One Man's Clutter...

Every so often, someone will make a post on The Chip Board complaining about what other people are posting on The Chip Board. It's usually prompted by a flame war over politics or something entirely unrelated to collecting casino chips. The poster will usually proclaim something like "Let's get back to chip collecting!!" and urge the moderator, Greg Susong to start filtering out postings that aren't strictly chip-related.

This complaining post is always met with a response that the board is open to discussions of any subject, an invitation to read Greg's message to new users, and advice to simply skip over posts that don't seem to be chip-related: If you don't like it, don't read it.

Having seen these complaining posts made repeatedly, and knowing what responses they bring, I've refrained from making my own post about something on The Chip Board that's been bothering me lately. I know I'll come off as a whiner here, but this is my forum, and if I can't whine here, where can I?

(PLEASE: If you want to rake me over the coals for my opinions expressed here, please do it here by posting a response at the end of this message. DON'T make a post about it on The Chip Board as I don't want to contribute to the clutter there.)

Okay, here's my whine: My problem isn't with discussions that aren't chip-related. In fact, it's with postings that ARE chip-related, but just not anything I think is worth taking up space on the board.

My problem is with "Your personal chip arrived" postings.

Over the past year, the creation and trading of personal chips has become one of the main focuses of the discussions on the board. As a collector who has decided NOT to have a personal chip made (yet), I sometimes skip over the messages soliciting trades of personal chips. I have no problem with people posting pictures of their personal chips and thanking whoever helped them design the chip and have it created. I think that's entirely appropriate, and I always enjoy seeing them. I also have no problem with people soliciting trades of personal chips. The Chip Board is the only logical place to do that.

However, once two collectors have made their initial contact by e-mail and agreed to trade personal chips, why do the rest of the readers of the board need to be informed of the progress of the mailing and delivery? There are messages on almost a daily basis proclaiming something to the effect of "Hey Bob, your personal chip arrived!" or "Thanks for the trade, Roger!"

Now, call me cranky, but if the two of you corresponded by e-mail to set up the trade, why can't you simply e-mail each other when the post office makes the delivery?

Each time I post a new topic on the board, I try to make it something that might interest other readers. I KNOW that readers of the board don't give a hoot what arrives in my mailbox each day, and I rarely tell them unless it's a casino chip I'm particularly proud to acquire. And in those cases, I always post a picture to share.

I know a lot of these postings are by relatively new collectors who are excited by anything chip-related that happens in their lives. I was the same way when I started out. Another reason I don't want to post this rant of mine on The Chip Board is it might discourage new collectors from posting and participating in the hobby. I don't want to do that. All I want is for them to maybe use e-mail a little more and stop using the board for their personal messaging service.

END OF RANT.