I know it is asking a lot, but...

numonebuyer

I know it is asking a lot, but considering the digital age, wouldn't it be great if (for example) the ANA (or other organization that requires dues to be paid) would provide free web space for members to be used to hold digital pictures of coins. You could post your pictures and allow fellow ANA members to look at plenty of coin pictures, plus you could link to them for auctions and forum discussions.

nwcs

You willing to put in money for it?

razorface1027

Excellent idea numone...but....$$$ would be a variable, and I don't think they'd do it for free. JMO

numonebuyer

I am willing to contribute.

nwcs

It'd either have to a pay fee or advertising supported in some way. It's not a cheap endeavor. Unless you don't care about having 500K partitions on an 80 GB drive running on a desktop machine in the back corner with no guaranteed uptime/maintenance.

numonebuyer

Or how about the free web space would be part of Platium PCGS Collectors Club memberships.

razorface1027

Or how about the free web space would be part of Platium PCGS Collectors Club memberships.


Welp, with PCGS being obviously "Hard Up" for greenbacks (Speaking of the above advertisements), I'd think it hard to ponder that they'd consider such a fortay.

numonebuyer

Or the PCGS could create a new Titanium PCGS Collectors Club membership.

bearcave

OK, What are you smoking???

numonebuyer

Here is my point.

There seems to be quite a few forum members (probably a reasonable sampling of the coin collectors that use the internet) that have no place to store their coin pictures (of any useful size) even temporarily. It would be in PCGS, NGC or ANA's (etc.) best interest to foster discussion on coin pictures. We are all members of one or more of these organizations. I for one would be willing to help support a web server for the sole purpose of holding coin pictures that could be linked to from auctions and forum rooms.

kranky

If it was limited to photos used for forum discussions, it could be done on the cheap easily. I can't be too sympathetic to using it for auction photos since (1) ebay offers such a feature already, at a very modest cost; and (2) for anyone doing enough auctions to make ebay's option costly, cheap webhosting services are a great alternative.

Doing it on the cheap would mean not displaying photos in the thread but posting links instead. That way every time someone opens the thread you aren't using bandwidth to display a picture that the reader might have seen multiple times already. Although the forums don't show how many times each thread was opened, my guess is that a thread with 30 replies (for example) has been viewed 300-500 or more times. Displaying the photos directly in the thread would take a lot of bandwidth. I don't know if there would be a way to enforce using links or not.

numonebuyer

I was trying to say that it could be used for auctions (or more importantly that the server would not prohibit its use for auctions).

I have a web page that used to use links, but I don't think it was well utilized. I replaced the word-style links with thumbnail links and I think it is better. However, you are correct that the thumbnail version does take more space and bandwidth.

Gonfunko

May I suggest Geocities? They give you 15MB of space for free. For that matter, you can email me at gonfunko@yahoo.com and I'll lend you some of my webhosting space.

airplanenut

1- Fotpic.net provides more space than you'll need, and you can hotlink, as far as I know
2- Webspace is cheap. I've got 1 gig for $78/year since I bought two years. Go here if you're interested, and if you want to let me get a little referral bounty.

As far as getting free space--remember, bandwith ain't cheap, and when you've got thousands of people using it, it really adds up in cost...

Jeremy

numonebuyer

OK guys, I appreciate the informationm (and I may use the information in the future), but I still think you are missing the point a bit. These organizations (ANA, PCGS, etc.) have been around (some for a long time, others for more than just a few years) for a while. It is time for them to realize the internet is hear to stay. They are all about service and I think their service should start to include the option of support for the Internet (more than just a web page). The ANA needs to start entering this arena. If we as ANA members need to increase our membership dues a little then I am agreeable. If the PCGS needs to create a whole new membership level (I suggested Titanium for the collectors club) then that is OK with me.

Last year (and 1000 posts ago) when I was a NEWBIE on this forum, the quality of the pictures posted was usually crappy. The number of attempted picture posts was also much lower than it is today. It is not going to get any easier. The current PCGS Registry page is limited at best.

As more and more collectors enter the field of numismatics they will be entering with money, computers, cameras and coins. Just look at Airplanenut as an example. He is not even 18 years old and has one of the better web sites I have ever seen (although he needs more Morgan pictures). The future of numismatics knowledge (and spreading that knowledge) is in the internet and we need to have a forum to allow easy viewing of coins. It opens up the discussions.

numonebuyer

for the evening crowd.

Barry

My ISP gives me free web space with my account. Your's doesn't?

numonebuyer

I get 10 MB with my account. I have over 200 pictures on my web page.

But, this post is not about me. This post is about Numismatic associations and/or organizations not paying attention to the future mode of communication between its primary customers (otherwise known as the collector).

nwcs

>It is time for them to realize the internet is hear to stay.

They do, that's why they have web sites. But providing a service to provide free web space is not a simple or cheap matter. It costs money and labor and its not a one time fixed cost. And when you factor in everything, it's cheaper to just use an existing commercial site not limited to coins that is devoted to having a lot of web space available for a cost.

Thing is, a lot of people already have web space available with their internet accounts. That should be used first.

stujoe

<< <i>OK guys, I appreciate the informationm (and I may use the information in the future), but I still think you are missing the point a bit. These organizations (ANA, PCGS, etc.) have been around (some for a long time, others for more than just a few years) for a while. It is time for them to realize the internet is hear to stay. >>



I believe that the ANA is in the process of redoing their website. I doubt image hosting is in their plans as there are so many places that already do it and you would have to come up with something so the Ebay sellers didn't suck down all your bandwidth posting auctions. It would be neat, though probably expensive and there are much better specialized sites already out there.

The ANA, however, does need a new website but bad. Theirs is pitiful as it stands and I hope they do some good with the new one. They need a forum, more educational displays, and an updated look at the very least, IMHO. They do right now provide webspace for their member clubs but I don't know how limited it is or how that is going to change.