Facebook Coin Pages/Groups?

[Coinery]

Has FB anything to do with the lack of interest/engagement in old, fuddy-duddy, antiquated forum groups? Are there new ways that people are getting their coin engagements and fixes?

What’s your thoughts?

[Nonmortuus]

The facebook groups are certainly busy but the wealth of knowledge here is superb.

[Peckris 2]

I've seen a couple of Facebook groups, but they seem to be relatively inexperienced collectors excited by very average stuff. Oh and convinced that the odd cud is a rare variety!

[jelida]

I’m really not convinced that Facebook offers the useful archive of information going back years that the forum does, and its excellent search facility. However I don’t use Facebook for coins…..any particularly recommended groups?

Jerry

[Old Money]

10 hours ago, jelida said:

I’m really not convinced that Facebook offers the useful archive of information going back years that the forum does, and its excellent search facility. However I don’t use Facebook for coins…..any particularly recommended groups?

Jerry

They all seem to be platforms for selling rather than educating

[Rob]

25 minutes ago, Old Money said:

They all seem to be platforms for selling rather than educating

That's not too surprising, as everyone wants to make a quick buck and education improves decision making, which is unhelpful for sales in most instances. A comparison between rare as in half a dozen known and rare as in only a million struck puts things into perspective. 

[TomGoodheart]

I belong to a couple which, occasionally, have more interesting posts. Most I agree appear to have been set up primarily as a selling platform. But a few have a lot of expertise to hand. For example English Hammered and Early Milled has Dave Greenhalgh, Paul Withers, Gary Oddie who a few here may know. But it's hard to keep a group 'educational' and free (or at least not overwhelmed) from 'Need an ID an what's it worth' posts ..

Plus, perhaps not unsurprisingly, a fair few dealers are offering their stock on FB before ebay and sometimes in preference to (or at least before) listing on their own sites. It makes it more of a challenge to find things you want before they're snapped up, though I perfectly understand a sale is a sale and when there are over 15000 members to a group, even if only 5% are really active it's a pretty effective platform ..

As for here .. I do pop in regularly. However my collecting interests are really very narrow these days and there's not much overlap with the forum content ... 

[Nonmortuus]

13 hours ago, jelida said:

I’m really not convinced that Facebook offers the useful archive of information going back years that the forum does, and its excellent search facility. However I don’t use Facebook for coins…..any particularly recommended groups?

Jerry

Hi Jerry,

Here are a few of the more useful and/or busy ones.

https://facebook.com/groups/259534051467342/

https://facebook.com/groups/2465098747044680/

https://facebook.com/groups/1612487989090789/

https://facebook.com/groups/ConderCafe/

[Zo Arms]

4 hours ago, Old Money said:

They all seem to be platforms for selling rather than educating

I agree.

I'm a member of a halfpenny group. Very little to no discussion. More a platform to show beautiful coins.(Which is informative in its own right. I'm not knocking it.)

Which is a shame really, because there is a wealth of knowledge amongst some of the bigger name members.

[jelida]

4 hours ago, Nonmortuus said:

Hi Jerry,

Here are a few of the more useful and/or busy ones.

https://facebook.com/groups/259534051467342/

https://facebook.com/groups/2465098747044680/

https://facebook.com/groups/1612487989090789/

https://facebook.com/groups/ConderCafe/

Thanks Paul, I have applied to join a couple and will take a look. It might cure my EBay addiction😯

Jerry

[Zo Arms]

7 minutes ago, jelida said:

Thanks Paul, I have applied to join a couple and will take a look. It might cure my EBay addiction😯

Jerry

Believe me. It won't.

You now have another Master.😁

[Rob]

Posts are only any use if they can be retrieved. Is there a search facility on FB? I ask this because the wife has used it but when she says I should look at this post - she can't find it because life has moved on and there's been a zillion replies, mostly of vacuous nonsense.

[Peckris 2]

4 hours ago, Rob said:

Posts are only any use if they can be retrieved. Is there a search facility on FB? I ask this because the wife has used it but when she says I should look at this post - she can't find it because life has moved on and there's been a zillion replies, mostly of vacuous nonsense.

there is indeed - rather than the overall Facebook search, groups have their own search field (side rather than top) where you can restrict search to only the posts in that group. The only thing s - I don't know how far back it will go.

