[FAQ] [Repost] The Complete Orchid FAQ

The Ganoksin Project
S i n c e 1 9 9 6
Jewelry Manufacturing Methods and Techniques

Welcome to Orchid - The most popular online community for jewelers

The Orchid Forum FAQ

This list of Frequently Asked Questions and General Information that
we send from time to time to all our subscribers, and to each new
subscriber who joins the list. Please save this file for future

This article covers the following topics:

  1. What is the Orchid forum?
  2. What does Ganoksin mean?
  3. Ganoksin’s Mission and Vision Statements
  4. Why Orchid chooses to remain an E-mail based Community?
  5. How can I subscribe to Orchid?
  6. How can I unsubscribe from Orchid?
  7. Can I suspend my Orchid subscription?
  8. How do I post to the Orchid forums?
  9. How can I reply to something I read on the forum?
  10. When replying, should I quote the previous message?
  11. Do I have to post?
  12. Can I send HTML or Rich Text formatted messages to Orchid?
  13. Can I send attachments to the list?
  14. Is there anything I should not post to Orchid?
  15. I posted a question to Orchid, when it will be delivered?
  16. I got an Orchid post that contains attachment. Is it safe to
    open?
  17. automatically configuring your email program to sort Orchid mail
  18. How can I share files and pictures with the list?
  19. How can I place my work in the Orchid Gallery?
  20. I have a terrific product. Can I promote it on Orchid?
  21. Is there a way to contact members directly through the archives?
  22. Can I get a list of Orchid’s subscribers?
  23. What is your Privacy policy?
  24. What should I know about the content accuracy?
  25. What are The Orchid Forums Terms of service?
  26. What are Your Copyright Policies?

Important URL’s

Ganoksin Power Search
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/power-search.htm

Orchid Archives
http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive

Orchid Galleries
http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/gallery.htm

Tips From The Jeweler’s Bench - Article Archive

The Jeweler’s Selected Bibliography List
http://www.ganoksin.com/jewelry-books

Ganoksin’s Streaming Video Library

Ganoksin’s Guide to Industry Web Sites

Ganoksin’s Help Desk

Donations and Support
https://www.ganoksin.com/faq/idx/8/0/

For almost 10 years we have operated this site under the quiet terms
of a contributionware site. It continues to be our goal to raise the
quality of material available on The Ganoksin website and to remain
an independent site that serves the community.

It has been by the generosity of our members we have not only been
able to do that, but have become known net wide as an authoritative
source on Gem and Jewelry matters.

As with any top site that achieves the success on the order that we
have, expenses also grow. Dozens of gigabytes of bandwidth per day,
multiple servers, legal and business expenses have all grown
dramatically in the last year to account for our (just plain)
awesome growth.

Ganoksin is run by a group of people who believe in and love what
they’re doing. If you enjoy our efforts, then please feel free to
show your support!

Donate: Safe, easy, secure!

What is the difference between the one-time contribution and the
monthly donation subscription option?

The subscription option will allow you to automatically spread out
your contribution into monthly installments. You may select the
amount you would like to be billed by PayPal each month for the
number of months you select. You can cancel an existing subscription
via PayPal’s web site .

If you want to make a one-time donation that does not automatically
renew on a monthly basis, choose the one-time donation option.

Donate: Safe, easy, secure!

What is the Orchid forum?

Orchid is a daily online forum where questions relating to jewelry
are discussed. Topics can include tips, techniques, supply sources
or just helping a person with a fabrication issue. Orchid is both a
reservoir of content and network of active relationships for the
benefit of the gem and jewelry industries. Through Orchid,
participants may resolve their questions about virtually any subject
relevant to the broad spectrum of involvements surrounding the gem
and jewelry industries. Of course there exist on the Net a variety
of mailing lists that address certain aspects of these industries,
but Orchid is plainly unique. Conceived and maintained free of
charge by jewelers, for jewelers, both the experienced professional
and the beginner - Orchid is dedicated to the exchange of
substantive technical content, covering the full range of
requirements. With list members from all over the world
speaking from a wide range of technical and aesthetic experiences,
this lively forum addresses questions about every aspect of jewelry
making today.

What does Ganoksin mean?

Ganoksin is a Thai word. In Thai Ganok means pure gold, Sin means
art, and together they can be thought of as meaning ‘The Art of
Gold’.

Mission and Vision Statements

Mission Statement
Ganoksin is a virtual gathering place whose mission is to foster
sharing and community, enhance productivity and safety by advancing
education in the jewelry and metalarts globally.

