DetectingWales.com

do you think the big commercial rallies are money spinner's for the organiser or offer value for money.  your thought's please   mike

I think rally organisers should get more credit for the time they put in on behalf of hobby. They spend hundreds of
  hours organising rallies and  if they make £10,000 on a rally good luck to them. They are a big social occasion and
I think the  hobby needs them.

Went to the King Alfred Rally near Wantage in Oxfordshire a couple of years ago and really enjoyed the people, the chat and the scenery. I genned up on the location and Hedgehog and i had a good days detecting. Trouble is i think there must have been 400 plus people and after the event i felt like the organisers had chosen the land to make the money, did,nt tell us everything and i went away feeling disappointed. Don,t get me wrong the fellow detectorists were brilliant, some good finds were made but not that many considering the land was undetected. Food and facilities were excellent. But later found out that it had been detected a lot over the years and it kinda made me not want to go again though my main reason was one of the finds obviously did not come out of the ground at the rally site ( how often does this happen). I think a rally should be kept small 150- 200 max and more about the people detecting than making money (other than to cover costs). I noticed with the detecting Wales forum how when you organised the first rally suddenly the members go up. then level off. now number two is announced the member numbers go up again but its still the same posters on the web site. I live in the middle of nowhere and my nearest club that i am aware of is a round trip of 45 miles if i went to a club meeting and become a member. Not a very viable option with the hours i work. So i have to find my own land as most people do but to see a rally in Wales is a great oppotunity for me to meet fellow welsh detectorists so i hope my experiance with a commercial rally does not scar my views for long. Just hope we are all honest, enter a field with empty pockets and a love of detecting and a willingness to make friends and  share knowledege with like minded people. Sorry if i upset people but i am just telling it like it is. :(                             

Millsy is right, small can be good.
Although the organisers of the Caerleon dig will make a little profit, all the money collected after all expenses have been seen to will go to the upkeep of this site.

Others do it for the money they an keep.
Good on all members that support this wonderful rally, and not only that you will be able to see who so and so looks like and so on you will make friends you never knew before. I think it is marvellous.
Well done, I say.

good point about people joining for the rally's never to be heard of again until the next one. if people keep joining at this rate were going to have to limit the number's or get bigger fields.  mike

All valid points gents.

We have discussed the "Johnny Come Latelys" before and came to the conclusion that we may soon have to add a "minimum number of postings or length of membership" for Rally qualification, if things get out of hand.

The whole idea of Detectingwales rallies are to give something back to the members who make the site what it is, and not just to provide a day out for someone who does not frequent the web.

We only had two turn up at the last Rally who were not members and it was explained to each of them that if they wanted to come in future they need to be active members of this site. The next one will be Members Only!

Interesting debate

Neil

I agree with the points you've all made as well , And i think a regular visit to the website is a must and participation essencial.... No website ------- No Detecting Wales rallys .

HI all i think that if fellow members dont get innvolved with the forum or any aspect of it they should not be allowed to enter any rally untill they do there should be a fixed quoter of post they should adhere to first   all the best to everybody  DES

every one has a valid point on the member's subject but people are only now hearing about this site from the advertising neil has been doing lately so we cant judge everyone who join's between now and the next rally as only useing the site to go on local rally's. give it a few month's and the user's will stand out a mile.  mike

YEA i agree with mike people should be given a few months to settle then if they have shown no activity they should then be dropped DES

All this has been discussed before, particularly the numbers of so called members who don't post anything at all.

I know of one who has found a Charles 1st Half Crown in beautiful condition and is too lazy to put it on here he asked me to do it.

Perhaps Geoff will put on a Poll asking if any regular members want them? I for one don't, I think they are a waste of his time, but that is only my opinion..

well said charles i agree  DES

Good post Mike. Because it's a relatively new forum a lot are probably not aware that it is here. I was only fortunate enough to find out because I read a post on the ukdn on the day it was posted, otherwise I would still be blissfully unaware that it existed.
For those of us that are not a member of a club you are out in no man's land a little, not knowing what is going on where, other than the information in hobby magazines.
There are probably quite a number out there who are not aware of this site and how good and appreciated it is.
There will be those signing up just to go to the current rally, hopefully they will meet and speak to people there and be regular contributors , but give 'em a chance!
Some may be from some distance away just wishing to see what is going on and what is being found, maybe in the same postion as you Charles but not having anything to show.
Possibly it might be useful to Geoff for the future to give people a tick box to fill in on sign up! Geoff would then be aware of what their interest in the site is and can make admin decisions from there?
It would be nice if we could move away from the guilty until proved innocent and give the site time to mature, also hope that people will have the confidence to start posting on any subject.
P.S. The subject was commercial rallies
Been to a few , know that they are profit making for leisure promotions, they are well organised and it is worth going to at least one

