Sometimes it gets frustrating being webmaster. It’s a LOT of hard work to keep a site vital and valuable to its members and viewers. Many times the feedback and is next to nil from our side of the keyboard. Sometimes I wonder why I bother at all when I could just sit back and do my own research and continue becoming more informed on my own instead of spending endless days and nights doing the endless research, writing, creating, giving others a place to share, communicate, learn, and advertise their own related concerns.

Every now and then, however, a note arrives in my email box and let’s me know that my efforts are not in vain. Today I opened my email box to find this note:

Thank you for making it easy to use your site and all the info will keep me, the husband, and our 2 beautiful little ladies busy! We are so thankful for all the help you have given us. It was so easy to understand and so fun to learn all the history and search for all of these older not on the map places…it’s taught us more than to go get gold, but to learn our areas, our state history and how to really research what we are looking for. Links are great too!
– D’Anna

D’Anna – Thank YOU. It was awesome to hear that. You just picked a day that I really needed to hear it to write to us, too.

You see, RHS1 was becoming a vital resource for rockhounds. It took years to build and just after we really got into the swing of things with many contributors and members making friendships, sharing, having fun, and doing business here we were suddenly hit by a ruthless hacker, injected with some nasty virulent viruses, and generally had our whole php system wiped out…..for those that don’t know, that’s the system that allows us to build interactive programs such as our forums, photo gallery, and this gazette.

This all happened at a time we were losing our wonderful technician to real world concerns and health issues. It took major amounts of unpaid efforts and time to find another able and willing tech and to build this back to an interactive place again. Having to start all over with the slow process of building our community back, the frustrations sometimes become overwhelming. It’s very hard to be patient building the second time around.

All in all, an email like this one, a post in the forum, or a picture posted in the Gallery actually mean something to the staff here at RHS1. We enjoy our community and it makes all the time and effort worthwhile when we see others finding it a valuable and fun place to stop, learn, share, and make friends.

Your email just provided me with another month’s worth of patience for rebuilding our community, and we appreciate you, too, D’Anna. Thanks again. A further Thanks to all of our contributing members here at RHS1. After all – the bottom line is that RHS1 isn’t about us – it’s about YOU.

Tags: rock and gem hunters, rockhound forums, rockhounds, rockhoundstation1.com

It’s been a crazy year folks.  But we’re back online now – all new, shiny, and ready to rock.

For any of you who used to be members before the crash, the forums and photo gallery are back online, too, and some of our old pals are already back and waiting for the rest of you.  In fact a few of us already have a spring trip already in the planning, so you have a lot to catch up on.  We’ve got members coming in from all over so come on in.  You might just meet a great rock hunting pal here. I have – lots of them.

Now if ya hit the front page of the forum you’ve already seen that we have our first annual calendar out for 2010.  This year we can thank current members for the awesome pictures.  Around June there will be a contest to decide the 2011 pics so members need to start getting their best specimens ever dug up and ready for the show down.  Details will be online when the time for the contest gets near.

You can find that calendar right HERE

And of course, last but by far not the least – the photo gallery is online again, too, and there are members in there already stocking it with pics that will make you want to drop everything except a snow shovel and get back out into the fields.  Of course, for those of us up here in the North about all we can do is talk about that one for awhile, but you in the South have your chance to make us sick about the weather for a few months.  Don’t be too harsh – spring isn’t that far off and pabacks are……..well, you know.

I’d like to make mention of our site vendors – BlackCatMining.com and Wire-sculpture.com who are bringing you all  the rockhound and jewerly making equipment and supplies you need to keep your hobbies, crafts and businesses running smoothly.  And just to keep  the FTC  cozy and warm – yes, we do get small commissions to help support RHS1.

Once you get your own rocks and products to sell,  you can stop by at Dragonsayeauctions.com and put those beauties online for sale – you’ll find em on the right side of the front page as always.

If you haven’t noticed yet, the RHS1 Connector newsletter is also back up and in full swing.  This month you’ll find a free ebook to download about Lake Superior Agates from John Marshall.  He really put together an awesome piece of work there and you are just missing out if you don’t grab a copy.  Free is one heck of a good price, especially for a work this well done.  (Don’t worry if you hate to read, the pictures are quite enough to tide you over!).

You can find that newsletter right HERE

Well, for now I think that’s about it.  Looking forward to seeing you all back in the forums again.  Keep your eye on the Gazette, too, though – ya never know what we’ll be talking about here.

Until next time……

Life’s Short Rock Hard

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Tags: rock and gem hunters, rockhound calendar, rockhound equipment, rockhound forums, rockhound newsletter, rockhound photo gallery, rockhound supplies, rockhounds, rockhoundstation1.com