MX-5 Owners Club Forum Rules from July 2011
This forum is provided by the MX-5 Owners Club (MX-5 OC) for the benefit of Club members and all MX-5 and Roadster enthusiasts. The forum is administered and moderated by Owners Club members. Use of the forum is subject to the terms and rules set out below. By registering to use the forum, you agree to abide by these rules, and any subsequent revisions, which have been set out with the best interest of the MX-5 community in mind.
1. General Disclaimer
Applicable to all Forums.
Any work you do to your car is entirely your own responsibility. If in any doubt, you should check technical advice with an independent, qualified person who has seen your car. The MX-5 Owners Club and its officers accept no responsibility for any damage caused to your person or property as a result of you following or not following the advice offered in any Forum post.
2. Forum Membership
a) Each Member of the MX5 Owners Club is permitted one login account which will be linked to their Club membership and will allow access to all members only forum sections for so long as they remain a paid up Club member.
b) Non-members of the MX5 Owners Club are welcome to open an account to access the forum. Please refer to the forum home page for details of how to create an account. Non-members have more restricted access privileges, which includes no access to OC members’ areas and the inability to place adverts.
c) Registering with multiple accounts is strictly forbidden. Users opening and posting from multiple accounts are liable to a permanent ban for all accounts.
d) You must register with a valid email address. This email address will be the only way that Administrators can make contact with you.
e) The Administrators reserve the right to ban anyone who wilfully & persistently violates the forum rules.
f) While these rules will cover most common situations, they cannot anticipate everything. Consequently the Administrators and Moderators reserve the right to take any actions we deem appropriate to ensure these forums are not disrupted or abused in any way.
3. Discussion
The primary function of this forum is to allow MX-5/ Eunos Roadster/ Mazda Miata owners (and would be owners) to freely chat about all things related to the car we all love. The exchange of information, guidance, expert opinion and input is encouraged, but, people can and will disagree.
a) Please make use of the Search Function or the Technical Guides before posting a question; your question may have already been answered.
b) Please respect that this is the natural way of things and don't be offensive or rude if you disagree, or are disagreed with. Explaining your argument in a mature manner will gain you much more respect than shouting from your soap box without thought for what you're writing.
c) The MX-5 Owners Club promotes safe and responsible driving. Therefore, discussions about any driving behaviour that breaks the rules of the Road Traffic Act will not be permitted anywhere on this forum.
d) We’re not clinicians, social workers, relationship counsellors and suchlike. So don’t post about personal problems, relationships; these posts will be removed.
4. Moderating
a) All posts made to the forum are subject to moderation, through moving, deletion or editing.
b) Please keep posts on topic and relevant to the section in which they are posted. With regard to the content of posts, if you wouldn't allow a child to read what you've written, then please don't post it.
c) The moderators have been chosen carefully and will only edit/delete posts when they feel it is necessary.
d) Moderators are not obliged to inform you if your post has been edited/deleted/moved. In general, a notification will be made if it is felt to aid your experience of the forum (e.g. moving a post to a more appropriate section).
e) Posts in the main forum about moderators, or moderating decisions, will be removed without notice or discussion. Please see the note below if you have a grievance.
5. Cross Posting
a) Multiple posts with the same content in different forum sections are not allowed. The posts in all but the most relevant section will be removed by the moderators.
6. Inappropriate behaviour
The following will not be tolerated in any part of this forum:
a) Threats, including implied threats.
b) Personal insults against other forum members, in posts, private messages or in signatures.
c) Any form of bullying.
d) Petty bickering; take personal arguments elsewhere.
e) Trolling/ baiting/ flaming.
f) Racist or homophobic comments.
g) Blatant sexism.
h) Offensive language, or attempts to beat the banned words censor by using Minced Oaths or similar.
i) Blatant sexual innuendo.
j) Any other forms of Hate Speech.
k) Stalking.
l) Posting personal details of other Forum members without their permission, including, but not limited to, home address, email addresses, images.
m) Forum or thread bombing, e.g. posts with meaningless gibberish etc.
n) False representation or impersonation.
o) Altering quotes to the detriment of the original poster.
p) Attempts to criticise or belittle other MX5 Community Forums. We are a diverse community, with a common love of the car. Lets keep it that way.
q) Any attempts to promote other MX5 Forums to the detriment of the MX5OC Forum.
r) Editing/deleting your posts such to disrupt the flow of a thread.
Infringement might result in a temporary or permanent ban from the Forum or other access restrictions, at the discretion of the Moderators, with no warning.