Vision Statement
To serve the needs of the worlds jewelers, to educate,
make life easier, improve working conditions and facilitate sharing
between goldsmiths globally. To improve access to in
order to improve the productivity, safety, skills and education of
the jewelers, professionals and hobbyists who need To
harness “world-mind” regarding jewelers problems and issues.

Why Orchid chooses to remain an E-mail based Community?

The big advantage of mailing lists over a web based message boards
is that the content gets to you rather than you having to go to the
web to get it.

We do realize there are many good ‘community’ sites out there that
rely on nothing but web based systems, and that works well for them.
However, Orchids current format is in our humble opinion easier to
follow and ‘digest’ if one chooses, while providing more
accountability and ‘get to know your neighbor’ type interactions.

How can I subscribe to Orchid?

Joining Orchid is easy, fast and FREE!, simply point your browser to
the signup page at

http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/subscribe

and complete the registration.

How can I unsubscribe from Orchid?

To unsubscribe Orchid - e-mail: orchid-request@ganoksin.com please
write the command unsubscribe in the message body.

To unsubscribe Orchid Digest - e-mail:
orchid-digest-request@ganoksin.com please write the command
unsubscribe in the message body

Can I suspend my Orchid subscription?

Yes. Use the Contact Us form or send a short notice to
@Service. Make sure to provide the following

-Your full name and under which e-mail address you are subscribed
-Date you wish to pause Orchid mail.
-Date you wish to restart getting Orchid.
-The Orchid format are you currently reading [Open forum or Orchid
Digest]

How do I post to the Orchid forums?

Orchid is an e-mail-based discussion group. Sending one message to
orchid@ganoksin.com sends mail to all other members of Orchid.

How can I reply to something I read on the forum?

From your e-mail program, choose reply. Most programs will set up an
addressed reply format for you, with the original text in the body
of the reply. PLEASE, take the time to pull out the relevant subject
from the original letter and delete the rest, then compose your
reply. (Editing the original post saves bandwidth, and make it much,
much easier for the rest of the list to follow the discussion.)
After composing your reply, send it out and you’ve joined the
discussion.

When replying, should I quote the previous message?

Most certainly. You should always provide some context to your
replies so that people who may not have been following the thread
closely, or who have other things on their minds will easily be able
to determine what you’re talking about. However, when quoting, be
very careful to edit the quoted sections down to the bare minimum of
text needed to maintain the context for your reply. Also be careful
that you clearly indicate what text you’re quoting (as opposed to
what you’re writing), and if possible, cite the author of the
original text.

If your mail program wants to attach the whole message you’re
replying to on the end of your replies, please do not let it do this
if you can possibly avoid it. It is a good thing to include excerpts
from previous messages with your replies to maintain a logical flow
of discussion, but it is almost always a bad thing to include the
entire text of a message being replied to, be it at the start or end
of your reply.

Do I have to post?

No, you do not. Lurk as long as you like, and enjoy the information
presented. You may find you have something to contribute much sooner
than you think.

Can I send HTML or Rich Text formatted messages to Orchid?

When posting to Orchid please send plain text emails by default.
Using fancy formatting in emails can be nice, and all these
stationery and letter creations are fascinating. But not everybody
can or wants to receive rich text messages.

Some email programs are not capable of rendering the HTML used for
rich formatting in email messages. Others try, but fail.

Other recipients might have email clients that can properly render
HTML messages, but disabled rich formatting in email for various
reasons, mostly purity of the medium, bandwidth issues, security and
privacy among others.

If you did send rich formatted message to Orchid, The moderators
will manually remove all rich text formatting and attachments before
forwarding your post to the group.

Can I send attachments to the list?

Please do not send attachments to the list without getting previous
approval. It is good Net-practice to describe the file available in
a separate posting, and then send it on privately to those parties
interested. If it is an item of general interest, files can be
uploaded to Ganoksin’s free FTP site, where they can reach a wider
audience.

Is there anything I should not post to Orchid?

The basic rule is that as long as your post has some content related
to the primary subject of the list, and does not contain much
off-topic material, then it is fine for the list.

Please note - Orchid is a flame free group! You should not post
inflammatory (aka flame) mail to the list. It is perfectly fine to
disagree with people publicly, but be careful how you do it. For
example, if you think someone is giving wrong on a
particular subject, it may be fine to say "this idea is wrong,‘’ but
it is over the line to say “you are clueless”;

On the flip side, if someone posts something with which you are in
particular agreement, that’s great. You should not, however, follow
up to the list with a post containing no more than "Me too!‘’ or
"Amen!‘’ If you have something of substance to add to the
discussion, then by all means do so, but if you simply wish to
express a simple agreement, then do it in private mail.

