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Forum Rules; Including any additions and revisions

Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 9:42 pm
by Squig
Welcome to Cavmk3oc.com and, whether you're new to the concept of online forums or regularly use them, please take the time to read through our rules to gain an understanding of how we moderate our boards. Please also be aware that we may change or add to these rules at any time and, although we’ll do our utmost in informing you, it would be prudent to review periodically yourself.

All the rules, as laid out in this topic, are in place, as I'm sure you are all aware, to aid our users experience and not to dissuade any newbies from joining and participating in the boards. All of our admin and moderators have common sense and will use their judgement if they feel the rules are, or are in danger of being, breached. If you have any questions concerning the rules please add a topic to the Comments and Suggestions area in the Back Room section, and we will get to it as soon as we can.

So before we start outlining the rules, please remember the main thing; enjoy Cavmk3oc.com.

The Staff...



Index;
  • Core Forum Rules
    For Sale Restrictions
    Spam and Spamming
    Flaming, Flame Wars and Trolling
    Thread Hijacking
    Plagiarism
    Unhelpful Advertising and Recruiting
    Forum Vigilantes
    Constructive Criticism
    Multiple Accounts
    Images and Videos

Core Forum Rules...

Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 9:43 pm
by Squig
Core Forum Rules;

By accessing “Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club” (hereinafter “we”, “us”, “our”, “Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club”, “http://www.vauxhallcavalier.com/forum”), you agree to be legally bound by the following terms. If you do not agree to be legally bound by all of the following terms then please do not access and/or use “Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club” / "vauxhallcavalier.com". We may change these at any time and we’ll do our utmost in informing you, though it would be prudent to review this regularly yourself as your continued usage of “Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club” / "vauxhallcavalier.com" after changes mean you agree to be legally bound by these terms as they are updated and/or amended.

Our forums are powered by phpBB (hereinafter “they”, “them”, “their”, “phpBB software”, “www.phpbb.com”, “phpBB Group”, “phpBB Teams”) which is a bulletin board solution released under the “General Public License” (hereinafter “GPL”) and can be downloaded from http://www.phpbb.com. The phpBB software only facilitates internet based discussions, the phpBB Group are not responsible for what we allow and/or disallow as permissible content and/or conduct. For further information about phpBB, please see: http://www.phpbb.com/.

You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any laws be it of your country, the country where “Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club” / "vauxhallcavalier.com" is hosted or International Law. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned, with notification of your Internet Service Provider if deemed required by us. The IP address of all posts are recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that “Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club” / "vauxhallcavalier.com" have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should we see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered to being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent 1, neither “Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club” / "vauxhallcavalier.com" nor phpBB shall be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.


1 Revision 13.09.11 - Except where requested by UK courts and/or ongoing police/criminal investigations.

For Sale Restrictions...

Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 10:00 pm
by Squig
For Sale Restrictions;

"Newbie" status users, indicated by the username displayed in light blue, are subject to a board restriction disallowing the use of all and any of the Sales boards in the Back Room area. You agree that any attempt to subvert this rule, either by posting a "For sale" topic in a non-designated area, or referring too, by hyperlink or plain text within any part of a post or signature, an external advert, will result in a punitive action being taken against the user by “Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club”, "VauxhallCavalier.com" or it's representatives.

Once the user has achieved a post count of 50 this restriction will be lifted.

REVISION - To clarify any user posting a thread with any hint of a sales nature will result in;
1. Immediate thread deletion...
2. PM to the user with a forwarding link to this thread...
3. Repeat offenders will be banned for a minimum of 30 days.


Clarification 13.09.11 - This rule is, by definition, intended to cover any thread created for the intent of selling, for profit or non-profit, any type of goods, whether the goods in question are automotive related or not. This extends to any and all Ebay auctions and/or buy-it-now type adverts. Newbie users are welcomed to post wanted type adverts, and links to sites that can be of use to other cavmk3oc users.

Spam and Spamming

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 4:22 am
by Squig
Spam and Spamming;

Spam is defined on these boards as...
  • Posting the same thread/post repeatedly in multiple areas/topics, if you accidentally spam multiple threads or posts containing the same query, comment or information, please inform the site admin/moderators.
    Posting something completely off-topic and irrelevant to the discussion (we accept topics may meander off the original subject, this is acceptable and fairly inevitable, however responding to a thread concerning a serious engine rebuild query with a comment about your pets recent trip to the vet, for example, would be considered spamming).
    Posting in a thread to simply "bump" it back to the top of the forum listings with no additional or useful content*.
All of the above are viewed simply as bumping up a users post count and will result in a warning notice via private message.

