Forum Rules

In order to keep these forums running smoothly and to prevent problems, please follow these simple rules for the forums here. If you have any questions or problems, please contact one of the Staff Members.

Our goal for this site is to keep a fun, clean, family-friendly environment, these rules help ensure that people of all ages and backgrounds will enjoy this board.

1. General Posting Rules

   1. This site has very specific content geared forums, members are asked to read the forum descriptions before posting to ensure they are posting in the correct forum. This rule is very forgiving, but users who repeatedly post in the wrong forum despite corrections from a staff member may be given a warning. #
   2. Posts are to be made in the relevant forum. Users are asked to read the forum descriptions before posting. Users consistently posting to the wrong forum may be given a warning (see policing below). #
   3. Members should use an appropriate, descriptive title when posting a new topic. Examples of bad titles include; "Help me!", "I'm stuck!", "I've got an error!", etc. Examples of good titles include; "Intermittent idle issue with '94 Astro in cold weather", "'94 Astro idles rough and stalls, throwing code 32 EGR", etc. #
   4. English is the official language of the forums. We are aware that not everybody is a native english speaker, but this is an english speaking community, so please use english. If you wish to speak with someone in your native language, please use the PM function. #
   5. All rules apply to the private messaging system as well, abuse of the Private Messaging system will result in a Warning. #
   6. Members are welcome to use the test forum for general "test purposes". These may include checking signatures, testing a link or image, etc. (subject to previous points on decency, warez, etc.). #
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2. Offensive Material

   1. These forums are geared toward a general audience and therefore posts that are sexual in nature, pornographic content, or generally offensive in nature such as text, images, links etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to an immediate warning. If a username is found to be offensive, it will be immediately changed and the user PMed a request to choose another, more appropriate username. #
   2. Members are not to post obscene, vulgar, racist, graven, offensive, illegal, posts, links or images on this site, posting of such content will be removed and could lead to a warning if necessary. #
   3. Members are not allowed to use any artifice or method to bypass or avoid the profanity filter. #
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3. Be Respectful Of Others

   1. Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. Flaming or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning. #
   2. Members are not allowed to flame other members or groups of members. Flaming includes, but is not limited to: Ridiculing, insulting, or demeaning another member or group of members, such behaviour will not be tolerated and may lead to a warning and the offending posts removed or the topic locked. #
   3. Members are not allowed to bait other members. Baiting is an attempt to anger and provoke another member. Such behaviour may lead to a warning and offending posts removed or topic locked. #
   4. Members are not to harass or abuse other members in topics, private messages, signatures, avatars or profiles. This includes stalking other members, both online and in real life. Such behaviour will lead to a warning or a ban. #
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4. Excessive Writing Styles

   1. Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or colored text, etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Users consistently abusing this will be warned. #
   2. Members are asked not to post using "l33t" speak, txt speak, abbreviated expletives, posting in ALL CAPS in posts, topics or blog posts. Repeatedly posting in these methods will result in a warning. #
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5. Support Requests

   1. Support is offered via the forums only. Support is not given through private messages, instant messages, or any other private means. The reason for this is that private support only helps one single person, whereas support on the forums benefits everyone. Repeated requests for support through private means may constitute a warning. #
   2. Members are asked to refrain from excessively bumping their topics or support questions until a reasonable amount of time (at least 6 hours) has elapsed, a reasonable amount of time must be allowed to give the staff time to answer the question and or topic. Repeated excessive bumping could result in a warning. #
   3. Members are asked to refrain from demanding support from members of this site, all members of these boards give support of their own free-will and such rude behaviour is not welcome and may result in a warning. #
   4. Members are asked to not post duplicate topics and or posts, or cross-post topics and or posts. Excessively posting duplicate topics or posts will result in a warning #
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6. Spamming

   1. Spam is not tolerated here under any circumstance. This includes offering services (charged and free), solicitation, advertisements in posts, irrelevant links, etc. Recruiting members for your own site (moderators, users, club members, etc.) is not permitted and is also considered spam. Users posting spam will be warned and their post removed. See specific item 3rd party site spam for more information. #
   2. Members are asked not to disclose any 3rd party site, bulletin board, news feed, forum, blog, or any similar web site. If the post has the only purpose of publicizing a similar genre site or another party, the offending link will be removed. If the user continues to post in the same manner the user will be warned. #
   3. The above spam rules, where applicable, also apply to private messaging. Abuse of the private messaging system may lead to warnings (as above) and/or the revocation of private messaging. #
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7. Intellectual Property

