General information

1. Who are you?

   The Oil Drum is published by the Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. To learn about some of the The Oil Drum staff, see the staff biographies.

2. What are you doing and why are you doing it?

   See our mission statement.

3. How do I contact you about the content of the site?

   Send an email to editors at theoildrum dot com.

4. How do I contact you about technical aspects of the site (i.e., something is confusing or not working)?

   Email technical support at support at theoildrum dot com. If you are experiencing a problem with the site, please be sure to include the following information:

   • The address of the page you are having trouble with.
   • Your operating system (e.g., Windows XP, Mac OS 10.3).
   • The web browser and version that you are using (e.g., Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 1.5).
   Keep in mind that a response may take up to a week.

5. How can I support The Oil Drum?

   There are three things you can do to support The Oil Drum.

   • Leave insightful comments on stories.
   • Tell your friends about us.

6. Where are the reader guidelines?

   Here.

7. How do I place an advertisement on the site?

   The Oil Drum is not running advertisements at this time.

8. What do all of those darn acronyms mean?

   Check out our handy Acronym Guide.

9. How do I post a story?

   You can't. Only editors and contributors can post stories.

User accounts

1. How do I create an account?

   Follow this link.

2. Why should I create an account?
   • Users can comment on stories.
   • Users can save their viewing preferences.
   • The site keeps track of whether a user has seen a comment or not. It marks the new comments, so a user need not scroll through all of the comments to find the new ones.
   • Users can flag inappropriate comments.

3. When creating an account, why do I need to provide a real email address? Do I need to worry about it being made public?

   We use your email address to verify your identity when your account is activated and to send you your password if you forget it. Occasionally, an editor may use it to contact you. We never make this address public. You may put a fake (e.g., spam-protected) email address in your public profile, but that is optional.

4. I've logged in, but the site doesn't seem to remember me. What's happening?

   You must enable cookies in your browser.

5. Sometimes when I log out of the site, the most recent stories and comments disappear. Why is that?

   When logged-in users view the site, they see pages that are generated dynamically from a database and are guaranteed to be up-to-date. Anonymous (non-logged-in) users see a static, cached version of pages which may be up to 30 minutes old. This technique keeps the server load down and helps the site run faster.

6. How do I change my password?

   The form for changing your password can be found by clicking on the My account link on the right-hand side of the page and then clicking on the edit tab.

7. I'm fed up with The Oil Drum. Can you delete my account?

   We do not delete accounts. If you are fed up with the site, simply stop visiting.

Commenting on stories

1. What kind of content is appropriate for a comment?

   See the reader guidelines.

2. How do I leave a comment?

   You must be logged in to leave a comment. The link for leaving comments is on a story's main page (not the front page), in between the end of the story and the start of the comments. The link says "Post a comment". If you are not logged in, the link will say "You must log in to post a comment."

3. How do I include an image in my comment?

   • First, you must upload your image to a web-accessible server. Several image hosting services, such as Photobucket and Flickr provide space for free.
   • Then include the appropriate HTML code in your comment. For example: <img src="http://my.webserver.com/filename.gif">.

4. A comment I made appears in my user profile, but when I click on the link, my comment is not in the thread. Was my comment deleted?

   No. When a story receives more than 500 comments, the comments spill over onto a second page, and the user profile comments list gives an incorrect link. You can see the comment if you make a small change to the address. For example, instead of http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2831#comment-220584, use http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2831?page=1#comment-220584.

5. What's the "Flag as inappropriate" link?

   See the explanation of the comment flagging system.