WHERE SHOULD I BEGIN AS A NEW MEMBER?

Here are two things you can do right away:

  1. The Getting Started Category is the place for you!
  2. If you have a general question, the best place to start is to use the Search function for current discussions about your topic of interest. At the upper right of your screen is a search icon that you can use to search.
  3. Regarding Usernames, Names, and Logos - It is against our policy to use business names or business roles within your Username, Name, or Avatar. See more on this here.
WHAT IF I AM AN INDUSTRY PARTICIPANT SEEKING BUSINESS WITH MINERAL OWNERS?

You may participate here, but only under adherence to our terms and conditions. Even if/when someone requests help, if you are in the business of providing paid services, you may not respond with any form of “I’ll help you”. We provide a paid methodology for invited professionals to connect with Users in these circumstances.
In short, this is NOT a place to seek free business development. We are primarily a person to person conversation arena - which is why Names and Usernames are restricted from using Business Names, Company Names, or derivations thereof (including things like TXLandman, OKLawyer, TaxConsultant). If you have violated this rule, your account is subject to removal or editing without further notice at our sole discretion.

IS WHAT I WRITE HERE EXPOSED TO THE PUBLIC SEARCH ENGINES?

YES. Any and everything you post here is subject to search engine crawling, indexing, and subsequent exposure to the public, along with every other user on this site. If you’re not comfortable with the world seeing it, don’t write it. Our site is intended to be used by United States of America located participants only due to its subject matter. A related topic is that of Personal Messages within this site. While they are not displayed within the public posts to the site, they are subject to continual observation by the site management in order to guard against the site being used in ways that are against the site’s TOS.

CAN I DELETE MY POSTING(S)?

Only within 24 hrs. of posting. You may edit or completely delete your posting within 24 hrs. of originally submitting it. Your submission of anything (content, images, links, etc.) to this site is subject to this rule.

CAN I CHANGE MY USERNAME?

No, but we’ll change it for you under some circumstances. Click on the Forum_Administrator avatar on the About page, and send us a Message if this is an issue for you.

CAN I POST MY QUESTION TO MULTIPLE CATEGORIES?

No. There is no need to, and only serves to diminish the quality of the conversation. Duplicates are viewed as spam, and subject to deletion without notice. Repeat offenses may result in total removal of the content and suspension of the user.

WHAT CATEGORY DO I PUT MY POST IN?

We offer multiple Categories for posting. You can find them here. If you are unsure of where to place your post, place it in General Mineral Rights Discussion.

WHY DOES MY TOPIC HAVE A DIFFERENT TITLE?

We reserve the right (and often exercise it) to edit topic titles and/or post content in order to improve their quality and the quality of this site.

HOW DO I SEARCH THE FORUM?

At the top right of your screen is a search icon with both basic and advanced search features.

HOW DO I CREATE A NEW TOPIC?

To create a new topic (aka, ask a question or make a comment), click the + New Topic button in the upper right of your screen. Type a short specific informative title for your Topic. The more descriptive the title, the more likely you are to get responses. Ideally, keep your Topic title within 5 to10 words. Then select the appropriate Category from the drop-down list, and enter your question or comments in the text box. Only post to one category.

HOW CAN I ADD A PHOTO TO MY PROFILE?

To add a profile photo, click on your circular avatar (the colored circle with a letter in it) in the upper right screen. Then click the settings gear icon just below your avatar. Go to Preferences, and scroll down to Profile Picture. Click the pencil edit icon and follow the prompts.

HOW CAN I SEE IF NEW REPLIES TO MY TOPIC HAVE BEEN MADE?

By default, you will receive a notification when someone replies to a topic that you have created. Read here about differing levels of notification choices you have available to you IF you are logged into MineralRightsForum, you’ll see a colored dot next to your avatar in the upper right screen. If you are NOT logged in, you will receive an email. Of course, you can always navigate to the Topic and review what’s taken place there.

HOW DO I LOG A COMPLAINT ABOUT A USER OR CONTENT?

Use the site’s onboard flagging feature. Simply click on the flag icon at the bottom of any post to notify site moderators of your concern.

HOW CAN I VIEW MY TOPIC?

To view a particular Topic, simply navigate there, or use the Search icon in the upper right of your screen.

HOW CAN I CONTACT ANOTHER MEMBER NON-PUBLICLY?

