Updated Community Guidlelines. Must read.

[blazee]

Just letting everyone know that the forum rules have been updated. A lot of things have changed. Everyone needs to read them, because the changes affect a lot of people that frequent this forum, especially those with pictures in their signatures. Some of you may notice that I had to remove part of my sig because it violated the new rules.
Here's the link to the new guidelines:
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...uidelines.html

[BlazerLT]

Blazee,

could you ask them to outline what was updated on that list for easy updating?

[blazee]

Igor doesn't come around much right now, so even if he were to outline what was updated, it would take along time before it got done. I'll just do it here. The entire thing was rewritten, so everything changed a little. Everything that's in red text is the main stuff that was changed/added.


This is a free community! However, we do insist that you abide by the rules and policies detailed below. You agreed to these terms during the registration process.
Note: Anyone found violating this rule will lose their membership and their account will be frozen.
Although the administrators and moderators of the Automotive Forums .com will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and Automotive Forums .com will NOT be held responsible for the content of any message.
COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

This is a community of automotive enthusiasts. Watch your P's and Q's when you write and use emotion icons if you think someone might take something you say offensively.

RESPECT IS THE KEY
The Automotive Forums .com (AF) is a place where it's okay to be yourself -- be that harried, jovial, silly or sad -- as long as you always act with respect towards your fellow AF members. We promise that you won't have to leave your personality at the door. We promise to bring passion to our work and to our community and to act with appreciation for our members. We will listen willingly to your suggestions and complaints, and try to incorporate your ideas in everything we do.
Pretend you run these forums, ok so in essence you do. Before you hit the submit button think if you would allow that post on your site or on your forums. Only you can prevent Spam, post whoring and cross posting. Examples of these are outlined in the Appendix at the end of this document.
The AF Staff are here to help you so if you have a problem, e-mail it or post your request in the forums. We have many members that have knowledge in various areas. They are all willing to help you at the drop of a hat.
If you've been caught or accused of a wrongdoing, and or get banned for such behavior, don't get irrational. Most of the time, we revoke privileges as a safety measure, and we are usually just as quick to reinstate them.
Just e-mail us and ask what happened if you don't know why you were banned, or write to us and explain your side of the story. Tell us why you think it was ok or why you know it was wrong.
Please keep these Guidelines in mind:


GET TO KNOW THE COMMUNITY:
Automotive Forums is much more than an online discussion group for automotive enthusiasts. It's a community of people from all walks of life and backgrounds seeking and giving answers to anything automotive. We provide the format not only for automotive discussion but also off topic ones not automotive (see appendix). Please familiarize yourself with the posting format. Lurk and browse around the numerous sections to get a feeling of the community first. Get to know the Moderators. Use the search feature and any other feature in the forums general FAQ. You will find that many of your questions may have been already answered. This would reduce repetitive questions. Most sections have "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ) threads stuck at the very top of certain sections. These provide more detailed rules which should be followed. Once you get the feel of the format, feel free to post away. Bottom line… Browse, read, post and learn, but have fun doing it.

WELCOME NEWCOMERS
When newcomers arrive, welcome them to our growing community. Many of our community's "elders" (regardless of age) are a wealth of knowledge and have much to share. Help new members learn about how to find information and resources, save time, and how to get involved in the community.

DON'T ATTACK EACH OTHER
Attack the message, not the messenger. Criticize ideas, not the person. Don't attack others. Personal attacks and flaming on others will not be tolerated. Challenge others' points of view and opinions, but do so respectfully and thoughtfully ... without insult and personal attack. No violent, discriminatory language or personal attacks are allowed. Personal attacks are defined as personal, racial, ethnic and or gender based insults, slurs or derisive comments. We reserve the right to edit and remove any inappropriate posts.

KEEP PERSONAL INFORMATION PERSONAL
Think before you post or speak: Do you really want to put your address or telephone number on a public discussion forum or to share it during a live chat? We encourage you to keep personal information personal.
Similarly, do not ask for personal information from others. Discussion forum posts that request members to submit personal information to another party will be removed. Information that should be considered personal includes but is not limited to your home phone number, name, and age. If you must give this out for any reason, please do so privately via the forums private messaging system.

KEEP YOUR POSTS CLEAN
There may be places where explicit, obscene or vulgar language, graphics or behavior is appropriate however Automotive Forums .com is not one of them. Discussion forum posts that contain explicit, obscene or vulgar language will be removed. Similarly, discussion forum posts that solicit or offer explicit or X-rated GIFs, JPEGs or similar content files will be deleted without notice!
With each post you have the ability to edit them. Please use this feature. If you feel like adding more to your post or find you made a mistake, please insert an edit note to the message by using the edit feature. Placing back to back posts is considered spam, which can result in your message being removed from the thread.

