There has been a some what acrimonious debate recently about what should be included in the DB under the heading 'idendtify as'. In a nutshell I get the feeling ( well actually I've ben told) that many feel that some of the categories are unnecessary and should just be inclusive of the mine. For example, mill, shaft, trial, stamps and crusher do not require separate entries. I'm not passing an opinion on this (sighs of relief) but I do believe it's time it was sorted.
So I'm asking what is the consensus of members because then at least there will be some conformity in the DB. I'm not sure if that was a joke or not. Still it needs sorting.

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Continuing the moan. When I search for "mines with content, sheet SW" I get not that.

Aditnow is crippled by too many categories and not enough places to "pin stuff".

The zillions of Wheal Jane varieties being a case in point. If we are to afford different labels of the same stuff, can they not link to the same page?

Moan over!

Wheal Jane stuff sorted into two categories now. Viz;

Wheal Jane, The original, later to become Falmouth Consolidated, and

Wheal Jane, the Consolidated Goldfields / RTZ / Carnon / West Wheal Jane.
Any that are left refer to Wh.Janes in other parts of the county such as North Jane near Threemilestone etc. etc.
Hoping this sorts things out, but feel free to moan at me in a PM if it doesn't 🙂
Tackling the South Crofties and the Crofty Souths now. Not easy but will be easier than the Vor /Metal farrago we have at present. 😢 (work in progress) :thumbsup:

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Hopefully people know that if a bug or issue is pointed out it's genreally fixed quite quickly. I'm committed to running this site for the long haul and building it up into a useful resource.

I'll take a look at the SW sheet issue. The 'mines with content' search was due to be re-written anyhow to make it a lot faster :thumbup: I would guess that will be a week or so to find the time to re-write that.

As for the list of classifications. It currently runs to:

Mine
Quarry
Colliery
Tramway
Railway
Mill
Smelt Mill
Port
Factory
Tunnel
Shaft
Trial
Tin Stream
Museum
Stamp or Dressing Floor
Crusher
Smelter
Blowing House

I agree that's quite long. But we did arrive at that after a great deal of clamouring for new classifications :confused:

But if it needs revising down then we'd best work out between us a reduced list, rather than me messing it up through my lack of knowledge about certain areas of the country.

It was never ever intended that every shaft or mill that was part of a named mine was listed separately. Albums can be created for that purpose within the mine/quarry or photographs can simply go into the User or Archive album with full descriptions indicating what and when.

I can't tell you how much I hope this confusion is not crippling the web site.

Stuey - can you explain whay you mean by not enough places to pin things? I don't follow that I'm afraid.

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No one on this site wants it to be badly laid out or incorrect, and everyone makes errors & mistakes (especially me), so what we want here is to reach a concensus on what things work best for data entry, its a data base that is trying to fit a hobby where one size will never fit all.
Also remember whatever we say now may or may not be possible to do to the DB records already on here and may require Simon to do a huge amount of site re working.

A few thoughts based on recent experience here would be...

Shaft I do not agree with in hindsight (which is always 20/20) as they are parts of mines. I should not have used given recent events and opinions, I have to say I had reservations on this one but have used the category when perhaps I/we should have just made reference in the main mine to the section of that mine as Simon suggested to me recently and to have added an album for that area for pics.
Mills to me are parts of mines or former mines even where they carried on after the mine closed processing for other mines. Now forgive me here but arn't stamps and dressing floors parts of a mines mill, but there is an argument for stamps as I am sure there were a few independents!
streamworks are a logical yes for inclusion as they are in my view were operated as a seperate entity unless they belong to a particular mine in which case they are part of that mine...!
tunnel and factory are fine as this allows coverage of independent sites such as tunnels of significance thru the alps or under the Severn which are mining marvels, factories allows for gunpowder works and the like.
smelt mill and smelter and blowing house are all basically smelters of some sort whether its for tin copper iron steel lead etc, and where its a blowing house put that in the title if that is how it is known ie O'fingles blowing house tin smelter
The same can be said of colliery, most coal mines known as Collieries have the word as part of its title ie Teversal Colliery which hence gives the logical Teversal Colliery Coal Mine so I don't even think colliery is necessary as an option as the mine would in the case of teversal appear correctly as Teversal or as Teversal Colliery if entered either way.
Tramway and Railway are fine as is as, if the tramway or railway is part of a mine then its part of the mine, if its operated independently of a mine, ie like the Butterley Co Rly then its a seperate railway
Quarry is fine too!
Trial is still a mine as is a level etc etc

So really my list would read

Mine -which includes collieries, trials, levels, opencasts, pits and all the bits in it like mills, tramways etc
Quarry
Tramway -which includes plateways and wagonways where independent of a mine
Railway -where independent of a mine
Smelter/Furnace -which includes blowing house, smeltmills, steel and iron works etc
Stamps-As these were independent in some case
Streamworks -which includes Tin streams etc
factory -for fuse works, explosive
tunnel

Thats my first thoughts as a starter for 10!
The more categories the more confusion we seem to have.

