International Responsible Detectorist Institute
IRDI Manual
Your guide to IRDI membership, your account, Member Profile, Member Directory, messaging, Property Owner Feedback, and member resources.
Using Your IRDI Membership
This public manual explains IRDI membership and the member features available through an IRDI account. You can read it before creating an account and return to it whenever you need help with membership, your Member Profile, the Member Directory, messaging, Property Owner Feedback, or member resources.
Section 1
Getting Started
Your IRDI account is the starting point for membership. Your account stores your sign-in information, membership status, membership agreements, Member Profile, messages, and other information associated with your participation in IRDI.
Create Your Account
Registration creates your IRDI account. Your account name cannot be changed after registration, so enter it carefully.
Verify Your Email
After registration, verify your email address using the verification message sent by IRDI. Email verification is required before accessing authenticated member features.
Creating an IRDI account does not by itself activate your IRDI membership. Membership is activated separately after completing the membership requirements described below.
Section 2
Becoming an IRDI Member
After creating and verifying your account, you can complete the IRDI membership process. Membership requires you to review and agree to both the IRDI Code of Ethics and the Best Practices of Responsible Detecting.
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1
Read the Code of Ethics
Review the ethical principles and responsibilities expected of IRDI members.
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2
Read the Best Practices
Review IRDI guidance for responsible, respectful, and lawful metal detecting.
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3
Accept Both Standards
Confirm your agreement to both standards to activate your membership.
Section 3
Understanding Good Standing
An active member who has accepted the Code of Ethics and Best Practices and does not have an active accountability condition that removes Good Standing is identified by IRDI as a Member in Good Standing.
Member in Good Standing
Good Standing reflects your current status within IRDI’s membership and accountability system. It is not a criminal background check, personal endorsement, or guarantee of trustworthiness or future behavior.
Your current membership status is displayed on your Account page. If Good Standing is not current, your account may also display information explaining the membership condition that currently applies to you.
Section 4
Your IRDI Account
Your Account page is the central location for managing your IRDI membership and member features.
Account Information
Review your account name, email address, email verification status, membership status, and Member Since date.
Account Settings
Change the email address or password associated with your account. Changing your email address may require verification of the new address.
Section 5
Your Member Profile
An active IRDI member can create one Member Profile. Directory visibility and personal-information privacy determine how that profile is displayed, subject to membership-status rules.
Creating Your Profile
When you first create your profile, you will choose a profile name and a unique username. Your username must be between 5 and 50 characters and may contain letters, numbers, dashes, and underscores.
Choose your username carefully.
Your username becomes your unique public @username and is used in your IRDI profile address. After your Member Profile has been created, the username cannot be changed through the profile editor.
Completing Your Profile
After creating your profile, you can add and manage your profile name, profile image, city, state or province, country, biography, website, directory visibility, and member messaging preferences.
IRDI considers the profile complete when a profile image, city, state or province, country, and biography have been provided.
Section 6
Member Directory & Privacy
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.
Depending on your privacy setting, your public profile may show your name, photo, location, biography, and website. Public usernames, membership details, and published feedback summaries support verification. Your account email address is not displayed on your public profile.
Section 7
Your IRDI Member Card
Your digital IRDI Member Card is connected to your Member Profile. It provides identifying membership information and a convenient way to direct someone to your live IRDI profile.
Your Member Card should be understood together with your live IRDI profile. The card itself is not permanent proof of current membership or standing because membership status can change.
Section 8
Member-to-Member Messaging
IRDI includes a private member messaging system that allows eligible signed-in members to communicate without publishing their account email addresses on their public Member Profiles.
Receiving Messages
Receiving member messages is optional. You can enable or disable the member messaging option from your Member Profile settings. When disabled, the Message Member option is not displayed for your profile.
Email Notifications
Your profile settings also allow you to control whether IRDI sends email notifications about member messages.
Inbox and Sent Messages
The Messages area provides separate Inbox and Sent views for managing your IRDI member conversations.
Section 9
Property Owner Feedback
Requesting Private Property Permission
A good permission request is respectful, brief, and clear. The goal is not to pressure a property owner into saying yes, but to give them enough information to make an informed decision about access to their property.
Before You Approach
- Research the property and confirm that you are approaching the person authorized to grant permission whenever reasonably possible.
- Have a genuine and specific reason for your interest in detecting the property or learning about its history.
- Choose a reasonable time to approach and avoid interrupting obvious meals, family activities, work, or other inconvenient circumstances.
- Present yourself neatly and respectfully. When practical, leave your detector and recovery tools in your vehicle during the initial conversation.
Choosing How to Approach
A legitimate personal introduction or referral can make an initial conversation easier. When no introduction is available, an appropriate face-to-face conversation may work well. If the property owner is already outside and circumstances are appropriate, a polite approach may feel less intrusive than an unexpected knock at the door. Door knocking remains an option when done respectfully and at a reasonable time.
