Irresponsible Metal Detecting at "Scotty's Bellingham Dig": Total Shambles. 'Best Practice' This Ain't. [UPDATED]

Have a look at this video on Facebook and cringe (Do it now, before these 'responsible detectorists' decide transparency and accountability hurt, and hide it):

On the 'North Of The Tyne Detecting' Facebook page under this film from "Scotty's Bellingham Dig", Scotty Bea cautions:

Before any one puts a [emoticon] was the lads 1st hard me as the organisers did not get told about it until a got there and farmer was there with digger me personal would have dug it a different way.but was not my hord. people dig different. nothing got damaged ect was more like a scatter. and 26 coins in one place [emoticon]️ flo will be there 25/9/2018. A reported it as soon as it was decoverd well done mark

I'm usually more familiar with translating from a Slavic language into academic or official English, but I suspect that some translation may be necessary here from 'English' to English:

Before anyone else dislikes [this video], it was some of the participants who first heard [of this find]. The organizers and myself were not told about the discovery until I got there and the landowner was [already] there with a mechanical excavator. Personally, I would have dug it a different way, but this was not my hoard find. People tend to dig things in different ways. Nothing however was damaged et cetera  (sic). [The find] was more like a scatter of  26 coins in one place  [than a discrete hoard]. The FLO kindly agreed to come on 25/9/2018 and look at what we have done . I reported it as soon as it was discovered, well done Mark.

In other words, the 'organizers' were not organizing anything, finders were going wild and they were not even there. There also obviously was nothing in the landowner agreement about how an important find would be dealt with (clue: no antique mechanical excavators, use a specific best practice methodology to record the context of deposition).

Anyway the saga goes on. It turns out the 'organizer' (I use the term very loosely) of this utter shambles suspects that a lot of people have walked off with part of a potential hoard (therefore Treasure) which is the landowner's property:

Scotty Bea 6 godz.
‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️👍🏻‼️To all who found anything roman yesterday near the hord can yous take to your local flo and please get it recorded and tell them we’re you found it grid reference would be amazing if you could ‼️‼️‼️‼️ can you shere to any groups yous are on also much appreciated
[Translation: The thieving bastards that took coins from the scattered hoard yesterday instead of handing them in with the rest,  remember the law and hand them in [he forgot: or we'll ban you from our club]...]

and it gets worse:

Scotty Bea Only two people handed three coins back that’s all mate if any one els found any a would like them to get them recorded and state to flo were they were found so they know that possibility there from hord so all the history gets kept to gather and once recorded see what flo do buddy that’s all.

Scott Thompson has it all sussed out (Scott Thompson    time 19   godz.):

Scotty I wouldn't even worry about the haters. Absolutely amazing day and for the lad to find a hoard. What a feeling that must be. It even states on the FLO website that you don't have to wait for them aslong as they are informed afterwards. I'm pretty sure everyone who attended today had an amazing experience. NOW pull your finger out and sort another haha.

This "FLO website" dun' state antyfink loik tha' tompy my M8. thas' jest bollicks innit, like?

These 'haters', are they people who write, 'hey great stuff guys, hoik it out, FROW the earth around', or are they the people expressing concern that what they all too clearly see here is a thousand miles away from anything that in anyone's remotest dreams could be considered any form of 'best practice'? Would Mike Lewis of the PAS fall into the category of 'lovers' (of this kind of thing), or be considered a 'hater' if he did open his mouth and say that this is not quite what the PAS supports? Will he? What about the FLO who was there today? Will he say anything?

Scroll down to see how many finds these barely-literates are making and hoiking from a rally like this. And how many will be turning up in the PAS database with  a reliable report of the context of deposition? (Boxted Rally Challenge Time, Ixelles Six, up for the game?)

I think this whole thing shows that the worst detectorists are brainless and virtually illiterate, which we and PAS always knew but no-one is supposed to say. And how many actually are literate and bothered enough to be able to comprehend what PAS 'outreach' is (supposedly) paid to teach them about 'best practice'?

PS By all accounts, there are a lot of people on that Facebook page "gutted" about this and that, the North Of The Tyne Detecting Club must be a pretty gutless lot by now.

