Posted Fri May 30, 2008, 11:32pm Subject: Re: Jim Schulman leaves the CoffeeGeek moderating team after six years
Jim -
Thank you very much for all your coaching over the years. Though my involvement in the Coffeegeek forum has wavered over the years, I was one of the early converts to the E-61 revolution in 2002, largely due to your outstanding reviews and informative analysis of the Isomac Tea. After that, I was drawn into your excellent guidance on coffee roasting. I am still roasting and using the Tea today, applying the same principles you helped to shape years ago.
I appreciate all of the time you spent interacting on the forum with me, and the selfless time you spent on the phone with me numerous times helping me to figure out quirky issues with my machine or in my roasting technique.
Your friendly guidance is truly appreciated and you have earned the status as the most valued resource for all coffee-related matters on the web in my book.
jim_schulman Senior Member Joined: 19 Dec 2001 Posts: 3,772 Location: Chicago Expertise: I live coffee
Posted Tue Jun 3, 2008, 2:31pm Subject: Re: Jim Schulman leaves the CoffeeGeek moderating team after six years
Thanks for all this mostly undeserved praise.
I've stopped moderating for two reasons, one simple, and one more complicated.
The simple one is that Coffeegeek has become so successful that I don't have the time or aptitude to moderate as well as the job deserves. Fortunately, the current moderator group is excellent and much more even handed than I ever was.
I've also stepped back from general forum participation, both here and at other sites, for more complicated reasons which I hardly grasp myself. When I do, I'll write about them more fully. Until then, I can say that the relation between specialty coffee professionals, their clientele and us enthusiasts has changed tremendously in the last five years. Most of the change has been unbelievably good. Read this old article as a reminder of the state of the art back then, and think about the $100 per pound green coffees and $7000 home espresso machines we have now. In a word, the high end market we dreamed about five years ago, along with all the lower priced niches from there on down, is well established today. But I feel this birth of a market has changed our, the enthusiasts, relation with specialty coffee. Are we even needed any more? And in what capacity? Stay tuned, if you are at all interested; these are the questions I want to answer.
Posted Tue Jun 3, 2008, 9:54pm Subject: Re: Jim Schulman leaves the CoffeeGeek moderating team after six years
Mr. Schulman I must disagree with you (a very rare ting) and say that the praise is indeed warranted. I myself have learned much from your writings and have always benefited from you participation in the online coffee scene.
I sincerely hope that you will continue to contribute to coffeegeek in some capacity as you do have something very unique and valuable to add to the community. In short we are all better for having you here.
I do support and respect your decision. I've never known you to act on a whim so I know your moves are well thought out and I know you must meet your own needs above all else. I can certainly respect that.
I want to personally and publicly thank you for everything you've given to the online coffee community. I myself have benefited along side many others. I will always appreciate, respect and admire you.
MarshallF Senior Member Joined: 1 Jun 2003 Posts: 466 Location: Los Angeles Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Dalla Corte Mini Grinder: Cimbali Max, Solis Maestro Vac Pot: Hario Nouveau, Bodum ESantos Drip: Bodum French Presses, Chemex Roaster: None
Posted Wed Jun 4, 2008, 8:36pm Subject: Re: Jim Schulman leaves the CoffeeGeek moderating team after six years
Jim,
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
My, how things have changed. I have no figures to back this up, but my impression is that the number of people who live or work near a good coffee shop or who live within a day's normal delivery from an artisan roaster is up by something like 500% since that 2002 article. The print and online press regularly cover fine coffee in all its manifestations.
But, there is still a lot of education to be done: newbies to be taught, timeworn habits to be challenged, barriers between cuisine and coffee to be breached. The odds of walking into a random coffee shop and finding staff who know what they are doing (much less the owners) are still fairly slim. So, I hope you will hang in there.
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