Guidelines

 has very few rules, policies or guidelines.  These rules, policies and guidelines are, like everything else, a community affair, overseen by our members, with final decisions by the Forum Ancient Coins staff. 

#1 Rule - Be Nice

Respect others feelings and avoid personal confrontations. It is acceptable to rewrite an article, even substantially; it is not acceptable to insult the author, or act maliciously against his work.

No Modern Politics or Religion

Modern politics are not a subject for our articles.  That said, one of the most important reason to study the ancients is the lessons of history. Humans keep doing the same stupid things over and over.  Articles can discuss how the lessons of history might apply today. However, articles must be able to address historical events and how they might offer lessons for today without offending our readers.  If it can't be said without offending, it can't be said here.  If the lesson from history is valid and compelling, discussion of the historical events alone should allow the reader to draw their own lessons from it.  People come here to read about coins and history.  If we talk about other things, particularly those that offend people, we are straying from our purpose.  There are many other places to write about politics and every other topic.

No Spam, False Information, Obscenity, Illegal Acts, Etc.

Do not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of ANY law.  Spam, flooding, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also prohibited.

Copyright

Copyrighted material does not belong on except with permission or as allowed by the doctrine of "fair use."

Selling, Dealer Endorsements and Links to Commercial Websites

No selling or advertising is allowed by dealers except Forum Ancient Coins and our Procurator Monetae participating dealer members.  No endorsements of dealers are allowed except for Forum Ancient Coins and our Procurator Monetae participating dealer members.  All we ask is, if a dealer wants to benefit from or the discussion board, they should also contribute to   or the discussion board. Links to commercial websites are permitted only if there is a reciprocal link to Forum Ancient Coins on that website. 

Good Scholarship

Although this is a collector site, not an academic site, practice good scholarship to the best of your ability.  Please cite references. 

Contribute What You Can - No Article is Finished

We ask all our members to please contribute.  You don't have to finish an article to start it.  You don't need to revise a whole article to revise it.  We need your contribution, small or large. 

Use the Standard Text Formats (Normal, Title, Subtitle...)

The standard formats are used to create the table of contents.  Please use them.  Other formats for headings should only be used if the standard formats are completely inappropriate.  Click "Show TOC" above to see an example of how the standard formats create a table of contents.