Since AncientWorlds is a web community, the main ways to communicate are through posts, messages and grams. As such, it is difficult for people to understand the gist of your meaning without some conversational aids. Such aids would be the use of smiley faces :), *smile* or simply *S* to let people know you are saying what you are writing with a smile. Without the assistance of these, your meaning may well be taken the wrong way and offend where no offense was intended.

Emoticons are the most commonly way to express your feelings when conversing with another online. These are typed-out "faces" of a writer's mood or facial expression. The most commonly used of these are :) (smile) and :( (sad face). If you are uncertain of what certain emoticons are, wiki has a nice break-down of both Western and Eastern Style portrayals.

Another way to let others know your mood is to use acronyms. These are shortened and often capitalized letters which represent full words and sentences. Things such as LOL (Laughing Out Loud) or, ROFL (Rolling On the Floor Laughing) are common on the web. These acronyms grow by the day! Here is a list of the most commonly used: 500 Most Commonly Used Acronyms. Some of them do have cursing, so view with caution.

Finally, we have the astrex which surrounds words. It is more commonly viewed at AncientWorlds and it means to convey action between the two marks, such as *smile*. This means the person using the astrex is either writing with a smile or smiling at what they’ve written. Others simplify it by doing *S* , but the meaning is the same. Off the top of my head (as I don’t have a handy-dandy link available), here are some and their meanings:

*EG* - Evil Grin
*G* - Grin
*S* - Smile
*VEG* - Very Evil Grin

With this in mind, there is also another deterrent to civilized discourse on the web. If you use all caps while chatting, it’s as if you are screaming. This is the universal meaning when you write a word or sentence in all caps. Some forget they have it on and a gentle reminder is needed. Others don’t realize they are yelling instead of talking. After reading this, you should now know that writing in capital letters means you are shouting and others will either ignore you or become very upset at your vocalization. Therefore, it’s best to use capitals where intended instead of all the time.

The Conversation Killer

While it is not listed in the Code of Conduct (linked to at the bottom of ever AW page) that one may not have posts containing links only, this has long been known to be a "conversation killer". When you post a link to an article, the post is no longer in your own words. People want to have a discussion with members of this site, not an article a stranger wrote. We can't deem the accuracy of the article, and even if we wanted to take the time to do so, our criticisms would be moot since the original author is not a member of the site. Therefore, posting links only is discouraged at Ancientworlds when in the midst of academic discussions.

The use of links in historical discussions should be solely usede to back up your own words. Please do not plagiarise and copy/paste verbatim from a website, even if you do provide a link. The way to have a great historical discussion is to take a point of view, write from it with your sources handy and then post it.