Several recent questions from members have persuaded me that it is time to have a discussion about  the way the site is organized and how to find information not available on the Main Page.  I'm not going to attempt a comprehensive list as I'd like other members to join in by sharing what they know and value regarding less obvious facets of GHS.

Let's start with groups.  On the Main Page in the right hand column there is a section titled Groups with three groups listed that have the most recent discussion comments.  Under the bottom group listed are the words, View All.  By clicking on that command you will see a full list of all the groups and be able to pull up each and review the current and prior discussions and which shalers are members of the group. 

http://www.gohaynesvilleshale.com/groups

Groups are valuable for several reasons.  All the group pages are set up so that members receive an email alert each time a new discussion is started.  For this reason location specific questions are best posted in the appropriate group.  If a new discussion is started on the Main Page, the members of that location specific group may miss it if they do not catch it before it rotates off the Main Page list of current discussions.  They do not get an email alert unless the discussion is posted to the group page. 

There is quite a variety of groups and some are particularly valuable to members just starting to learn about managing their mineral estates and tracking activity relative to their interest location.  For those fortunate to have minerals in Louisiana the state databases, SONRIS (pronounced Sun Rise), are a user friendly source of information.  The SONRIS Help Group is a good place to learn the basics of searching the database.  Instead of posting a question and waiting (and hoping) that someone will answer, you can often find the answer yourself in the database.  The discussions in the group will also offer helpful hints on using the database efficiently.  One particularly good example is searching for wells by section-township-range.  By leaving the section query box blank and just entering township and range the database will display all the wells in every section.  This will speed up many searches and is especially important as members realize that horizontal wells are regularly drilled from an adjoining section.  For example if you look for a horizontal well only in Section 16 you could miss that the well has a surface location in Section 9 or 21even though it is drilling into and producing from Section 16.

http://www.gohaynesvilleshale.com/group/sonris_help_center

There's also a group for the Texas Railroad Commission database.

http://www.gohaynesvilleshale.com/group/trrchelpcenter

Note that the databases are altered and updated over time and sometimes links no longer work.  In that case just ask the members of the group for help.  It is difficult to keep all the specifics constantly updated.

Discussions rotate off the Main Page and off of Group Pages.  To find them you look for the command View All below the bottom discussion title and click it.  Then you will see a list of discussion by most recent that includes those no longer on the Main Page.  The most important feature here is the search box immediately beneath the title, Forum Discussions (7,248).  This is the means to search all past discussions by using key words.  If you are interested in decline rates, enter those two key words and click on the magnifying glass to the right.  Until Keith can get the archive set up to display discussions in their proper date sequence you may have to scroll through a number of discussion and pay attention to the date if that is important to the information you are seeking.  For example if you wish to know current lease offers for Caddo Parish you do not want to be reviewing discussions from 2008.  LOL!