This is intended to be a group effort so please chim in with tips, suggestions and explanations that will help new members get the most out of GHS.

Those of us that have been long time members know there is a tremendous amount of information stored away in the site archives.  Excepting the few discussions and replies deleted by their author or by Keith, all our discussions are preserved in the Archive.  To search the archive: go to the search box in the far upper right corner of the Main Page, enter a key word or words and click "Search".  As with any database, results will depend on the key word so give thought to what you are searching for and choose a word or words that would have been used in most of the discussions.  Keep it simple:  seismic, decline rate, fault, micro seismic, etc.  Also be aware that discussions may not be in chronological order.  Some search topics will be date sensitive and possibly location specific such as lease bonus.  Hopefully the archive can be reconfigured in the future so that discussions appear in their chronological order.

Which topics belong on the Main Page and which are better suited to a specific group.  Some topics are obviously of interest to a majority of members.  The price of natural gas, one company selling their lease rights to another over a wide or geographically significant area, technological advancements in drilling or fracking, legal issues such as royalty deductions, etc.  Topics that would obviously engage the interest of a wide range of members. When a discussion is posted to the Main Page it may or may not get an email notice alerting the members to it depending on some built in operations of the site.  Members have to log in to see the current Main Page discussions.  And the further down the list the less likely to be seen.  Topics such as data on a specific well, recent lease offers in a specific geographic location, questions that are location specific in general are better suited to the group that covers that specific area.  One of the advantages of posting on a group page is that every member of the group receives an email alert to the new discussion quite soon after it is posted.  That's an offsite email so that even if a member hasn't been logged on in days, they will not miss it.  The very member or members that have the answer to the question or relevant data or opinions could very well miss the same discussion posted on the Main Page.

Okay, I've got more but I'd like to encourage some participation from others.  All aspects of the site are fair game:  settings, how to make a friend request, designing a personal page, adding stills or videos, helping to support the site by donation or simply clicking on a couple of ads each time you log on, how to go about starting a new group - are but a few examples.