Very curious. What is the history of coin forums?

Married2Coins

An old thread from 2012 was just linked in a discussion. An Ebay forum was also mentioned. How long have you guys been posting? What is the history of Coin forums? What is the oldest forum you posted in. I'm new at this. I first joined Coin Talk in 2019 after it was mentioned in a grading class. I hate to think of all I missed.

Thanks

jmlanzaf

There were text only hobby forums around 1990. At the time, the "internet" was really only present in academic settings.

Married2Coins

Did they have names? Were you on them. What was the first forum you joined? The next? I read that there was an old PCGS Forum and this version is the newer one. People lost all their old standing.

jmlanzaf

@Married2Coins said:
Did they have names? Were you on them. What was the first forum you joined? The next? I read that there was an old PCGS Forum and this version is the newer one. People lost all their old standing.

They had "names" but the whole structure was different. All sites had string names so you could find them, it would be something like "alt-hobbies-coins-united states". I spent some time perusing different hobby sites but they were slow, text only and not terribly active due to the limited audience. If you don't remember the computers and modems of ca 1990, it's hard to explain how different they were.

The experience of that 1990 to 2000 period is why I'm so frustrated with the AI naysayers. Every objection to AI is a reflection of one made about the internet by people who couldn't or simply wouldn't recognize the potential. My colleagues tried to stop students from using it (it has errors, it is cheating, it had no standards, etc) and then, almost too late, they embraced it and use it themselves. Now, we're going through the same thing with AI for much the same reason. Some of the people are younger, but many of them are the same people.

If you were on the internet in the late 80s or early 90s, it would have been hard to imagine the power of a smart phone. But it shouldn't be hard now, having seen that evolution, to recognize that AI will continue to evolve. ChatGPT is far more powerful today than it was 18 months ago and it still isn't done.

MICHAELDIXON

I forget the name of the boards way back then, but I have been posting since 1997.

BStrauss3

They get founded usually in a split over some tiny issue by a small group. Somebody says "I'm taking my ball home and starting my own team!"

They grow, with the original users, a tier 2 group, and then everybody else, who often complain that "the old timers are nasty bitter don't like newbies, etc." and grow to some point.

Eventually, the oldtimers move on (or die off) and the place becomes a ghost town. ATS for one.

It's always this way. I've been online since BIX, CompuServe, and Usenet.

seanq

I can give you my own history as a snapshot. I started communicating with collectors online in the late 1990s on Usenet, a text-only threaded service that I accessed through my email client. The main group at the time was "rec.collecting.coins", though others certainly existed. From there I migrated to Yahoo Groups, where some specialized groups also existed, including a forum run by CONECA and an error coin group started by Mike Diamond. It wasn't until 2003 that someone led me to Collectors Universe, though this forum had existed in some form back into the late 1990s. Nowadays there are lots of collecting channels on YouTube and groups on Facebook.

Sean Reynolds

allnewsanchor

My history with forums runs merely a handful of months, but I have a short story. I'm quite happy to be with y'all on this one. The first one I joined goes by the initials CCF. They make a big deal of being this loving community, family-friendly to the last. Just don't reference anything said by a particular dealer, regardless of its truth or accuracy. I did and got a nasty email back from either a mod or admin. The person never id'd him/herself. I wrote back, politely, and said my comment wasn't about that person, it was about what was said. I never named the person. I got a second email back, loaded with f bombs, including the finale, where I was told... if I didn't like it... I could have sex with myself. But not in those words. That's why I'm so happy I found this bunch.

DocBenjamin

Joined in 2003 or 2004.

Customer told me that an 1893-S I was auctioning was a thread subject. I found the place very interesting. The now shuttered Open Forum, particularly so.

Have been recycled a few times, but two decades later, still learing and sharing a laugh or two.