[Rob]

12 hours ago, Nonmortuus said:

Hi Jerry,

Here are a few of the more useful and/or busy ones.

https://facebook.com/groups/259534051467342/

https://facebook.com/groups/2465098747044680/

https://facebook.com/groups/1612487989090789/

https://facebook.com/groups/ConderCafe/

Is the restricted scope generally typical of FB? The above all have specific fields of interest unlike this or other forums. Is there anything with unrestricted cover? As Richard notes above, there are a few well known names about, but if the scope is limited, then it seems a wasted opportunity.

Realistically, when dealing with more knowledgeable minds, you would probably be better speaking at a fair, phoning or emailing, which trumps any forum/group discussion which tend to have short posts because many people can't be bothered formulating or reading lengthy replies. From a personal perspective, I regularly end up discussing a query for anything from 10 minutes to an hour because few things are that straightforward.

[Coinery]

4 hours ago, Peckris 2 said:

there is indeed - rather than the overall Facebook search, groups have their own search field (side rather than top) where you can restrict search to only the posts in that group. The only thing s - I don't know how far back it will go.

It’s not that successful searching within the group on FB, I’m a member of a couple of vehicle groups, and I really struggle to find things I’ve previously seen.

[Coinery]

Sorry @jelida but I don’t belong to any coin groups so can’t recommend them unfortunately.

I think you make good points @Rob and @TomGoodheart re the searching of historic posts plus, I guess, you have to have been online at the time, or they’ll be buried long before you see them anyway?

[Coinery]

15 hours ago, TomGoodheart said:

I belong to a couple which, occasionally, have more interesting posts. Most I agree appear to have been set up primarily as a selling platform. But a few have a lot of expertise to hand. For example English Hammered and Early Milled has Dave Greenhalgh, Paul Withers, Gary Oddie who a few here may know. But it's hard to keep a group 'educational' and free (or at least not overwhelmed) from 'Need an ID an what's it worth' posts ..

Plus, perhaps not unsurprisingly, a fair few dealers are offering their stock on FB before ebay and sometimes in preference to (or at least before) listing on their own sites. It makes it more of a challenge to find things you want before they're snapped up, though I perfectly understand a sale is a sale and when there are over 15000 members to a group, even if only 5% are really active it's a pretty effective platform ..

As for here .. I do pop in regularly. However my collecting interests are really very narrow these days and there's not much overlap with the forum content ... 

Is this the one?

 

[Rob]

5 minutes ago, Coinery said:

Sorry @jelida but I don’t belong to any coin groups so can’t recommend them unfortunately.

I think you make good points @Rob and @TomGoodheart re the searching of historic posts plus, I guess, you have to have been online at the time, or they’ll be buried long before you see them anyway?

I think that sums up the biggest problem with FB. I might go a week without looking at the forum, or on other occasions visit a few times a day. Not all of us live on our phones, so difficulty in finding old posts and replying is a bit of a negative.

[Coinery]

37 minutes ago, Rob said:

I think that sums up the biggest problem with FB. I might go a week without looking at the forum, or on other occasions visit a few times a day. Not all of us live on our phones, so difficulty in finding old posts and replying is a bit of a negative.

Agreed!

I’m thinking I’ll take a look at the Hammered FB group for a few days, just to see what goes on, but I’m not seeing it working tbh?

[Rob]

6 hours ago, Coinery said:

Agreed!

I’m thinking I’ll take a look at the Hammered FB group for a few days, just to see what goes on, but I’m not seeing it working tbh?

A report on how you get on would be useful. 

Aside from the good search facility, one of the real advantages of this forum is the indicator of which threads have posts you haven't read - and it goes to the first unread one with a simple click. Or alternatively, the new thread indicator which again goes to the first post. If you have to scroll back up through days of posts to get to the point where you last read, I can see an awful lot of things being missed, not to mention the need to separate out the different topics, which appears to be a major issue if replies get buried. 

