WE NEED A MODERATOR!

[Critterhunter]

Come on Crtitter....You'ld be GREAT as a moderator ........I'll buy the coffee !!...... ........Jim

It ain't going to happen. I'm too opinionated and even I know you need somebody with a "unbiased" stance on things. Never liked politics myself, or should I say certain politics. And besides, like I said I'm on here too much as it is now anyway. Might as well give up my last connections to humanity and live in my garage all day. Wait...I do that already for the most part. No, I don't want it...I just want somebody to take charge here and start throwing some stickys up! The newbies to the Sovereign deserve to have a bunch of useful information at their fingertips. I'm sure the obscurity of this machine in certain respects scares people off, and that's a shame too.

 

[Critterhunter]

I can see your point for wanting a moderator to hang around to evaluate posts and threads for pinning at the top of the forum.
I got tired a long time ago at seeing the same questions asked over and over again. Sometimes the same question two or three times on the same page, and even only two or three threads apart.

And that's the entire point. Put it this way, we all know that I'm repetitive, that I repeat myself, that I say things over and over. (See ) One big bonus to a lot of people is that I might be less prone to do that. NOW who's on board?

So what would a moderator have to do? Decide which subjects should be pinned and which should not.

And there in lies the politics. I admit that I'm not much of a "Politically Correct" guy. Can't stand people dancing around things and not giving an honest opinion. That's why I would NOT be a good choice. But that one is easy to handle. Mark the links to opinions, views, and advice that some might not agree with like my "unconventional" ideas or others with a word of caution, village idiot alert, the exact wrong way to do things according to most Sane minded people...whatever. I have no objections to that. The problem is that one shouldn't be afraid of "alternative" opinions on a subject at hand. We're all grown ups here. Wait, let me think of that question in how it relates to me. (thinking...)

Oh yea, that's the point I was driving at...I for one don't consider myself right in every situation, regardless of how strong of an opinion I have. That's where ALL the ID charts for instance should be linked to for one example. More to the point and onto a good example...Let's take the great debate of max sensitivity providing best depth which is most people's view, VS something much lower than that providing best depth which we all know I believe in. Neither one is wrong. How can that be? Because it all comes down to which type of ground you have IMO. I just know that in my soil max stable sensitivity doesn't provide best depth or target ID. In fact, it costs you that if you max out near the edge of stability.

By the same token, different soils for different folks can mean the highest sensitivity setting possible is going to provide that best depth. See how easy that is? Put a notation next to the various links to qualify the potential pros and cons of different "advice" or "how to" information. That's I think what they call being PC, isn't it? No body's wrong and no body's right. Can't we all just get along type of feel good nonsense that we are all supposed to believe these days "in the real world"? Somebody needs to be open minded enough to provide various points of views and let the people decide, unlike say the current state of colleges these days where only one side of the story is told. I'll stop right there since that's way off topic.

On a lot of forums there are a lot of people who don't bother looking at the pinned topics. They just go ahead and ask the same questions anyway.
A lot of people will never go to a frequently asked questions section, or even look for it if it exists. Many people never do a topic search.
It will never end. HH

I'll say it again. Think about what you guys are turning down here carefully. Wouldn't you rather have me keep my responses to one short sentence, such as "SEE THIS LINK"? That alone should be all I have to say.

The usual moderator duties on most forums will be to delete spam, cool off hotheads, delete hostile posts, ban troublemakers. Usually not needed around this forum.HH

Now I have to think that one over real careful like, because I'm probably already about half way to getting kicked out the door as it is.

One other thing...I appreciate some people's beliefs in my knowledge about this machine but that's way over stated. I don't claim to be as experienced with this great machine as some of the legends in this forum. I'll never claim that, but I do claim to have some new ways of thinking about things or at least unique approaches that others may never have contemplated before. Big difference in those two things, so give credit to those who have earned their stripes over the years and deserve it.

The real deserving bunch all around would be new people to this great machine. They deserve better than the obscurity of the current state of this forum. That's who we need to think about.

Art, sorry I picked on your message. This response isn't really directed towards you in general. It was just a handy reply that I could bounce some ideas off of. Thanks for putting up with me.

 

[Critterhunter]

Since it appears the stickie campaign is going nowhere with no promises to do such a thing, I'm going to step up and start compiling links to various old threads on various topics from people. While I won't be able to make them a stickie, I can at least compile links to various topics that I can then refer to people asking about a specific topic. A "Check this link" type of deal which when clicked on will list several links to various threads containing information on that particular topic. I won't play "politics" here, and all information from all sides with differing opinions will be listed.

Things like Coil option threads, VDI charts, basic set up and use of the Excal or Sovereign, how to tell various trash items by VDI and audio, battery information (both using the stock charger as well as going aftermarket), the great PP/Discriminate depth debate, Auto versus manual sensitivity as well as the different theories and pros/cons of using the highest manual possible versus something much lower to obtain best depth, and so on. Others will be things like building a light weight custom Sovereign or Excal, various mounting methods for the meter such as using the stock location but using long bolts to raise it's location above the hand grip, mounting on the grip, etc, etc. The list is endless of topics that can be categorized. Proper calibration of the meter, which meters are out there, 540 vs 180 or bar graph pros and cons, and on and on. Even a run down of the progression in Sovereign and Excal models along with the differing features and performance traits.

With a little organization (and not censoring) all sides can be happy and the available data to people interested in buying the Sovereign as well as newbies that just bought one will be right at your finger tips. Besides, it will greatly reduce the redundancy of topics on this forum as well as the effort some of us have been putting into trying to answer the same questions over and over again.

It's going to take a lot of work sifting through all the old threads from the very beginning up until now to organize and link together topics, but since I'm out of work at the moment I guess I have some time to kill. Keeps me from laying around watching MASH re-runs on TV all day.

 

[Tony in FL]

Critter,

It sounds like you have some great ideas for helping fellow users and I really like the idea of consolidating important information on pinned stickies.

Tony

 

[Critterhunter]

Thanks, I'm slowly compiling links into categories. Once done I'll approach the moderator and see if he's willing to throw these link threads up as stickies. If he doesn't feel like it then I'll try to rally some people on here to put pressure on Find Mall to do so. The Sovereign deserves so much more than just buried beat to death topics. A new person to detecting would most likely never consider a Sovereign when very little easy to access information is available for it. Look at the Explorer forum. All those coils and field hunts put nicely at the top along with other stuff. That's one way to help newbies and attract potential new owners. We can party just as hard as those "flashy" types in other forums. Let's get rolling on this. This machine is no less sophisticated nor interesting to explore various settings than any other machine. We've all proved that with the various debates on something as simple as PP VS Discriminate, or Auto Vs Manual, or even Iron Mask On Vs Off. Like I've said, I bet most new people don't even know a meter is available for this machine. Others know that but take one look at it and think it's 80's technology or something. We all know better. Time to bring the message to the people!