You should also not repost private email to the list unless you have
obtained prior consent from the author. Such reposting in some legal
jurisdictions may be a violation of copyright, or other rights of
the original author.

I posted a question to Orchid, when it will be delivered?

Generally, you should allow up to 24 hours to your message to be
delivered to the Open forum or up to 48 hours to be delivered to the
digest format. Orchid subscribers list now contains more than 5,200
members. Currently, the average number of postings per day ranges
between 40 to 80. Thus, our list server handles around 500,000
outgoing E-mail messages a day from Orchid alone.

The Email clearing time depends, to some extant, upon the traffic
load and the overall conditions out on the Internet for the given
day.

Our biggest issue with getting your postings out to the list is the
fact that we MUST read everything that comes in before it gets sent
back out to the list.The reason we go through all this is to spare
you from having to suffer noise, junk mail, spam, repeated signature
files, etc…

We work hard to make the list content as clean and readable as
possible. The list moderation process is necessary to insure the
quality of material transmitted through the service.

I received an email from Orchid that contains attachment.
Is it safe to open it?

Attachments are commonly used for the spreading of viruses. And some
of the viruses developed recently spread very rapidly. Orchid has a
policy of blocking all types of attachments because of the risk they
pose. Unfortunately, many newer viruses open users mail address
books, extract the addresses, and automatically email themselves to
some or all of the addresses. The mail will then forge to appear as
originating from Orchid.

Remember - Orchid is a text only service!

Do not under any circumstances open any attachments even if they
appear to be legitimate Orchid posts.

How can I automatically configure my email program to sort Orchid mail?

Whether you use a web-based e-mail like Hotmail or a software
package like Microsoft Outlook, you can easily create a dedicated
Orchid folder. Once you receive Orchid e-mail, you can separate it
from your personal or business e-mail for easier management. Most
e-mail programs offer optional, automatic sorting of e-mail by topic
or by sender. The name of this feature varies by e-mail program; for
example, Microsoft Outlook calls it New Mail Rules; Hotmail calls it
Filtering.

A typical sorting scheme works like this: You choose the item to
sort by (such as the subject line, sender’s name or e-mail address,
etc) and what action to take when a message is received that matches
the rules or filters you set up.

Most programs let you apply multiple rules or filters to each
message to fine-tune sorting. This way, sorted e-mail is
automatically placed in the appropriate folders, discarded, or left
in your Inbox if it doesn’t meet any of the sorting criteria you’ve
specified.

Here’s how a simple sorting filter would automatically move your
Orchid mail into a designated Orchid folder.

Create a new folder to store your Orchid mail and name it whatever
you like; for example, MY-Orchid.

Depending on the e-mail program you are using, create a filter or
rule: If the message ‘Reply-To’ field is equal to
‘orchid@ganoksin.com’ then move it to My-Orchid.

That was easy, wasn’t it?

How can I share files and pictures with the list?

If you feels to share files, like Self Pictures, Pictures of your
recent work, Illustration of various techniques and other related
material please feel free to use the Orchid FTP Server You may use
the gateway page or any FTP program to upload files

If using FTP agent here are the necessary configuration:

FTP Server: ftp://ganoksin.com/incoming/ganoksin/
Login Type: anonymous
Port: 21
Host address: ftp.ganoksin.com
Remote Initial Directory: /incoming/ganoksin/

Once the file was uploaded, please allow up to two hours to appear in
the public directory. The direct URL to the file is
http://www.ganoksin.com/ftp/file-name you may use this address in
your Orchid posts.

How can I place my work in the Orchid Gallery?

Send photos of your work in JPG format to @Service.
Please include some about yourself and your work.

-Artist: Your name
-Contact info: E-mail address
-Descriptions: Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3
-Photo Credit: Photographer’s name
-Artist Statement
-Note: Photos must be at least 500 pixels wide

We require jury-quality pictures. While we do not judge your design
work, we reserve the right to refuse photos of lesser quality.

Participation is free; all we ask is a link back to Ganoksin.

I have a terrific product. Can I promot it on Orchid?

Orchid is primarily a forum for discussion – a free service
maintained by jewelers for other jewelers. You can certainly mention
that you have products and/or services available should anyone be
interested, but persistent advertisements are not appropriate.
However, the Ganoksin Site offers advertising services. Take a look
at all of these and see which one will work for your commercial
needs.

Is there a way to contact members directly through the archives?

No. For the sake of our users privacy, all the email addresses in
the Orchid archives are encrypted.

Can I get a list of Orchid’s subscribers?

No. We are doing our best to respect our subscribers’ privacy and we
ask you to respect that.

What is your Privacy policy?

