Face Book Verses the Forum

[adrian ss]

The forum is unbelievably quiet these days. Is everybody using Face Book instead.
    Should I go over to Face book? Is there more activity re gold detecting there? What advantage is there on using face book instead of the forum?
Will Face Book work with XP?
     I like the forum because it feels like a close knit family with common interests.
Face book seems to be a bit old hat and very insecure these days, is there something better? Why have so many people dropped off or no longer use the forum.
     All of the American forums that I am active in are still very strong.
Using face book seems a bit girlie to me and full of people who take sleazy selfies or child like pics of themselves pulling stupid faces and pictures of what they are eating.

[boobook]

To me, a forum is all about communication.
This can be in many forms, information about places, equipment.....debate about rules and regulations......comparisons of technique.....the list is endless.
Many forums I visit seem to be in similar doldrums, it takes time to sit, think about what one has to say then laboriously one finger tap it out on the keyboard.
Facebook and similar on the other hand require barely any effort.... from what I see you get a or down
mike

[adrian ss]

Yeah. A Like or Don't like is some serious communication aye!.
A picture might paint a thousand words but a thousand words can convey a much better and more detailed story.
  I used to type with one finger but now I have upgraded to 3

[Grandfather Johnson]

Hate Facebook with a passion, you can read something or do a post then if you want to go back in a couple of days it takes me large amount of time to find again & sometimes cant find at all, does my head in & drives me crazy. all this done with 1 finger. cheers

[Guest]

Adrian as you know I belong to a few Forum pages and I run a Face book Page (BUGU). And I assure you a forum is better. You can control a Forum page better. Find things better. And can have selected pages for different topics. Face book does not have any of these thing and can run a muck very quickly. But in saying that more people belong to facebook though.
wombat

[Old Hand]

Its been like this since the QED hassles

[Grandfather Johnson]

Yes I agree John , it was always busy before that Fiasco, we lost some good members because of that. Cheers

[granite2]

This forum is certainly a bit quiet these days but not as quiet on gold related stuff as that other forum. Plenty of political rubbish there and that's where it should stay we don't need it here.

And I would like to know how many people have run across anyone using a QED. I have never seen one nor have I ever seen any ads for one. If it was any other Australian designed and built machine there would be lots of people on here openly discussing its abilities.

As for detecting, this year has been a bit quiet for us on the detecting scene. Early in the year, about April we spent a few weeks in Vic around Maryborough, Avoca and points north. We got about an ounce for our trouble and enjoyed working a lot of new ground.Then we had a couple of weeks in Tibooburra in July for around another ounce before leaving the detectors at home and heading up to Qld for a week for our son's 50th. Back from there and on a plane to Italy and the Greek Islands for nearly a month: great trip but now we have been home too long and are looking at a Vic detecting trip pretty soon. Too long away from the yellow stuff and one gets all twitchy.

Cheers, Jim

[adrian ss]

Adrian as you know I belong to a few Forum pages and I run a Face book Page (BUGU). And I assure you a forum is better. You can control a Forum page better. Find things better. And can have selected pages for different topics. Face book does not have any of these thing and can run a muck very quickly. But in saying that more people belong to facebook though.
wombat  

Well it looks like I will be staying with the Forum for as long as it remains.
Facebook seems to be a place where a person can hide behind a secret identity, portray themselves as something they are not and carry on low morality activities without interference from Facebook itself.

[Nightjar]

Forums are certainly a place where you can return too and find information to refresh memories from posts of interest.
I do use FB but drop into this forum and one other every morning to catch up on latest posts.

[Happy Jack]

Hi All,

Thought I would come on in here and put my two bobs bit in.  I am a member of facebook and casually look at various detecting pages, some good, some perhaps not so good. I see alot of mis-information being put out there by those with just half the facts or a misunderstanding on basic concepts/principles in prospecting and also some very interesting information.  However I find some facebook pages to be a very close knit community (not all).

I have noticed what appears to be a big swing towards facebook and away from the forums which is a shame, as forums such as this is not only a great place to meet those of similar interest if only via the internet but also as a very valuable resource of people with many many years of experience not only detecting but prospecting in general.  How many of us on a rainy/cold miserable day have not scrolled back in time through the pages of this forum to reread various discussions only to find something which you overlooked and actually learnt something new.  I have.

