Tekkies Fooling Around in April...

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Over on a metal detecting forum near you....

"Metal detecting in the UK to be banned" (Sun Apr 01, 2012 3:58 pm)

A law has been approved by Government and they are now seeking the approval of the House of Lords to ban metal detecting in the UK.... This will really hurt the economy
A sad day for our hobby 

Not everybody believed it (Sun Apr 01, 2012 10:31 pm): 

I don't think so, UK gov't loves detectorists as they find hoards of good stuff that the UK gov't loves to run their hands thru. They love treasure, gems, and gold. They may take it from you to add to their collection, the good part is the finder gets compensated for it handsomely.

If metal detecting use was curbed, it would save the economy a lot of money on those Treasure awards, just make them state property, and handling stolen property an offence and you'd save millions - some of which could go to hospital beds and other necessities (Britain's museums have enough gold shiny stuff to keep the tourists coming already, and more than enough to study and publish over the next few decades).  So the tekkies tried another one:

Information. Website no longer active and will be permanently closed at 11am 01/04/2013.

Don't worry, it will be back. It is worth noting Heritage Action's comments on this:

the real irony is this: Britain is the only country on the planet where such an announcement would be seen as a joke!! NB, not that we’ve ever called for a ban, we’ve only ever suggested there should be a law to compel artefact hunters to behave – for which PAS has called us trolls – and thugs have threatened us with violence. Happy 1st April, PAS and all detectorists.

UPDATE 1st April afternoon.
the detecting forum is now up and running again.