Ganoksin does not rent, sell, or share personal about you
with other people or companies except for services you’ve requested,
when we have your permission, or under the following circumstances:
We believe it is necessary to share in order to
investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities,
suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the
physical safety of any person, violations of Ganoksin’s terms of use,
or as otherwise required by law. Ganoksin displays targeted
advertisements, Ganoksin does not provide any personal to
the advertiser when you interact with or view a targeted ad.

What should I know about the content accuracy?

By using this website you should understand that Ganoksin does not
control the Content accuracy posted via the Service and, as such,
does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such
Content. You understand that by using the Service Under no
circumstances will the author nor Ganoksin be liable in any way for
any Content, including, but not limited to, for any errors or
omissions in any Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind
incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed,
transmitted or otherwise made available via this website.

What are The Orchid Forums Terms of service?

Subscribers to the Orchid discussion list, should understand that
Ganoksin functions merely as a communications medium and that the
opinions, claims or views presented there are not necessarily
represent those endorsed or supported by the proprietors of Ganoksin
Online. Please respect the views and opinions of fellow Orchid
members.

You understand that all data, text, photographs,
graphics, messages or other materials (“Content”), whether publicly
posted or privately transmitted, are the sole responsibility of the
person from which such Content originated. This means that you, and
not Ganoksin, are entirely responsible for all Content that you
upload, post, Email, transmit or otherwise make available via the
Service.

Ganoksin does not control the Content accuracy posted via the
Service and, as such, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or
quality of such Content. You understand that by using the Service.
Under no circumstances will Ganoksin be liable in any way for any
Content, including, but not limited to, for any errors or omissions
in any Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a
result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted or
otherwise made available via the Service.

You agree to not use the Service to:

-Collect or store personal data about other users.

-Upload, post, Email, transmit or otherwise make available any
unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional
materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid
schemes,” or any other form of solicitation, except in those
that are designated for such purpose;

-Upload, post, Email, transmit or otherwise make available any
material that contains software viruses or any other computer
code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or
limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware
or telecommunications equipment;

-Impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited
to, a Ganoksin official, forum moderator, guide or host, or
falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with
a person or entity;

-Forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to
disguise the origin of any Content transmitted through the
Service;

-Upload, post, Email, transmit or otherwise make available any
Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive,
harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of
another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or
otherwise objectionable

What are Your Copyright Policies?

This site and its contents are the property of the The Ganoksin
Project, hereinafter referred to as GANOKSIN. Copyright Basics:
Copyright protects original works of authorship, including literary
works, musical works, pictorial and graphic works, motion pictures
and other audiovisual works, sound recordings, etc. Works that are
created and fixed in print, electronic, fax, CD-ROM, and other
formats now known or later developed are protected. Even e-mail that
you send and receive is protected. However, just because you receive
or find it posted on the Internet, this does not mean
that you are free to reproduce it and forward it (distribute,
transmit, etc.) to others without appropriate permission or without
a license agreement if your use is beyond fair use. Copyright
notices are not required by law, so if you do not see a copyright
notice on any item, do not assume that it is free to use or pass
along to others.

Below are selected permitted and prohibited uses of GANOKSIN
material that is posted at this Web site. If you have any questions,
comments, or need permission to use GANOKSIN copyrighted material,
please write to @Service for material from most
divisions…

Permitted Uses of Materials at this site:

Anyone who is doing personal, noncommercial research may view, print
material, and temporarily store materials from this site, provided
that GANOKSIN’s copyright notices are not removed and that the reuse
of material does not conflict with any of the prohibited uses below.
The use of offline webstorage programs is strictly prohibited Others
may view, print material, and temporarily store materials from this
site for internal use only provided that copying fees are paid to
the Copyright Clearance Center for printing of files beyond that
permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act, and that
GANOKSIN’s copyright notices are not removed and that the reuse of
material does not conflict with any of the prohibited uses below. A
Link or links may be made to any document or location at this site,
provided that the link does not bypass any license agreement or lead
to any secure areas on this site. Prohibited uses of Material at
this site:

Materials may not be systematically stored on a server so as to
substitute for license agreement to/for the materials. Except for
the permitted uses above, materials may not be reproduced,
distributed, and/or transmitted (via print, fax, electronic, or
other means), nor adapted, excerpted, and/or altered without prior
written permission from GANOKSIN.

Materials may not be sold to third particles without prior written
authorization from GANOKSIN. Webpages, or portions thereof (including
articles, figures, tables, photos, source code, webscripts etc.) that
are published by GANOKSIN, may not be posted on any Web site or
Publications

Thank you for being with us
Hanuman