Frequently Asked Questions

IRDI membership is intended for detectorists, organizations, and vendors that support responsible detecting, ethical stewardship, respect for landowners, and the protection of our shared history.

Yes. IRDI membership is free. Becoming a member is a commitment to follow IRDI's Code of Ethics and Best Practices and to represent the hobby responsibly.

No. IRDI membership and good-standing status reflect a member's current status with IRDI. They should not be considered a license, professional certification, background check, endorsement, or guarantee of an individual's past or future conduct.

Email verification confirms that you have access to the email address used to create your account. It also helps IRDI protect member accounts and ensures important account messages can reach you.

IRDI membership is built around responsible metal detecting. Agreeing to the Code of Ethics and Best Practices confirms your commitment to protecting history, respecting property and landowners, following responsible detecting practices, and representing the hobby positively.

Your membership becomes active after you have registered your account, verified your email address, and agreed to both the IRDI Code of Ethics and Best Practices.

Your Member Since date records when your IRDI membership became active. It may be displayed on your account, public member profile, and IRDI Member Card.

Yes. Membership standing can change when IRDI takes membership action under its accountability process. Public verification should therefore be based on the member’s current live profile rather than a saved Member Card or screenshot.

IRDI may review concerns involving member conduct or use of IRDI services. Depending on the circumstances and available information, IRDI may take proportionate administrative action, which can include a warning, probation, suspension, restoration, or a ban.

No. Public profiles are intended to show a member’s current IRDI standing and appropriate public trust information, not private reports, confidential concerns, staff notes, or detailed disciplinary records.

No. Good Standing reflects the member’s current status within IRDI’s membership and accountability system. IRDI does not present Good Standing as a criminal background check, personal endorsement, or guarantee of trustworthiness or future behavior.

Your Member Profile is your detectorist profile within IRDI. It allows you to provide information about yourself, including your profile name, location, biography, profile image, website, and other information you choose to make available.

Each IRDI member can create one detectorist Member Profile.

Your account name is established when you register and cannot be changed through your account settings. Other profile information can be managed through your Member Profile.

Your profile can include a profile image, public location, biography, website, profile name, and other member information provided by IRDI. You can manage this information from your account.

Your public location helps other people understand the general area where you are located. IRDI uses fields such as city, state or province, and country rather than requiring a street address for your public profile.

IRDI may indicate whether your profile is complete based on important profile information such as your profile image, location, and biography. Completing your profile helps visitors learn more about you when viewing your public Member Profile.

The Member Directory supports verification of active IRDI members and their current standing. Listings include profiles with directory visibility enabled and profiles using personal-information privacy. Active membership alone does not mean a member is in good standing.

Directory visibility and personal-information privacy are different settings. While privacy is enabled, an active member remains listed under their public username, even if directory visibility is switched off. Their name and location are excluded from directory searches and filters. Turning privacy off restores the saved directory-visibility preference.

Edit your Member Profile to change directory visibility. If Hide My Personal Information is enabled, your limited verification listing remains available under your public username regardless of that preference.

When personal-information privacy is off, switching directory visibility off makes the profile and card unavailable to ordinary public visitors; the signed-in owner can still preview them if membership status permits. When privacy is on, the limited verification profile remains publicly available for active members.

If you have chosen to make your profile public, someone can search the IRDI Member Directory or visit your public Member Profile to confirm your current membership and standing. Your Member Card and QR code can direct someone to that live profile, which is the authoritative source for your current public IRDI status.

Use the Member Directory to search public IRDI Member Profiles. Directory search and location filters can help narrow the results.

Your IRDI Member Card is a digital card connected to your Member Profile. It displays identifying member information and provides a convenient way to direct someone to your live public IRDI profile. The card itself is not permanent proof of current membership or standing.

The QR code links to your live IRDI Member Profile. Someone can scan it to view your current public membership and standing information. Because a member’s status can change, the live profile—not a saved image or copy of the card—is the authoritative source for current IRDI verification.

Yes. IRDI provides an embeddable version of your Member Card that can be placed on a compatible website using the embed code provided with your card.

Property Owner Feedback allows a property owner to provide feedback about their experience with an IRDI member after allowing that member to detect on their property. It adds real-world context to the member’s public trust record while remaining subject to IRDI review and visibility rules.

From your IRDI account, you can create a Property Owner Review invitation for your Member Profile. The invitation provides the property owner with a unique link they can use to submit their review.

No. Property owners do not need to become IRDI Members or create an IRDI account in order to respond to a valid Property Owner Review invitation.

The current Property Owner Feedback questionnaire asks about the overall experience, the member's respect for the property, communication and courtesy, whether the property was left in satisfactory condition, and whether the property owner would allow the member to return. The property owner may also provide written comments and can confidentially tell IRDI about a concern.

No. Property Owner Feedback is submitted through unique review invitations associated with an IRDI Member Profile rather than through an unrestricted public review form. Reviewers must also verify their email address before submitting feedback.

A Property Owner Review invitation is available for a limited period. Invitations currently expire 30 days after they are created and are intended for a single review.

No. Review invitations are intended for one-time use. Once a review has been successfully submitted through an invitation, that invitation cannot be used to submit another review.

IRDI may summarize visible Property Owner Feedback on your public Member Profile, including the number of visible reviews, an overall rating when enough reviews are available, and information about whether property owners would allow you to return. Confidential concerns and staff moderation information are not displayed publicly.

IRDI requires a reviewer to verify access to the email address used for the review. IRDI does not independently verify property ownership or guarantee the accuracy of the contents of a review.

A public Property Owner Rating is displayed after a member has at least three visible Property Owner Reviews. Before that threshold is reached, the public profile may show the number of visible reviews without displaying an average rating.

A property owner submitting feedback can privately indicate that they have a concern they want IRDI to know about and can provide additional details. This information is intended for authorized IRDI staff review and is not shown on the member’s public profile or member-facing review pages.

Yes. Authorized IRDI staff can review Property Owner Feedback and may hide or restore a review when appropriate. Public profile statistics are based only on reviews that are currently visible.

If you choose to allow member messages, eligible signed-in IRDI members can use the Message Member option on your public profile to send you a message through IRDI.

No. Allowing messages from other IRDI members is optional. If you turn this setting off, the Message Member option will not be displayed on your profile.

The IRDI member messaging system allows eligible members to contact you without displaying your account email address publicly on your Member Profile.

Your public Member Profile may display information such as your profile name, username, profile image, general location, biography, website, Member Since date, current membership standing, and available Property Owner Feedback. Confidential concerns, private moderation information, and your account email address are not displayed publicly.

Yes. You can change your account email address through your account settings. You may be required to verify the new email address before it becomes fully active on your account.

Yes. You can change your password from your account settings while signed in.

Use the Forgot Password option on the sign-in page. IRDI will send password reset instructions to the email address associated with your account.

IRDI does not offer self-service account closure, account deletion, or Member Profile deletion. Membership records, feedback, and enforcement history remain associated with the account. Use Hide My Personal Information to limit public access to personal profile details.

Sign in, open your Account page, find Personal Information Privacy, enable Hide My Personal Information, and select Save Privacy Setting. This setting is available after you have created a Member Profile.

Hide your name, photo, location, biography, and website from other members and public pages. Authorized IRDI staff retain access for account administration. Your public username, membership verification, and published rating summaries remain available when your membership status permits public display.

For a privacy concern, an alias-change request, or a request concerning your personal information, contact IRDI through the Contact page. These requests are reviewed separately from the public privacy setting.