Can of worms duly opened! ::)

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So really my list would read

Mine -which includes collieries, trials, levels, opencasts, pits and all the bits in it like mills, tramways etc
Quarry
Tramway -which includes plateways and wagonways where independent of a mine
Railway -where independent of a mine
Smelter/Furnace -which includes blowing house, smeltmills, steel and iron works etc
Stamps-As these were independent in some case
Streamworks -which includes Tin streams etc
factory -for fuse works, explosive
tunnel

Seems very logical to me :thumbup:

This is more or less how I keep things organised on my own computer, with subfolders for the various sub-categories.
ie. more than one photo album if a mine site contains several different features

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Just to say I prefer to to think that this is an attempt to put the lid on Pandoras Box and in that context I essentially agree with all that Ian has said. I too made some assumptions in the earlier disussion on this that I now feel were incorrect. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But I now feel given the teething troubles have been recognised it can all be sorted to everyones satisfaction in a reasonably simple manner.

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So really my list would read

Mine -which includes collieries, trials, levels, opencasts, pits and all the bits in it like mills, tramways etc
Quarry
Tramway -which includes plateways and wagonways where independent of a mine
Railway -where independent of a mine
Smelter/Furnace -which includes blowing house, smeltmills, steel and iron works etc
Stamps-As these were independent in some case
Streamworks -which includes Tin streams etc
factory -for fuse works, explosive
tunnel

I agree, especially with regard to shafts and trials, I can't see any benefit in sub dividing the mine catagory that way.
The final list should include port though.

:oops: looks like Timberman was on here last, above is from Sparty_lea

Canal? Or should we have "Transport Feature" to cover all? I appreciate there are few mining specific canals - Tavistock comes to mind.

There are a few in the States as well. Port should obviously be on the list. Missed that. No excuse considering how important some were to the copper industry down these parts. :thumbdown:

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I think China clay pit & China stone pits should be included.
We should remember that china clay is second only to North Sea oil in respects of exports. The inclusion of transport is fine
as that covers a multitude of themes.
Could there also be a Oddities section to cover such things as merriment stones, boundary stones, preaching rocks and places
and stannary stones and features. all of these had a direct connection with mining

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Canal? Or should we have "Transport Feature" to cover all? I appreciate there are few mining specific canals - Tavistock comes to mind.

And the Lehigh Canal that served the Pennsylvania coalfields.

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I think China clay pit & China stone pits should be included.
We should remember that china clay is second only to North Sea oil in respects of exports. The inclusion of transport is fine
as that covers a multitude of themes.
Could there also be a Oddities section to cover such things as merriment stones, boundary stones, preaching rocks and places
and stannary stones and features. all of these had a direct connection with mining

I can see the debate on what constitutes a "Quarry" looming on the horizon! All I ask is that "Quarry" remains a category that is used to denote places where building and dimension stone is extracted.

I think China clay pit & China stone pits should be included.
We should remember that china clay is second only to North Sea oil in respects of exports. The inclusion of transport is fine
as that covers a multitude of themes.
Could there also be a Oddities section to cover such things as merriment stones, boundary stones, preaching rocks and places
and stannary stones and features. all of these had a direct connection with mining

I can't see why China Clay/stone pits need a seperate category (unless you meant as a "mineral type").

ICLOK's list (with the addition of port) seems very sensible, I always did think too many minor sub categories had been added.

China stone & china clay are two different commodities.
China clay has far too many uses to be listed, whereas china stone was/is used as a dimension stone and more often as a flux in the metal industry. They come from separate pits although to the layman they look the same

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China stone & china clay are two different commodities.
China clay has far too many uses to be listed, whereas china stone was/is used as a dimension stone and more often as a flux in the metal industry. They come from separate pits although to the layman they look the same

That is an addition to the mineral / product list rather than the classification list though isn't it?

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Yes you're right sorry about that, bad day again

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No worries!

It does however beg the quesiton... do we need 'pit' as a classification? Not that it would cloud the issue in repsect of coal mines / collieries / pits :lol:

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I knew I missed something and you are right I did mean to put on port but missed it on my list as was rushing out to a meeting. Apologies, Perhaps dare I suggest canal.

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I don't have a problem with canals. As mentioned earlier canals were an important transport system. So I would agree with your list plus port and canals and also as you mentioned earlier, a separate album can be set up in the mine entry if deemed necessary.

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