Mac Culloch kilt

[Steve Ashton]

Here is a quote from our policy on "The basic courtesy protocols of X Marks"
This policy may be found in out Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)


When posting to X Marks there are a few protocols which we feel are basic to our forum.

The person who starts a thread is known as the Original Poster, or OP for short. We regard the OP as the owner of their threads.
Someone starts a thread for a reason. They may be asking a specific question or may want to make a particular point. As the owner of a thread the OP may request that their thread be closed if they have received an answer to their question, if they feel the thread has veered off the intended topic, or is no longer useful or helpful. The OP may also request that their thread be re-named or moved if they feel it appropriate.

It is considered polite to add a few words of comment or explanation when posting a link to any outside source such as another website or video.
Posting just a link is easy, yes, but much more friendly to your fellow members if you explain a little about what the link leads to and perhaps why you decided to share the link. This is to allow our members to choose if they wish to follow the link or not.

Forum threads are a unique communication type. They are read linearly and are not easily followed if the topic is changed mid-thread or if the subject wanders. It is considered polite for those participating in a thread to keep their posts on the original topic of the thread. If someone wishes to change the topic it is expected that they would start a new thread.

It is accepted that the use of all capital letters is a form of shouting.

While it is common on forums to use "web-speak", acronyms and abbreviations, we consider it polite to use only wording that would be familiar to most of our members. Please remember that we are an international forum. Some of our members are old enough not to have grown up on the internet. We have listed some acronyms and abbreviations specific to X Marks here in the FAQ's.

While X Marks has members from around the world we have chosen to accept English as our common language. Writing in dialect or in languages other than English is seen as impolite.

The written word is our medium of communication. It is considered polite to use accepted English language usage, sentence structure and punctuation.