New XP Deus II Forum Is Live!

[Steve Herschbach]

OK, new forum is done, threads moved.

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/forum/61-xp-deus-ii-forum/

I normally keep detector comparison stuff in a separate forum to stop detector wars. But the Deus II versus whatever videos have been pretty favorable, and not much dissension, so I have moved them all here also. Just seemed like one stop shopping is best. As long as people keep acting like adults it will work. Thanks in advance for that. 

1700 posts on day one - that's cheating!  By another measure, main Deus/Orx forum is 13 pages of threads, Dues II already at 6 pages; very impressive start for XP on this one.

[ColonelDan]

Good move Steve....thank you.👌

[Steve Herschbach]

It's a very good sign for XP that the forum went from being a relatively quiet backwater, to on fire about D2. I have no issues with creating more forums, as this software is immensely flexible when it comes to moving stuff around. I mainly just want forums to be active. So my main consideration is not to move active content to a new forum, and then leave the old one to die. But I think there is enough ongoing interest in Deus 1 and ORX for that not to happen. And if it did, well, I can always just roll it all back together later.

I spend a lot of time tagging every thread, and this is where that pays off. Otherwise it really would be a huge effort to sort out which is which, but all I will do is basically take everything tagged as Deus 2, and move it to a separate forum. Kind of makes the tag redundant at that point, but you never know down the road when it might be handy, so I am glad I have put the effort into the tag system over time.

I think we can all agree Equinox has been the number one machine in our circles for several years. It looks like XP came up with a formula to challenge that perch. I do not think it replaces Equinox due to the price, but it sure gives people waiting for Equinox II a good reason to leap to XP instead. Minelab has not even a wisp of a good rumor going, so there is little standing in the way of XP grabbing a little market and mindshare from Minelab right now. I really think healthy competition is good for all of us, and whatever heat this puts under Minelab can only make whatever they are working on better in the end. Win win for all involved, so thanks XP!

[Steve Herschbach]

It's begun, go here

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/forum/61-xp-deus-ii-forum/

[Skate]

Thanks Steve. You're the kind of site owner that causes people to stick around. 

[mcjtom]

On 1/18/2022 at 11:50 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

this software is immensely flexible

What platform does the forums use?

[Steve Herschbach]

3 hours ago, mcjtom said:

What platform does the forums use?

Invision Community. I use them specifically because they are not free, and therefore undergo continual upgrades to match the times, with excellent support. It costs more, but that cost is more than covered by the Google Ads placed on the forum, so win win I think. For me as admin the biggest change was my being able to abandon using a dedicated offline web editor, as the entire website can now be completely managed via the built in design tools, available to me from any device, even my phone. Before if anything needed work, I had to get home to my PC and fire up Microsoft Expression. Cutting me free from that, and having to endlessly chase changing device standards, really had a lot with keeping me in the game, as the work involved before was getting a bit oppressive. Now admin stuff is a real breeze in general.

I still insist on hosting the software on my own server, instead of using their hosted servers. That gets me into finger pointing between my hosting service (Pair) and IC when something goes around at the database level. But I guess I’m still enough of a control freak I’m wanting to get directly into server functions myself if need be, as I can fix most stuff myself faster on my own, instead of putting in for a service ticket request.

https://invisioncommunity.com

[Steve Herschbach]

On 1/31/2022 at 7:26 AM, calabash digger said:

Start up a support donation for the forum? 

Thanks for the nice thought, but no, I want the forum free for users, and free from vendor strings. Google Ads fits the bill, and actually pays for a couple utility bills beyond direct costs, so I’m very content with where it is. I’ve turned down a large number of offers to advertise on the forum to keep it the way it is, and recently turned down two serious requests to purchase the site. I in fact am the only forum I know of that allows dealers to advertise for free, as long as they are contributing to the forum in positive ways. Some dealers are very knowledgeable, and it’s that knowledge I want them to share. Free classifieds for them is well worth that to me.

Can’t say I’ll be around forever unfortunately, but right now the formula is working, and this forum is one of the few detector forums that is growing, while others decline. I take that as a clear message to not mess with the way things are run now. Some people avoid the forum because I do take action as a moderator, but they are the people I don't want here anyway. I believe it is this strong stance on keeping things civil, and on topic, that is driving forum growth. It results in what really makes the forum work - a great membership!! My hats off to all the posters who daily actually make the forum what it is, and my life pretty easy, by just being decent human beings.

My thanks also to Chase Goldman for volunteering to help as moderator, as I am involved in other stuff in life that has taken away from my forum presence and time. His extra help has made a real difference also. I actually am not a social media person, and this website is my only tether to the online world. There are days I want to just unplug completely, and Hugh’s help has kept me from going off that radical deep end. 

[maxxkatt]

On 1/31/2022 at 7:35 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

My thanks also to Chase Goldman for volunteering to help as moderator, as I am involved in other stuff in life that has taken away from my forum presence and time. His extra help has made a real difference also. I actually am not a social media person, and this website is my only tether to the online world. There are days I want to just unplug completely, and Hugh’s help has kept me from going off that radical deep end. 

You could not have found a better and more informed person than Hugh. On the other forum he took lots of time answering my many questions trying to learn the 800.