REVIVE THE CALIFORNIA FORUM SECTION!!!!!!

[DaCapt]

I've never md'ed northern California. Get any good nuggets up there or relics?

Where I live is the eastern part of Shasta County. The western half of Shasta County is where the gold is
All we have here is a lot of USFS land, some National Park land mixed with private land. Lots of campgrounds to MD and some old cattle ranch's and timber towns. It keeps me busy
HH! All

 

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[Customx_12]

Well Shasta County can't be all that big. Take a road trip west and find some monster nuggets to post pictures of!

 

[treasurechest]

Here's a cool webiste of mines here in southern California.

http://www.lagoldmines.com/index.php?page=469323.txt

 

[DaCapt]

Well Shasta County can't be all that big. Take a road trip west and find some monster nuggets to post pictures of!

Like this? Found in New Mexico. Belongs to a friend of mine.

 

[Customx_12]

That's awesome! With a drywasher or what?

 

[DaCapt]

I have no idea how it was found. I'll have to ask him. HH!

 

[kinzli]

I signed up at that other California forum (who's name shall not be mentioned) and was VERY disappointed. Not very many posts and the forum itself wasn't very easy to navigate. This one is better.

I'm curious what you were disappointed with (assuming you're talking about my forum at http://forums.kinzlicoils.com)?

In terms of posts, as of today, we have:

Total Forum Posts: 185,582
Total Members: 2,354

So that's a relatively busy California-based metal detecting forum...

 

[Customx_12]

I signed up at that other California forum (who's name shall not be mentioned) and was VERY disappointed. Not very many posts and the forum itself wasn't very easy to navigate. This one is better.

I'm curious what you were disappointed with (assuming you're talking about my forum at http://forums.kinzlicoils.com)?

In terms of posts, as of today, we have:

Total Forum Posts: 185,582
Total Members: 2,354

So that's a relatively busy California-based metal detecting forum...

Perhaps it was navigating the forum itself that proved to be difficult. The area I was in after signing up was very difficult to navigate and I had a hard time finding what I wanted. Obviously the stats show it is a busy forum and all I ever hear about at this site is how much better that site is for Californians. Maybe it's a new member thing but where I ended up after logging in didn't have much information at all. I searched it pretty good to make sure I was on the main page and didn't see anything to indicate I was not. I'll check it out again right now and get back to you with a more precise answer.

 

[kinzli]

I signed up at that other California forum (who's name shall not be mentioned) and was VERY disappointed. Not very many posts and the forum itself wasn't very easy to navigate. This one is better.

I'm curious what you were disappointed with (assuming you're talking about my forum at http://forums.kinzlicoils.com)?

In terms of posts, as of today, we have:

Total Forum Posts: 185,582
Total Members: 2,354

So that's a relatively busy California-based metal detecting forum...

Perhaps it was navigating the forum itself that proved to be difficult. The area I was in after signing up was very difficult to navigate and I had a hard time finding what I wanted. Obviously the stats show it is a busy forum and all I ever hear about at this site is how much better that site is for Californians. Maybe it's a new member thing but where I ended up after logging in didn't have much information at all. I searched it pretty good to make sure I was on the main page and didn't see anything to indicate I was not. I'll check it out again right now and get back to you with a more precise answer.

The forum software I use is relatively common, in terms of how things are set up, so hopefully it will make good sense. With 2000+ members, I don't believe I've heard anyone complain about navigating, so I'm interested in what you find on this visit...

That said, I'm not trying to lure you away from this site. I don't get anything out of running the other site and have actually pulled away from it. I have a good team of moderators and we keep the site mostly closed to spammers (as best we can), but it's a constant job and I don't have the time to deal with it. I am, however, curious about things that people see as problems, and since my name is on it, I'd like to know if people think it sucks.

 

[Customx_12]

Ok, I'm there now. First and foremost, I want to make sure that you aren't insulted or anything by my critiques of the forum. I actually have started a couple of my own and I understand how difficult it is to obtain and retain members.

