Fossils for all

[PRK]

Possibly it's just me, or does it seem there are far less posts about

fossils in the west. Has this site morphed into a Paleozoic forum?

[caldigger]

I'm seeing a lot of posts on western state finds on the Forum Facebook page. I know there are a lot of members out west, maybe they are a bit more reluctant to post for some reason. 

[Fossildude19]

Apparently, the Paleozoic folk are more keen to post and share their finds.  

 

I think it's just cyclical, like anything. 

 

Fossil hunting season is coming to a close in the northern midwest, and northeast. People are getting their last or next to last trips in.

Those people are going through their finds from the summer and spring, and getting them posted. 

 

The Florida and southeast people will be gearing up to post more with their seasons coming on.

Perhaps the west coasters will be coming back around in the near future. 

 

And I know PFooley has been posting some things fairly recently. 

Plus, you have RJB's crab and nautilus concretions - those are western, aren't they?

 

Regards,

 

 

 

[PRK]

How DO I use FF Facebook?

[caldigger]

Go to Facebook and type in TheFossilForum, same as here. And there ya go!

But you don't want to leave here, we're your family. Sob, sob, sniff, sniff! We miss you already!

[jpc]

I am guilty.  I have several long posts to post, but just haven't had the time.  Lots of good stuff collected by me this past summer in Wyoming.  

 

[FossilDAWG]

I have to say I have very mixed feelings (well, mostly negative) about the facebook version of the forum.  It seems a lot of people have migrated over there, so now we have two sets of people who all are forum members but never (or rarely) meet.  As one example, RichW used to post here a lot but he's been gone for a long time, taking his vertebrate paleontology expertise with him.  Also the last time I looked (which was a while ago I admit) the facebook version was just one long string of comments without any organization (such as "hunting trips", "fossil ID" etc) so any topic that gets introduced is almost immediately buried and lost.  Facebook is fine for "show and tell" but it is useless as a medium for archiving information in an organized and searchable manner.

 

Don

[Kane]

My reservations are a product of my understanding of Facebook's practices. I am not comfortable with its terms of service that assign distribution rights over the posts of others, nor their targeted advertising data mining provisions, and so I generally eschew the use of said sites. I've been "Facebook free" for over six years, and would prefer to conduct my conversations over our mutual interest without the watchful blue eye of FB

[Ridgehiker]

4 hours ago, PRK said:

Possibly it's just me, or does it seem there are far less posts about

fossils in the west. Has this site morphed into a Paleozoic forum?

 

I find the reverse. The site is disproportionately top heavy on recent shark material and Cretaceous dinos...together just a small percent of the geologic time scale. If paleontology was proportioned on the Fossil Forum , there would be more Paleozoic postings.

 

Having said that, more of one topic doesn't distract from the topics I prefer. There could be three times the current number posts on Florida shark teeth and it has no impact on my enjoyment of this site.  I'm sure that a few  folks in Florida role their eyes at more Dino posts...and Dino folks might not be all that interested in brachiopods, etc. But, no need to click on any posting. 

 

Re Facebook. i had no idea there was a FF.  Its hard to see the format taking away from the keeners that use this site.

 

 

[Ludwigia]

35 minutes ago, Canadawest said:

 

 

Re Facebook. i had no idea there was a FF.  Its hard to see the format taking away from the keeners that use this site.

 

 

 

It is however unfortunately true for some inexplicable reason. We have had the same problem at Steinkern. A few years ago a couple of guys opened up Steinkern groups on Facebook. There was a lot of debate about the pros and cons, but in the end the admins ended up bowing to it. We used to have at least 50 regular users back then with a lot of irregulars piping in every now and again. Now it's down to a lot less activity and it doesn't look like it'll be improving in the near future either. However, the general friendly atmosphere here at TFF certainly will continue to contribute to continuity. Steinkern did have its problems sometimes in that respect, which frightened a few people away.

[tmaier]

I'm finding that there are more posts about teeth now. I believe this is a repressed and regressive subconcious desire of people to become dentists. I have to admit dentistry is a very sexy field.

[caldigger]

Oh those sterile white smocks...don't get me started!