[TomGoodheart]

Yes. Facebook search is poor. Mainly I suspect because the FB format wasn't really designed for such things as detailed discussion. However it has the numbers as it's still commonly used by people of my age to keep in touch with far-spread family members. A few of us did set up a series of posts detailing the coinage of Charles I on the The Coins of Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland group, but even those seem to be buried now.

And yes, @Coinery  that's the one. Though like others it's still a sales site for the admins there, it's a bit more active than many and has reasonably interesting content.

 @Rob  I think groups tend to specialise so they don't get swamped with content which, for most members, is of limited interest. Still get Roman, European and modern coins on the English Hammered group Stu highlighted above, but Admins remove them promptly as they fall outside the scope of that group.

There are places that have a broader coverage, such as Coin Community Forum, but even there they set aside sub-forums for different areas ...

Agreed. The setup here is much better for keeping tabs on things of interest and getting alerts for what's new. And yes, I'm on 'the internet' a lot. About 70 permanently open tabs, several hours every day .. and I still miss things that interest me at times. 😕

But then I don't go to coin fairs, so buying online or bidding, again online, at auction is how I keep building my collection. It's also easier than a trip to the British Museum or Library when I want to do a bit of research, so to me the time 'invested' is worth it ..

[Coinery]

I guess something that has always concerned me with Facebook is security.
It’s always bothered me here, for example, that Coin Acquisition of the Week is unprotected, it’s not even in the Members’ section, and is basically a great big ‘hello’ to all the world that there are valuables around if they can only work out where you live (this is a little more challenging on a forum, I know, and some of us bank/alternatively store collections…but not everyone)? However, with Facebook that risk is multiplied near-infinitely, I’d say, with ill-considered page profiles making it very easy to track individuals down, almost to their door in some cases. With FB you can, in many cases, quickly find out where people regularly drink/eat, what they drive, where they work, etc. all within a few seconds…I guess this would be a major consideration of mine re FB coin groups!

Edited September 28, 2023 by Coinery

[Peckris 2]

21 hours ago, Rob said:

Is the restricted scope generally typical of FB? The above all have specific fields of interest unlike this or other forums. Is there anything with unrestricted cover? As Richard notes above, there are a few well known names about, but if the scope is limited, then it seems a wasted opportunity.

There's a general predecimal group - can't remember the precise name but if you search "predecimal" you should find it. (I know Declan is a member.) Once you've joined you'll get a Notification for every new post so you can catch up. Mind you, I'm in Facebook every day so not a problem for me.

[SilverAge3]

On 9/28/2023 at 6:01 AM, TomGoodheart said:

Yes. Facebook search is poor. Mainly I suspect because the FB format wasn't really designed for such things as detailed discussion. However it has the numbers as it's still commonly used by people of my age to keep in touch with far-spread family members. A few of us did set up a series of posts detailing the coinage of Charles I on the The Coins of Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland group, but even those seem to be buried now.

I'm no longer on FB, but I remember the period prior to the formation of groups. FB never had a great search function, as it wasn't tailored at the outset to function as forums do. Nonetheless, FB largely killed forums of all types (for all my varied interests), sadly. Even with the creation of groups on FB, they never replaced the wealth of knowledge present in forums.  I wouldn't be upset had they been used as a side means of posting sales/trades, since they do that well, but the fact forums all suffered, many to the point of folding, no longer hosted, it's disheartening. When I was on FB I ran some groups and tried adding 'notes' and 'files' and pinning informational topics, etc., but it still wasn't the same as a good old forum. But now hardly any activity happens in forums, so while older information is housed on them (if they're still hosted), it isn't necessarily current. I wish I had an idea how to draw people back, but I don't know that it's feasible, any more than getting numbers of people back on irc or in bulletin boards.  Telegram (TG) and Discord may offer some more possibilities, perhaps, but layout still offers less than some aspects of forums, but more likely to entice groups of people.  I personally use Telegram regularly, maybe a predecimal TG group could be tried out.

[Mr T]

I don't care for Discord as a forum replacement - not so easy to search, and it's very easy to miss a discussion if you leave it too long. Forums and threads work best I think, and that's what I prefer.