You find on most detector forums at least 50percent of the membership never post, but they are reading the posts.
Also they take part in most of polls.

another thing i find on some forum's are their very cliquey if someone said they stepped in dog s**t there would be 5 pages of oh sorry to hear that where as anyone else put it up they'ed be lucky to get 3 reply's. i hope this site never get's like that as it put's people off posting.  mike

I think all posters should be treated with the same courtesy as we extend our regular fellow metal detectorists--- I know I try to and I'm sure most others on here do as well , but another good point Mike

yeah,  iv'e noticed that myself Mike, some like to only stick to the ones they know  lol

i have been to 2 leisure promotions rallies on the last 2 weekends......i like going to different places and most rallies are well organised...of course the organisers make money, but they pay out too, on facilities like toilets and catering etc.....as regards this site/forum..i joined because i thought the idea of welsh detectorists posting about their activities throughout wales would be great to pass on to others.....and about the "cliquey effect"..i agree, but lets hope that does'nt happen here...i have a circle of friends, mainly club mates,and we use the chatroom for hours...but we would'nt exclude or ignore anyone who joined us wanting a chat.....and one last thing....the rallies organised by detecting wales are an unexpected bonus !!... well done to the admin and fellow members for making this site GREAT!....byron

Thanks Matt for the compliments.

When Geoff initially set up this site its purpose was to try and link up all the Welsh detectorists, but it has grown a lot quicker than I think we expected. The first Rally we had scheduled for the Summer and was going to involve Geoff and I door knocking to get land, but thankfully Altinkum stepped in and gave us the opportunity this site needed. Thank you for that gesture Mike, its brought us on leaps and bounds and is directly responsible for the Treasure Hunting slot - May edition.

Rallies were an aside for us, but it looks that with the help of Altinkum, TaffLaff and by the look of it Millsy and a few others who have stepped forward they will become a regular feature. If anyone else wants to contact us about getting land - feel free to as its what makes this site so different from everything else that is out there. We all benefit from each others actions, also we make a lot of new friends and contacts along the way.

I hope we never come to the point where we are selective over who we reply to (I've seen it myself on UKDetector net and Detectorist.co), and I genuinely don't think we will do. For the time being we need as many members as possible (it helps to justify funding the site to sponsors) and granted some do take a while to come out of their shells, but they are welcome when they do. If we find in a few months that people are still not posting, then maybe it will be revisited. Geoff and I have chatted about it several times and I'm the first one to want to make the Rallies 10 posts or more, but  after thinking about it maybe we should show a spell of leniancy until new members feel comfortable to be able to post and see where we go from there.

Cheers
Neil 

HI NEILi will be mailing you and geoff with what i think could be some way towards a solution i.ll mail you some time to morrow night ive asked a few others and they think it could work , untill tomorrow all the best   DES

I agree with the above comments lads some very good points raised,might be worth opening a seperate post on that subject,i have also noticed that there is an influx of new members just before a rally date,which if they do stay and post is not a bad thing.And i do agree that the rallies should be used as a way to reward posting members,and also to incourage new members to participate.All forums only work if the members are activley posting,and replying to other peoples posts,Now back on to the subject,i have so far avoided the larger comercial rallies but have been to a lot of the smaller open rallies,on the whole they have been pretty good.

I am sorry I wont make your rally as I am mudlarking on Thames with Thames & Field Society that weekend. Their
chairman Steve Booker is lookinng after us. It is worth having look at their site. As for commercial rallies I dont  think
the hobby can do without them. I will post up our trip to the Thames.

HI GEOFF AND NEIL  firstly i think that new members should be allowed to the 1st rally  as some use it to meet club members and find out about detecting wales,  after which they then should have a month in which to settle down and become active .if in that month they do not become active then they will not be able to attend any rally,  but will still be members of detecting wales ,  at some time in the future if they become active, they will then be allowed on the rallys.   i believe this could be fair on both old and new members  also it would find out who is serious about the forum and not just the rallys .all the best DES

I dont know of any Forum that has 200+ members posting regularly.

I believe its not Quantity but quality that counts an ideal situation is a few hundred all chipping  4/5 interesting topics a week other than Members Posting rubbish just to have enough posts to attend a rally as some members have suggested on another thread.

