FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jordi Fabre]

A recent post has intrigued me ( https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=49059#49059 ) his author is a valuable user recently enrolled in FMF, and he showed to me that the people who are not initial or pioneer members of FMF can have an idea of the philosophy of this Forum different of my own idea, idea that you can find in the box located at the top of the index page :

I created this Forum with the idea of creating a place to share questions and answers with other mineral enthusiasts and, most importantly, to try to provide a serious space where mineralogy questions can be discussed free of bothersome errors, free due the high standards of the administrators and moderators. We owe much of the success of this Forum to their fine texts; with them helping us, our Forum looks "clean", at least in terms of its scientific content.

During my mineralogical journeys I frequently receive mail asking many different questions. When I answered just the person who sent the message, I always had the feeling of something being lost. By publishing all these questions and answers on the Forum, others can share our thoughts about minerals and mineralogy. That's why I created this Forum.

That message made me think that perhaps my philosophy about this Forum could be not coincident with the philosophy that could have other FMFers so I would like to open an easy discussion on this subject and know the thoughts of other people.

So, what's is (or should be ;-) the philosophy of this Forum?

[Bob Harman]

As I am a relatively new user of this forum, my philosophy and ideas might be of value or conversely might be at odds with the FMF philosophy.

I think talking in the abstract about sites such as eBay is fine.....no problem. But it just might, in some cases, lead to questions about individual specimens and/or dealers. Should I buy from dealer xxxx or dealer yyyyy or take a chance on eBay for virtually the same mineral specimen.
To me this is where the slippery slope starts as it has the potential to play off one dealer against another and just might play off ebay vs specific dealers for individual specimens. Hence my original concerns and posting. CHEERS......BOB

[Dale Hallmark]

I think the general philosophy of this group as stated is excellent and would be difficult to improve on.

I think the day to day practice of that philosophy especially toward total novices and those not able to collect museum quality items could use a bit of polish. I believe we could be more tolerant and polite of simplistic and sometimes inappropriate questions that the questioner could answer for themselves with a little instruction.

Also there seem to be several subjects that totally are forbidden that might could be re- examined to see if there is anyway to handle or create rules for those subjects that wouldn't start arguments, meteorites and cost information come to mind. Maybe there is not a way to handle those subjects appropriately...I don't know.

A lot of the stuff I like to collect is of little interest to folks here but I seem to be tolerated fairly well :-)

If I graded this forum I would still give it an "A". Can be a fun and informative place.

Dale

[Les Presmyk]

I agree with Jordi's restatement of his founding philosophy. This is a place where collectors can come and pose questions, about specimens and identifications, post their collections, ask about cleaning, locality, and see what is going on at various shows. I thought the questions about ebay fit into this philosophy nicely. As long as the questions are general in nature and not directed at one or more specific dealers then I think this is an appropriate place to have the discussion.

When I started collecting 50+ years ago, all communication was by either writing or calling someone and long-distance phone calls were expensive. I am amazed and feel fortunate to be able to participate in this forum where people are so willing to share their knowledge about localities, cleaning and preparation and their collections. The overseers do an equally amazing job making sure the posts stay within the guidelines.

Keep up the good work everyone.

[Tobi]

A wise man once said that this forum was created with the idea of creating a place to share questions and answers with other mineral enthusiasts and, most importantly, to try to provide a serious space where mineralogy questions can be discussed free of bothersome errors, free due the high standards of the administrators and moderators. And this wise man also said that, by publishing questions and answers on the forum, others can share our thoughts about minerals and mineralogy ...

In my humble opinion, there's nothing to add, that statement above IS the philosophy of this forum. I don't remember who this guy was, maybe Jordi knows ... ;-)