This is not facebook ---this is the real thing.

[akroorka]

Do not fool yourself; this is the place to be regardless of any others on any other site. Post and be rewarded with the very best opinions of your marbles that any place on this planet will provide.

 

The amount of time that this post board has been one the web speaks volumes. The people that are committed to this site are the very best that you will ever meet or talk to person to person. There is no drama here, only the very best opinions of what may be or may not be.

 

Marbles and other glass items are always regarded with the expertise that you may expect from any high end or newbie collector that is willing to share the opinions that they have learned from the experience and research that they have acquired over the years.

 

I have been collecting marbles for over 25 years and still learn much from this site.

 

I will continue to support this site with posts and any cash that will help to keep it alive. It is the best, bar none.

 

Marble---on--- and support on as well!!

[Steph]

There's good most everywhere, but this is a very nice thing for you to say.

 

Thanks to all who have gotten this place lively again.  

[bumblebee]

Here, here!

MarbleConnection is the oldest and largest marble collecting forum on the Web.

Unlike FB where interesting and valuable information seemingly vanishes into oblivion in a day, forums like this encourage discussion, reflection, learning, and storing of valuable historic and cultural information about this great hobby. I encourage everyone to use the search features to discover just how much great content there is on here.

I am grateful to Lou for allowing me to help repair it and take over operations back in early 2019. I will keep it going as long as I can. Thanks to generous donations from members, I have not had to pay out of pocket this past year for the hosting, domain name, or licensing support fees.

YTD, we have seen a 33% increase in visitor activity year over year with more engagement:

 

If growth continues, at some point in the future I could upgrade the hosting to much faster, but that would likely add $150 annually to recurring fees. So far it seems snappy enough for me but of course as more users pile on it can slow down. Will just have to wait and see!

Fun fact: because this site is so old and reputable among the search engines, I get daily requests from "search engine optimization experts" who want to pay me to post articles that link back to their sites. The reason they do this is because when an old and reputable site links out to another site, the search engines consider this an endorsement or voucher that those sites are reputable. Then the search engines give those sites a little boost in their rankings. I ignore all these because the sites in question are almost always spammy and unrelated to marble collecting.

Not-so-fun fact: Forums like ours are under constant attack from spammers and "bots" which are automated computer programs trying to break in or post spam. 95% of our new user sign-ups are fake and they never confirm their accounts, but our system is programmed to delete those after two weeks if they don't confirm their accounts, which saves me a lot of work. Sometimes these attacks force me to require users from some countries to solve a "CAPTCHA" code to prove they are real users. Recently we have been getting about 2.9k attacks a day from servers in the UK, so unfortunately our legitimate UK users have to solve a CAPTCHA each session before they can use the site.

 

[akroorka]

Great info on a little known subject.

I respect all of that work that you are doing and enjoy the fruits of all of your efforts as well.

PM me if you ever need any ideas on raising cash to keep this baby rolling. I have a few ideas and would never expect you to "out of pocket" for our enjoyment.

Marble--On and Admin on as well----Great job!!!

Thank-You !!!!!!!

[Tommy]

2 hours ago, akroorka said:

Great info on a little known subject.

I respect all of that work that you are doing and enjoy the fruits of all of your efforts as well.

PM me if you ever need any ideas on raising cash to keep this baby rolling. I have a few ideas and would never expect you to "out of pocket" for our enjoyment.

Marble--On and Admin on as well----Great job!!!

Thank-You !!!!!!!

Very well said....I also thank you !!!