Happy Birthday, RCC!
Jerry Dennis
old. Happy Birthday all.
Jerry
Mr. Jaggers
> Yes, fellow collectors. Today is our birthday. We are now 15 years
> old. Happy Birthday all.
Have you been here from the beginning?
James the Newcomer
sgt23
You can go into the archives on Google to see how long this group has
been around.
Mr. Jaggers
Yes, I could, but if Jerry says this group has been around 15 years, that's
bankable in my book.
James the Inquisitor
Jerry Dennis
August 22, 1994 is considered the official beginning:
http://tinyurl.com/3azsed (Old link that still works.)
As for my own "membership," Google's advance search feature isn't
working properly at the moment, so I don't know for sure. I seem to
remember being invited here from AOL's old Coin and Currency
Discussion Board (Jud would remember that). I lurked for a few weeks
and made my first post on, if memory serves, April 14, 2000. I used a
different screen name back then.
Jerry
Mr. Jaggers
> On Aug 22, 11:54?pm, "Mr. Jaggers" <lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com>
Would you be able and willing to furnish us with your assessment of this ng
over the period during which you have participated, in terms of level of
knowledge of participants, number of participants, their willingness and
ability to answer questions, civility, staying on topic, etc.? Some have
commented on this from time to time, but always in an effort to put down
another poster or posters, and I have a feeling that you could do a much
more objective, impartial job of it. In other words, are we hellbent, or
has there been nothing more than a change of players? I'll understand, of
course, if you wish to make no comment.
James the Taciturn
mazorj
"Mr. Jaggers" <lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com> wrote in message
news:h6rlb...@enews5.newsguy.com...
I think we'd all like to hear from Jerry on that.
FWIW, to gauge the current participation, in April I did an analysis of
thousands of rcc posts. Here's a reprise of what I found. I've only been
posting here a few years so I don't know how this compares to the level of
activity way back when, but this should be a pretty good estimate of the
regular participants as of 4/18/09:
Always an interesting question for any newsgroup. Just for grins, I looked
at the more than 5,000 posts on rcc in 2009. It all depends on your
definition of "regular" and there's no way to measure regular *readership*
so I winnowed the list to regular *contributors*. I did this by
eliminating:
<snip methodology - see my 4/18/09 post for details>
I ended up with 92 names.
YMMV but that's more than I expected. It doesn't include our "regular
lurker" readership (among which are those who even made a few posts but
didn't meet the criteria outlined above for "regular contributors"). OTOH
it includes a handful who met the contributor criteria but IMO might not be
"regular readers". Given that this exercise was a bit loosey-goosey from
the start - hey, this is UseNet, folks - I would just round it to claim an
even 100 or so regular contributors plus an unknown number of lurkers.
Mike Marotta
Of course your would say that because your a troll and I am plonking
you again, so stop posting to get my attention. Your pathetec!
Mike M.
Michael E. Marotta
"... sorry... don't know what came over me..."
Mike Marotta
Thank you for catching this. Fifteen years...
Here is arguably the first post, ahead even of the FAQ and the
Charter.
Bill Carew Aug 22 1994, 11:52 am
Newsgroups: rec.collecting.coins
From: b15...@phxbw028.phx1.aro.allied.com (Bill Carew)
Date: 22 Aug 1994 15:37:00 GMT
Subject: Phoenix coin clubs.
What coin clubs are in the Phoenix area?
--
___________________________________________________________________
Bill Carew Voice +1 602 231 1788 b15...@vaxb.phx1.aro.allied.com
Fax +1 602 231 1816 ca...@pelab.allied.com
sgt23
Ok was saying, sorry for the boughter.
Coin Collector
> Ok was saying, sorry for the boughter.
Huh?
sgt23
numist
Wow, a long time has gone by in what feels like... well, a long time.
If google search is correct my first post was in Oct. of 1997, under
another name of course.
Times fun when your swatting flies or is it time flies when your
having fun.
Something like that. Happy Birthday RCC!
Ric B.
sgt23
I haven't been here that long, but my first post came here around 2000
under another name as well.
Jerry Dennis
> "Mr. Jaggers" <lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com> wrote in message
>
>
> - Show quoted text -
I needed to reflect on this for a few days before responding. My
first post was actually on March 12, 2000. It was a discussion about
saving or spending the then-new Sacagawea golden dollars. They and
statehood quarters were the hot items.
