Mineral Names

Mineral names are not proper names, they are also names for a single species, therefore in sentences should always be written in without capitals and in the singular form.

The Calcites are blue - incorrect

The calcite is blue - correct

Please try to stick to this convention as it creates a uniform experience across the whole site, as well as being compatible with standards elsewhere.

Mineral names in lower case do not affect search engine visibility.

Location Names

Location names are proper names so are written with first letter capitilisation.

From Tsumeb mine - incorrect

From Tsumeb Mine - correct

To furher clarify...

From the mine at Tsumeb - is also correct!

Adding Localities & Regions to e-Rocks Database

This is a big part of the interaction of the site through mineral, blog and other posting on e-Rocks.

We have a huge database of locality information, and this is under continuous improvement. 

Generally locality information is more fluid than mineral information, depending historical, linguistics/translation and other human factors, including opinion!

Our locality system tries to organise things to best fit the ultimate aim of cataloguing and presenting labels etc.

Behind the scenes we check and approve localities to achieve this aim and have de-duplication and merge/edit tools to help.

New localities are often better representations of existing ones, and are often used in preference.

We ask that before any new locality/region is added to the database it is looked up first and if not found you follow the guidelines below.

Countries

We have an up-to-date list of all countries, if these change we will update.

If you have a country that does not exist, if it is an old name please use the current name.

Region

We work to a general principle that the region is the highest level within a country, and is confined to that region only.

We also ask that you provide official regions, not mineralogical, eg Cumbria and not "West Cumbrian Iron Field".

As this is a database, we need the full name and we do not need alternative spellings.

Custer Co., South Dakota - incorrect

South Dakota - correct

(Custer Co, should be written Custer County and be stored at the locality level)

Alternative names and spellings for regions can be added to the synonyms section in a region.

Localities

Similar to region we work to a general principle that the locality is the main name for a place, within a district with a region. Keeping things simple and locatable on a map.

Successive names are added with a comma space, eg

Bull Moose Mine, Custer

We also ask that you provide official names for mines and districts, not mineralogical, eg Cumbria and not "West Cumbrian Iron Field".

It is also prefered we do not see ambiguous/made up names, for example Richterite occurrence, Ladjuar Medam. 

(Just imagine if you printing out a label, you need something short and concise which clearly tells you where you specimen is from)

As this is a database, we use full name and we do not need alternative spellings.

Bull Moose Mine, Custer, Custer Co. - incorrect

Bull Moose Mine, Custer, Custer County - correct

Alternative spellings for localities can be added to the synonyms section in a region

Successional changes of name through mergers and aquisitions can be added through the locality history log.

If you have details for within a locality, eg Sunrise Stope, we have another field for this in the Item Page - Additional Locality.

Some Do Nots Please!

• Mineral Names only in the item name, eg Calcite & Quartz, not "Stunning Blue Calcite with Rare Pink Quartz" - site indexes on the proper names and we don't want entries for "Stunning" "Blue" or "Rare!"
• Do not over-hype - strictly avoid words like stunning, killer and unique.
• Do not include any financial “come-ons” eg, this specimen is easily worth $10,000.
• Do not include any “previously on sale at” or “last retail price” info unless it is provenance, eg “from the British Museum, purchased in 2006 for $10.”
• Never pass comment about another seller/collector, or their specimens in your text. 
• Do not copy in other text from other people’s description of a similar mineral (on or off site.)
• Do not copy or repeat your own text between specimens
• Never use the term, “much better in person” or similar. To many it implies “bad photo couldn’t be bothered to take a better one!”
• Keep all posts relevant and on subject, do not include offsite links in your texts.
• Blogs and posts on e-Rocks may not be used for advertising items and services for sale outside of our website, and terms and conditions - either for yourself or a third party - also see our Terms & Conditions.

Just Finally:

Most of the guidelines are common sense and just require a professional and good humoured approach.

To remind you e-Rocks is a combination of competition and partnership between the sellers and collectors: we all should try to promote a level playing field.

In selling an item there might be cases where you have a specimen twice as good as the other guy’s yet it achieved half the sale price. Unfortunately those are market forces

Always show respect for each other, and people off the site; all kinds of people enjoy minerals and crystals for a number of different reasons, with different levels of knowledge and understanding - and science.

Make your selections for sale varied and non repetitive and avoid clashes with other sellers especially in the scheduled auctions. If a specimen sells well on one day this does not guarantee the same type of item be the same the next and so on.

Photography is the best way to really show an item off, it is worth investing the time and effort in making photos stand out. Please also see our guidelines on  Photography.

Remember we are encouraging you to promote “your best” to a focussed select niche – the better the specimen presentation generally the greater the interest, especially if you are sharing your specimens to other interest groups in places like Facebook.