I think the main thing that I don't like about the site is that the categories may be a bit too broad. For example, the first category is "California Metal Detecting". Well, that's the overarching theme of the entire forum. This makes it extraordinarily difficult (and intimidating) to find a more precise topic that is of interest to me. You have a variety of categories below this main one which are much more helpful when researching something in particular but some of these, such as "Nugget Hunting", would be more suited as sub-categories listed underneath "California Metal Detecting".

By no means do I want to tell you how to run your forum, but I will give you my opinion on what would make it more appealing for new members. I would make a set of broad categories with more precise sub-categories listed below them. This makes it easier to get to the information that is particularly interesting to the user. Also, California is a very big state and breaking it down by region would be helpful. The irony of me saying this is that my main complaint of treasurenet.com is that they have too many categories that make it difficult to sift through. If I were to have it my way, I would construct a forum with the following categories and sub-categories:

General California Metal Detecting Discussion
Northern
Central
Southern
Beaches
Inland
Nuggets
Relics

Help for Beginners
What detector is right for me?
Tips on using your detector
Where should I search?
What laws do I need to be aware of?

Advanced Metal Detecting
New technologies
Radar
Advanced searching tips

Clubs and Groups
Northern California
Central California
Southern California

Classifieds
For sale
For trade
Wanted

Off Topic



Again, this is how I would do it if I were to start a site and it's not meant as a criticism in any way.

 

[pegleglooker]

I tried to join the site but was denied, I was hoping to do a little advertising with them but never got the chance....

PLL

 

[kinzli]

CustomX, thanks for your opinion. I'll give you my perspective - that is that most forums I see have way too many sub-forums, and when I started mine (now over 10 years ago) I wanted something easy, inviting, and casual. I believe most of the forum appreciates that, and when I have polled the membership about adding new sections, the answer from the members is usually that they like it as-is.

So, I do "get" your perspective, and agree, treasurenet is way, way too partitioned.

Cheers...

 

[kinzli]

I tried to join the site but was denied, I was hoping to do a little advertising with them but never got the chance....

PLL

Huh? I have never, in my 10+ years of running my forum, denied *anyone* a new membership. Banned? Yes, many folks have been banned for doing something that the forum deems unacceptable. Are you sure you're not confusing me and the forum with someone else?

Also, I have never taken any advertisement monies - we now have ads on the site, but the ads are placed by the forum vendor, I have nothing to do with it.

 

[calisdad]

Kinzli, I joined the forum several months ago and look at it once in awhile but every time I've tried to post I get a message saying I can't post in a topic I didn't start. I just gave up. I'd try to join again but expect to get the message that my screen name is taken. Being on a satellite connection it takes a bit of time. (The price we pay for being in the sticks.)

Suggestions?

thanks,
Calisdad

 

[kinzli]

Kinzli, I joined the forum several months ago and look at it once in awhile but every time I've tried to post I get a message saying I can't post in a topic I didn't start. I just gave up. I'd try to join again but expect to get the message that my screen name is taken. Being on a satellite connection it takes a bit of time. (The price we pay for being in the sticks.)

Suggestions?

thanks,
Calisdad

I chose to only allow new memberships via an approval process to prevent spam and bots from polluting the forum. The upside to this is that the forum enjoys a VERY low spam rate, and any that does squeak through is handled quickly. The downside is that it requires that I go through regularly and approve members that don't look like spammers. As you can imagine, this is hit or miss, and if you have an email address or username that looks spammish, I don't approve it. The result would be what you see...the other piece is that I only do forum business when I have time, and I haven't had any free time lately - so there is a backlog of members awaiting approval (probably a few hundred).

If you want to send me your username via PM or email, I'm happy to approve it and give you full access. If not, that's fine too.

