"Stop me if yerve 'eard this one be4"

In metal detecting circles, a joke always bears repeating it seems that John Howland believes, regurgitating his traditional fare of anti-preservationist and anti-CBA motifs laced with his usual crass vulgarity. "Ha-ha-LOL" go the vacant slack-jaws and everybody in vacant tekkie-land is happy. Except one. One lone voice among the thousands of LOL-ing ambassadors of the metal detecting hobby:

Tascio April 13, 2015 at 2:29 am This is tedious stuff even by Mr Howland’s standards. The usual moaning about Barford and co [...] nothing but ad hominem abuse. If you want to help your hobby, Mr Howland, how about posting something positive?

I do not expect the concept of doing anything for anyone but themselves is one which is particularly familiar to artefact collectors. Most certainly though, the writings of people like Mr Howland are a prime example of the intellectual bankruptness of the artefact hunting community as a whole.

Detectorists on the Council for British Archaeology

Some metal detectorists state what they think of the Council for British Archaeology:

The CBA’s key weakness; ravenous for any kind of BS that shows the hobby in a poor light. In my opinion, the CBA is no friend of ours, never was, and never will be. Indeed, why would detectorists would want to buddy-up with such a pack of ingrates is beyond me, particularly with their desire to inflict of what they think passes for a detectorists Code of Conduct? Cheeky arrogant sods! Look inwards, plebs, and see the thieving that’s rife within your own ranks.

The Code of Practice [sic] for Responsible Detecting in England and Wales was fronted by the pro-detecting organization (supported by the CBA) the Portable Antiquities Scheme. It is ironic that these same critics say they are confirmed "supporters" of teh PAS and all it stands for. My guess is that this declaration is not actually backed up with a molecule of knowledge about what the PAS actually does stand for, just the superfiucial awareness that the presence of the PAS gives hobbyist artefact hunting and collecting a good image. It is a shame that the unchallenged all-too-visible online activities of the Scheme's partners creates quite the opposite impression.