Just want to tell you about a new area on the Stamporama website. I have been working with Mike (meostamps), Peter (cocollectibles) and Bobby (bobby1948), to rewrite the Links area of the Stamporama website. You will now notice an extra menu option called "Links" at the top of the screen.
You can now go to the Links area and see the links that are set up, but you can also request links to be added. When you log into the website, you will see a "Request a Link" button. Click on this button and fill in the requested information. Bobby, Mike or Peter will check that your link is working OK and all is appropriate and will activate your link for you. You will receive an email letting you know that your link has been approved.
Please join me in thanking Peter, Bobby and Mike for the work that they have done on this. Please feel free to request links that you think will be helpful to your fellow stamp collectiors.
Regards ... Tim.
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Great job, everyone 
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Nicely done. I like the classification of links.
Arno
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Very nice. Thanks for all your hard work.
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This is an outstanding idea. I'll keep my submissions to a few at a time.
Thank you as knowledge is power!!!
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Call it the technical writer/editor in me, but I'd suggest that the Heading for the link count column be changed from "Num of Links", to either "Number of Links" or "No. of Links". It looks to me as if there is room to spell out the word "Number". If not, "No." is the appropriate abbreviation for the word.
We have members from all over the world. Not all have the best handle on the English language.
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Michael,
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll take care of that.
Regards ... Tim
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i second the applause for the organizational approach. very nice and well considered..... naturally. what else would one expect from this group of players
David
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Michael#####,
I have made your requested correction.
Regards ... Tim.
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11:20:00pm
Are you looking for something philatelic? Or maybe just some information? Have you checked Stamporama's Link section lately? With over 160 links in 14 easy to navigate categories, you might be surprised at what you can find here. Click on "Home" on the menu bar, and then click on "Links." Â Â 
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I guess the thing I don''t understand and never have since joining SOR,and is not found on any of the other five Forums I belong to is. Why does a post by a member have to be approved? Do I need a Big Brother watching over me? If I am a member I should be able to post anything I want and if found to be inappropriate, A mod could delete it and a warning sent. After so many warnings. My membership could be revoked. I mean after all we are all stamp collectors except for a few that only sell stamps and this is a family oriented site so the content of any posts should be acceptable to any and all ages.
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Tinman,
Your post presumes that we, as adults, could be expected to carry ourselves like reasonable folk and have, at our core,the following of the golden rule.
Ah, if only we could mandate that our Nation as a whole, and the existence of humankind would enter a new and holy age. Sadly that is not the case, at least for now. We all have petty vices, greed, things most ignoble without keeping the others in mind. In short, we act as children in many childish ways. Hence, the need for an adult to oversee the goings on.
In our case at SOR, that 'adult' emerged as a Volunteer Committee and so far seems to have been more or less on target. Apparently you've found other forums that operate differently-as long as they are able to help their members and to grow in membership that sounds all to the good. At SOR we continue to grow, and to evolve. Your question is along the lines of that approach, but from where we are at at this time, we seem to be doing well.
How onerous is the 'big brother' overseeing to you? Intellectually I understand the point, yet practically it works rather well.
Thoughts?
Best,
Dan C.
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01:43:34pm
"I guess the thing I don''t understand and never have since joining SOR,and is not found on any of the other five Forums I belong to is. Why does a post by a member have to be approved?"
What??? Since when??? There is no system in place on SOR for reviewing posts prior to the member submitting ("posting") same.
No one has to approve any post or link prior to its submission. If your post violates a rule or is inappropriate, it is only after its submission that you will be approached by a moderator and any actions taken with respect to your post explained
If you see a notice that a post was "modified" and that post contains a link, it simply means that I activated a link because the member has difficulty doing so - and the only "review" I do at that time is to make sure the link works.
Perhaps you are talking about the system for placing a "link" in the LINKs section? The LINKs section is separate and apart from the discussion board and is there to assist members by consolidating useful links - the process for listing a link is NOT a process of censorship or "Big Brother" oversight, just a process facilitated by volunteers.
So please explain more fully that of which you speak. Unfounded and unexplained accusations are very unfair.
Bobby
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Chuck, Bobby is correct. No posts are pre-approved. You post, it's there.
I wonder how you got the idea that there was some sort of approval process for DB posts. It's not in our rules, and we've even discussed the idea. Our boards are moderated, and I think that's a good thing (I get the sense you do, too), but posts are not held in any queue pending approval.
and your post describing a process that doesn't exist demonstrates its absence.