 

[kinzli]

Kinzli, I joined the forum several months ago and look at it once in awhile but every time I've tried to post I get a message saying I can't post in a topic I didn't start. I just gave up. I'd try to join again but expect to get the message that my screen name is taken. Being on a satellite connection it takes a bit of time. (The price we pay for being in the sticks.)

Suggestions?

thanks,
Calisdad

I found your membership, it's now approved.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

customX, I could see a national (or practically world-wide) forum like T-net or T-depot needing to get into sub-specific menus, like machine specific, region specific, goal-specific, etc... Because they are just so geographically large, that ....... a single page would take forever to find a title post that interests you enough to click on it.

But for a forum that's already fairly small regionally (a single state), and seeing as to how the topics started each day are reasonable to eye-ball through as it is, I don't see the need to start sub-menus of....... for example ..... north vs south part of the state, etc....

It might be necessary if a forum like that started getting tons of posters per day, and topics led down rabbit trails unto themselves. But this is not the case. There's just too many cross-overs. Ie.: beach hunters also land hunt. Relic guys also coin-hunt. Inland guys travel to the coast now and then, and so forth. So ...... unless it was a management/size problem, no need to make sub-categories.

 

[calisdad]

Kinzli, I joined the forum several months ago and look at it once in awhile but every time I've tried to post I get a message saying I can't post in a topic I didn't start. I just gave up. I'd try to join again but expect to get the message that my screen name is taken. Being on a satellite connection it takes a bit of time. (The price we pay for being in the sticks.)

Suggestions?

thanks,
Calisdad

Thanks Kinzli. It works now.

I chose to only allow new memberships via an approval process to prevent spam and bots from polluting the forum. The upside to this is that the forum enjoys a VERY low spam rate, and any that does squeak through is handled quickly. The downside is that it requires that I go through regularly and approve members that don't look like spammers. As you can imagine, this is hit or miss, and if you have an email address or username that looks spammish, I don't approve it. The result would be what you see...the other piece is that I only do forum business when I have time, and I haven't had any free time lately - so there is a backlog of members awaiting approval (probably a few hundred).

If you want to send me your username via PM or email, I'm happy to approve it and give you full access. If not, that's fine too.

 

[Customx_12]

customX, I could see a national (or practically world-wide) forum like T-net or T-depot needing to get into sub-specific menus, like machine specific, region specific, goal-specific, etc... Because they are just so geographically large, that ....... a single page would take forever to find a title post that interests you enough to click on it.

But for a forum that's already fairly small regionally (a single state), and seeing as to how the topics started each day are reasonable to eye-ball through as it is, I don't see the need to start sub-menus of....... for example ..... north vs south part of the state, etc....

It might be necessary if a forum like that started getting tons of posters per day, and topics led down rabbit trails unto themselves. But this is not the case. There's just too many cross-overs. Ie.: beach hunters also land hunt. Relic guys also coin-hunt. Inland guys travel to the coast now and then, and so forth. So ...... unless it was a management/size problem, no need to make sub-categories.

I understand that people don't limit themselves to a particular region or a particular area to detect. Likewise, they wouldn't be limited to their access to the forum.

Here's my way of looking at it:

I live in Southern California and I tend to detect exclusively in Southern California. However, my wife and I recently took a roadtrip to Monterey. I would have loved to find some areas either in Monterey or on the way that were particular hot spots for detecting. Sure, I can just find my own and detect any old part of the beach but I think local knowledge is invaluable. In addition, few are aware (I wasn't until the trip anyway) that Big Sur and the Monterey area are big gemstone beaches (particularly jade).

Rather than reading every thread title posted in one area without subsections, it would be much easier to jump to that particular region of interest. Sure, I could have started my own thread asking for suggestions but I likely would not have received sufficient responses before taking the trip. Subsections are really really really easy to create. I don't see any harm in having them. Think of it like a filing cabinet. Sure, you could just shove all your paperwork in the drawer and with a little searching, you could find what you're looking for. But I would much rather have everything organized in file folders for quick access.