Des, I think your suggestion is a very good one.
Phil, I didn't suggest people post rubbish but by acknowledging other members finds and commenting on them that would be one way of the 'shy' members contributing to the forum without breaking out into a sweat and getting nervous with the expectation of having to write posts about everything and anything

THANKS MARY you are the only one to comment on it so far again thanks hope to meet you on the next rally   all the best DES

Hi Mary

Were dealing with mostly men here there strange creatures lol

I dont think its shyness half the time.
Im a member of a few forums that ive only posted a few times or not at all.
Forums like Minelabowners,UKDN,Rogers relics,Scan club

The only Forum that has a problem with non posters is Rogers Relics.
I had a friendly email a few months ago I hadnt posted in 6 months and if i wanted to stay a members id have to post Which i did.

The main problem here is some feel members are just joining for the Rallies I cant see a good way around this fact.

Maybe while expressing there interest in signing up for a rally they,ll see what a well run and friendly forum we got here

Regards
Phil Jones
(Rare)

Ihave only just found the site but regarding the min of 10 posts i think that they should have something to do with detecting rather than a reply to woody woodpecker or just hi to a new member. While i understand that these are just a bit of fun and are polite to the new members i fail to see what info a newcomer gets from this.I know quite a few members on the site who between them have many years of detecting behind them but do not part with any knowledge that they have about the hobby, if this was done the whole of the site would start to benefit and everyones understanding would increase about the different aspects of detecting.This in turn might stop people from replying just to get the min number of posts needed to attend the rallies.

it is a site that is really for building friendship and sharing past outings , helping each other with machine settings and giving advice .aswell we like to greet all new commers and teach them that we can be friendly.
we will all give much more of our metal detecting knowledge as time goes on .
what we have managed to find and continue to find will be posted .
hope all people see the sense in replies to new commers and say hello to friends every day...

Hi llanelli club while i understand your post i think you have missed the point i was trying to make which is some members of the site are just posting anything for people who will not contribute anything to the site.To me and this is just my own point of view "YES "is not a post and should not be treated as one on the other hand a post such as "CAN YOU PLEASE HELP" should be treated as one.It would be intresting to see the names of the members that appear to post at the time of the rallies then you can see who contrubites to the site in a worthwhile way and who does it just to top up their posts to the required level.

i agree there dave in principle we would see who posts but due to many people not being able to use a computer or gain access to one who are good  detectorists like ourselves .they only have little time to post and therefore must only give short answers or say hello , they are all willing to share information this is why many people may only post before rallies but they share information  at sites .
you know full well several people in our metal detecting club are not internet friendly but are great detectorists that hold a wealth of knowledge some they keep to thierselves some they will share.
so i feel many people are better passing on info at rallies where they feel happy speaking face to face .

many posts are about detecting here some posts only require a yes or no .
but if they don't the screening would be so difficult to exclude these people that it would need a sophisticated program built .do you fancy writting it then Detectordave.?
think of it this way most people here post varrious things .so why bother.

This is an interesting thread and I agree with the minimum post idea.  I personally wouldn’t be offended (as someone who doesn’t post on a regular basis) or feel discriminated against if I was asked to achieve a certain membership status to attend Detecting Wales rallies: after all, the whole idea of being a Detecting Wales member is to contribute to the forum and talk to other like minded people, even if it is every now and then.  Joining just to attend rallies is lame!

some interesting points here, which i suppose is meeting the criteria of a forum itself. the issue i have with  the "minimum number of posts" suggestion is that the focus will be on quantity. 10 posts of "hi welcome" shouldn't constitute a "worthy member" for the next rally. i myself ,spend a lot of time surfing this forum gaining tips and general info without feeling the need to post something.
Surely, to only have people on this site who are interested in keeping it friendly, informative and helpful all you have to do is ask for a nominal joining fee. That way:-
1.   the site benefits financially.
2.   you're less likely to have people who post derogatory posts (as they would be banned and lose their money)
3.  and people won't feel obliged to rack-up their "count" with trivial posts.
thats my opinion anyway.
hey just noticed i've "racked up another post" ::)
sorry i had to......