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UPDATE 25th Sept 2018

The fallout continues. The video to which my link leads has already been hidden... showing how these 'responsible detectorists' respond to what they are doing being discussed. There is another one however:

Scotty Bea

Proof see was not there wen the digging started 

But the point that the organizer was not actually in control of the event he was 'organizing' is what is at issue here. This should never have happened, and instead of hiding the evidence that (once again) something like this happens, surely (really) responsible detectorists (ARE there any?) would be discussing how to prevent it. 

Now look at what else appears on that page, pretty telling comments from another literacy class dropout wiv a mouth 

Clark Dawson 8 hrs ago

If it wasn’t for Scoty and his team for organising this event and the-fantastic efforts of the keen chaps and lasses that braved the cold and heat that day, None of this hoard would ever have been found in are life time or the next generation, It don’t matter how it was done , The end result is what matters , Well done all involve .😂 And if your not happy tuff 😉

There is an addendum, the excuse for all this is apparently ethnic, it's due to 'being a Geordie':

Clark Dawson Scotty Bea , no problem mate us Geordies do it different , but it don’t mean it’s wrong , Anyway most important when’s the next dig 😊 I can borrow a digger from me neighbour😂

I think that just about sums it up 'if your not happy, tuff". There's another one:

Ferrit Mreoo Where there is success there is those that scorn. The big finds will sort themselves out. Its the people that only find a little that appresiate you organising the dig as we have no land to search on or land with very little on it. Keep going Scotty Bea and try not to let them ge to you.

Mr Scotty still cannot get over his inability to accept the real meaning of the adjective 'responsible' and escapes into his little persecution fantasy bubble, the problem here is not that somebody has a valid point about the way the archaeological heritage is constantly being treated in its Collection-Driven Exploitation, he sees the problem not in the actions of the group for which he, and he alone, is responsible, it is 'haters':

Scotty Bea Haters will be haters mate let them get on with it a done what a could do as soon as a got told a rushed from one place to get there and soon as a got there a was on the phone to report it with it beaing a Sunday a even phoned the British Museum to seek professional help as that’s all what was open on the Sunday at end of the day this is not going to set us back if anything going to make us bigger and yes it was dug up different as stated not the way a would have done it but what can you do wen no one tells you until it is to late ???? Put that on ya blog PAUL BARFORD and let the haters h8t karma is a a bich but a funny thing to play with to happy hunting and let’s all start digging 😛😛😛😝😋😋

Surely an awareness that it might be that 'all that was open on the Sunday at the end of the day'  would be the BM, in the centre of a city 422 km to the south would be good reason (if the event could not be held on asnother day to facilitate getting expert help when needed) to create contingancy plans. The site should have been secured (the methods of doing so determined before the event itself started) and contact established with organizations able to help in the event of a sensitive find being made before the event started, not subject to some panicky late afternoon emergency telephone call. All participants in the event and the landowner should have been briefed about what would happen in the event of something being found that needed more systematic recovery and recording. The only emergency here was caused by bad planning by those responsible (that seems to be you Mr 'Scotty Bea').

It is not at all the case that 'no one tells you what to do until it is to [sic] late'. There has been a discussion of this every time something like this happens. Securing a site and not ruining it is not rocket science. And THAT actually is on my blog, Mr "Scotty", but to find that out, you have to read it. Read before you dig. In order to resp[onsibly do something, anything, you first of all have to know what you are doing, and be sure before you start that you can cope with any resultant problems that crop up. 

UPDATE UPDATED 25th Sept 2018
They get up early in Newcastle, obviously. The garbled post ("proof that I woz not their when the digging startid") to which my link led has also already been hidden... showing once again how these so-called  'responsible detectorists' respond to what they are doing being discussed. This is annoying as I wanted to link to two comments underneath it, one of which described how, after they'd been digging haphazardly for a while, 'the colour changed' and there they found more coins in a more discrete group - and from the lack of potsherds assumed the hoard had 'not bin in anyfink'. apparently the notion that they might have trashed traces of a cloth or leather bag, or decayed woodemnn/bark container did not cross their illiterate minds.  It seems to me that what they are reporting here is the penetrating of the ploughsoil by the digger bucket and deeply digging blind into underlying archeological deposits.  What will the FLO say about this?