Hey -

So, if I want to write about some awesome out-of-the-way place to explore, is there anything that I should keep in mind before doing so? I take it that posting POEs is a no-no... Anything else I should take into consideration?

Not sure if there is really any etiquette involved in UE. You can write whatever you want but if you want to stay in good standing here you will want to follow the forum rules. Basically the premise of the rules is to protect locations. If someone exposes POEs (or the location in general) it can attract negative attention either from the steward of the location (owner, security, government) or from vandals (taggers, scrappers, arsonists) who deface the property. This is also partial the reason behind having UER Full Member status and Basic Member status. Basic members don't have full access to the LDB. It isn't so much to make it super exclusive but rather to keep the vandals and whoever from browsing the site to find soft targets.

It really is that basic. If you understand the concept behind the forum rules then you can realize there is not really any crazy cult etiquette behind how we express our experiences with locations. Some people write, some shoot photos, some make informative documentaries. You also have to understand that certain locations are not so much at risk for vandals, etc. so it is less important that their identity remains "secret".

If you plan to write here my advice would be to try and make it interesting and relevant to your audience. You would be surprised at how far a simple and well constructed narrative goes in engaging people. I have seen some cool sets of photographs go mostly unnoticed because it was just a whole post of 20- some pictures while a relatively mediocre set from an explore may garner much more discussion because the author narrated the explore or presented the material better.

Hope this what what you were looking for. Good luck!

And if you decide you wanna add it to the database and you are not sure if its a sensitive location you can make it so only full members can see it and if your not a full member I do believe you can still see it yourself. So don't feel if you make it a full member only location that you will never see it if you again don't have full membership.

Probably the hardest thing is that you're going to get 17 suggestions & half of them will contradict each other

If your article has comments (& you want to keep it secret because it's so awesome) then you may need to keep an eye out for "where is this location?" followed by "Just left of the right red pole near the left side of the right pole".

Pretty much dont post POE's sometimes if you post the real name of a place, the " Bullies " here come out of the woodwork and try to puff their chest and beat you up with harsh comments and whatnot. If you got thick skin though they are pretty much powerless, but honestly the only real rule is the POE thing..

Post what you want. Mike said it correctly tho, sure you can name it but sometimes it's not always a good thing. I name spots that I go to with permission or that has many of the same names, like theaters. Sure I can post the name, but there are 5 in an area with that same name and without an exterior shot, it's kind of hard to tell which one it is. Sometimes I like to post interiors only with fake names to keep people guessing. But it's your post, so do what you want. Also if somebody takes you somewhere and you post the real name, they may be hesitant to take you somewhere again.

Posted by Tarrant Also if somebody takes you somewhere and you post the real name, they may be hesitant to take you somewhere again.

This is a good point. Whenever someone shares a location with me, I check with them to make sure they don't mind if I post about it before doing so. In a similar vein, I also think it is a good idea to see if that person wants you to give them credit for the location share or not. Some people have given me location information, but preferred that I didn't expose them as the source of that info. Maybe they are trying to prevent other people from finding out and then also asking them questions as well.

Of course, both of these are personal rules, not anything official, but they have served me well so far.