Collecting Help stickies

[Larisie]

Hey guys!

So, I know there was a general consensus that you guys though there were WAY too many stickies and it basically takes away from member questions as the stickies nearly take up the entire first page. So, I decided to kind of briefly go through them and see what I thought could be gotten rid of or moved to another forum or merged into one of the other topics. Opinions greatly welcomed, and of course I'm not a mod in there...but I'm kind of avoiding my readings for class.

Here's the list of stickies:
1. How do I write to my favorite actor?
2. How To Preserve Your Autographs
3. Translations for Fanmail Requests
4. Where to buy US stamps?
5. U.S. Customs Forms For International Shipping
6. Getting To Know The Various Forms Of Autographs
7. Handwritten vs Typed
8. Autograph reference books of all collecting fields
9. Waiting Time
10. What do I have to send via-venue?
11. What is an IRC?
12. What is an SAE, an SASE and an SSAE?
13. What are the international postal prices?
14. What do I need to include in my envelope?
15. Tips on sending photos and SASE
16. Where can I get photos from to send?
17. What do autograph abbreviations mean?

Okay, so here are my thoughts... (I'll use the numbers beside the topics to keep things shorter)

I thought we could merge #11 & #12 into #17.
#15 could be merged with #14.
There seems to be a topic like #16 in the Autograph Collecting Discussion forum. I think it's better here though, so delete the other one?
#8 could be moved to the "Is my autograph authentic" forum.
Is #5 necessary?
I feel like there is already a #7 topic somewhere. Possibly the Autograph Collecting discussion forum?
Maybe we could change #4 to add other countries instead of it being solely for buying U.S. stamps as it's obvious people are looking to buy stamps for other countries as well.

I think that was it for this forum right now. I honestly think that a lot of the stickies need to be reworked and to get rid of a lot of them, but keep all the important ones with the important content!

So all opinions welcome! Hope it was a good start at least.

Larisa

[missmaexox]

Yes, I agree.
If I'm viewing Collecting Help, I usually have to go to the 2nd page to view some questions.

-Kelsey

[BossC]

Here's the list of stickies:
1. How do I write to my favorite actor?
2. How To Preserve Your Autographs
3. Translations for Fanmail Requests
4. Where to buy US stamps?
5. U.S. Customs Forms For International Shipping
6. Getting To Know The Various Forms Of Autographs
7. Handwritten vs Typed
8. Autograph reference books of all collecting fields
9. Waiting Time
10. What do I have to send via-venue?
11. What is an IRC?
12. What is an SAE, an SASE and an SSAE?
13. What are the international postal prices?
14. What do I need to include in my envelope?
15. Tips on sending photos and SASE
16. Where can I get photos from to send?
17. What do autograph abbreviations mean?

Okay, so here are my thoughts... (I'll use the numbers beside the topics to keep things shorter)

I thought we could merge #11 & #12 into #17.
#15 could be merged with #14.
There seems to be a topic like #16 in the Autograph Collecting Discussion forum. I think it's better here though, so delete the other one?
#8 could be moved to the "Is my autograph authentic" forum.
Is #5 necessary?
I feel like there is already a #7 topic somewhere. Possibly the Autograph Collecting discussion forum?
Maybe we could change #4 to add other countries instead of it being solely for buying U.S. stamps as it's obvious people are looking to buy stamps for other countries as well.

Larisa

There ARE a lot of stickies. And I don't think they are all helpful.

My opinions:
Delete topics 2, 3, 4,5 and 8

Merge 11and 12

Merge 1 and 15

We could merge 4(if not deleted alltogether) and 13- last time I checked the US portion was out of date and it is about to change again in May.

Number 7 should be more of a discussion but not a sticky.

6 and 17 are kind of the same so they could be merged.

Just my 2 cents.

BossC

[jasonw]

Good idea Larisa
I agree that some pages should be merged.. etc {thumb2}

However, the main problem is that members dont read the stickies and ask stupid questions when they can find out for themselves if they are bothered to read the stickies

Jason

[Larisie]

Thanks for your two cents, BossC. I agree with most of what you said.

[agree] Jason, but I also believe that it's because there are so many stickies to begin with and its a little daunting (if you ask me)! So, if we could clean it up and keep the stickies to those questions that members ask the most then possibly we could have less repeated questions. I also think why there are so many repeat questions is because members just don't bother searching a 2nd or 3rd page.

[Sammya]

Hi Larisa!

That's actually pretty good idea to get rid of some stickies there. I agree with most of the changes you suggest, I personally think we could completely get rid of Where to buy us stamps?, or just merge it into What are the international postal prizes? because it's the info of the same kind.

Sammya

[Selise]

Here's the list of stickies:
1. How do I write to my favorite actor?
2. How To Preserve Your Autographs
3. Translations for Fanmail Requests
4. Where to buy US stamps?
5. U.S. Customs Forms For International Shipping
6. Getting To Know The Various Forms Of Autographs
7. Handwritten vs Typed
8. Autograph reference books of all collecting fields
9. Waiting Time
10. What do I have to send via-venue?
11. What is an IRC?
12. What is an SAE, an SASE and an SSAE?
13. What are the international postal prices?
14. What do I need to include in my envelope?
15. Tips on sending photos and SASE
16. Where can I get photos from to send?
17. What do autograph abbreviations mean?

Okay, so here are my thoughts... (I'll use the numbers beside the topics to keep things shorter)

I thought we could merge #11 & #12 into #17.
#15 could be merged with #14.
There seems to be a topic like #16 in the Autograph Collecting Discussion forum. I think it's better here though, so delete the other one?
#8 could be moved to the "Is my autograph authentic" forum.
Is #5 necessary?
I feel like there is already a #7 topic somewhere. Possibly the Autograph Collecting discussion forum?
Maybe we could change #4 to add other countries instead of it being solely for buying U.S. stamps as it's obvious people are looking to buy stamps for other countries as well.

I like your ideas. This is what I'd do:

Merge 1 & 3 Call it How do I write to my favorite Actor
Merge 6, 8, 11, 12, and 17 - call it Autographing Terms
Merge 4 and 13 - Call it Postage Prices and Places to Buy Them
Keep 2 and 9 as is. Not like anyone really reads #9 tho
Get Rid of: 7 as a sticky
Delete 5 all together - it's hardly ever used.

I think we can re-work the posts 4 and 13 and just use links to the websites of the different countries Postal Systems. It'd be easier to figure out that way since postage prices change so quickly, and that way, no one person or group of mods would have to constantly update one post here. We could direct people to the specific countries website and help figure out conversion rates.

I think in that post, we should post a link to www.xe.com which is currency exchange, and that way people can figure out how many stamps to use (if they're denominated stamps)

[admin]

Hi Larisie

Good idea

I removed/merged 3 threads. It should be fine now

Fanmail

[M:chael]

{clap} Larisie {clap}

Thanks & Great job {thumb2} That was so annoying .

[Larisie]

haha thanks, Michael. It seriously was!
So, I've taken into consideration all your ideas and began merging threads with others. There are still a few to do, but they will have to wait until next week unless someone else wants to take over?! Its the merging of #1 & 3 and #4 & 13.