[Rockhounds] netiquette topic

[Ted Kowalski]

Rockhounds:
I would like to bring up a netiquette topic. Once upon a time when the list
was still under the guidance of Tom Corson; we, the list that is, agreed on
several issues of general netiquette politeness. 

One of these issues is to recognize that Rockhounds at drizzle.com is not just
a nationwide forum, but truly global with members in many countries.

When a locale is discussed (questions, answers or reports) it is necessary
to remember that mineral locations even famous ones are not common
knowledge. Insufficient place name information leaves the rest of us
clueless, confused or misinformed. Clueless here translates into "feeling
isolated and left out of the discussion" and misinformed means that a list
member may waste their time to research and respond with information about a
completely different location.

So, please please please; be detailed and as specific as you can when
discussing any mineral or rock locality. Assume that no mineral location is
common knowledge and include sufficient location information; for example,
country, state, city, town, county, parish, township, mountain range,
whatever... 

There seems to be, from my perspective, increasing use of local place or
slang names. Admittedly, I am ignorant of most rock collecting locales, but
I wonder if there are other rockhounds members who are troubled by a lack of
sufficient locality information on the forum? On a personal note; I wonder
why, someone who doesn't have time or interest to include decent locality
information would expect any better quality of information back?

Again, I think this is a netiquette topic. I offer it up for discussion.

Ted Kowalski
Fredericksburg, VA USA



--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
---