The following are guidelines (not rules) which, we hope, will help make everyone's experience at  Eratosphere a pleasant one:

1. Please only post metrical/formal poetry on the Metrical Poetry forum and free verse on the Non-Metrical Poetry forum. However, we do not wish to have lengthy discussions as to what should  go where -- we leave the decision of metrical/formal  poems versus free verse mostly to the poster.
    
2. Announcements and informational posts should go in the General Announcements forum, not the poetry or prose forums.
    
3. Registering as a member is required for posting in all our forums. Registered members may edit their own posts.  (Note:  once a thread is created only a moderator may delete it.  If you've double posted or posted to the wrong forum, contact a moderator.   You may choose to receive an email notification when someone replies to a thread you've created.  The option must be checked at time of posting and can't be changed for that thread.   You may define a profile signature and opt to have it appended automatically to your posts or not.  (Cute and clever signatures soon get old.)    
    
4. It is considered bad form to post more than one poem at a time -- critiquing takes time and effort, and you will want to allow critics time to respond to your poem as well as those of others.   Each new thread pushes an older thread off the front page.  PLEASE NOTE:  the number of new poems posted weekly per member, all the poetry forums combined, should be no more than one, and we  recommend that you wait until useful commentary has died down on your last poem before posting another one.  Post revisions  in the original thread, if that thread is still on the board, so as not to take up a new line.  The suggested method is to edit your original post and cut and paste the revision above it, labeling both revision and original version for comparison.  And to make sure the revision is noticed, don't forget to add a reply at the bottom of the thread to push it back up.
    
5. If you want others to comment on your work, it makes common sense to reciprocate with comment on posts other than your own. We recommend you critique several other poems for each one of your own you post.  
    
6. Please confine your remarks to the poem or article under discussion and refrain from directing offensive personal (ad hominem) remarks at the poet or critic.  Disagreement and discussion of points raised in critique is fine, but abusive or threatening language toward other members is cause for deletion of such remarks and possible loss of membership.
    
7. Engaging in actions which disrupt the functioning of any forum and/ or any moderator (including making posts which, though not necessarily ad hominem, frequently trigger contentious discussion threads) may result in the suspension of membership or a permanent ban.
    
8. We do not recommend posting published poems/articles in the poetry/prose forums.  Post them there only if you genuinely seek critique. If you need to make a brag post, feel free to do so at the General Talk or the Accomplished Member forums.  We also have three  forums for in-depth dissection of master works and techniques of prosody--The Discerning Eye, Musing on Mastery, and our question-and-answer forum, Ask the Poet Lariat, where distinguished visiting poets answer members' questions.    
      
9. Note that besides using the "Show topics from last x days" pull-down menu as needed to select which topics get displayed, you may also set this choice permanently. Click on the preferences link for this option. 
     
10. There may be more topics or discussions than are  listed on the first page of a forum or thread. In such cases, all the available pages will be listed near the bottom of the screen (just above the "Hop to" pull-down menu.) 
     
11. Maryann may temporarily suspend anyone’s posting privileges at any time for violation of Eratosphere’s guidelines. She will then inform Alex of this so that he may review the situation, and get the input of moderators and other parties with an interest in, or affected by the incident. Based on a careful review of all the opinions and viewpoints received, he will make the final determination as to whether the suspension should be reversed or made permanent.
     
    • A member with suspended posting privileges remains on Eratosphere’s roster and can still browse the forums, and even send and receive private messages. However, he or she cannot start a new post or respond to an existing one. For a banned member, all membership records are expunged, and access to any password-restricted features are permanently disabled.
       
12. The staff will not announce suspensions and banishments publicly partly to salvage some dignity for the ejected member, and partly to mitigate any disruption of Eratosphere’s focus and that of the predominant members with no interest in the matter -- members who would rather be writing or critiquing in spite of the worst rule-breaking antics of the banished member. Although public discussion of banishment is discouraged, especially the runaway kind, the staff welcomes all private communication by PM or email on the matter from members. 
     
13. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the Able Muse / Eratosphere rules, policies and disclaimers (shown here) which all registered users did agree to prior to their registration request.

Have fun reading, posting, & responding!

-- The Eratosphere Staff