BE COURTEOUS: AVOID DUPLICATE POSTS
Do not post the same discussion more than once on a discussion forum or on many forums. Duplicate discussions can be frustrating for other members, especially for those whose time and energy is limited. Weeding through the same discussion in multiple locations can be not only frustrating, but down right annoying. Duplicate discussions will be deleted. Reposting the same message repeatedly can be interpreted as SPAM and could result in the loss of your membership. Also be conscious of your fellow members and avoid making meaningless posts for the sole purpose of increasing your post count.

POSTING EDIQUETTE:
AutomotiveForums.com is a professional community where members expect to read posts with correct grammar and practical sentence structure. Any posts in all caps, and or funny mixed case such as "hey can u c thiz? L8r!" will not be tolerated. The same goes for language. AF is an English language based site. All discussions should be conducted in English. If you cannot post clearly, coherently, and in English, you will be given notice to do so. If you ignore this notice and continue to post incoherently, your posting rights will be removed.

THREAD TITLES:
Thread titles should at the minimum indicate what the thread is about. This not only helps in searching older topics but gives the viewer a quick glance of what the topic is about. It should not have any excessive exclamation or punctuation marks.

POSTING IN CLOSED OR OUTDATED THREADS:
If a thread has been closed, there is probably a logical reason for it. If you feel that the reason(s) for closure of the original thread are unjustified or wish further clarification feel free to contact any member of the moderating team. However, do not start a new thread about another closed thread.
Please avoid posting or voting in outdated threads. It merely clutters up the message board and makes it more difficult for fellow members to sort through the vast amount of information contained on the boards. If you have new and important information to add regarding a past discussion, feel free to start a new thread and if need be, add a link to the original thread.

ADVERTISING
AF has sections where members can buy, sell and trade automotive parts that they themselves are selling, wanting to buy or trading. These sections are only for members and not businesses. Unless prior authorization is given, Advertising is prohibited on the forums. Your membership will be revoked at first such offense. If you feel like advertising, please feel free to contact us.

SIGNATURES
Each member has the ability to display a signature. Please keep your signature clean, just like the posts. If you choose to create a signature for yourself, please keep it within a reasonable size. It is inconsiderate to your fellow AF member to place a book size of a signature in between every post. Anything not permitted in a post as outlined in this document should not be permitted in signatures either. In essence:
Quotes, jokes and puns are okay, so long as they are not offensive.
Images within signatures should be of a reasonable size. (400x150 max image size)
No more than two quotes within signatures (since these can range in size themselves.)
No more than one quote and one reasonable size image. (400x150 max image size)


TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP
Upon the submittal of each post on Automotive Forums .com you give Automotive Forums .com and/or its partners the permission to reproduce any part of your post in any form, for any purpose, and at any time.

USE OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL:
As stated previously, the staff of the Automotive Forums .com will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, this includes but is not limited to any message spamming any commercial available product, any unauthorized illegal product (such as warez) and any item using copyrighted material. This also includes any item using the AutomotiveForums logos, banners, etc. Members violating the above are subject to removal from the board.

IF YOU ARE CONTACTED BY A MODERATOR:
If you have been contacted by a member of the moderating team, either through Private Message (PM) or email about your conduct here at AutomotiveForums.com, chances are you have violated part(s) of the User Guidelines. If you wish to maintain your membership and continue to enjoy AF, it is imperative that you do not disregard warnings given by moderators. If you feel that the warning is unwarranted feel free to contact any moderator or administrator for dispute resolution.

MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS:
If through inappropriate behavior or not following the guidelines outlined in this document, your account is temporarily or permanently revoked, and you register another account, both accounts will be banned permanently. Multiple accounts/usernames are not allowed.

WE RESERVE THE RIGHT
Automotive Forums .com reserves the right to remove a post which does not relate to the topic being discussed in the forum. In addition, AutomotiveForums.com reserves the right to organize discussion forums in order to best serve the majority of our members. For example, narrow-interest or minimal activity topics may, at AF's discretion, be relocated to a more appropriate discussion forum, or deleted entirely.
Automotive Forums .com also reserves the right to prohibit or delete discussions that are thought to violate applicable law or that may be harmful to other members, the sites that comprise Automotive Forums .com, or the rights of Automotive Forums .com or others. That said, Automotive Forums .com does not have the practical ability to restrict conduct or communications that might violate these Guidelines prior to transmission on AOL or the Web, nor can we ensure prompt removal of offending discussion forum posts.
We also reserve the right to remove your membership should you violate these Guidelines.
The owners of Automotive Forums .com have the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.

