The DeLorean Owners Club UK Forum
Rules and guidelines on The Club, Forum and Website use - Printable Version

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Rules and guidelines on The Club, Forum and Website use - DOC (UK) Club - 13 Aug 2009

Foreword & Welcome to the DOC (UK) Forum

Use of our forums constitutes acceptance and agreement to our Forum Code of Conduct. If you violate the Code of Conduct (CoC), we reserve the right to terminate all accounts belonging to you without prior notice. We prefer to advise users of inappropriate behaviour, however, flagrant and repeated violations of our CoC will result in an immediate ban. Our failure to enforce this policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of our right to do so at any time. Please note that unless otherwise stated all contributions reflect the views of the writer and not of the club or it’s officials.

Principle Guidelines

We created the Code of Conduct to provide a basic understanding of what is allowed and not allowed in our forums. The following are the principle guidelines for the establishment and enforcement of our CoC:

• Ensure a friendly atmosphere to our visitors and forum members
• Ensure the privacy of our members and that of others
• Comply with existing laws
• Encourage responsible use of our forums and discourage activities which disrupt our community and reduce the value of our services to our visitors
• Encourage the freedom of expression and exchange of information in a mature and responsible manner

Free-Speech

While we are committed to the principles of free speech, certain activities may be damaging to the resources of both the DeLorean Owners Club (UK) and our members and cannot be permitted under the guise of free speech. The resources of the DOC (UK) are limited, and abuse of these resources by one user has a negative impact on the entire community. We may at any time limit what 'guests' can view on the forum, membership of this forum is free so please register and view the forum as a 'logged in' member.
As a member of our forum community, you must participate responsibly. If you have any questions regarding our CoC, please contact any of our forum moderators via email or Private message through the forum, not via a public posting on the forum.

Violations of the Code of Conduct

It is extremely important for you to understand that this section of our Code of Conduct isn’t designed to cover everything. We may take action — issue a warning, ban your account(s) and/or IP addresses, lower your post count, delete/edit your post(s)/thread(s), etc. — if your conduct on the DOC (UK) forum is considered inappropriate, without further recourse to individual.

Unauthorized access / Forum Security

The following actions are strictly prohibited:
• Accessing, or attempting to access, the accounts of other users
• Exploiting, or attempting to exploit, bugs, vulnerabilities, or loopholes; whether they are disclosed or undisclosed

Users are responsible for the security of their DOC (UK) forum accounts. Users may not share their passwords or transfer – via any means – their accounts to others without the express permission of the DOC (UK) Forum Management Team. In addition, users are responsible for all activity made by him/her or anyone the user allows to use his/her account.

Usernames/Avatars/Signatures

Usernames must not be in violation of this Code of Conduct. We reserve the right to terminate accounts whose associated usernames/Avatars/Signatures are in violation of this Code of Conduct, or are otherwise deemed inappropriate and/or potentially offensive. Users may be invited to register under a new name at our discretion.

Ad Hominem

Ad Hominem comments/personal attacks towards anyone – admin team, forum member, or a visitor who is likely to view it on the forums - is subject to the message being deleted and action taken against the user, regardless of how pertinent or thoughtful the rest of the message might be.

Spamming

Unless a thread or forum is designated as an area ok for spamming, you may not spam. Spam includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Excessive off-topic threads
• Posting nonsensical messages
• “Flooding” the forum with similar meaning messages
• Post-Count farming
• Inciting a forum war or riot
• Blatant advertising
• Messages without content
• Fraudulent activity (Pyramid schemes, chain letters, etc.)

Advertising/Emailing & Private messages

We want to avoid spam generated by promotion teams, public-relations campaigns or any other traffic-hungry webmasters. So please note that our forums aren’t the place to advertise your own sites, forums, sites or events with similar content to ours. However we may include a link to other websites at our discretion. If you have a link that falls in to this category then please submit this to an administrator for approval. Unlike some 'free' clubs we will not constantly 'spam' you with: pointless newsletters and emails promoting other peoples products and club events.
Please do not use the 'PM' system to 'attack' another forum user. The facility is there to 'block' forum users from contacting you should you wish to block them, please use this facility if you feel that you need to block any forumuser from contacting you.

Any visitor/member who seems to have created their account solely to promote another site will be permanently banned. Please fill in details about yourself,vehicle,location Etc so that other forum members can help you as best they can. Please introduce yourself in the correct section of the forum. Should your first posting break any of the rules in this CoC your account will be terminated and your IP address blocked. Occasional private Emails or private messages may be generated by the DOC (UK) if they are considered appropriate as a means of disseminating important information or to check that an email address associated with an account is still active. Please let us know if you do not wish to be contacted in this way and you will be ‘opted out’. However please note it is a condition of forum membership that your email address is kept up to date.

Pirated Materials & Copyright

“Piracy” is the illegal copying and/or distribution of copyrighted content including, but not limited to, games, software, music, movies and pictures.
You may not encourage, post in support of, link to, or discuss activities, methods, and/or techniques involving piracy. The information on the DOC (UK) forum is copyright to the DOC (UK) forum. Should you wish to use any of the information herein please contact the author directly for their permission. Also see the illegal use section for more clarification on copyright and the actions we now take to prevent abuse of copyright.

Forgery/Impersonation & Profanities

Attempting to impersonate any person, including moderators and admin, using forged headers, instant messenger names, similar usernames (i.e. “DoC1”, “D0C1”, “DOC1”) in an effort to deceive or mislead is prohibited. You may not use any profanity or bypass the software-based censor. In addition to words included in the censor list, sexual remarks and slang may be considered profane when used in certain contexts. Please remember children may view this forum. The list of words automatically censored by our filter is available upon request.