When I first arrived, I was amazed by the amount of knowledge
available, both numismatic and general. We've had some pretty "heavy
duty" collectors, dealers and numismatists who proudly called
themselves "RCC-ers." Everyone was (and still is) welcome, from
expert to novice. Our "membership" has dropped significantly from my
earlier days. When I come here in the morning, there may be ten new
posts to read. Back then, three pages of new stuff wasn't unusual.
Though we're a coin collecting group, OT posts weren't unusual and
topics were discussed civilly (sp?). It seemed if you had a problem
or question about anything, regulars could come here and get a
straight answer. Of course we had our share of trolls and flamers who
would carry on about going to a different newsgroup. We even had our
own "spelling cop." You know the one, the guy who can't contribute
anything to any discussion, except to berate and correct everyone's
spelling. Most of us remember the worst infestation of trolls ever.
A lot of regulars then moved on to other discussion groups.
Serious questions were usually answered pretty quickly, then
degenerated to a comedy routine that would run for days. As an
example, someone once asked a legitimate question about cleaning a
coin (GASP!). Yes, the answer was soak, rinse and pat dry. No
scrubbing or chemicals of any kind. Well, by the time all of us had
our fun with it, we had an irradiated dime with no details whatsoever
that glowed in the dark.
We also had our sad moments. Over the years some of our members have
passed on. I still think about them from time to time.
Contests were kind of common for a while. Pretty much whoever want to
have one would make the rules and the prize was something numismatic.
I ran the 1933 Saint Pool. We had to guess how much the Farouk Saint
would sell for. As I recall we had over 120 entries; a lot of
regulars and a few lurkers.
It was estimated that RCC had over 300 active participants and over
1,000 lurkers at one time. I don't remember where I'd heard that, but
it seemed legitimate at the time.
So there you have my perspective from my fading memory. I'd suggest
if you want to have a little fun, Google search some key words (like
Cleaning Coins) and read the posts. For me it's nostalgia.
Jerry
Mr. Jaggers
> On Aug 23, 12:42?pm, "mazorj" <maz...@verizon.net> wrote:
>> "Mr. Jaggers" <lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com> wrote in message
>>
>>> Would you be able and willing to furnish us with your assessment of
>>> this ng over the period during which you have participated, in
>>> terms of level of knowledge of participants, number of
>>> participants, their willingness and ability to answer questions,
>>> time to time, but always in an effort to put down another poster or
>>> posters, and I have a feeling that you could do a much more
>>> or has there been nothing more than a change of players? ?I'll
>>> understand, of course, if you wish to make no comment.
>>
>>> James the Taciturn
>>
>> I think we'd all like to hear from Jerry on that.
>>
>> FWIW, to gauge the current participation, in April I did an analysis
>> of
>> only been
>> posting here a few years so I don't know how this compares to the
>> level of
>> activity way back when, but this should be a pretty good estimate of
>> the
>> regular participants as of 4/18/09:
>>
>> looked
>> at the more than 5,000 posts on rcc in 2009. ?It all depends on your
>> definition of "regular" and there's no way to measure regular
>> *readership*
>> eliminating:
>>
>> <snip methodology - see my 4/18/09 post for details>
>>
>> I ended up with 92 names.
>>
>> "regular
>> lurker" readership (among which are those who even made a few posts
>> but
>> didn't meet the criteria outlined above for "regular contributors").
>> it includes a handful who met the contributor criteria but IMO might
You've got a few rcc years on me, but I think I know what you are referring
to when you mention the troll infestation. Of course, the other grenade
that thinned the ranks in that same general era was the lawsuit. But then,
peoples' situations and interests change, too, and active members will come
and go in any organization. Plus, I think it's human nature to hark back to
one's early days and wish he could relive them or bring them back.
Thanks for this interesting and well-constructed history.
James
Coin Collector
> Times fun when your swatting flies or is it time flies when your
> having fun.
"Time flies like an arrow. A fly likes a banana" <Groucho Marx>
Thomas A.
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." ;-)
Jerry Dennis
>
> - Show quoted text -
The lawsuits definitely put a crunch on the group, but quite a few of
the named defendents fought back, HARD, daring Alan Hager to bring his
case to trial. The federal case was dismissed. I spent two days
searching for the Seminole County FL court records to find out what
ever happend to the civil case he filed. Of course, nothing is
available online.
What is worthy of note is that we all came together as one to help
each other. Though I wasn't named specifically in the lawsuit, I was
more than happy to make a donation to the Defense Fund that Eric
Tillery and the ANA set up. Apparently, Hager saw we weren't cowering
in fear. In fact, the majority were hoping it would go to court.
