commercial rallies

[Tafflaff (Rob)]

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

[Al.Thepastfinder, ( Alan )]

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

[bymatt666 (byron)]

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

[Neil]

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 

[KANE (DES)]

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

[simon c]

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.

[Spooyt Vane]

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.

[KANE (DES)]

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

[PHIL YNYSBOETH]

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.

[mary]

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

[KANE (DES)]

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

[PHIL YNYSBOETH]

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)

[detectordave]

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

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.

[llanelli club]

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...

[detectordave]

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.