David
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Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a feeling he was talking about getting links approved instead of just being able to post them directly. Was that what you were asking about, TinMan? If so, there are reasons for this that we can get into.
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04:59:19pm
Even so, Peter, a link can be posted in a thread on the Discussion Board without any pre-approval, so the screening process described does not apply. And, as you are a links moderator, you know that we do not "approve" links, per se, merely determine if they are in the appropriate categories and whether the link works (i.e. it "links" to the site they are supposed to link to).
Bobby
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11:44:56pm
" .. Why does a post by a member have to be approved? Do I need a Big Brother watching over me? If I am a member I should be able to post anything I want and if found to be inappropriate, A mod could delete it and a warning sent..."
I find this to be a curious statement, or query, from someone who is not exactly a spanking new member.
Skipping the fact that it is amusingly off topic of the thread, something that happens at times, I wonder where the poster got this idea ?
I certainly have posted a lot of comments, some a bit contentious, others borderline ribald as well as a few off topic and I can't recall being censored or even censured in any way. As Bobby wrote the only time one of my floating brainstorms has been modified, that I am aware or, is to assist in the posting of links or adjusting of a scan's unwieldy size, and that only occurred as I was figuring out how to do those cyber-manipulations correctly myself.
As for other forums, I belong to several, and a few do pre-approve member's posts especially those that deal with the three most interesting, most sensitive and unfortunately more divisive subjects; Religion, Politics or Sexual culture.
Perhaps there is a sentence in the rules that can be taken differently from its intended meaning that could be reworded better ?
To rephrase my sign-off line;
" .... You may think you understood what you thought I wrote, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you read is not what I thought I meant. .... "
Confusion often reigns supreme even among carefully written words.
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Strangely enough it took seeing this thread to realize there was a links section. Having fun suggesting a bunch of new links. They're all good, I swear! 
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I checked them all out and activated them for you. Good links!
Peter
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Hi Everyone,
Just want to tell you about a new area on the Stamporama website. I have been working with Mike (meostamps), Peter (cocollectibles) and Bobby (bobby1948), to rewrite the Links area of the Stamporama website. You will now notice an extra menu option called "Links" at the top of the screen.
You can now go to the Links area and see the links that are set up, but you can also request links to be added. When you log into the website, you will see a "Request a Link" button. Click on this button and fill in the requested information. Bobby, Mike or Peter will check that your link is working OK and all is appropriate and will activate your link for you. You will receive an email letting you know that your link has been approved.
Please join me in thanking Peter, Bobby and Mike for the work that they have done on this. Please feel free to request links that you think will be helpful to your fellow stamp collectiors.
Regards ... Tim.
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re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
Great job, everyone
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re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
Nicely done. I like the classification of links.
Arno
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re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
Very nice. Thanks for all your hard work.
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To error is human -to really fowl things up takes a computer
15 Jul 2013
08:26:57pm
re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
This is an outstanding idea. I'll keep my submissions to a few at a time.
Thank you as knowledge is power!!!
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re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
Call it the technical writer/editor in me, but I'd suggest that the Heading for the link count column be changed from "Num of Links", to either "Number of Links" or "No. of Links". It looks to me as if there is room to spell out the word "Number". If not, "No." is the appropriate abbreviation for the word.
We have members from all over the world. Not all have the best handle on the English language.
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re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
Michael,
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll take care of that.
Regards ... Tim
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re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
i second the applause for the organizational approach. very nice and well considered..... naturally. what else would one expect from this group of players
David
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re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
Michael#####,
I have made your requested correction.
Regards ... Tim.
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re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
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They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin
23 Jan 2014
11:20:00pm
re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
Are you looking for something philatelic? Or maybe just some information? Have you checked Stamporama's Link section lately? With over 160 links in 14 easy to navigate categories, you might be surprised at what you can find here. Click on "Home" on the menu bar, and then click on "Links." Â Â
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re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
I guess the thing I don''t understand and never have since joining SOR,and is not found on any of the other five Forums I belong to is. Why does a post by a member have to be approved? Do I need a Big Brother watching over me? If I am a member I should be able to post anything I want and if found to be inappropriate, A mod could delete it and a warning sent. After so many warnings. My membership could be revoked. I mean after all we are all stamp collectors except for a few that only sell stamps and this is a family oriented site so the content of any posts should be acceptable to any and all ages.