Harassment & Derogatory Terms

You may not use terms or audio/visual materials referring to ethnic/national origin, ideological/religious beliefs, gender, or sexual preference in a demeaning context. If you use any terms in an offensive context against a person. Race, culture, group or organisation, as determined by our moderators, you are in violation of this rule.

We have no tolerance for discrimination. We will not allow posts that discriminate, promotes hate, promotes violence or advocates hatred or discrimination against individuals, groups, races, cultures or organizations because of their ethnic/national origin, skin colour or culture. Please note that words carry different meanings in different cultures, and that while a word may be acceptable in one part of the world it may not be in another. Within the forum options there is a function for ‘ignoring’ another forum user. Please use this rather than start an on line argument. In addition, anyone can invent their own derogatory terms, unfortunately. Because of those factors, we will evaluate the context in which the term was used to determine whether a violation has occurred.

Porn/Sexually Offensive Materials & Images

You may not post or link to pornography or sexually offensive or obscene materials. If you are unsure whether what you wish to post may be in violation of this rule, please consult a moderator first before posting. Blatant violations of this rule will result in a permanent ban on your account.

Illegal Use

You may not use our forums for illegal purposes, in support of illegal activities, or encourage conduct that would constitute a criminal offence, as determined by UK law. Such activities will guarantee a ban. Should you wish to check the legality of any posting and/or the copyright laws a very good firm of copyright solicitors that we use are listed at the bottom of this posting, however you will be responsible for any fees involved not the DOC (UK). We reserve the right to co-operate with any legal authorities and/or injured third parties in any country in the investigation of any suspected crime or civil wrong doing. As part of this all IP addresses are now permanently logged as is your activity on the forum.

Privacy

• You may not post any form of real life information of a user unless the user has first permitted it by express consent. Examples of real life information include name, address, IP addresses, and phone numbers.
• You may not distribute any form of real life information, email address, private/email Messages, and Instant Messenger messages (“Chat logs”) with intent to harass or in any demeaning manner as determined by a moderator, regardless of consent.
• You may not disclose a users unpublicised email address unless the user has first permitted it, either by actual consent or previously releasing said information. Should it be suspected that you are using an 'IP' hiding site then your account will be automatically banned, Please do not use a 'IP' hiding site with out good reason, should you feel you have a valid reason then please make the board aware of this.
ANY forum user found to be using this board to 'either Email or 'PM' a registered user of this board to advertise any other UK DeLorean forum or blatantly advertise another forums products will be banned permenantly without exception. We will use discretion if it is within context and as part of helping out a forum user. However if all of your posts are just adverts we will remove them. Contribution to the forum is most welcome but not to be used as an advertising platform.

Signatures & Avatars

Avatars should be maximum 100x100 pixels. Signature blocks or text should fit within a maximum dimension of 640 pixels wide x 90 pixels high. Images and text within signatures and avatars should not contain anything considered offensive and may not be used to advertise other sites, services or products unless authorised by the DOC (UK) admin team. However links to sites that are your own or for your own benefit are allowable so long as they do not fall foul of the above rules. You must not post a direct link to any other UK DeLorean forum under any circumstances. We would prefer however that you check with the DOC (UK) admin team prior to placing any of the above within your signature.

Official Language

English is the official language of our forums because it is the common language between our moderators and users. Because we cannot moderate conversations in a foreign language, you may not hold a conversation in the forums in language other than English.
Foreign languages are allowed in forum signatures as long as

a.) It is not in violation of the Code of Conduct,
b.) not in a different character set, i.e. áíúúíá éáéä,
c.) A correct translation is either included in the signature or is in the "About Me" box of the users profile.

Email Addresses

• You may not harvest email addresses from our forums for any purpose
• You are required to keep your forum accounts email address up-to-date.

If a warning sent to the email address on record bounces, your account will be banned and you will have to contact forum admin to have your account re-instated

Moderation & Bans

• You may not evade a ban. Doing so will drastically lengthen your ban. If you believe your actions were not in violation of this Code of Conduct, you can appeal your ban by contacting forum admin.
• You may not publicly complain about or demand a reason for another users ban, the deletion of a message, or the deletion/closure of a thread. Any discussion about warnings, bans, message deletion, thread deletion and thread closure should be done over private email between the person concerned and the moderators
• You may not re-edit a message that has been edited by a moderator
• You may not post a message on behalf of a banned user.

Miscellaneous

• Do not post negative posts and discussions that are repeated over and over and over with no other purpose than to disrupt conversation. If you feel the need to say something, say it once and then move on. Do not disrupt multiple threads in order to get your view out.
• You may not bait users. Baiting is defined as posting with a clear intent to provoke anger, incendiary posts, and behaviour that result in other users violating the CoC.
• You may not abuse your ability to post in HTML in HTML-enabled forums
• You may not post graphically disturbing images as inline images (such that the images are displayed when users view your post). However, you can link to the images with a warning stating that the images are graphically disturbing
• You may not post in a manner that is harmful to the DOC (UK) or it’s members.
• You may not register multiple accounts with intent to violate any part of this CoC.
• You may not link to the forum logout page, disguised or not.
Should you wish to be kept up to date with changes to this CoC then please let us know. As it seems to be that this page gets more views then any other! Why do you keep checking Mike? (and also saves you having to keep saving a screen shot of it) The rules do change as per the notice below, this has been clearly on display since this CoC was posted.

Remember the content of this forum (both words and images) are copyright © DeLorean Owners Club (UK) http://www.waterfrontsolicitors.com/ However note that unless otherwise stated all contributions reflect the views of the writer and not of the club or it’s officials.


Rules and guidelines may (and do) change at any time. Please re-read them regularly.