Evolution of net54/Message Boards

[Leon]

From my view, and as I look down the front page of threads, I see some pretty good ones asking about a lot of stuff....with a ton of info in them. Lots of scans and lots of information. From the analytics we have installed I can say the board is more active than ever. Do a few Google searches for vintage baseball anything and this forum is at or near the top almost every time. I believe that means we have a lot of activity and the growth is organic. I get SEO (search engine optimization) spam emails from companies more than once a day and have never done any of them. Our advertising externally is very minimal besides word of mouth. Recently the number of threads per page, on all forums, was increased from 35 to 40 because of the increase in activity. And as far as posts looking like tweets, I really don't know as I don't use Twitter. I know I don't care for broken and crappily spelled posts and will say something when they look like hieroglyphics. A little misspelling is expected (I know I am not great) but those broken looking messages aren't too cool. If people are too lazy to type a full word, most of the time, then maybe this isn't a great board for them. There are many forums where they can act like they are tweeting but i don't think this is going to be one of them.

[Peter_Spaeth]

It seems a lot of younger folks spend an inordinate amount of time online with their portable devices, broadcasting their every mundane move and reading the same about 100 other people half of whom they barely know. At the same time, they rarely seem to actually talk to each other.

[ullmandds]

Leon...don't get me wrong...I def agree there are a lot of interesting and worthwhile topics being discussed...and there is no such thing as a stupid question...and sometimes these "stupid" questions spawn interesting conversations...but...you know what I'm trying to say?!?!

[Leon]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

Leon...don't get me wrong...I def agree there are a lot of interesting and worthwhile topics being discussed...and there is no such thing as a stupid question...and sometimes these "stupid" questions spawn interesting conversations...but...you know what I'm trying to say?!?!

I know what you are saying Peter. For the most part, as my last post stated, I agree. However, as Sushi just posted, it is a new society. My 16 yr old daughter is on her Iphone every second she is awake, except during classes. She tweets, Instagrams, Pentagrams?, does Facebook and everything all of the other kids do. So, I do think, even though my last post sounded a bit stern, we still need to compromise a bit. I still would prefer the forum not looking like a chat session on tweeter. (is that even possible, I don't know). It's kind of like us dinosaurs sharing our cage with new kids on the block. I prefer this site to be conducive to everyone who wants to collect. At the end of the day this forum is what we make of it. No more and no less. Actually, lately, I have found it more entertaining than ever....but maybe that is my bias.

[Jlighter]

Originally Posted by Leon

Pentagrams?

I looked this up thinking it was going to be some satanic website.

Turns out its some consultancy firm.

http://www.pentagram.com/work/#/all/all/newest/

Good to see your daughter is networking at such a young age.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Jlighter

I looked this up thinking it was going to be some satanic website.

Turns out its some consultancy firm.

http://www.pentagram.com/work/#/all/all/newest/

Good to see your daughter is networking at such a young age.

Taking what I say about new technology, seriously, could be dangerous to your health. I will go, but it's going to be kicking and screaming .

[nolemmings]

I certainly am online much of the time. What I don't understand is the broadcasting of people's every move throughout the day and everything that happens in their lives.

Peter, thought you might like to know I just finished breakfast--a bagel with cream cheese, you know in the little plastic container,the garden vegetable kind, not the salmon one. I hate the salmon one, my dad once got sick on it.

Listened to the radio when I dropped my daughter off at school this morning. That Dan Patrick is so cool. I think we use the same kind of toothpaste.

Have a meeting in an hour. Can't be late, but broke a shoelace and need to get to Walgreen's. They have 'em, right? Can't figure out where to have lunch--what sounds good today? I'll be back later to go over tonight's TV schedule.

[SushiX37]

I'm somewhat new here still, having only been on for a year or so. I lurked for a while, really just trying to get as much information as I could about this sickness that seemed to grab me from out of nowhere. The night I won my first t206 was the beginning of the end. I'm hooked now.

I'm somewhat active on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn (for work) and Instagram. Twitter is especially useful for news, sport related or otherwise. I have two teenage daughters that are on their mobile devices all the time. This is just how society has evolved. I can keep in touch with the two of them via a short text message or Facebook post. I can also keep an eye on them this way. My parents never had this kind of access to me and my social life (thank goodness). I'm respectful of their privacy, but make sure they understand that anything they post/email/tweet/etc can and will be public information.