JimW

@seanq said:
I can give you my own history as a snapshot. I started communicating with collectors online in the late 1990s on Usenet, a text-only threaded service that I accessed through my email client. The main group at the time was "rec.collecting.coins", though others certainly existed. From there I migrated to Yahoo Groups, where some specialized groups also existed, including a forum run by CONECA and an error coin group started by Mike Diamond. It wasn't until 2003 that someone led me to Collectors Universe, though this forum had existed in some form back into the late 1990s. Nowadays there are lots of collecting channels on YouTube and groups on Facebook.

Sean Reynolds

I remember "rec.collecting.coins" - seems like a long time ago....

hfjacinto

I remember Yahoo groups, many were fun, but they weren't moderated so there was a lot of random posts and some pretty angry posters. Many people got offended and that would be the end of the group. I once used USENET for an astronomy forum, but Dial Up was slow, I also couldn't be all the time as my parents wanted to use the phone. It also got expensive when you had to call a number outside your free call area. I remember my brother running a $100 phone bill using Napster.

Sapyx

Two of the four coin forums that I joined when I first decided to let the Internet know I collected coins back in 2005/6 have now gone defunct. This forum is one of the survivors, though it did go through that transition to the new platform.

You've got two basic options for the foundation of a coin forum: those founded by individual people who are interested in coins (either coin dealers or collectors), and those founded by corporations or organizations (such as coin clubs or the TPGs). Forums founded by individuals normally last for as long as that individual remains alive and interested in maintaining it; the forum usually disappears when this is no longer the case.

The corporate forums last for as long as the corporation can be bothered to pay people to maintain it, and until and unless the forum starts to become bad for business or otherwise hurting the bottom line (eg. by attracting expensive lawsuits).

CaptHenway

Yes, rec.collecting.coins was the 800 pound gorilla in the field, until the jerks destroyed it and proved the need for Moderators.

MrSpud

I somehow just now figured out how to activate my original MrSpud account instead of the Mr_Spud account I had to use in 2020 because I couldn’t activate my old account that started in 2004. This thread motivated me to try. When I first joined in 2004 there were already a whole bunch of regular members that had been here for years. The forum was great back then in 2004, everything was new and exciting. People were just starting to figure out how to post pictures and teaching each other how to do so. Lots of great people posting. I remember rushing home after work and logging in to see what new thing was going on with the forum every day. Some controversial, some very educational, never dull.

Mr_Spud

Am I going to get in trouble for having an Alt now? 🤔😉

DocBenjamin

@Mr_Spud said:
Am I going to get in trouble for having an Alt now? 🤔😉

Claim one Russet and one Yam.

Klif50

@jmlanzaf said:
There were text only hobby forums around 1990. At the time, the "internet" was really only present in academic settings.

I was on Rec.Collecting.Coins (aka RCC) back in the early 1990s. Many of the folks who were originally here got their start on that forum. Great discussion and a very lively group.

Klif50

@CaptHenway said:
Yes, rec.collecting.coins was the 800 pound gorilla in the field, until the jerks destroyed it and proved the need for Moderators.

It was a great place to be up until the end when an unnamed dealer got his pants into a wad and ended up taking the group to court. I believe it all ended up settling out of court but cost a lot of us a pretty penny in donations to pay legal fees. It pretty much went away after that and after I found all the alt.adult.stuff groups. I still have an RCC Ember and a Flame coin somewhere among my boxes.

johnny010

@allnewsanchor said:
My history with forums runs merely a handful of months, but I have a short story. I'm quite happy to be with y'all on this one. The first one I joined goes by the initials CCF. They make a big deal of being this loving community, family-friendly to the last. Just don't reference anything said by a particular dealer, regardless of its truth or accuracy. I did and got a nasty email back from either a mod or admin. The person never id'd him/herself. I wrote back, politely, and said my comment wasn't about that person, it was about what was said. I never named the person. I got a second email back, loaded with f bombs, including the finale, where I was told... if I didn't like it... I could have sex with myself. But not in those words. That's why I'm so happy I found this bunch.

What just happened here. I almost spit out my drink reading this.