Rules:

1. It is only natural, given the directive of this website, that there will be strong disagreement with the ideas and suggestions of others. It is important to remember when disagreeing that we should all follow the wise old phrase of “play the ball, not the man.” This I consider the main rule of decent and productive discussions. Do not be rude, condescending, antagonistic, or inflammatory.

2. If there is a post that you consider offensive in some way, do not respond to it on the message board as this only creates further problems and makes moderation more difficult. Instead, use the report feature and let the moderators handle the problem. Please include a short explanation of why you think the post you are reporting is a problem. Please bear in mind, however, that the moderation team, who are all volunteers with other commitments, are not, and cannot be, available on a 24/7 basis, and cannot undertake to review each and every message. And, although they will attend to moderation questions - including posts giving rise to queries or complaints - as soon as reasonably possible, they cannot necessarily take any immediate action.

3. Posters should note that, except in isolated circumstances, moderators will not usually edit posts. Instead, posts deemed to breach the Rules & Guidelines in some way will simply be removed. If replies have been sent to posts that are subsequently removed, it is possible that they, too, will also be removed. (The software allows no method of overcoming this problem).

4. Moderation Notes must NOT be responded to on the message board, and moderation must not be discussed publicly. If you disagree with a moderation note, email the moderation team at moderationteam ... at ... hallofmaat dot com. Please do not PM a moderator with a complaint, as we are not always “on board” and your complaint can be handled much more quickly by sending an email to the provided address.

5. Posting under more than one user name is not allowed.

6. Posters whose accounts have been deactivated, whether by their own request or by a decision of the moderation team, must in the first instance approach the moderators (moderationteam ... at ... hallofmaat dotcom) if they wish to resume posting on the board, and in no circumstances attempt to re-register using a new, or different, registration name.

It is suggested that anyone who wishes to stop posting for a while simply cease; generally, there is no administrative need to have the account deactivated

7. Mild profanity - within certain limits – is acceptable, but repeated use of phrases deemed offensive might well be edited by the moderation team. Certain words have been designated as inappropriate for the messageboard and have been placed in the software’s filters. Do not attempt to get around the filters by the use of asterisks.

8. The use of bold or all caps throughout your postings is considered to be shouting, however using them within limits to emphasize a word, a phrase or a quote is allowed.

9. If you discover that a post of yours has been hidden or removed, do NOT repost it. Instead contact a moderator to discuss the problem. Please bear in mind also that the moderation team do not necessarily have the time to inform posters of posts that have been hidden or removed. The best way to avoid posts being hidden or removed is to ensure that they stay within the dictates of the Rules and Guidelines.

10. Current world politics and personal religious beliefs are off topic for these messageboards.

11. Any reported abuses of the Private Messaging system, such as the sending of unwanted or unwelcome correspondence to other Ma'at posters, could result in the review and/or withdrawal of posting privileges.

12. Although the over-use of such images is discouraged, posters may use emoticons on the Maat list to be found at the foot of each post-reply pane. Posts containing any emoticons or images deemed offensive will be removed.

13. Posters are allowed an hour's grace in which to edit posts after they have been sent to the board. This function should be used to make minor editorial amendments only, and not fundamental changes to the post's content. Abuse of this facility could mean the withdrawal of posting privileges.

14. Do not publicly discuss moderation and/or forum management at other venues, or at Hall of Ma'at itself. This is a well known Internet tactic called "Board Wars." The Hall of Ma'at does not support or encourage board wars, and it is therefore our policy to remove members who habitually engage in them.

15. Hall of Ma'at is intended for the discussion and an interchange of ideas. Whilst a few paragraphs here and there are fine, the practice of cutting and pasting research papers and book chapters in their entirety, or linking to a full chapter or an entire research paper, could be interpreted as lecture, rather than discourse, and is therefore not generally welcome.