 

I had joined the Facebook TFF site but rarely snuggle in for an extended visit. I get repeated posts on my email alert and it is usuallly a first timer wanting an ID. I have seen a few of the members here on there, but for the most part, I don't recognize most of the posters on the Facebook page. I must agree the format of Facebook makes it extremely difficult to follow a thread and if you don't follow it constantly, it will likely be buried and lost if you don't spend hours combing through stacks of posts.

I am much more comfortable with this format and don't have to worry about losing a thread if I am not on for a few days. Very happy here and in case you didn't see my huge pile of luggage, I intend to stay a while.

 

 

 

[FossilDAWG]

I think the facebook version took off during the time when the "regular" fossil forum was down for an extended period due to some sort of a cyber attack.

 

Don

[Shamalama]

The Facebook version was also started, and is moderated by, a FF user who had some "disputes" with mods on the board I think.

[JohnJ]

2 hours ago, Shamalama said:

The Facebook version was also started, and is moderated by, a FF user who had some "disputes" with mods on the board I think.

 

Incorrect.

 

The Facebook Fossil Forum page and group were both started by @Cris, the owner of The Fossil Forum.  @RichW9090 has the full endorsement of our Staff.

[PFOOLEY]

On 11/8/2016 at 9:55 AM, PRK said:

...does it seem there are far less posts about fossils in the west...

 

It does...I have been hoping your would share more tales of your storied fossil past of collecting in the West.

[Mediospirifer]

18 hours ago, tmaier said:

I'm finding that there are more posts about teeth now. I believe this is a repressed and regressive subconcious desire of people to become dentists. I have to admit dentistry is a very sexy field.


 

 

Well, I have been spending time using dental picks, though not on teeth.  The smooth-shelled bivalve I'm using for a practice piece in learning to prep my fossils is coming out nicely!

 

[Shamalama]

22 hours ago, JohnJ said:

 

Incorrect.

 

The Facebook Fossil Forum page and group were both started by @Cris, the owner of The Fossil Forum.  @RichW9090 has the full endorsement of our Staff.

 

My apologies. My information was based on rumors and I'm happy to learn that I was incorrect. Thanks @JohnJ

[RichW9090]

Yes, it is true, I am seldom on the mother-ship website these days.  I put a lot of time into moderating the Facebook page.  We've grown to almost 6000 members there.  That has been a steady growth for 3 1/2 years.  So it does appeal to a certain community of folks.  There is about 5 - 10% overlap in membership, but it is true that they are two very different communities.  To abandon the Facebook outreach means that there would be 5000 fewer people getting involved with fossils.  When I agreed to take on that job, it meant I would give it my full attention.  So that means that I've had less time to appear here as much as I did from 2009 - 2013.  I'm also doing fewer IDs these days, as I no longer have access to a comparative collection or as extensive a library as I had before.  My collections all went to East Tennessee State University, and I sold about half my library when I retired this past February.  I also am doing a blog which soaks up a lot of time.  If anyone is interested, it is:

 

http://grandeurviewlife.blogspot.com/

I can tell you that I spend from 30 minutes to one hour each and every day on managing the FB Group.  I have a very stringent screening process for new members, and consequently we see a very low rate of spam posts.  Yes, the FB format is not ideal for long discussions.  I'm currently running a poll on another similar themed Group to see what the members there want to see or not see; I think I'll do the same thing on The Fossil Forum FB page.

 

Any questions, you can always email me: richw9090<at>aol.com.

 

Cheers,

 

Rich

[erose]

I miss Tracer!

[FossilDAWG]

Good to hear from you, RichW!

 

I just checked out your blog and it is very impressive; it has been bookmarked and will be part of my regular reading from now on.

I'll admit that I did not know that you had been asked to moderate the facebook version of FF.  We miss you here but I can understand that there is just so much (or so little) time in a day and no-one can be everywhere.

 

Hope you are enjoying retirement.

 

Don

[smt126]

I have to say that I agree with what most other said in regards to facebook versus the fossil forum. I think facebook is fine to look at and share things with friends, but to truly share information with others and to be able to access it, you need a forum like this one. I find so much useful information here, much more so about collecting than from many of the books I've read. I also think it's much more conducive to making a personal connection than the facebook version. I think facebook is great for connecting with friends and family that you don't see often, but outside of that, I just don't really see any significant use for it.

