Why is collectors secret not used much anymore?

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Annarobertson1947
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Why is collectors secret not used much anymore?

Post by Annarobertson1947 »

Ive been out of contact for a year or so, i see now that collectors secret seems to have virtually no postings, whats the score here ,does anyone know?
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Re: Why is collectors secret not used much anymore?

Post by wollastoni »

Collector's Secret is very used today (more than 400 visitors per day).
But I guess you are talking about Collector's Secret forum which is indeed "nearly dead".

CS forum was built (by myself) to challenge InsectNet forum when InsectNet forum had some serious moderation issues. Most major members of Insectnet forum came to the CS forum (+ some other key posters like Danny)

In 2018, I bought InsectNet and the moderation issues have been progressivly solved + all the key members who left InsectNet to go to CS forum came back to InsectNet.
So the CS forum has no more reason-to-be as everybody switched back to the InsectNet forum.

I could close the CS forum but it would be a pity as some people discover it before Insectnet + Google may penalize the full CS website as they would see less content.
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Re: Why is collectors secret not used much anymore?

Post by Chuck »

It should be noted that Collector's Secret Forum has some great information. It would be a shame if it disappeared. I'm sure there's a cost associated with maintenance though.

Sadly, boutique (special focus) forums have disappeared as the owners passed or interest waned, and in many cases these were the sole source of detailed information. Also seen when forum-focused companies buy forums and strip out anything that's not part of the interactive forum. All that info, lost. Some is archived, some is not.

One boutique forum I belong to experienced two catastrophic failures and lost all images- TWICE. The second time, the owner gave a half-hearted attempt to restore the photos. Subsequently, traffic dwindled. As of a month ago, the forum has disappeared. All that information, all the effort members invested, all the details, all the helpful hints, gone.

I'm a firm believer in publishing hard copy books. The information is typically vetted, it's collated, and can't just totally disappear. There are a couple discussions/ topics on CS that I've considered compiling into hardcopy for just this reason.
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Re: Why is collectors secret not used much anymore?

Post by wollastoni »

Chuck wrote: Tue May 16, 2023 2:09 pm It should be noted that Collector's Secret Forum has some great information. It would be a shame if it disappeared. I'm sure there's a cost associated with maintenance though.
Fully agree. And even if one day, I decide to close the CS Forum, an archive would be kept. (as we did with the old InsectNet forum)
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Re: Why is collectors secret not used much anymore?

Post by 58chevy »

I've been an Insectnet member since Clark owned it and I occasionally visited Collector's Secret, which had some very nice bugs for sale. However, I never knew CS had a forum. Either I was too absorbed at looking at the items for sale or the forum link was in an obscure place where it was hard to notice. Maybe other people also didn't notice the forum and that's why it fizzled out.
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Re: Why is collectors secret not used much anymore?

Post by Annarobertson1947 »

Thanks for this information, was concerned.
CS leps for sale is excellent, so now i am happy knowing that it not because of lack of interest that the forum section is almost non functional
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Re: Why is collectors secret not used much anymore?

Post by adamcotton »

58chevy wrote: Tue May 16, 2023 8:52 pm I never knew CS had a forum.
The forum at CS is generally known as the ICF (Insect Collectors' Forum). People do post there now, but much less than before Insectnet was upgraded to the new software with the ability to attach photos directly to posts.

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Re: Why is collectors secret not used much anymore?

Post by Chuck »

Also, both ICF and IN are down in regularly participating members. Some have their reasons, and like many forums, people are on FB instead.

On the latter, people are already on FB anyway, it's a broader audience, and the interface is modern. Also, younger people tend to stick to FB whereas those who joined any number of forums that started circa 2000 are still on those forums, albeit now fat and bald. FB has hurt a lot of boutique forums. Sad but reality.

On the former, people have said to me they don't participate (or much) because the conversations aren't to their interest. This amazes me, as if you want to generate traffic about a certain field of study/ method/ aspect/ etc then post and get others to join in! I'd like to see more field reports and pseudo-scientific papers, but that doesn't prohibit me from posting that stuff...but...now that I think of it, I don't get much feedback on it either.
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Re: Why is collectors secret not used much anymore?

Post by Annarobertson1947 »

Yes i see where you are coming from, im not on fb, too many friend requests and i dont like being on view worldwide.
Im happy that IN is still a valuable resource.
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Re: Why is collectors secret not used much anymore?

Post by kevinkk »

I like the Insectnet forum, I have no idea what the other forum is for. There is a variety of skill and interest levels among members. I am not a
scientist, my interests are fun bugs and that's it, I keep the ones I like and they go into cases.
That doesn't mean more specific threads and topics aren't interesting, if I have something to say, I'll chime in. I had no idea how many species
there are- so far, and I've seen books, but the variety of animals I see here is amazing, it's seemingly endless.
zark muckerburg...a cold chill brrr..
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Re: Why is collectors secret not used much anymore?

Post by Trehopr1 »

Hey kevinkk,

The ICF was created as a European alternative site
where enthusiasts from there could discuss entomology topics.

Several of us here "gravitated" over there (for a time) when the
old forum (here) and NOT under Olivier's guidance/ownership had
taken on a rather negative "wild-west" atmosphere.

I very much enjoyed that forum and contributed quite a bit as far
as threads and photographs were concerned. Certainly, a loss to the
old insectnet forum !

I cannot say that I ever really received much feedback from European
members as most of my topics were on insects (mostly) from here. But,
I'm sure others still learned something from my threads and probably
appreciated the variety of discussions.

Our member (chuck) here made very good points of facebook being
VERY popular amongst younger enthusiast/collectors and that for many
posting photo's on that forum was problematic.

**Although, honestly I figured it out and was fairly prolific with my photo's !!
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Re: Why is collectors secret not used much anymore?

Post by Chuck »

I enjoyed ICF because it was more "scientific" - more discussion on habitat, comparisons, etc. Not to knock photos, it's just my angle of interest.

A few of the regular ICF contributors who's work I enjoyed have passed, but many have just disappeared; I didn't realize how many until a couple months ago when I was searching for info there, and up would pop great posts by members I'd forgotten about.

Some people reference BugGuide, but every time I looked at the forums there they have little new. iNaturalist has discussion forums and research project pages, but the project pages go dead after time, and the discussion forums are full of people in need of serious help- including the moderators.

Speaking of Moderators, Adam sometimes dual posts to ICF and IN. But for the most part, one has to check ICF now and then; there was an interesting update to an old topic just today.

I should note, it's not just FB that's killing forums- it's video sites. The youth of today don't read, they watch videos. Sometimes they post videos. It's not very collaborative nor collated; part of the "me here now" trend that I doubt will change. The youth also don't bother to check "did somebody post this already?" no they just post the same, current hit again and again, then they all "like" the same video they and four thousand just posted. It has been predicted that forums will be dead and gone in a decade.
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