The Rally Captain perk — earning Premium for free

The Rally Captain perk is DetectID’s way of rewarding the people who actually run detecting days. Organise a rally on DetectID that hits 10+ attendees and 20+ finds, and you receive three months of Premium-equivalent access automatically — plus a badge on your public profile. No application, no form, no manual review.

What you get when you qualify

• Three months of Premium-equivalent access. 200 identifications per month, four photos per find, ad-free across the site.
• Historic OS + Roman roads overlays when those Phase 3 layers go live for Premium subscribers.
• The ★ Rally Captain badge on your public profile and next to your name on public finds.
• Inclusion in the Captain’s register — we keep a list of active captains and surface it to detectorists looking for organised rallies in their region.

How to qualify

Two thresholds, both measured at the moment your rally ends:

1. 10+ unique attendees joined and signed in to the rally page.
2. 20+ finds uploaded to the rally during its live window.

Both must be true. A rally with 12 attendees but only 18 finds doesn’t qualify. A rally with 9 attendees and 50 finds doesn’t qualify. The thresholds are deliberately non-trivial — they distinguish “organised a real rally” from “ran a club meet with three friends”.

The stacking rule

Multiple qualifying rallies don’t reset the clock — they extend it. Run a rally in March, you’re Captain through June. Run another in May, you’re Captain through August (3 months added to the existing expiry, not 3 from May). Run a third in July, you’re Captain through November.

Two qualifying rallies a year keeps you permanently as Captain without paying. One every 8 months keeps you on it. The threshold for permanence is roughly “run a rally every 3 months” on average.

How the system tracks it

A daily cron walks through every rally that ended in the last 24 hours, counts attendees and finds, and credits the Captain perk to qualifying organisers. The credit applies immediately — you get an email the morning after the rally telling you you’ve qualified.

No application form, no waiting period, no human review. The thresholds are objective so the credit is automatic.

Why the perk exists

Rally Mode is the part of DetectID that adds the most community value — group identifications, live feeds, density maps, post-rally summaries that get shared on Facebook and bring new users. The people who organise rallies make all of that work. Charging them Premium for the privilege would feel backwards.

Three months per qualifying rally rather than a discount or a smaller perk because: the Captain is the person whose identification quota will be heavily used during the rally itself. A 30-attendee rally with 50 finds eats into the Captain’s monthly quota fast. Premium-equivalent access means they don’t have to watch the counter.

When the perk runs out

Captain status expires when no qualifying rally has been run for 3 months. You get a friendly email two weeks before expiry suggesting another rally, but it’s entirely your call. If the perk expires, you revert to your underlying plan (Free, Basic, or Premium). Your saved finds stay; the badge disappears from your public profile.

Practical tips for hitting the thresholds

Promote the rally a week early

Most attendees join in the 48 hours before a rally. Posting the join URL on your detecting Facebook group, your club WhatsApp, and on a printed gate-poster a week before gives you the best chance of clearing 10 attendees.

Encourage attendees to upload everything

20 finds across 10 attendees is two finds each on average. Easily achievable on most rally days. Encourage attendees to upload modern bits and bobs as well as the headline finds — each counts toward your threshold.

Get the timing right

Set the rally end time long enough that everyone has uploaded what they want to upload. People sometimes upload an hour or two after they’ve packed up, on the drive home. A 9am to 4pm rally with a 5pm end time gives that buffer.

Common questions

Can I qualify multiple times in one month?

Yes — each qualifying rally adds 3 months. Run three rallies in March, you’re Captain through December.

What if I already have a Premium subscription?

The perk applies on top — you stay on Premium and the Captain badge appears on your profile. If you cancel Premium, you fall back to the Captain perk (effectively Premium) until it expires.

Do private rallies count?

Yes. Public and private rallies both count toward the perk. The rally being public or private only affects whether it appears on the public /rallies page.

Are there limits to prevent gaming?

We watch for patterns — same attendees across multiple rallies in suspiciously short timeframes, finds uploaded that don’t correspond to actual photos, that sort of thing. The system isn’t hostile but it’s tuned for genuine organisers. If you organise real rallies you’ll never hit a friction point.

Worked example

You run a rally in May with 14 attendees and 38 finds uploaded. That clears both thresholds. The next morning you get an email: “You’ve qualified as a Rally Captain — Premium access activated through 19 August 2026.”

In July you run another rally with 11 attendees and 22 finds. The cron credits 3 more months. Your Captain status now extends to 19 November 2026.

In October you run a third with 16 attendees and 47 finds. Three more months: Captain through 19 February 2027.

Three rallies in a year, permanent Captain status.

Next steps

• How to set up the rally itself: Running a rally as the organiser.
• What the badge looks like on your profile: Building your public profile.
• What attendees see in a rally: Joining a rally as an attendee.