I am fortunate enough to have the best of both worlds in the area where I live with the gold fields about 10 minutes drive from home and the beach about 5 minutes away.  My detecting involves looking for gold in the bush with a SDC2300 and a GPX4500 during the winter months and the beaches with an excalibur II and a CTX3030 during summer.  I hope this community will always be here and not be absorbed by the various facebook groups for the reasons as set out above.

Regarding the QED, I have had the opportunity of taking one out to my favourite areas.  I only had what was on-line to get my head around setting it up and get it running.  This area is very hot with mineralisation and it took me for ever to get a ground balance and get it working where I could listen to the ground, however that was me and no fault of the machine.  I could not just get the concept of what appeared to be two thresholds (upper/lower) in my head and adjust accordingly.  

I must say to be fair that when I got it ground balanced I was very impressed with the depth I was getting and the sensitivity to small targets.  I was running a 14 x 9 evo coil and whilst I didnt find any gold I was pulling out projectiles and old timers rubbish including boot tacks at amazing depths.  I also found that the way to go with this machine was to adopt a 'less is more' approach in the sensitivity setting to manage ground noises from targets that turn into clay domes.

I intend to take it out again so can do a more unbias review if any interest is there with photos.

Regards

Jack

[Kon61gold]

G'day fellow prospectors

Adrian, times are constantly changing & gold finds are getting harder to come by, with each passing day. Many a good member here left, not because of the QED, but because they were being harassed by others to the point where they felt they had no other choice but to leave. Shame that things like this happen, but the bottom line is, all are free to come & go as they please. Besides, variety is the spice of life no? Each forum including Face Book, has something to offer, in their own special way. No forum can offer 100% satisfaction all of the time, for knowledge comes from a variety of places/sources.
As far as this Gold Detecting/Prospecting Forum goes, rest assured it has been left in good hands & it ain't going anywhere to soon.

Cheers Kon.

[Grandfather Johnson]

I love this forum, been to others once, this forum is full of information & clues to how to get the best out of my chosen detector ,great people with great advice. But along came a detector that needed a bit of fiddling to set , the inventor & his side kick accused & abused anyone who went against said detector, since then this forum has not been the same. I don't say much but I feel this has to be said.

[adrian ss]

G'day fellow prospectors

Adrian, times are constantly changing & gold finds are getting harder to come by, with each passing day.  Many a good member here left, not because of the QED, but because they were being harassed by others to the point where they felt they had no other choice but to leave. Shame that things like this happen, but the bottom line is, all are free to come & go as they please. Besides, variety is the spice of life no? Each forum including Face Book, has something to offer, in their own special way. No forum can offer 100% satisfaction all of the time, for knowledge comes from a variety of places/sources.
As far as this Gold Detecting/Prospecting Forum goes, rest assured it has been left in good hands & it ain't going anywhere to soon.

Cheers Kon.

Gold is getting harder to find and with my gammy knees I am beginning to wonder if I have pulled my last nugg from the ground.
   The dreaded QED  saga!..."Such Is Life", as somebody once said.
Anyway One good thing came out of that saga for me at least. The gist of which I will keep to myself.

[Kon61gold]

Grandfather Johnson, a forum is only as good as the contributions of its members. Just like many other controversial past discussion, the introduction of the QED brought forward its own controversy, but people have to realise, the QED is just another new metal detector to hit the markets. It comes both with its good points & not so good points. Why people go out of their way to degrade one another (and over what, another metal detector?) beats me. Anyone placing a post/topic up on any forum, in front of many a person to see, must be prepared for criticism, no matter what form it presents itself in. Then it is up to the individual, to sort the good, from the bad & ugly. For anyone open to honest criticism, has much to gain, but only a fool would turn a blind eye to it. We must all take a step back, learn from past mistakes, so that we don't end up repeating them in the future & continue to move forward.
Best of luck out there fellow prospectors.  

Cheers Kon.

[Grandfather Johnson]

Thanks Kon, I will say no more