Personal (not Private) Messaging (PM) is generally unavailable for Users-to-Users. A PM may be written to a site Administrator. Initiate a PM by clicking on your avatar in the upper right screen, then clicking the envelope icon just below the avatar. Click New Message and follow the prompts. IMPORTANT - ALTHOUGH THESE MESSAGES ARE NOT SHOWN PUBLICLY, THEY ARE NOT PRIVATE. THE SITE ADMINISTRATION HAS FULL ACCESS TO THEM AND IN FACT WILL REVIEW THEM AS NECESSARY TO MAINTAIN SITE SECURITY AND TO ENFORCE SITE RULES.

CAN I ADVERTISE MY BUSINESS WITHIN FORUM POSTS?

NO. Commercial solicitation in the forum is prohibited. Any advertisement, indirect reference to you or your company’s services, links to website(s) that you own or control, or offer of any product or service is a violation of this policy. This includes adding company names, labels, titles, or other promotional images or text to forum signatures. Solicitation on this site based upon the sole judgement of the site’s owner(s) subjects you to administrative action without further notice. For those who want to advertise their business, we provide for this in other ways. See the Advertise link in the main navigation.

CAN I OFFER TO BUY OR SELL MINERALS IN THE FORUM?

NO. Offering to Buy or Sell mineral interests within the forum is not allowed and is a direct violation of the User Policy.

WHAT ACTIVITIES DO YOU CONSIDER SPAM?

In order to maintain a professional courteous atmosphere for our users, we take disrespectful behavior and spam very seriously. Here are a few things which can lead to removal from the forum:

Commercial solicitation and/or spam include posts containing:

  • e-mail addresses, personal or business website URL’s & phone numbers
  • Derogatory comments, inferences of or direct statements of someone “lying”, abuse, profanity, adult material or any sexually oriented comments
  • Business profiles, or soliciting for business either overtly or covertly
  • Usernames or Names containing business names, URL’s, or other commercially oriented messaging within Names or Usernames (eg. Landman, MineralServices, MineralConsultant, OKLandman etc.)
DOES MINERALRIGHTSFORUM.COM PROTECT MY PRIVACY?

We provide multiple privacy settings for our users. To adjust your preference settings, Click your avatar in the upper right screen, then the head/shoulders icon (for preferences).

We do not sell, share, or exchange personal information about you with other people or non-affiliated companies. MineralRightsForum does allow Google to index its contents, however. This means that anything you contribute to this site is subject to being shown publicly within Google and all other search engine results. To learn more, read our Privacy Policy.

This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion

This is a place intended for respectful conversation — a place to share skills, knowledge, and interests through ongoing dialogue. This is a privately owned endeavor, and the management intends a clean and well-lighted place. We appreciate you notifying us through our flagging system if you see things to the contrary. If your goal is business development for your company, inquire about paid advertising.

Improve the Discussion

Help us make this a great place for discussion by working to improve the discussion in some way, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, pause, think over what you want to say and return.

The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with what is being said.

One way to improve the discussion is by discovering ones that are already happening. Spend time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own, and you’ll have a better chance of meeting others who share your interests.

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. Remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:

  • Name-calling
  • Ad hominem attacks
  • Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
  • Knee-jerk contradiction

Instead, provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.

Your Participation Counts

The conversations we have here set the tone for every new arrival. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting place to be — and avoid those that do not.

Our software provides tools that enable the community to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, and so forth. Use these tools to improve your own experience, and everyone else’s, too.

Leave our community better than we found it.

If You See a Problem, Flag It

Moderators have special authority; they are part of our monitoring system for this forum. But so are you. With your help, moderators can be community facilitators, not just janitors or police.

When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. It encourages the bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.

In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove or edit any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not always preview new posts before being seen publicly; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

Always Be Civil

Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness:

  • Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
  • Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
  • Respect each other. Don’t harass anyone, and don’t impersonate anyone.
  • Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.

These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — avoid even the appearance of any of these things. If you’re unsure, ask yourself how you would feel if your post was featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe for family and friends.

Keep It Tidy

Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:

  • Don’t start a topic in the wrong category.
  • Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
  • Don’t post no-content replies.
  • Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
  • Don’t “sign” your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.

Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button.

Post Only Your Own Stuff

You may not post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other law.

Powered by You

This site is operated by your friendly local staff and you, the community. If you have any further questions about how things should work here, open a new topic in the site feedback category. If there’s a critical or urgent issue that can’t be handled by a flag, contact us via the staff page.

Terms of Service

Yes, legalese is boring, but we must protect ourselves – and by extension, you, against unfriendly folks. We have a Terms of Service describing your (and our) behavior and rights related to content, privacy, and laws. By using this site in any manner, you are agreeing to our TOS.