How does that all relate to Net54? I believe that even if you don't currently subscribe to any of these social media outlets, you are still exposed to them, and eventually they will change how you post/respond/interact on message boards. There has been an influx of "look at my stuff" posts lately, but to a certain extent that isn't bad. The more information out there, the better. Like I said above, most of the information I gathered early on about this hobby came from this message board. My suggestion to anyone thinking about posting a "look at my stuff" message would be to post either how you aquired it, some additional information about the card/set or player, or at the very least some information about your collection and how this new piece fits. High resolution pictures don't hurt either.

Thanks everyone for the wealth of information here. Keep up the great posts!

Rich

[Sean1125]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

It seems a lot of younger folks spend an inordinate amount of time online with their portable devices, broadcasting their every mundane move and reading the same about 100 other people half of whom they barely know. At the same time, they rarely seem to actually talk to each other.

Hi, younger folk here, I spend 80-90% of my time that isn't 'out and about' or dealing with people online. If I am home I am likely looking something up on the computer or reading a thread on one of many forums... Even mobile I pull everything up on my phone.

[Peter_Spaeth]

I certainly am online much of the time. What I don't understand is the broadcasting of people's every move throughout the day and everything that happens in their lives.

[Sean1125]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

I certainly am online much of the time. What I don't understand is the broadcasting of people's every move throughout the day and everything that happens in their lives.

Oh... I don't either, I don't even have facebook... I guarantee you will never find a photo of me online uploaded by me either... It makes no sense to me why people would even want to do this... My sister will go out and take 50 different photos to select one to put on a profile, it is ridiculous.

[sportscardpete]

Being an active user of facebook, I prefer this site's nonsense 10000x more than I do facebooks. At least there isn't any love drama here (that I know of)....

[npa589]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

I certainly am online much of the time. What I don't understand is the broadcasting of people's every move throughout the day and everything that happens in their lives.

Peter, I've never understood it either. I just want to tell all of them to have some pride in themselves. The idea of acknowledging I am "FOLLOWING" someone makes that little guy in my stomach stand up and sprint around with ferocity. For many, it's their source of worth and the fallacy that people care about every tiny thing they're doing encourages them daily.

I know I am in the minority, but, I am 27 and I HATE social media. I have no facebook, and I will never have a twitter account. I don't care if I decided to go on some stupid American Idol or The Voice show just to make some money, I would still not make a twitter account. I was at University of Miami within the first few months of Facebook growing, and saw someone on it. I checked it out, but I would only go on to play games, such as Scrabble or Bejeweled. I deleted my account 3 or 4 years ago, which caused friends and even family to ask me (literally, my grandma asked me...) "How am I going to get into contact with you now??? Don't leave!"


About Net54's threads showing resemblance to the form of communication on social media, I think there are elements of certain threads that are rather similar, but, I think for the most part, one could still consider Net54 a safe haven from social media.

.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by npa589

Peter, I've never understood it either. I just want to tell all of them to have some pride in themselves. The idea of acknowledging I am "FOLLOWING" someone makes that little guy in my stomach stand up and sprint around with ferocity. For many, it's their source of worth and the fallacy that people care about every tiny thing their doing encourages them daily.

Well-said. My take on it is that people place too much importance on themselves. Too few realize that "we are all just extras in everyone else's play" (I think FDR said that?). Blogs, Tweets and Facebook pages are proof of this. My family and close friends care about me, but even they don't want to hear my every thought - some bloggers and tweeters, on the other hand, seem to think that their followers spend the day contemplating their every word.

I post a lot, but I basically only post here, and I'm unemployed, and most importantly, I realize that there are those here who think I'm totally full of crap, and others who are skipping past this, simply because I'm the one who posted it I think that is a GREAT dynamic.

Scott's Tweet: Reading the newspaper (one made out of actual paper), drinking coffee, dog at my side, heading down to Puget Sound for a walk.....will continue reading my book (and posting) when I get home.

Hope to meet a few more of you in real life some day.

[SushiX37]

Originally Posted by Runscott

My take on it is that people place too much importance on themselves. Too few realize that "we are all just extras in everyone else's play" (I think FDR said that?). Blogs, Tweets and Facebook pages are proof of this. My family and close friends care about me, but even they don't want to hear my every thought - some bloggers and tweeters, on the other hand, seem to think that their followers spend the day contemplating their every word.

