Community guidelines (please read before posting)

Welcome to the Back Room. This forum was started by a customer in 2017, and the shop was invited to help look after it in 2019. We are honored, and we take it seriously, possibly too seriously. A few house rules:

1. Be kind. To each other, to the staff, and to the candles, which have no way of responding.
2. Stay on topic. The topic is candles. We have been generous about what counts.
3. No spam. We consider repeated posts reading “PARAFFIN” to be spam, and also a little hurtful.
4. No personal information. Yours, anyone else’s, or the contents of anybody’s invoices.
5. Do not light anything on a dare.
6. Complaints are welcome and are answered first. Martin has asked us to note that “first” is measured from when a post is read, not when it is posted.
7. We moderate by hand, Tuesday through Saturday, 11 to 6. Posts made on Sunday or Monday will be read on Tuesday, warmly.
8. Pets may hold accounts, provided a human agrees to type for them.

Since 2017 this forum has banned one member. We wrote him a letter explaining why. He wrote back. We have corresponded monthly ever since, and he is now, in most respects, a pen pal.

Posting accounts are issued in person at the counter, on a laminated card, with your username written in pencil. This has kept spam close to zero, and we have grown attached to the cards.

Last edited by Teodora (Hale & Wick) on Oct 15, 2026: rule 8 now says “pets” rather than “dogs.”

Thanks, Big Tallow. That one is allowed. At this point it’s a signature, and we would miss it.

Hi Doug! Nobody, really. I offered in 2021 and Martin said “sure.” I’m very happy to hand it over to anyone who would like to read every post about wick length, including the long ones.

Lovely to see you, as always.

For transparency: moderation takes about nine hours a week. Four are reading, three are replying, and two are Teodora reading Gerald’s burn logs, which we do not strictly need to do but have come to look forward to.

It has! Rule 8 now says “pets” rather than “dogs.” Welcome, Mochi. Welcome, Gus. Locking this again so it stays at the top. Questions go in any other thread, where we will find them.