Appendix:

1. Non-Contributing Member:
   Any member that is not contributing to AF, by either saying outrageous stupid things or is not saying anything of value in the topic at hand can be considered to be a non-contributing member. Most of these are outlined within this document such as but not limited to spam and post whoring. You can be notified, and if necessary restricted to certain sections of AF or banned. This is done for the health of the community. This will allow us to weed out the unnecessary junk from the community and at the same time attract smart intellectual individuals.
2. Spam:
   For those that don't know, Spam, in the internet sense of the word, is basically the bombardment of a discussion group with multiple copies of a message. Usually but not entirely consisting of unsolicited email/messages, often of a commercial nature, sent to promote a product or service. It can also apply to posting unnecessary and unwarranted topics/subject matter. Spam is not warranted and it has no place in Automotive Forums.
3. Post Whoring:
   Post whoring is slang for spamming which is slang for posting lots of unwanted, unnecessary stuff. This can be further expanded as any inane, pointless, offensive or useless posts. It should be kept to an absolute minimum in the technical forums (if at all) and kept in check in any off-topic thread/section such as COT.
   The following is considered spam / post whoring:
   1. Very short posts that do not add value to the current discussion. (For example: a post with only the words "yeah me too!").
   2. Double posts. Members should know that they can use the edit button to correct any mistake in their post or to append to it.
   3. Posts that obviously serve no purpose other than to up ones' post counts.
   4. Posts like "XXX, I have a question for you". These should be done via the private messaging system.
   5. Starting a new thread when a similar thread has already been started.
   6. Any other posts that we deem inappropriate for other readers.
   7. Posts that contain large amounts of similes and or spaces to make it look like they contain useful information, but aren't.
4. Completely Off-Topic
   The Completely Off-Topic sections as well as the Off-Topic Threads areas are basically the sections where members come to unwind and have fun from the technical section or the daily routine. It is for discussions of topics that have nothing to do with the other forums. It basically keeps non-automotive posts localized from creeping into the technical sections. While this section and its subsections offer members numerous ways to unwind, it is also part of AF and as such the rules outlined in this document apply.
5. Politics, Philosophy (Religion), and Stress Release subsections:
   These sections are, like in life, heavily debated and some are quite passionate in their views, beliefs, agendas and debates. Still, here in AF, please note that all topics within these sections should be rational and should not be a basis to start any argument over any issue that will always have two sides to it. As mentioned previously, attack and debate the message, not the messenger. No flaming of members and moderators are allowed.
6. Arcades:
   The Arcade section allows users to play games and compete with other AF members. It also allows users to post comments to their winnings. These comments should also adhere to the rules outline in this document.
7. Warnings and Bannings: Not adhering to these guidelines can result in your account being temporarily or permanently banned. The length of the banning depends on the severity of the guideline broken. During temp bannings a member may not post under any other account. If this happens and it is discovered, all accounts belonging to that person will be banned permanently.
   The following situations can possibly get you warned and or your account banned:
   1. Ignoring moderator's warnings for any of the items outlined in this document.
   2. Heavy personal insults (includes racism, sexism or any other ism's).
   3. Campaigning to bring back a banned member, whether in your posts or in your signature.
   4. Criticizing a moderator's decision openly in the forum.
   5. Making constant attacks on other members and moderators, aka, trolling.
   6. You are underage.
   7. Post Whoring.
   8. Making an Alias Account.
   9. Posting pornographic, sexually offensive, sexually explicit or objectively material.
   10. Failing to learn from a previous suspension.
   11. Impersonating another individual by creating an account that looks very similar to that member or by other means.
   12. Having an offensive account name.
   13. Scams or the promotion of scams.
   14. Advertising other forums when asked not too.
   15. Posting of copyrighted material and illegal software.
   16. Continuously bumping up threads.

[OverBoardProject]

I think that my sig, and everything is clean and respectfull, any objections or things that I shoud change (other than I'm getting tired of Bart and will change that back soon)

I think that we're all a little guilty of quoting the odd bit of copyrighted material, and when we do it's just to help the person understand.

[leadalto]

Originally Posted by blazee

......[*] Posting of copyrighted material and illegal software.
.......

In one of my Chilton's manuals, there is an Acknowledgment which, to paraphrase, states that No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, etc. etc. without prior written permission from the publisher.

I would assume that this means verbatum passages as well as figures and charts.

I remember bringing this up once before (possibly with another forum) with regard to scanned wiring diagrams. Someone who claimed to be a lawyer said it was OK as long as the information was not being sold.

The forum guidelines are very explicit and do not mention disclaimers or any other commercial use limitations or permissions.

I have seen many scanned figures from manuals on this forum (as well as other forums) and I assume most if not all of the manuals are copyrighted.

What is really permissible to use on this forum?

[OverBoardProject]

I only quote web pages, and usually past the link to it underneath. It's public info anyways, and I probably found it on Google.

I've scanned the odd page from my owners manual, and e-mailed it to people, but I won't post it.
In my opinion we should all have the origional owners manuals given to us when we buy the vehicle, and I can't hold it against anyone for not getting theirs.