Forum

From Mindat

There are a number of different topics into which the Message Board is divided. Photographs of mineralogical topics may be uploaded in the following Boards - Identity Help, Mineral Photography, Rockhounds, Scrapbook.

Boards include:

1. General - For posts that don't fit into any of the other categories.
2. Mindat Magazine - This forum has general discussions about the upcoming online Mindat Magazine.
3. Rockhounds - This forum is for general interest "Rockhound" topics.
4. Collecting - This forum is for asking about specific collecting localities or arranging field trips.
5. Identity Help - Help on the identification of mineral specimens. It is helpful if you have a photograph of the material that you can upload. Also include any locality information that you have and any tests (http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/collectors_corner/id/mineral_id_keyi1.htm) that you have done - Acid test, cleavage or fracture, hardness, magnetism, habits, etc.
6. IMA Status - This forum is used for the posting of the official status of new minerals, any information on the properties of new minerals, and any official discreditations of minerals. Please make sure to read our rules on the announcement of new mineral species and unpublished minerals.
7. Manual - This forum is for activating memberships and any specific questions about how to use mindat.org.
8. Mineral Cleaning and Preparation - Questions and answers on how to safely clean and prepare mineral specimens for display.
9. Mineral Photography - How to take mineral photographs and recommendations on equipment and setup.
10. Mineralogical Classification - This forum is for discussions about how the various minerals should be split among various groupings.
11. Mistakes & Errors - This is the area to post questions if it appears that there are mistakes in the database or if you find some errors with the programming of the site.
12. New Features - Post your requests here for features you would like to see added to the site or if you would like some things to be handled differently.
13. Scrapbook - Board for posting comments that can be cleaned out regularly. For some time sensitive material or things you don't want hanging around this site forever. This is the only place where 'off-topic' conversations are tolerated.
14. Swap Shop - Board to set up trades of minerals. NO sales for money are allowed here, this is strictly swapping of minerals for minerals.
15. Foreign Language boards - There are a number of foreign language boards for people who feel more comfortable in their native tongues. These are for asking questions about how to use mindat.org pages as well as general mineralogical topics. Currently these include chinese, german, italian, french, dutch, spanish and portugese forums.

Rules:

• Good taste and decorum are expected of posts.
• Unsuitable posts will be deleted (this is a board devoted to mineralogical and geological topics).
• Posting of items for sale will be deleted.
• Young persons should not post any identifiable information (address, phone, etc.) on this board since it is open to the web.
• HTML code is not allowed in the messages - it won't work (see BBCode section for formatting instructions).
• Please post your message on only one board. Multiple posts may all be deleted from the site.

Chat (chatroom - next section), and the Scrapbook and Rockhounds forums are more informal in nature.