. Like @Sylvester I found the bias towards bronze and copper pennies a little disappointing. There are some great experts in all areas on here, but we need to encourage them to continue showing up occasionally or the forum will die.

I think also, some posters here are a bit aggressive with their criticism if they disagree with a poster's viewpoint, which simply drives them away. Of course we can disagree, but it needs to be kept non-personal.

[Nonmortuus 927]

I am lurking! Already blown most of my budget for the year!