i'm not in favor of post count but i dont have a better answer.  at the moment i'm keeping a eye on a few people who have singed up for the 1st rally not visited the site since and now signed up for this rally.  so if it was'nt for detecting wales holding rally's they would not bother with the site. if you read back through this thread a few member's seem happy with this situation personaly i cant wait for the rally of 40 acres and 70-80 members put their names down who's going to say you can come you cant.  mike

altinkum read my post in part 3 tell me what you think  DES

Maybe it will come to the point that the numbers attending any rally would be limited. When I attended the 1st rally I had been posting but didn't know anyone on the site. I spoke to a few at the rally (not enough , and not for long enough) and would just like to say thank you to , Geoff , Neil , Phil and Dickle for giving me a nice welcome (and thank you to Phil for better directions home!).
I suppose what I am saying is if I hadn't posted before going to the rally , then I would have felt an affinity with the site and the people on it and would have been happy to post after the rally.
It is a difficult situation but as i have said before when you are a lone detectorist not part of any club, it does take a little courage and time to break the ice.
Maybe there are people who haven't yet joined or posted who will make a big difference to the site, it has certainly changed since Rob became involved and become more active (well done Rob, you are a hero too!).
I know there are people who are just getting on for the rallies but feel that they will be the minority, who knows , at the next rally you might meet a mate for life  :)

hi mike, i think that the people that organise a rally earn there money, for the time and effort thay they put in so good luck to them, it cannot be easy to ask a stranger to let forty plus people, he has never met before walk all over his land swinging sticks with a disc on the end, plus the round fancy  ear warmers, in all colours. then dig up his crops to replant them for him," WORTH EVERY PENNY"  a very big well done to all the organisers thankyou

hi des i just read your post again and it seem's fair enough. if people are only joining for the rally's it's giving them the choice to muck in or not bother.  mike

yea mike thought it might go some way to helping to solve the problem   all the best DES

I think that we are missing the point that ultimately logistics will first dictate how many can come i.e. there has to be sufficient space for car parking and the farmer will need to decide how many he wants. He might be happy with 40 but not a hundred! Minimum posting is fine in theory but anyone can push their number up by posting "great find" or similar so you would then need to start assessing post quality which would be a minefield. Personally I don't post unless I feel I have something worth saying that hasn't already been said but I do visit the site several times a week and have been detecting and an active club member for over 25 years.

All good comments, :) I like your suggestion millsy  :)

hi millsy..i agree with your suggestion of missing the first rally after joining the site...seems the fairest way thats been put forward so far.......byron

I have another theory Mike,

Our club have a very productive site and the landowner has now had about 3 rallies on his land and reluctantly we have not a lot of choice but to organise one when he wants one!

Thankfully the land is very productive and he has a lot of it but we are trying to convince him that if he wants another rally then he will need to come up with a fresh farm!

Sometimes organisers hands are tied and they can risk the possibility of loosing land!

Just a thought

Burp

i have had many an outing travelling the rallies more bad than good but it's luck of the draw with any land if ploughed this time might be good nextime bad but the time after super who know what may turn up

I have been going to rallies since the early eighties and had some laughs
along the way. I have enjoyed making friends with fellow detectorists and
to put up with whinging from the minority. What I miss on rallies are the
buried tokens that gave a chance of a prize if your weekend had been dry
of finds. There used be a prize of a metal detector for best find of the
weekend but people abused that by bringing their own. Their used be a case
of finds made over the weekend but thefts put paid to that. Clubs used to
used to put up displays. Iam just been sentimental :) :) :)

We are planning a rally for nearer Easter which will feature a small token hunt for Easter eggs, Rob. Hopefully that will bring back some happy memories for you.

Geoff

Sounds good Geoff I will see if I can make it. Rob :) :) :)

Great idea Geoff  !

Im a big fan of token hunts and Chocolate  ;D

If your having a very average days detecting its nice to look for something that your knows there and just needs walking over

Having looked around a lot of forums  token hunts are very big in the USA maybe because they havnt got the metalic History we have in britain.

Might be a good idea for a future  rally. Maybe use a farm detecting wales have already been too charge £10 £15 pounds a head for the chance to win some great prices

all the best
Phil jones

Good idea Geoff especially if the eggs are the creme variety from Cadburys. yum yum. :) :)

Richy.

I won a mountain bike as first prize at a rally in Nottinghampshire many years ago , the problem I had was to get it home in the car, I ended up taking it to pieces to get it in.!!! they buried numbered Yale keys, mine was No 1 and it was in the middle of stinging nettles which everybody had walked around not through. !!! :D :D
                                  
                                                    Pat.

i once won a massive teddy bear on a rally it was so big that zorro had to sit side on in the back of the car on way home its still in my attic as my little girls bedroom is to small,she can still fit between its paws and she 4 now. :)

the only thing won't the eggs get a little dirty in the ground pmsl.
just a little yolk i thought i would crack before iwas foiled by a dozen others.
who's shelling out for them ..get it

I won a shed alarm and a few other things that where so rubbish i cant even begin to remember what they where lol

Des can you remeber ?

Were any of you chaps at the Longleat Rally back in 80s . :) :) :)