A Simple Permission Framework
Introduction → Interest → Request → Property Care → Owner Control
Introduce yourself, explain briefly why the property interests you, clearly ask for permission to metal detect, explain that you will recover targets carefully and restore the ground, and make it clear that the property owner controls whether permission is granted and under what conditions.
Example Permission Request
Hello, my name is [name]. I am a local metal detectorist interested in the history of this area, and your property caught my attention because [brief genuine reason]. I wanted to ask whether you would consider allowing me to metal detect part of the property. I recover targets carefully, restore the ground, and remove the trash I find. I am also happy to show you what I recover. If you would rather not, I completely understand.
Use the example as a framework rather than a script. A natural conversation that accurately reflects who you are and why you are interested in the property is preferable to a memorized sales pitch.
If Permission Is Granted
- Confirm the areas where you may detect and any areas that are off limits.
- Discuss expectations about recovered items, especially potentially valuable, historic, sentimental, or personally identifiable items.
- Confirm parking, gates, livestock, landscaping, time limits, access routes, and other property-specific instructions.
- Ask before bringing another detectorist or other person onto the property.
- Remember that the property owner may change or withdraw permission at any time.
If Permission Is Declined
Thank the property owner for their time and leave respectfully. Do not argue, pressure, repeatedly ask, or attempt to negotiate after permission has been declined.
After Detecting
Leave the property clean and restored, follow the agreement concerning recovered items, thank the property owner, and share any information you agreed to provide. When appropriate, an eligible IRDI member may later invite the property owner to provide Property Owner Feedback about the experience.
Property Owner Feedback
Property Owner Feedback allows a property owner to provide feedback about their experience after allowing you to detect on their property. Feedback can add first-hand experience to your public IRDI record.
Requesting Feedback
When your membership is in Good Standing and you have a Member Profile, your Account page provides a Request Property Owner Review option. Enter the property owner’s email address and IRDI will send a private invitation.
Invitation Rules
- The invitation is associated with your Member Profile.
- The property owner does not need an IRDI account to respond.
- The reviewer must verify access to the email address used for the review.
- Invitations currently expire 30 days after creation.
- An invitation is intended for a single review and cannot be reused after a review is submitted.
Public Rating
A public Property Owner Rating is displayed after you have at least three visible Property Owner Reviews. Before that threshold, your public profile may show the number of visible reviews without displaying an average rating.
IRDI verifies the reviewer’s access to the submitted email address, but does not independently verify property ownership or guarantee the accuracy of a review.
Section 10
Resources
IRDI Resources provides public access to the Code of Ethics, Best Practices, frequently asked questions, the IRDI Manual, membership guidance, and member verification information.
Section 11
Changes to Your Membership Status
Your Account page is the primary place to review your current IRDI membership status. If an accountability condition applies to your membership, the Account page provides the member-facing information associated with that condition.
Formal Warning
A formal warning does not by itself suspend your membership or remove your Member in Good Standing status. Review any notice shown on your Account page for the information that applies to the warning.
Probation or Administrative Review
Your membership may remain active while Good Standing is not current. Your Account page will display the applicable member notice and available information about your status.
Suspended Membership
While suspended, your account and historical information are preserved, but active-member privileges are unavailable. Your public profile and Member Directory listing are unavailable, you cannot use your Member Card, request new Property Owner Feedback, access active-member resources, or send new member-to-member messages. You can still access your account settings and existing account information.
If your membership status changes, follow the information displayed directly in your IRDI account and any membership notice sent to your registered email address.
Section 12
Personal Information Privacy
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.
Personal Information Privacy
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.
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.
Your username may identify you. Contact IRDI if you need an alias change. New incoming messages, including replies, and new or resent review invitations are unavailable while privacy is enabled. Existing unused review invitations are cancelled and will not reopen automatically.
Privacy does not clear ratings, feedback, membership standing, or enforcement history. The public profile and member card continue to support verification when membership status permits. Existing review-moderation rules and the minimum number of reviews required for a public rating still apply.
You can turn privacy off from your Account page. Your saved profile details and archived photo can then be displayed again according to your membership status and directory preference. Cancelled review invitations remain cancelled.
This setting cannot recall information already shared in message text, delivered emails, downloaded images, or external caches. It hides personal profile details; it does not erase account records or make your public alias anonymous.
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.
Section 13
Getting Help
If you have a question about your IRDI account, membership, Member Profile, messages, Property Owner Feedback, or another member feature, review the IRDI FAQ or contact IRDI for assistance.
Responsible Membership Starts With You
IRDI membership represents an ongoing commitment to ethical detecting, responsible stewardship, respect for landowners, and protecting our shared history.