16. In order that the moderation team can contact them to discuss moderation matters when necessary, all posters should ensure that the email addresses linked to their Ma'at accounts are current. The accounts of any email addresses from which emails are returned or bounced will be deactivated.

17. We would ask prospective posters to limit the length and content of their posting names and also their signatures, as excessively lengthy posting names and signatures inhibit ease of thread navigation. Accounts under any names deemed unsuitable by the moderation team will be deactivated. Excessively long signatures may be edited.

18. "Off-topic infractions" -- Occasional off topic messages, where unrelated matters are discussed within a thread, are acceptable. However, if a member repeatedly posts comments in a thread which are not directly related to the the thread topic, their posts will be removed and they will be warned about off-topic remarks. After the third "off topic" warning, posting privileges will be revoked for a week. If the behavior continues, longer suspensions of two weeks, a month, and six months will be delivered.

Continually bringing up a particular theory or idea previously discussed elsewhere and that is not relevant to the topic or the forum is considered "off topic."

Help on posting


You can find some basic information here - [en.wikipedia.org]


Guidelines:

1. While thread drift is a natural phenomenon on message boards you should try to avoid it. If you find that one subject is leading to another, the best idea is to start a new thread with the subject line reflecting the new topic. This will not only help us avoid the 300+ post threads, but should also cover each topic more completely as people will notice a new topic being discussed much more easily.

2. Just as you should treat other posters with respect, you should also treat a thread with respect. Do not be repetitive or irrelevant in your postings.

3. To avoid confusion and ill feelings when replying to someone’s comment specifically; it is best to use the site’s quote feature, or to provide a link to the comments you’re referencing.

4. Signatures that are overlong, or contain an inordinate number of URLs and/or unsuitable formatting or inappropriate text, can distract or annoy other posters, and may be edited by the moderation team.

5. The moderation team suggests that people who are proposing to send longer posts might prefer to consider editing and saving the text in another program before copying and pasting it to the Ma'at reply box. Then, if there is some unexpected technical problem, at least the original text will not have been lost.


Copyright:

Each person posting on this message board retains copyright in their own original comments or postings. Posts quoting from a written text should give a full citation. Direct quotations should not be altered, but, if some alteration is unavoidable, standard brackets [ ] should be used to indicate where this has taken place.

Posts quoting material from an online source should be limited to excerpts, with a link to the full article; posting entire articles without permission exposes Hall of Ma’at to liability for copyright infringement, and also absorbs bandwidth.

The relevant permission should be obtained before sending any posts quoting emails from third parties, whether private or to another group or list.

This situation extends also to images and photographs. Copyright should be presumed to extend to images and photographs elsewhere on the Internet, even if there is no direct indication that this is the case. Individual posters wishing to link to such material, or to post images using bbcode tags, or even uploading to their own webspace an hosting it from there, should contact the copyright owner before posting links or tags.

To sum up: can everyone please ensure that they own the copyright to any images posted on these boards. If the copyright of an image does not belong to you, then please post a link only, and not an image tag.

Some useful links

Copyright myths: [www.copyrightservice.co.uk]

Popular misconceptions about copyright: [www.templetons.com]

US Copyright Law: [www.law.cornell.edu]

International convention: [www.law.cornell.edu]

UK Copyright Law: [www.hmso.gov.uk]

and: [www.hmso.gov.uk]

ABC of Referencing and Citation [www.mdx.ac.uk]

[www.nipissingu.ca]

[troy.troy.edu]

Hot-linking:

[grimthing.com]

[altlab.com]

[www.dpreview.com]

[www.namepros.com]

**

Violating the rules will lead to a series of temporary bans and then a permanent ban with steps leading to the permanent ban depending on the severity of the violations.

In The Hall of Ma'at enforces the above Rules and Guidelines at its sole discretion.

Kat

Ma'at Moderator

Founder and Director of The Hall of Ma'at

Contributing author to Archaeological Fantasies:
How pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public
"If you panic, you're lost" -- W. T. 'Watertight' Southard