Hager amended his complaint and dropped quite a few RCC-ers, but his
allegations were still full of holes. If I said anything further it
would be speculation, since that's where the official record that I'm
aware of stops. If any of the parties are aware of the case's status,
and it wouldn't hurt the case, I'm sure some of us would be
interested. I'm not going to name any names since I have respect for
them and their privacy.
Jerry
Mr. Jaggers
>>> first post was actually on March 12, 2000. ?It was a discussion
>>> about saving or spending the then-new Sacagawea golden dollars.
>>
>>> When I first arrived, I was amazed by the amount of knowledge
>>> "heavy duty" collectors, dealers and numismatists who proudly called
>>> expert to novice. ?Our "membership" has dropped significantly from
>>> my earlier days. ?When I come here in the morning, there may be ten
>>> new posts to read. ?Back then, three pages of new stuff wasn't
>>> unusual.
>>
>>> Though we're a coin collecting group, OT posts weren't unusual and
>>> or question about anything, regulars could come here and get a
>>> who would carry on about going to a different newsgroup. ?We even
>>> had our own "spelling cop." ?You know the one, the guy who can't
>>> contribute anything to any discussion, except to berate and correct
>>> trolls ever. A lot of regulars then moved on to other discussion
>>> groups.
>>
>>> Serious questions were usually answered pretty quickly, then
>>> example, someone once asked a legitimate question about cleaning a
>>> scrubbing or chemicals of any kind. ?Well, by the time all of us had
>>> our fun with it, we had an irradiated dime with no details
>>> whatsoever that glowed in the dark.
>>
>>> have passed on. ?I still think about them from time to time.
>>
>>> Contests were kind of common for a while. ?Pretty much whoever want
>>> to have one would make the rules and the prize was something
>>> the Farouk Saint would sell for. ?As I recall we had over 120
>>> entries; a lot of regulars and a few lurkers.
>>
>>> It was estimated that RCC had over 300 active participants and over
>>> but it seemed legitimate at the time.
>>
>>> if you want to have a little fun, Google search some key words (like
>>
>> You've got a few rcc years on me, but I think I know what you are
>> other grenade that thinned the ranks in that same general era was
>> too, and active members will come and go in any organization. ?Plus,
>> I think it's human nature to hark back to one's early days and wish
>> he could relive them or bring them back.
>>
>> Thanks for this interesting and well-constructed history.
>>
>> James- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
> The lawsuits definitely put a crunch on the group, but quite a few of
> the named defendents fought back, HARD, daring Alan Hager to bring his
> case to trial. The federal case was dismissed. I spent two days
> searching for the Seminole County FL court records to find out what
> ever happend to the civil case he filed. Of course, nothing is
> available online.
I vaguely remember someone posting links to online documentation of the
case, and on more than one occasion.
In any event, the experience of being a defendant in a lawsuit changes a
person forever, and it would be no surprise to me to learn that many of the
defendants left rcc out of sheer exhaustion.
James the Observer
Mike Marotta
Ever the economist. Always measuring.
> ... as of 4/18/09: ... more than 5,000 posts on rcc in 2009.
> I ended up with 92 names.
From: Jerry Dennis <JDen1...@aol.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:16:36 -0700 (PDT)
> I ran the 1933 Saint Pool. We had to guess how much the Farouk Saint
> would sell for. As I recall we had over 120 entries; a lot of
> regulars and a few lurkers.
> It was estimated that RCC had over 300 active participants and over
> 1,000 lurkers at one time.
Many reasons come into play, of course. The lawsuit was one, but not
that much. Most of the people involved posted under their own names
or otherwise openly. Afterwards, some merely went to nomes de
guerre. The rise of message boards is another factor. Many came here
via AOL and CompuServe. (In fact, I think that at the 1992 Detroit
ANA, the "online" club meeting was announced as a the "CompuServe"
club meeting.) As those other services changed and as Newsgroups were
picked up by the services, AOL readership and authors increased. But
then came the message boards. From CoinPeople and Collectors Universe
then to proobably a dozen today. So, there is more competition and
more communities, rather than one big meeting place.
Also, the novelty wears off for some. People move on. Sometimes they
move back.
Finally, while the numbers are clearly down, we do get the pleasant
surprise, as now, of someone who says that they were an old poster
from way back , but have been lurking all along, and now have
something to say.
Mike M.
Michael E. Marotta
"RCC since 1994"