I think it's because it's mining season right now. I've noted on older conversations that participation is higher during the winter months. Threads I've started or participated in seem to get variable responses.

Part of the problem is likely repeat questions that have been answered on older converations. People worry about being repetitive I think?

I've seen similar issues like that on other forums for instance, the annual summer thread on rec.food.cooking (which finally mostly moved off of usenet and on to facebook) about best ways to shuck and cook corn on th cob...
People would gripe about it having been covered numerous times, forgetting about newbies, expecting them to read archives.
I'm still waiting for a prospecting partner response to northeast Oregon but I posted it on the proper page for it instead of random conversation. I have to wonder if it ever got read...

Cheers and welcome!
Mary

Mary is right, it is mining season and people are busy, and now we just entered hunting season so we have members doing both, very little time for the computer. You also have to remember that a lot of our GPAA members are a bit older and have families that they like to spend times with over summer break. I myself just learned I am going to be a grandpa again at age 45 so I know next spring and summer are going to be a bit busy. Now I know why one of our claim owners prefers dredging under the ice in the middle of winter. Dredge slides easily on snow, punch a hole for your intake, another for your body and jump in. The deepest parts of the river where gold will settle will be the easiest to access with it frozen over, bet the best part is that NOBODY is there to bother you. Do NOT attempt this if you are not a experienced diver and have somebody else with you.

Please also understand Shane that we are losing members and their knowledge to age and health problems. Besides losing them we lose their knowledge which can never be replaced. I am going to be recommend everybody at our next meeting to have every officer find a protégé that want's to volunteer to learn everything we do, from how to mark and file claims, all the way down to how to fight for our rights. With the forum we can only pass on so much, pictures and instructions really do help. One of our older members has come up for an idea for a rock crusher that can be made at home. I asked another member that welded to make me some grappling hooks so we can toss them across the river and then safely cross the river with our dredge, and I think we are going to start mass producing these they work so well and cost nothing to make.

Mary,
Look me up on facebook and send me a message. One of our oldest Chapter members and best prospectors is moving to Idaho and maybe you two can connect. You can message me directly or through Western Colorado Chapter of Gold Prospectors Association of America, it's our Chapters Facebook page.

It's a bust season for everybody, take time on the river while it is low, follow the rules, find your gold, and then over the winter think about what you need to do to make things better next year.

Benjamin Crain
President, Western Colorado Chapter of Gold Prospector Association of America

P.S. If you Chapter does not have a facebook page look us up, we will add you, and encourage your Chapter to do the same. Because Facebook has become the preferred form of media these days it has really helped to gather the interests of other groups and new potential members.

Shane,

Think about that for a few minuets,

This is not directed at any individual specific or in general

GPAA may have 30000+ - members, how many use the interweb or have a mobile device to connect with, or want to connect or can connect ?
Summer time is vacations as well as mining time
Peoples are busy doing other fun things
Most miners that have experiences to share are old and don't give advice to new miners for various reasons
Mostly because they learned it the hard way and expect others to do the same, aint giving it away
Most miners are loaners, quite types, don't ask no questions I'll tell you no lies
Most ole timers have been burned at some level
Old school doesn't fit with new school.
Young people want it NOW and have no patience for waiting
for answers to questions that if they would take some time and read past posts, most all questions would be answered
IF people are in that biga hurry, gold prospecting is not for them
No quick fix here, no quick pay off, lots of homework, research, ground pounding
Very few people want to partner with others, main reason is no respect
As soon as I show you where and how, you (not you specific) will never see them again unless they are jumping my spot that I worked hard to find
Just the way it is...right wrong ?

The old forum had many ole timers with great knowledge and wisdom, when GPAA changed over to the new forum and required people to use real names and addy's, most ole timers said C-Ya

My advice to new types, join a chapter or club and go to some common digs to see how its done, make a connection with someone
Get out there and do it

Bill

Mary:

Coincidentally your post looking for someone in Oregon was one of the posts I was think of that I noticed has gone unanswered.

Benjamin:

Congrats Grandpa... I have a 19 year old daughter and am going on 44, but cannot imagine and am in no hurry to be Grandpa... But when it happens, I am sure I will be proud. My youngest son actually just turned 2 last month. We got him a sandbox. He now lives in it. My lil'digger in training. Also, I loved the Mentor Program idea. I would love to find a die hard Nugget Shooter near me to not only learn from but unlike most old timers, I think I'd prefer company other than snakes, lizards, rabbits, turtles and the occasional dirt bike rider when out in the desert LOL

William:

I definitely think using our real names is less cool. I did mention also or guess that the forum format and lack of a mobile friendly version might be limiting popularity.

To everyone, I love to do research, reading articles and such. I for one prefer the current interaction and dialog over reading through archives. Frankly without it, archives wouldn't exist LOL... Nevertheless I do read through them but I think I am here mostly for the member claims access and benefits as well as to meet and get to know other members and through developing friendships I hope to learn a ton. Anyways, thanks for the replies and I hope to get to know everyone!

I agree it is a shame people are having trouble getting answers on this forum. I used to post here regularly. But the change in the layout has made it to hard to see what is going on here. I liked when the last 8 or so post here were on the opening page of the GPAA site. I will make an effort to put more time here to help out.

We did have a lot of good people on here with some great advise .Then they needed to change the forums and make people use their real names ,along with removing many forum pages and many left here .They would help anyone as I do on here .The changes killed this site.Not the people .

The old forum was getting bad with a lot of garbage and trash, name calling, back stabbing, etc.  When they revamped it and went to no screen names, most went to Treasure Hunters forum.  Yes we lost a lot of good info from some people, but by and large it is a better place than it had turned into then.

Yeah, been a busy summer out prospecting and camping with the family. Just not much time to hang out in the forums. Of course, being a slightly bit OCD, I like to read every message. So ... after coming back and seeing I have over 300 unread messages in the forums, it is daunting and makes me just want to close the browser to catch up another time.

Another issue with participation (at least with me), is the performance of the GPAA website and forums are not very good. Pages take forever to load, and the overall layout of the forums isn't as intuitive as I'm used to. Don't get me wrong, the site gets the job done, but I have a sneaky suspicion many get frustrated and just move along to Facebook, or other sites for information. The key to a successful forum besides participation and content, is being able to easily navigate and find what your looking for with as little frustration and effort as possible.

Ed