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Login to Like.
re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
Tinman,
Your post presumes that we, as adults, could be expected to carry ourselves like reasonable folk and have, at our core,the following of the golden rule.
Ah, if only we could mandate that our Nation as a whole, and the existence of humankind would enter a new and holy age. Sadly that is not the case, at least for now. We all have petty vices, greed, things most ignoble without keeping the others in mind. In short, we act as children in many childish ways. Hence, the need for an adult to oversee the goings on.
In our case at SOR, that 'adult' emerged as a Volunteer Committee and so far seems to have been more or less on target. Apparently you've found other forums that operate differently-as long as they are able to help their members and to grow in membership that sounds all to the good. At SOR we continue to grow, and to evolve. Your question is along the lines of that approach, but from where we are at at this time, we seem to be doing well.
How onerous is the 'big brother' overseeing to you? Intellectually I understand the point, yet practically it works rather well.
Thoughts?
Best,
Dan C.
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They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin
15 Mar 2014
01:43:34pm
re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
"I guess the thing I don''t understand and never have since joining SOR,and is not found on any of the other five Forums I belong to is. Why does a post by a member have to be approved?"
What??? Since when??? There is no system in place on SOR for reviewing posts prior to the member submitting ("posting") same.
No one has to approve any post or link prior to its submission. If your post violates a rule or is inappropriate, it is only after its submission that you will be approached by a moderator and any actions taken with respect to your post explained
If you see a notice that a post was "modified" and that post contains a link, it simply means that I activated a link because the member has difficulty doing so - and the only "review" I do at that time is to make sure the link works.
Perhaps you are talking about the system for placing a "link" in the LINKs section? The LINKs section is separate and apart from the discussion board and is there to assist members by consolidating useful links - the process for listing a link is NOT a process of censorship or "Big Brother" oversight, just a process facilitated by volunteers.
So please explain more fully that of which you speak. Unfounded and unexplained accusations are very unfair.
Bobby
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re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
Chuck, Bobby is correct. No posts are pre-approved. You post, it's there.
I wonder how you got the idea that there was some sort of approval process for DB posts. It's not in our rules, and we've even discussed the idea. Our boards are moderated, and I think that's a good thing (I get the sense you do, too), but posts are not held in any queue pending approval.
and your post describing a process that doesn't exist demonstrates its absence.
David
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04:39:04pm
re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a feeling he was talking about getting links approved instead of just being able to post them directly. Was that what you were asking about, TinMan? If so, there are reasons for this that we can get into.
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They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin
15 Mar 2014
04:59:19pm
re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
Even so, Peter, a link can be posted in a thread on the Discussion Board without any pre-approval, so the screening process described does not apply. And, as you are a links moderator, you know that we do not "approve" links, per se, merely determine if they are in the appropriate categories and whether the link works (i.e. it "links" to the site they are supposed to link to).
Bobby
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
16 Mar 2014
11:44:56pm
re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
" .. Why does a post by a member have to be approved? Do I need a Big Brother watching over me? If I am a member I should be able to post anything I want and if found to be inappropriate, A mod could delete it and a warning sent..."
I find this to be a curious statement, or query, from someone who is not exactly a spanking new member.
Skipping the fact that it is amusingly off topic of the thread, something that happens at times, I wonder where the poster got this idea ?
I certainly have posted a lot of comments, some a bit contentious, others borderline ribald as well as a few off topic and I can't recall being censored or even censured in any way. As Bobby wrote the only time one of my floating brainstorms has been modified, that I am aware or, is to assist in the posting of links or adjusting of a scan's unwieldy size, and that only occurred as I was figuring out how to do those cyber-manipulations correctly myself.
As for other forums, I belong to several, and a few do pre-approve member's posts especially those that deal with the three most interesting, most sensitive and unfortunately more divisive subjects; Religion, Politics or Sexual culture.
Perhaps there is a sentence in the rules that can be taken differently from its intended meaning that could be reworded better ?
To rephrase my sign-off line;
" .... You may think you understood what you thought I wrote, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you read is not what I thought I meant. .... "
Confusion often reigns supreme even among carefully written words.
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re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
Strangely enough it took seeing this thread to realize there was a links section. Having fun suggesting a bunch of new links. They're all good, I swear!
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12:56:15pm
re: Announcing A New Links Area on the Stamporama Website
I checked them all out and activated them for you. Good links!
Peter
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