7. Banning policy
a) Bans from the forum may be permanent or temporary (1 day to 1 month).
b) The length of the ban will be in direct relationship of the seriousness of the offence, as determined by the Administrators.
c) There is no appeal process.
8. Private Messages (PM)
a) If you send someone a private message, there is no need to announce it on the forum. If they visit the forum, they will get it.
b) Private messages are that; private messages. Do not repeat them on the forum, without the express permission of the originator. If you feel a PM violates Forum rules, please feel free to report it to one of the Admin, who will deal with it in a sensitive and confidential manner.
c) If you are sent a PM you must not publish it on this, or any other, website without the consent of the author. If the content is questionable, please contact the forum admin (same applies to emails).
d) We do not tolerate threatening or aggressive PMs. Such behaviour will result in a ban from the forum and may result in expulsion from the MX5 Owners Club.
e) Any attempt to imply a threat, through code or suchlike, to any member of the Forum via the PM, will also be treated as a serious violation of the Forum rules.
f) The administrators reserve the right to view and discuss PMs (such as in the event of a complaint, etc).
9. Images (including Avatars) and Signatures
a) The size of the images used on the forum should be relative to where they are being used. If an image is used on the forum that causes excessive scrolling then a link to the image should be used instead. Where images are deemed to be too large, the image will be replaced with a link.
b) Avatars should be no bigger than 100 pixels wide by 100 pixels high, and should be under 10Kb so that the page loads quickly for all forum users.
c) Images in signatures are discouraged as they destroy the flow when reading a topic. If you must have one, a single image only is acceptable, its width should not exceed 400 pixels and its height should not exceed 80 pixels. There is also a limit to the number of lines you may have in your signature, again to help preserve the flow when reading a series of posts, limit is 400 characters in a maximum of 4 lines. If you wish to list all your cars mods and your personal affiliations, the best place for that is in your Bio.
d) Inappropriate images may not be posted or linked to. Links to such images will be removed.
e) Text in signatures must not be larger than the default font size of the forum.
f) Signatures at all times are at the discretion of the Moderators. If a Moderator asks you to modify your signature, please take the advice in the spirit it was offered. We will generally only ask that signatures are modified if they contain material inappropriate to the forum, harmful to the MX5 community, or which spoil the viewing of threads by other users.
10. Advertising
General Sale Ads
a) Advertising is allowed by MX-5 OC Members only. These must be posted in the relevant for-sale forum.
b) Any ads posted in the wrong place will be moved without notice.
c) Any "How much do you think my car is worth" type threads will be removed unless posted by a club member.
d) Images provided or linked to the advert must be of the actual item in question. All adverts must include a price, either firm or negotiable.
e) Members should avoid placing personal contact details (email, phone number, address) within an Ad. Please take appropriate precautions if arranging to meet.
f) Ads placed by non-members as replies to Wanted ads, or to Members sale ads will be removed.
g) Similarly, ads placed in other thread by non-members (offers to sale etc) will be removed.
h) We recognise that on occasion, through the natural progression of a thread, that a member might identify that they have a particular part etc that may be of interest to the original poster. Please restrict such offers to a PM.
i) eBay: links to eBay auctions, for the purposes of providing further information, may be placed with the advertisement but the item must be fully described in the initial post. This applies to advertisements in all the MX-5 related For Sale sections. Links to eBay auctions are not permitted in the “Off Topic Sales" forum.
Wanted Ads
a) Wanted Ads can be placed by all registered users of the forum, and must be posted in the appropriate "MX-5 & Roadster Parts Wanted" forum.
Trade Advertising
a) Trade advertising by OC members is fine, and must follow the above rules.
b) Unauthorised trade advertising in posts will not be tolerated.
c) Forum users who are members of the MX-5 OC may (at the discretion of the moderators) have one line of normal text in their signature with their company name, description of service/products and/or a link to their web page. No other contact details or information is permissible. Any web sites linked to in this manner must be for MX-5 related products and/or be of interest to the readership.
d) Avatars, and images in signatures, advertising a company are not allowed.
e) Repeated placements of Trade Adverts (more than two) will result in a ban.
f) Soliciting of products using the forums PM/mailing system is also not allowed, unless information is specifically requested for by a forum user.
11. Contact Details
a) Should you wish to report any inappropriate post please use the "Report Abuse" link at the bottom of the post and a moderator will review the post and take action as appropriate.
b) If you have a serious complaint and wish to contact a Club official please contact the MX-5 Owners Club web administrators using webmods [at] mx5oc.co.uk
Please keep in mind that everybody behind the day-to-day running of the forum volunteers their free time to do so. The team will always act in good faith, and all that we ask in return is that you respect our decisions.