(Not) Sharing with the Stakeholders

The idea of recording metal detecting finds is so that the results of an individual's hoiking and taking (and then often flogging off or hiding away) can be shared with the rest of the public whose heritage it is all part of. An individual has hoiked and taken away a penny of Coenwulf, moneyer Duda and it is currently on eBay. One might be forgiven for asking whether this finder did the responsible thing and added the information about the finding of that coin on a national database. It's not on the public-funded Portable Antiquities Scheme Database (where it belongs), and when one tries to search the so-called UKDetector Finds Database, it turns out these "data" are no longer publicly available. You get a message:

You must be registered to use search on this site.

UKDFD

You are expected to add to their "registered users" statistics to find out the basic information about what is being taken by other members for their personal use from the archaeological record of England and Wales.  This totally perverts the original purpose of the UKDFD which was initially intended to make:

  the reality of the hobby’s contribution to knowledge [...] plain for everyone to see. It is evident in the display cases of our museums, the records on our databases, and the publications on our bookshelves.

Well, not any more it is not. The UKDFD has become what it alwways was all along, a pirate private database made by metal detectorists for metal detectorists. As they said "it's OUR heritage innit?".