You are missing out on the bigger picture. If you are a 13 year old girl, then what you said above applies. There is news and information available through social media that you can't find elsewhere. My company is very connected with social media, it's a key piece of our marketing effort. Nevermind the humor that you can find through social media. If you don't believe me, look up some of the tweets from The Iron Sheik, the wrestler from the 80s. That's comic relief at it's best.

All I'm saying is, embrace the future rather that running scared from it. There really is a whole new world out there.

Rich

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by Runscott

Scott's Tweet: Reading the newspaper (one made out of actual paper), drinking coffee, dog at my side, heading down to Puget Sound for a walk.....will continue reading my book (and posting) when I get home.

Hope to meet a few more of you in real life some day.

Scott,

PM sent.

Best Regards,

Eric

[EvilKing00]

Originally Posted by Leon

From my view, and as I look down the front page of threads, I see some pretty good ones asking about a lot of stuff....with a ton of info in them. Lots of scans and lots of information. From the analytics we have installed I can say the board is more active than ever. Do a few Google searches for vintage baseball anything and this forum is at or near the top almost every time. I believe that means we have a lot of activity and the growth is organic. I get SEO (search engine optimization) spam emails from companies more than once a day and have never done any of them. Our advertising externally is very minimal besides word of mouth. Recently the number of threads per page, on all forums, was increased from 35 to 40 because of the increase in activity. And as far as posts looking like tweets, I really don't know as I don't use Twitter. I know I don't care for broken and crappily spelled posts and will say something when they look like hieroglyphics. A little misspelling is expected (I know I am not great) but those broken looking messages aren't too cool. If people are too lazy to type a full word, most of the time, then maybe this isn't a great board for them. There are many forums where they can act like they are tweeting but i don't think this is going to be one of them.

SEO, is a waste of money, the content on the site is what SE scan on an amlost daily basis. As well as your meta tags. Your meta key words currently are not many. Its real easy to add them if you want to, i would be happy to talk you throught it if you like.


FYI i hate face book and i have no idea about or interest in tweeting, lol

[Leon]

Originally Posted by EvilKing00

As well as your meta tags. York meta key words currently are not many. Its real easy to add them if you want to, i would be happy to talk you throught it if you like.

Is this like a tree falling and no one hearing it? I barely know what a meta whatever it is, is? If I don't know what it is do I really need it? I am just happy people participate. I am a simple kind of guy.

[EvilKing00]

Originally Posted by Leon

Is this like a tree falling and no one hearing it? I barely know what a meta whatever it is, is? If I don't know what it is do I really need it? I am just happy people participate. I am a simple kind of guy.

meta tags are , like....A bill board for search engines, they read the text you have placed (the meta tags) and adjust their search results accordingly. example, if one of your , key word metta tags is, "Pizza" and someone does a google search on Pizza, you will have a certain preferance in the order all the sites with pizza come up.

Basicly it helps in your search rank for certain words that people search for.

[EvilKing00]

If you right clck your mouse, and go to view source you can see your , or any websites, metta tags, and all their HTML for that matter.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by EvilKing00

If you right clck your mouse, and go to view source you can see your , or any websites, metta tags, and all their HTML for that matter.

In the backend of our s/w we do have these meta tags..

vintage baseball cards autographs memorabilia

As well as there is a meta phrase too.....

[AMBST95]

I find that with any new technology there are people who tend to abuse or overuse it. Just because you can tweet or update your status on facebook doesn't mean you need to do it. Some individuals just lack a filter. I understand your point about the posts and also have found some to be a little annoying, but as individuals grow in to themselves on the board, some of this will die down. The fact that more members are joining now than ever just means there are more collectors that are psyched about the hobby and want to share. This is a great thing and these new collectors should eventually develop a Net54 filter as the newness of this "technology" starts to wear off.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by AMBST95

I find that with any new technology there are people who tend to abuse or overuse it. Just because you can tweet or update your status on facebook doesn't mean you need to do it. Some individuals just lack a filter. I understand your point about the posts and also have found some to be a little annoying, but as individuals grow in to themselves on the board, some of this will die down. The fact that more members are joining now than ever just means there are more collectors that are psyched about the hobby and want to share. This is a great thing and these new collectors should eventually develop a Net54 filter as the newness of this "technology" starts to wear off.

We had 107 new members register last month. That is about average nowadays.