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While we endeavour to accommodate all relevant queries and discussions and to take a light-handed approach to moderation we also ask that contributors adhere to the following pragmatic posting guidelines as far as possible. Thanks!
Any registered user may post a question in any forum. This also applies for replies to posts.
The primary purpose of Askaboutmoney is to answer consumer questions on Irish financial issues. Please keep the Financial Issues forums for this purpose only. This is where the main business of Askaboutmoney is carried on.
If you want to moan, or attack the views of another contributor or crack an in-joke, please do so in the Letting Off Steam forum. If you want to discuss whether the Efficient Markets Hypothesis is valid or whether the EBS should be demutualised, please do so in appropriate forum below the Don't Askaboutmoney line.
Our policy is minimal censorship, but we will have no hesitation in deleting irrelevant or offensive posts. We also delete offensive comments in an otherwise proper post.
Don't post a general heading such as "help !" or "Mortgage query". If you post a heading such as "Mortgage for separated couple", it will get a better response and will be much easier to find if you need to go back to look for it.
Internet etiquette dictates that ALL UPPERCASE TEXT is considered at best hard to read and at worst rude ("SHOUTING") so please avoid posting messages or subject lines in upper case only. If everything you type is in uppercase then make sure that your Caps Lock key is not inadvertently engaged.
Askaboutmoney is a completely free and voluntary community service and, as such, cannot always guarantee a timely response to all queries, depending as it does on somebody with the required experience or expertise being available to make contributions. If your query has not received any replies please don't duplicate it or reply to it/edit simply to bump it up to the top of the list particuarly if it has only been posted for a short period of time. Far from eliciting a more expeditious response doing so may actually have the opposite effect as many people see this as bad manners and will consequently ignore the query. On the other hand, if your query remains unanswered for several days/weeks then bumping it up to the top of the topic list may be justified. Your own common sense should tell you when this is justified and when it's not.
We don't allow advertising. However, we have no objection to professional advisors giving their email addresses or website addresses as part of their signature when they are answering a question.
You are welcome to recommend or fairly criticize a product or company. But if you have a connection with the company or any other potential conflict of interest, please state this in your reply.
We remove all posts which are potentially defamatory. Fair criticism of an institution or a product is encouraged. Askaboutmoney is not the appropriate forum to claim that you were cheated out of money by a named institution. Any such references to a company, person or institution will be deleted. For example, one contributor claimed that a named auctioneer had cheated him. This may or may not be true, but we do not want to get distracted by litigation, so we deleted the name of the auctioneer.
As it is an open forum, we encourage financial institutions to answer criticisms of their products. If you feel that incorrect information is being provided on your company or product, email brendan@askaboutmoney.com and we will correct any factually incorrect information. Fair criticism will not be deleted.
We prefer to allow all opinions to be expressed. Where someone proposes something illegal e.g. tax evasion, we prefer to see other contributors answering the posting rather than censoring it ourselves.
We will not discuss in public why a particular post has been edited or deleted. If you wish to know why a post has been edited or deleted then please email editors@askaboutmoney.com
Controversy and argument are welcome. But please keep your comments civil. Attack an opinion by all means, but please don't attack the person expressing the opinion.
You won't find any messages suggesting investing in CRH or asking if AIB is a good investment. It is not the purpose of Askaboutmoney. We don't facilitate stock tipping or speculation about the future performance of individual shares. There are many other forums which discuss individual shares: Sharewatch, The Motley Fool, etc, etc . . .
The primary purpose of Askaboutmoney is to discuss consumer finance issues. We recognize that a sense of community has developed and people do want to occasionally discuss non-financial issues. We have no objection to this as long as it is kept to a minimum.
If you quote from a publication or website, always acknowledge the source and provide a link.
If the site is a subscription only site, do not reproduce the entire article. You may use selective quotations – but be selective. For example, the archives of The Irish Times are subscription only. Do not reproduce Irish Times or other newpapers' articles available only under subscription.
The fact that it is difficult for a publisher to pursue Askaboutmoney on a copyright issue is not a basis for ignoring copyright laws. Having said that, most journals and journalists are happy to see themselves quoted, so don’t get too hung up on it.
Please check the Terms & Conditions of a site before posting a link or reproducing content.
If any publisher complains to Askaboutmoney, the offending post will be deleted immediately.
Moderators and contributors give of their time freely and voluntarily so, in general, please post queries for general attention/discussion on the basis that somebody will respond rather than addressing them specifically to individual moderators or other contributors, particularly those who earn a living dispensing financial/tax advice on a professional basis. In any case, addressing specific queries to individual contributors rather than to the wider community in general may have the effect of limiting the number of useful responses that you receive rather than expediting things.
Obviously this guideline does not militate against addressing individuals directly in the normal context of an ongoing discussion!
Some contributors post anonymously/pseudonymously because they do not want to divulge their real identity for a variety of reasons. Please respect their right to privacy and desist from speculating on Askaboutmoney about their real identities. Posts which speculate about the identity of bona-fide contributors (as opposed to suspected spammers or other nuisance posters) who choose to post anonymously/pseudonymously will be removed.
The Letting Off Steam forum is designed for regular contributors to Askaboutmoney to occasionally discuss non financial issues. It is not designed to be a platform for people who make little or no other contribution (e.g. by answering finance related queries or otherwise contributing to the more finance orientated forums) to Askaboutmoney to stir up trouble or pursue their own campaigns. These posters should find another website to pursue their objectives.
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Page last updated - 13th November 2004 16:00 - email change requests to burgess7@eircom.net