*The only exception is in the Sales boards, where a user may bump his own advert within reason if the item has not sold, however users should use their common sense here as practises such as hourly bumping will not be tolerated.


Revision 16.05.2010 - Unsolicited private messages redirecting users to a third party site are also considered spam, however this "version" of spamming will result in instant and permanent IP banning of the sender.

Revision 15.07.2011 - New users that start threads consisting of nonsensical information, text and/or adverts are also considered spam, however this "version" of site spamming will result in instant and permanent IP banning of the sender.

Flaming, Flame Wars and Trolling

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 4:36 am
by Squig
Flaming, Flame Wars and Trolling;

Flaming is defined as...
"Hostile and insulting interaction between Internet users. It is usually the result of the discussion of heated real-world issues like politics, religion, and philosophy, or of issues that polarise subpopulations (for example, the perennial debating between Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners). Internet trolls frequently set out to incite flamewars for the sole purpose of offending or irritating other posters."
- Sourced from Wikipedia

Trolling is defined as...
"In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion."
- Sourced from Wikipedia

Any users flaming, trolling and/or initiating a flame war will result in a punitive action being taken against the user by “Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club”, or it's representatives 1.

Simply put, we are all here for different reasons, but a common theme amongst us is to have an enjoyable and/or informative experience, and we aim to keep it that way.



1 Addition 13.09.11 - with, should the situation warrant, partial or full support being offered where requested by UK courts and/or ongoing police/criminal investigations, at the discretion of the site Administration.

Thread Hijacking

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 4:47 am
by Squig
Thread Hijacking;

Thread Hijacking is defined as...

Posting something unrelated to the topic in order to increase your post count or simply to steer people off the main topic. If you have a valid question about an issue related to that which you are reading please join the discussion.

Plagiarism

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 4:55 am
by Squig
Plagiarism;

Plagiarism is defined as...
"Use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work."
- Sourced from 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary

In this context we refer too guides and other constructed texts and/or graphics/images sourced word-for-word from another author without their permission, this will result in a removal of the posted content and (where applicable) the source informed, as well as other punitive action/actions being taken against the user by “Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club”, or it's representatives.

Unhelpful Advertising and Recruiting

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:06 am
by Squig
Unhelpful Advertising and Recruiting;

Unhelpful advertising is considered to be the posting of links to a site/forum you own or are a part of without a decent amount of information supplied with it, we would request you wait until your site can be of benefit. If a user posts with the intent to recruit, by posting links to his/her own forums persuading or pestering others to join, your post(s) will more than likely be removed and other punitive action/actions may be taken against the user by “Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club”, or it's representatives.
This rule extends to signatures/signature pictures and avatars. Feel free to inform us where else you frequent, but let not have any "such and such a site is better than this one...", it's just poor form.

Forum Vigilantes

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:14 am
by Squig
Forum Vigilantes;

Attempting to perform an admin/moderators job or impersonating an admin/moderator by telling someone they have done something wrong or against the rules is considered to be Forum Vigilantism. Cavmk3oc.com is equipped with a "Report" button underneath each and every post (incicated by this graphic; Image) -- if you believe someone has broken the rules please use this feature.
Forum Vigilantes irritate and undermine admin and moderators, and this behaviour will likely as not result in a warning.

Constructive Criticism

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:17 am
by Squig
Constructive Criticism;

Constructive criticism requires both;

* Constructive = Providing a solution
* Criticism = Voicing concern

Constructive criticism is NOT directed at any person or group of people. Any comments that are directed at people can fall under vigilantism, flaming and trolling. Please use the Comments and Suggestions area to voice any constructive criticisms.

Multiple Accounts

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:23 am
by Squig
Multiple Accounts;

Only one account per person please. The only exception to this rule are admins / moderators which have normal accounts for testing the site without elevated privileges.
Failure to adhere to this may result in an permanent ban which will extend to all and any subsequent accounts created. Should the user continue to attempt to register and access Cavmk3oc.com once banned, notification of the users Internet Service Provider, if deemed required by us, will proceed.

Images and Videos

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 6:40 pm
by Squig
Images and Videos;

As per all other material, images and videos are subject to the Core Rules and will be treated as such. Cavmk3oc.com and it's representatives reserve the right with images used within our boards to transfer any images and videos onto our server and be hosted as attachments to avoid data loss within linked material. Any plagiarised material that is transferred to our server, without our knowledge will be treated as per the Plagiarism rule.