Best Detecting And Prospecting Forum On The Internet

[Norm S]

This is by far the best detecting and prospecting forum on the internet. What other forum does the site owner not only answer questions but gives you the answer from the manuals or personal experiences. I have been reading forums for about 8 yrs and there are many sharp guys and gals that know what they are talking about and I learn in bits and pieces because I never make radical changes to my detectors. I try and keep my detector settings pretty simple i case of a factory reset. 

On the other hand there are many people that either complain or don't have a clue what they are talking about. 

Running a website takes a lot of work aside from knowing what you're talking about. 

As more people learn and use the Equinox which is my detector of choice I learn a little more. I been reading a lot about the Equinox and gold hunting because I am planning my trip west in the fall and finding gold with a metal detector is on my bucket list. 

 

I love the new website because of all the articles to read before you go to the forums.

I want to thank Steve for such a great website and the effort he puts in to keeping it great

[Steve Herschbach]

You are too kind Norm - thank you. Not the best but in a few years who knows. The website lets me combine several interests under one roof and is a passion project for sure.

You guys are not seeing but 1% of what has been going on behind the scenes the last couple months. For those with an interest in such things here is what’s going on.

This started as your basic html website with the forum tacked on in a subfolder. No worries but then Invision started dramatically adding to the forum software capability, with the intent that it drive an entire website. The problem was my installing the forum software in a subfolder. That was common at the time just to run a forum, but for it to drive the whole website efficiently I needed to move it to the root or home folder.

That turned into a huge undertaking due to the sheer size and number of files involved. After one aborted attempt I finally got that part accomplished. The last few weeks I have been copying all those old html files into the forum side of things. I am about half done with that part of the project, should get wrapped over the next week or two.

Why all this effort? If you look at this page you are on, it is driven by the forum software. It automatically adjusts to any device and any screen size - it’s “mobile friendly”. Now here is an old html page. It does ok but when you go to a phone screen  all that happens is everything gets really small. Not mobile friendly, and any change I make tends to break it. Right now the mobile renditions are not “locking on” properly due to a change I made some time ago. I started trying to fix it, then realized I was wasting effort better put to eliminating the html pages entirely.

Once I get all the old pages copied over, the whole website will be mobile friendly, and that will boost the Google results. The next step is the whole site will be upgraded and converted to https secure communications protocol. It’s not really needed per se but Google now insists any site that has log in and password structure run off https or get downgraded search results.

Since everything will eventually be in the forum database, the search function will be more efficient at finding things. Currently I was jumping through hoops trying to get the html pages to appear in searches done using the forum search function.

With those steps in place, I can then do a couple things to boost website performance for faster page and image delivery, snappier performance overall.

Then, once all that gets done, I can actually forge ahead adding more information and capabilities to the website! Right now it’s more about shuffling everything around to get more efficiency going forward.

Suffice it to say I would not be going to all this effort if I did not have plans for the future. Not the best site now perhaps but if I get my way someday that will be an undisputed fact. Thank you everyone for your interest and participation! 

New Steve's Reviews Index (work in progress)

New Website Home Page

New Meet & Greet Forum

New Updated Steve's Mining Journal Index

New Updated Steve's Guides Index

[mn90403]

The web is an ever changing thing.  If your website remains static then it can't be dynamic and then as Steve says it becomes relegated to a lesser site just based on the site's technology.  When that happens information is lost and not used.

Thanks Steve for taking time out of your searching to keep things up to date.

Mitchel

[Steve Herschbach]

23 hours ago, mn90403 said:

Thanks Steve for taking time out of your searching to keep things up to date.

Mitchel

I should be out detecting right now but with this underway it's full speed ahead until it gets done. Really should have been on this sooner and thought I was two months ago when I started the whole thing. I can't complain in the slightest however because I have some really great detecting coming up this year! 

[snakejim]

I agree with you Norm S.,  Steve has done a fine Job with his website over the years. I bought some equipment from his Store (Alaska Mining and Diving) in Anchorage Alaska in 1980, and have been a member on his forums for many years.

Thanks Steve for all your hard work over the years and best wishes to you and yours in the future.

Rattlesnake Jim

Roswell, NM

[Steve Herschbach]

Thanks Jim..... the years are kind of sneaking by us all. I hope all is well in your world!