10 years on the Coal Forum
- Rob R.
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 17980
- Joined: Fri. Dec. 28, 2007 4:26 pm
- Location: Chazy, NY
- Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Chubby Jr
Today marks 10 years since I joined the online coal burning community. A few thoughts:
In the 10 years I have been burning coal, the price has remained relatively constant, but the availability in my area is much better. I hope that trend continues. I probably would have never attempted a boiler install without some of the contacts and information from this site. There is a TON of good information on this forum, and it will continue to help people for a long time.
It also seems like the make-up of the active posters on the forum has changed. I do not have hard data to support it, but 10 years ago it seemed like everyone signing up was just looking for a way to avoid $4 heating oil. There was as core group of people that had a lot of experience, and many of them were from the coal region. Now it seems that a lot of the older guys are no longer active members, and there are a lot of new people from many different locations. Also seems like there is a lot more interest in antique stoves than there used to be.
In the 10 years I have been burning coal, the price has remained relatively constant, but the availability in my area is much better. I hope that trend continues. I probably would have never attempted a boiler install without some of the contacts and information from this site. There is a TON of good information on this forum, and it will continue to help people for a long time.
It also seems like the make-up of the active posters on the forum has changed. I do not have hard data to support it, but 10 years ago it seemed like everyone signing up was just looking for a way to avoid $4 heating oil. There was as core group of people that had a lot of experience, and many of them were from the coal region. Now it seems that a lot of the older guys are no longer active members, and there are a lot of new people from many different locations. Also seems like there is a lot more interest in antique stoves than there used to be.
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- Member
- Posts: 2684
- Joined: Fri. Jan. 26, 2007 9:55 pm
- Location: Birdsboro PA.
- Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 350
- Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: reading allegheny stoker
- Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: alaska kodiak stoker 1986. 1987 triburner, 1987 crane diamond
- Coal Size/Type: rice
i think i joined about ten years ago also.......this forum and it's people have been a great help.
- Turbogeno
- Member
- Posts: 121
- Joined: Thu. May. 15, 2014 6:58 pm
- Location: Lake George, NY
- Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: LL Pocono
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: VC Vigilant II at home and a military surplus tent heater at camp
- Coal Size/Type: Anthracite, Rice and Nut
- Other Heating: Oil hot water baseboard and DHW
Congrats! Happy anniversary. Staying warm with without breaking our backs is the best New Years resolution I've ever had. It's 72 in the house, I have 15 minutes of work to do, ~6-8 $ to spend and I'm good to go for 18 hours. It's 5° now and a night time low of negative teens expected. As stated above, my learning curve was short with the help of the forum members.
- Rob R.
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 17980
- Joined: Fri. Dec. 28, 2007 4:26 pm
- Location: Chazy, NY
- Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Chubby Jr
You are coming up on 11 years in January. If you go into your profile it says when you joined.lincolnmania wrote: ↑Thu. Dec. 28, 2017 4:29 pmi think i joined about ten years ago also.......this forum and it's people have been a great help.
- freetown fred
- Member
- Posts: 30293
- Joined: Thu. Dec. 31, 2009 12:33 pm
- Location: Freetown,NY 13803
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: HITZER 50-93
- Coal Size/Type: BLASCHAK Nut
Congrats Rob-- Damn, I'll have 8 yrs in 3 days!! This FORUM sure made short work of that learnin curve! Seen lots of people come & go.
Last edited by freetown fred on Thu. Dec. 28, 2017 5:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- coaledsweat
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 13763
- Joined: Fri. Oct. 27, 2006 2:05 pm
- Location: Guilford, Connecticut
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Axeman Anderson 260M
- Coal Size/Type: Pea
Time really flies when you're having fun!
- Scottscoaled
- Member
- Posts: 2812
- Joined: Tue. Jan. 08, 2008 9:51 pm
- Location: Malta N.Y.
- Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520, 700, Van Wert 800 GJ 61,53
- Baseburners & Antiques: Magic Stewart 16, times 2!
- Coal Size/Type: Lots of buck
- Other Heating: Slant Fin electric boiler backup
Rob, you joined 11 days before me. You stink. Hahaha
- michaelanthony
- Member
- Posts: 4550
- Joined: Sat. Nov. 22, 2008 10:42 pm
- Location: millinocket,me.
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Vigilant 2310, gold marc box stove
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Gold Marc Independence
- Baseburners & Antiques: Home Sparkle 12
- Coal Size/Type: 'nut
- Other Heating: Fujitsu mini split, FHA oil furnace
Must be the new math Fred, I've been here 9 yrs and a month and you were an old timer then!freetown fred wrote: ↑Thu. Dec. 28, 2017 4:42 pmCongrats Rob-- Damn, I'll have 8 yrs in 3 days!! This FORUM sure made short work of that learnin curve! Seen lots of people come & go.