   1. Respect the exclusive rights over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial. Do not post material covered by copyright laws, which protect creative works, such as books, movies, music, paintings, photographs, and software, which the copyright holder has exclusive rights to control reproduction or adaptation of. #
   2. Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc. Users linking to or asking for information on warez, crackz, etc. or re-printing material without permission will receive a warning and their post will be removed. #
   3. Members are not to violate the privacy of other members by publicly posting identifiable personal information about them; e.g. full names, addresses, e-mail addresses or telephone numbers. This includes reposting the contents of private messages or e-mails without the prior permission of the sender. Exceptions may include notifying a staff member of a violation through private channels such as the board private message system. #
   4. Members should respect the bandwidth of other users and sites. Bandwidth theft or "hotlinking" is direct linking to a web site's files (images, video, etc.). The use of inline ([IMG][/IMG]) image tags pointing to data stored on third party systems for which the user has not received permission to link to may be removed. Hotlinking can have a lot of undesirable consequences. One is the so-called "switcheroo". If you've linked to an image on someone's server, what's to prevent them from changing the image you linked to? This can have humorous results. Since most sites, forums, etc. have strict policies about offensive images, it wouldn't take much for an aggravated webmaster you've been stealing bandwidth from to shut you down completely with an unwanted "switcheroo". To be safe, you may want to consider using the Upload Attachment feature of the forums instead. #
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8. Signature Specific Rules

   1. Signature content must adhere to normal board rules with respect to decency. Signatures may NOT contain any of the following: Obscene, Racist, Sexually Explicit, Graven / Graphic, Offensive, Illegal or anything deemed Not family friendly. Offensive content will be removed and the user PMed or warned as necessary. #
   2. Signature content may be removed and/or signature permissions revoked if a user dismisses requests by staff to change or remove content. #
   3. Text sizes should be between 75% and 100% (small and normal). Signatures may contain up to five lines of text (of small or normal size), or 2 lines of text with images. Random text signature script counts as a single line. #
   4. Members are asked to keep signature images relatively small so that the topics may load quickly. Signature images are limited to a combined size of 12kb and no larger than 468px wide and 60px high. Flashy or animated images and flash is not allowed in signature images. #
   5. Signatures are restricted to a single image of no more than 60px high, 468px wide. Signatures containing an image this large may also include one line of small size text. If the image is smaller, you may add more lines of text respectively. #
   6. Links in signatures are permitted to a maximum of three unique pages. Such links may ONLY be to pages on this site or approved material. PM a Team Member for approval of signature links. Team members are allowed additional links to aid in rendering support to our users. #
   7. Signature links are limited to 3 links and must be unique pages or sites (i.e. 3 links pointing to the same external page/site are not allowed), Linked sites may not be overly commercial in nature. Subtle self-promotion is allowed in signatures. #
   8. You may not link to warez, porn, political, racist or other similar hate sites. Links are included in signature size limits. #
   9. Members abusing these signature rules will be warned. #
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9. Avatar Specific Rules

   1. User defined avatars may contain mild animation. But must not be flashy or attract attention with the animation. #
   2. Avatars must NOT contain an image which attempts to portray the user as having an official status on this site or forums (such a mimicking ranks or copying avatars of staff). #
   3. Avatars are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect to decency, and so forth. Avatars may NOT contain any of the following: Obscene, Racist, Sexually Explicit, Graven / Graphic, Offensive, Illegal or anything deemed Not family friendly. Offensive Avatars will be removed and the user PMed or warned as necessary. #
   4. Avatars may be removed and/or avatar permissions revoked if a user dismisses requests by staff to change or remove content. #
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10. Moderation

    1. Back seat moderating is not allowed on these boards. If you notice an issue which may be against board policy, please use the Report Post Feature located on every post and a Moderator will address the issue. Members who constantly act as moderators will be warned. #
    2. Administrators may be required to read specific private messages in an investigation to verify a rule breach or illegal actions through the private message system. #
    3. The Staff reserve the right to edit or remove any post at any time on these boards. The determination of what is construed as indecent, vulgar, spam, etc. as noted in these points is up to Staff Members and not users. Moderators also reserve the right to ban anyone who wilfully violates the board rules, as access to our forums are a privilege and not a right. #
    4. While these rules cover most common situations, they cannot anticipate everything. Consequently we reserve the right to take any actions we deem appropriate to ensure these forums are not disrupted or abused in any way. #
    5. Members are asked to not contact staff members for moderation (moving/splitting/merging/deleting) of topics or posts. Please instead use the report post feature located on a post. Members are also asked to not abuse the report post feature. Excessively contacting staff members for non-urgent moderation or abusing report post feature may result in a warning. #
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11. Warning & Ban Policy

    1. If a member breaches a minor board rule, they will be issued an alert via Private Message by a staff member. This is not counted toward the official warning count of the member. #
    2. If the member continues to breach the SAME Forum Rule, an official Warning will be issued by a Moderator. #
    3. Arguing with team members after having received a warning will lead to an immediate additional warning. Should this exceed three warnings a suspension (temporary ban) will be put in place. #
    4. Any attempt to circumvent a suspension (temporary ban) will lead to that ban being made permanent. #
    5. Members who feel they have been unfairly warned are encouraged to contact an Administrator. #
    6. Four warnings within 90 days will constitute an immediate permanent ban, warnings will expire after 90 days. #
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