Helping Members Who Just Don't Catch On

T-BOP
Go on the members forum. There is a memorial posted to him.

I wonder if anyone who has commented on this thread has taught at a public school. Teachers don't get to pick their students. One plays the hand they are dealt.

Another observation—knowledgeable members can get very worked up over someone who is delusional, and may spend an inordinate amount of time on their threads. It happens to me, too. But, if that energy was redirected towards those who are trying and working, that would be much more beneficial to all. Some members are really good at that.

There's a big difference between (a) those who join only to get confirmation of their ill-informed opinion while sometimes rudely discounting any expert advice to the contrary, and (b) those who are genuinely interested but may be slow learners.

It's natural for a subject-matter expert to get frustrated by someone who seemingly "just doesn't get it", even after repeatedly being given the same instruction or advice. I taught college algebra for non-math majors from 1980-82 at Virginia Tech, so I fully understand that feeling!

Even though I've only been a member of this forum for a few months, when I see someone in category (a) I simply ignore all their posts. Pretty easy to do, as they tend to not stick around for long.

I think for those in category (b), if they choose to stick around I believe that having patience and continuing to offer constructive guidance is the best way forward. Is it aggravating at times? Absolutely, but at least some of these folks will gradually learn and grow and start the climb up the learning curve.

I could put you into the dungeon with everything we have removed from public view. (We keep all evidence.)

The staff is small, but we do what we can.

Much of the real work is done by members using the "Report this Post to the Staff" link that is at the lower right corner of every post. Thank you, all who have done this.

A huge help comes from Bobby's automated scripts which keep most spam and all the naughty words out of our community.

I guess it is "out of sight, out of mind," but you do not want us to go on strike. Things would get ugly fast.

I do want to want to thank the moderators for the great job they do! I have been a moderator on a telescope and a science forum, and keeping posters in check is hard work. Most people don't appreciate all you do and you do really keep the place sane. I know I've clicked on a few "Report this to the Moderator" and it quickly gets removed. Usually Sunday morning the spammers are out.

So Thank you team!

@wrekked, in no way are you a clueless newby. I for one like reading your posts!

As to posts getting responses, I think I'm pretty knowledgeable and my post on coins of Portugal has barely any posts. Not everyone is interested in errors, or coins from Portugal. Personally I don't care, I post what I'm interested in! You should also. Although 200 posts to grade your Morgan dollars I would probably say you should skip ;)

That does not mean these posts aren't interesting or an enjoyable read. I enjoy reading them (about the bankbotes, too). But I don't have or feel the need to always give a written respose.

I always take everyone's opinions to heart. Most of the time it can be a little back in forth, sometimes my finds pan out some times they don't. I post what is interesting to me or does not quite make sense to me(usually if it does not make sense it's damage) but not always.

Other times questions have gone left in answered and I just drop the topic because I assume it must be something obvious but I'm just not seeing it. I know the difference between who I was when I started out here(the guy posting clearly damaged coins) thinking maybe this is an error, after doing a bunch if research I learned there is only so many errors that can occur and PMD became much more obvious to me. There is times PMD didn't add up to me like with my last two struck through coins I posted and they turned out to be errors even though some people thought damage, so questioning some times even when it is a pro like coop telling you something can end up being beneficial (like with the DDR Lincoln Cent I posted.) I do see some members with over 100 posts still just posting road kill coins, mayb one day they will do the proper research and something will finally click with them and they move forward, mayb they don't and they probably end up leaving.