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- Member
- Posts: 540
- Joined: Wed. Feb. 13, 2008 8:29 pm
- Location: Sussex County N.J.
I'll be here 10 years in Feb. I've been selling coal almost ten years, Time does fly when your having fun and I have met some real fine people!
- Richard S.
- Mayor
- Posts: 15183
- Joined: Fri. Oct. 01, 2004 8:35 pm
- Location: NEPA
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Van Wert VA1200
- Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/Anthracite
I throw thsee up occasionally, Here is some statistics in case anyone is interested.
Number of posts: 623491*
Posts per day: 128.93
Number of topics: 36441**
Topics per day: 7.54
Number of users: 8664***
Users per day: 1.79
Number of attachments: 67807
Attachments per day: 14.02
Board started: Fri. Oct. 01, 2004 8:35 pm
Database size: 783.43 MiB****
Size of posted attachments: 17.68 GiB
*Total posts is actually 250K more but that would include classifieds, spam etc.
**Total topics is actually 10K more, same as above and there was about 1500 that were accidentally deleted about 10+years ago. That was before I had the fail safe backups in place and can't happen now.
***There was 27K members and bots that have registered over the years, I could not even begin to guess how many there would be had I not implemented various things to block registrations. The displayed figure is fairly accurate for people that have actually participated and includes anyone with one post. Spam accounts are deleted after one year and any account with 0 posts and no activity in one year is also deleted.
****That is uncompressed and the bulk of that is from the posts table, about 450MB for the posts table which is quite a bit for plain text. This figure would have dropped significantly from the last time I posted any stats because the search feature no longer directly uses the database.
Number of posts: 623491*
Posts per day: 128.93
Number of topics: 36441**
Topics per day: 7.54
Number of users: 8664***
Users per day: 1.79
Number of attachments: 67807
Attachments per day: 14.02
Board started: Fri. Oct. 01, 2004 8:35 pm
Database size: 783.43 MiB****
Size of posted attachments: 17.68 GiB
*Total posts is actually 250K more but that would include classifieds, spam etc.
**Total topics is actually 10K more, same as above and there was about 1500 that were accidentally deleted about 10+years ago. That was before I had the fail safe backups in place and can't happen now.
***There was 27K members and bots that have registered over the years, I could not even begin to guess how many there would be had I not implemented various things to block registrations. The displayed figure is fairly accurate for people that have actually participated and includes anyone with one post. Spam accounts are deleted after one year and any account with 0 posts and no activity in one year is also deleted.
****That is uncompressed and the bulk of that is from the posts table, about 450MB for the posts table which is quite a bit for plain text. This figure would have dropped significantly from the last time I posted any stats because the search feature no longer directly uses the database.
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- Member
- Posts: 2684
- Joined: Fri. Jan. 26, 2007 9:55 pm
- Location: Birdsboro PA.
- Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 350
- Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: reading allegheny stoker
- Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: alaska kodiak stoker 1986. 1987 triburner, 1987 crane diamond
- Coal Size/Type: rice
- freetown fred
- Member
- Posts: 30293
- Joined: Thu. Dec. 31, 2009 12:33 pm
- Location: Freetown,NY 13803
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: HITZER 50-93
- Coal Size/Type: BLASCHAK Nut
OUCH, ya young woodpecker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Been doin coal a little over 10 yrs MA. Bought the HITZER around Aug. 2009--screwed around with a few antiques before that.
michaelanthony wrote: ↑Thu. Dec. 28, 2017 6:20 pmMust be the new math Fred, I've been here 9 yrs and a month and you were an old timer then!
- Sunny Boy
- Member
- Posts: 25559
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 1:40 pm
- Location: Central NY
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Anthracite Industrial, domestic hot water heater
- Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood range 208, # 6 base heater, 2 Modern Oak 118.
- Coal Size/Type: Nuts !
- Other Heating: Oil &electric plenum furnace
On the old site, last time I checked the member posting stats, Fred held the record for the most total posts by quite a large margin.
At four years I'm more of a newbie, but, I beat him out for highest daily average. Must be a CNY thing.
Can't find those stats on this new site.
Paul
At four years I'm more of a newbie, but, I beat him out for highest daily average. Must be a CNY thing.
Can't find those stats on this new site.
Paul
- freetown fred
- Member
- Posts: 30293
- Joined: Thu. Dec. 31, 2009 12:33 pm
- Location: Freetown,NY 13803
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: HITZER 50-93
- Coal Size/Type: BLASCHAK Nut
Just remember Paul, I was laid up/ homebound for over a year with WAY to many gut surgeries--which might I add, you guys got me through that!! --anyway, posts sure do add up even when you're not havin that much fun. ----Go to your profile Paul--numbers are there. You have 13,260
Last edited by freetown fred on Thu. Dec. 28, 2017 8:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.