How UnitedCardists.com differs from PlayingCardForum.com?

Have questions or comments about the site?
User avatar
EndersGame
Member
Member
Posts: 1450
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2017 12:26 am
Cardist: Yes
Collector: Yes
Player: Yes
Magician: Yes
Has thanked: 521 times
Been thanked: 1179 times
Contact:

How UnitedCardists.com differs from PlayingCardForum.com?

Unread post by EndersGame »

I hope I'm not touching on a sensitive topic here, but I'm a newbie with a genuine question about this.

I'm still new to the world of playing card forums, and I noticed that there are two forums in particular that seem to be the most widely known: UnitedCardists.com and PlayingCardForum.com.

How do these compare with each other? Are there ways in which they are different? Which has the greatest number of users and is the most active? Or are most people on both? And are there any other particularly popular forums about playing cards besides these, or are these the top two?

Once again, I don't mean to offend anyone, and it's not my intention to step on toes, but I'm asking out of genuine ignorance, having no idea about the history of how they both came about, and whether they overlap, or whether they serve different purposes and different audiences. I'm eager to learn, and to get some sense about this by hearing from people who have more experience with this territory than I do.
--
BoardGameGeek reviewer EndersGame => Playing Card Reviews <=>Magic Reviews <=> Board Game Reviews <=

Image
User avatar
MagikFingerz
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 7778
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:32 pm
Cardist: Yes
Collector: Yes
Player: Yes
Magician: Yes
White Whale: Sawdust and Delicious + uncuts
Location: Norway
Has thanked: 1763 times
Been thanked: 1508 times
Contact:

Re: How UnitedCardists.com differs from PlayingCardForum.com

Unread post by MagikFingerz »

United Cardists comes from a forum that was called Decknique, at which point it was mostly cardists or flourishers. This was before the custom card business took off. Then the Black Tiger deck came out and things started snowballing. Decknique had to be closed at some point (I don't remember why, most likely financial reasons) and was relaunched as United Cardists. UC has also been through a few different iterations and owners, so there aren't a lot of us original members left (personally I was only a lurker at Decknique).

PlayingCardForum was created by a guy called Alex Yusupov around the same time he made the Vortex deck. At the time it was called The Discourse, and was part of his AetherCards web site. At some point the forum was acquired by the now late Tom Dawson, who was the president of vintage card collector's club 52PlusJoker at the time (reference), in an effort to attract and include more modern playing card collectors in the club.

Differences: I think PCF had a younger member base than UC, at least in the beginning, due to Alex' fan base. Most people seem to prefer either one or the other, as the people and atmosphere is notably different in my opinion, although there are several who frequent both sites. Also, PCF has Don Boyer.

Someone else should be able to give more details like dates and such, but that's the jist of it. I also don't want to comment on member numbers, as I really have no idea, though it should be said that PCF - at least at some point - had very artificially inflated member numbers.
- Tom

Check out my collection

My (abandoned and now severely outdated) Playing Card Wiki
User avatar
shaitani
Member
Member
Posts: 303
Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2016 4:58 pm
Cardist: Yes
Collector: Yes
White Whale: Artistic Spring
Has thanked: 142 times
Been thanked: 125 times

Re: How UnitedCardists.com differs from PlayingCardForum.com

Unread post by shaitani »

As a newer member, I have membership on both, but as of right now I'm mostly just on UC. The main two reasons were that I felt there was more activity here, and that PCF basically decided never to support mobile (Tapatalk) which UC does. That mobile support is big for me.
User avatar
dazzleguts
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 1499
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:32 pm
Collector: Yes
Player: Yes
White Whale: Das Kartenspiel Des Oberdeutsc
Decks Owned: 885
Has thanked: 210 times
Been thanked: 142 times

Re: How UnitedCardists.com differs from PlayingCardForum.com

Unread post by dazzleguts »

I think we can mostly thank montecarlojoe 8-) for the mobile support. Having someone who can deal with that may be a reason why UC has that support and PCF doesn't.

I also have tried both and preferred the energy at UC, but the 52PlusJoker membership has a lot of vintage and antique playing card knowledge to offer and I have often browsed there, and sometimes (though rarely) posted. Also, I find taking the time to be a participating member of a forum too demanding to belong to 2 forums, or I may very well be active on both.

Tom and Judy Dawson produced and partially wrote the present editions of the Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards. The PCF "Cellar of Fine Vintages" has more than 4,000 topics.

A big factor for me is UC has an aesthetic appeal. I find most card pictures look really good against these shades of black. The shades of grey on PCF have a rather institutional feel.
Worldwide Time Machine

"Cards from far off lands and bygone days!"
User avatar
ecNate
Member
Member
Posts: 2099
Joined: Sat Mar 01, 2014 1:46 am
Collector: Yes
Player: Yes
Decks Owned: 400
Location: Wisconsin
Has thanked: 420 times
Been thanked: 440 times
Contact:

Re: How UnitedCardists.com differs from PlayingCardForum.com

Unread post by ecNate »

shaitani wrote:As a newer member, I have membership on both, but as of right now I'm mostly just on UC. The main two reasons were that I felt there was more activity here, and that PCF basically decided never to support mobile (Tapatalk) which UC does. That mobile support is big for me.
Exactly this for me too. I've twice tried to bring that up at PCF to support tapatalk at least since it' fairly simple add on in most cases. Maybe not true there since they elected not to. Anyhow, when I first got started that made all the difference and caused me to visit and contribute here more often. There's certainly more activity of all sorts here, which can be both +/- sometimes, but certainly more active. As dazzle stated though, PCF has a ton more experienced people with vintage decks and Don there provides a TON of help both free and optional consulting to deck creators. His input and others have a lot of knowledge on vintage decks and is the place to go when that's important.
User avatar
EndersGame
Member
Member
Posts: 1450
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2017 12:26 am
Cardist: Yes
Collector: Yes
Player: Yes
Magician: Yes
Has thanked: 521 times
Been thanked: 1179 times
Contact:

Re: How UnitedCardists.com differs from PlayingCardForum.com

Unread post by EndersGame »

Thanks so much for all the helpful responses, it's really appreciated!

Is it just me, or is PlayingCardForum.com down right now?
--
BoardGameGeek reviewer EndersGame => Playing Card Reviews <=>Magic Reviews <=> Board Game Reviews <=

Image
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 24 guests