[RichW9090]

Thought you all might be interested in the results of the survey I mentioned above.  I'll also note that with the rate of growth we've experienced, and nearly 6,000 members now, our FB Group is far more than a gathering of friends and relatives - it is an educational outreach which is, I think, quite significant.

 

Quote

The Admins are interested in knowing what kinds of posts our members like, or would like to see more of. Please pick your top 3 from this list - do not choose more than three. If there are others, add them in a comment. Feel free to also tell us if there are any sorts you'd like to see fewer of, or none.

 

 

 

Pictures of fossils which include more information than ID, age and locality                                                        (100 votes)

 

 

 

Questions about fossils (other than just ID) for our resident experts, professional or avocational, to answer      (80 Votes)

 

 

Posts requesting identification of fossils someone has found                                                                               (63 votes)

 

 

 

News from the world of paleontology from other science Groups or websites                                                      (37 votes)

 

 

 

Pictures of individual fossils with identification, age and locality but no other information                                    (31 votes)

 

 

 

Links to interesting or important scientific papers on fossils                                                                                  (22 votes)

 

 

 

Field pictures of members sites with or without fossils in place                                                                             (13 votes)

 

 

 

Tips on newly published books on fossils                                                                                                               (8 votes)

 

 

 

Palaeo Art                                                                                                                                                               (7 votes)

• +2

 

 

Dinosaur or other prehistoric beast "challenges"                                                                                                    (2 votes)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, for the information of those who think that somehow the FB page is "competing" with TFF, here is the pinned post from the top of the FB Group:

************************************************

Quote

 

Reminders:

Only three posts per any 24 hour period.

When you post an image of a fossil, provide information on what, where and when.

Pictures should be in focus and include a scale.

No sales, no links to sites offering fossils for sale.

Thanks.

 
There are three entities which together make up the educational outreach program of TFF.

1. The original website at www.thefossilforum.com It is the largest and fastest growing online community on the topic of paleontology with over 700,000 posted messages and 20,000 registered members. The Website features people of all experience levels from beginners to professional paleontologists. The site has a gallery with over 21,000 images of fossils contributed by members to help teach others and assist in identifications. In addition, the information there is searchable, as it is categorized under different tabs. There is no larger data base anywhere on fossils - check it out!

2. The Fossil Forum Group on Facebook, here at https://www.facebook.com/groups/135008766530423/  You are reading this now on that Group. We have nearly 6,000 member. again ranging from beginners to professional paleontologists. Membership overlaps somewhat with the original website, somewhere around 10%.We concentrate more on identification here.

3. We have a Facebook Business Page, located at https://www.facebook.com/TheFossilForum/ This is intended to advertise the home website (#1 above) and to provide news updates about the website, such as interruptions of service, or to offer help to someone encountering problems registering, etc. It is not intended to be a place for posting your finds or asking for identifications. Such inquiries will be directed to either the home website or the Facebook Group (#1 and #2 above).

If you have any questions, you can send a personal message to any of the Admins.
 

 

 

 

 

 

[sixgill pete]

On 11/8/2016 at 3:27 PM, FossilDAWG said:

I have to say I have very mixed feelings (well, mostly negative) about the facebook version of the forum.  It seems a lot of people have migrated over there, so now we have two sets of people who all are forum members but never (or rarely) meet.  As one example, RichW used to post here a lot but he's been gone for a long time, taking his vertebrate paleontology expertise with him.  Also the last time I looked (which was a while ago I admit) the facebook version was just one long string of comments without any organization (such as "hunting trips", "fossil ID" etc) so any topic that gets introduced is almost immediately buried and lost.  Facebook is fine for "show and tell" but it is useless as a medium for archiving information in an organized and searchable manner.

 

Don

 

Personally, I do not, nor will I ever use Facebook. For any reason. That site to me is nothing but a gossip/ start problem place. To me, this is the Only Fossil Forum.

[RichW9090]

Admins:  I can't seem to remove the inordinate spacing.