Guest access and forum rules

We are an easy going bunch and we are here to promote the sport, rules are only put in place as a safe guard and we hope we never have to enforce them. .

As of the 06/01/08 we're implementing written rules on OzBMXcentral. It is needed so that we have something in writing that we can refer people back to instead of trying to make up rules as we go, so to speak. Hopefully this, combined with the implementation of another proposed system, we should see a good reduction in some of the garbage that flys around other forums at the moment. Conversely we have to watch that we don't become so strict that it becomes less fun for everyone involved. So we'll have to tinker a bit I imagine to hit the sweet spot some time.

THIS THREAD WILL BE LEFT OPEN FOR CLARIFICATION QUESTIONS WHICH ARE ONLY TO BE ANSWERED BY MODERATORS OR ADMINISTRATORS.
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The Basics

You agree, through your use of this forum, that you will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law. You also agree not to post any copyrighted material unless you own the copyright or you have written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also forbidden on this forum.

Note that it is impossible for the staff or the owners of this forum to confirm the validity of posts. Please remember that we do not actively monitor the posted messages, and as such, are not responsible for the content contained within. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented. The posted messages express the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of this forum, its staff, its subsidiaries, or this forum's owner. Anyone who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to notify an administrator or moderator of this forum immediately. The staff and the owner of this forum reserve the right to remove objectionable content, within a reasonable time frame, if they determine that removal is necessary. This is a manual process, however, please realize that they may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately. This policy applies to member profile information as well.

You remain solely responsible for the content of your posted messages. Furthermore, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of this forum, any related websites to this forum, its staff, and its subsidiaries. The owners of this forum also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by your use of this forum.

You have the ability, as you register, to choose your username. We advise that you keep the name appropriate. With this user account you are about to register, you agree to never give your password out to another person except an administrator, for your protection and for validity reasons. You also agree to NEVER use another person's account for any reason. We also HIGHLY recommend you use a complex and unique password for your account, to prevent account theft.

After you register and login to this forum, you will be able to fill out a detailed profile. It is your responsibility to present clean and accurate information. Any information the forum owner or staff determines to be inaccurate or vulgar in nature will be removed, with or without prior notice. Appropriate sanctions may be applicable.

Please note that with each post, your IP address is recorded, in the event that you need to be banned from this forum or your ISP contacted. This will only happen in the event of a major violation of this agreement.

Also note that the software places a cookie, a text file containing bits of information (such as your username and password), in your browser's cache. This is ONLY used to keep you logged in/out. The software does not collect or send any other form of information to your computer.

We are an easy going bunch and we are here to promote the sport, rules are only put in place as a safe guard and we hope we never have to enforce them.

The following are the full rules for this forum:

1.0.0 General posting guidelines
•   1.1.0 Keep it on topic, If you can't contribute to the topic at hand please don't post. Threads that get out of hand are usually moved to the off-topic area and offenders may receive warnings as admin/moderators see fit. Occasionally they are deleted completely.
•   1.2.0 Before starting a new topic do a search where necessary to see if its been covered before. You may receive warnings if you don't search.
•   1.3.0 don't write in leet speak or SMS style. We don't charge by the letter and there is a great big monitor to read full words. This can be very annoying to try and decipher and you will receive warnings where admins/mods see fit. lnk cr b82rez 2g4 "Me was tryin' to save time."
•   1.4.0 TYPING ALL IN CAPITALS IS REALLY REALLY ANNOYING SO PLEASE don't DO IT.
•   1.5.0 Please read your post before you hit the button. Check your spelling, you will be visited by the spelling fairy (pictured below) if you repeatedly ignore requests to fix your spelling. Occasional slip ups are fine, we're not perfect, but at least try and make it look like you passed English. Please try to use punctuation. Even if you don't know exactly how to do it perfectly, try to break up your posts. Its very hard to read one long sentence that spans several lines. Repeat offenders may be warned.

•   1.6.0 Check the date if you've searched for a thread and want to reply. Often people dig up threads from many months ago and this is frowned upon. If you feel the thread has life left in it, perhaps think about starting a new one.
•   1.7.0 IF YOUR THREAD GETS CLOSED OR DELETED, DO NOT start another one unless an admin/mod has said so. It got locked/deleted for a reason.
2.0.0 General Conduct
•   2.1.0 Debates are good, arguments are not. Admins and mods will take action if they feel its getting heated. This could be as simple as asking people to stop, locking the thread and in severe cases giving people "time outs" (suspensions).
•   2.2.0 Research your idea/conversion/problem first. Its quite possible its been covered before either on OzBMXcentral or somewhere else on the web.
•   2.3.0 Racist, sexist or other offensive posts wont be tolerated. You may be banned outright.
•   2.4.0 If someone is abusing or harassing you contact an administrator and they will investigate. Give as much detail as possible.
•   2.5.0 Please don't start a conversation in open forum threads. We have a PM system which enables you to send your message to multiple people (there is a limit to prevent spamming). Use the PM system for these conversations.
•   2.6.0 We have ZERO tolerance for SPAMMING (unsolicited advertisements). You will be banned immediately without warning.
•   2.7.0 If someone is abusing personal messages please forward the message to an administrator with a brief explanation.
•   2.8.0 Multiple User accounts will not be tolerated, you may only create one account from one IP address, if you require 2 accounts for whatever reason, pm one of the admin.
3.0.0 Admins, Moderators, associated services and actions
•   3.1.0 Administrators and Moderators are here to keep the site running smoothly. They donate their time and effort so you may enjoy the forums. They do NOT owe you ANYTHING!
•   3.2.0 They may delete, edit, move, close any post or topic they see fit.
•   3.3.0 Questioning or abusing moderators and administrators about their actions will not be tolerated. While sometimes effort is taken to explain their actions this is not always the case and often takes up a lot of time. They don't owe you an explanation for every action they take. If you're friendly about it you might receive a reply. If you're nasty or do it in a negative tone they will warn you for it.
•   3.4.0 IF you have a dispute/complaint, take it up with an Administrator.
•   3.5.0 Admins and moderators scrutinize each others work, they don't need you to keep a watchful eye. Every action is logged anyway so leave them do their work.
•   3.6.0 Use of the "Report post" button for anything other than reporting a post which breaches the rules will result in a warning being added. We don't like receiving your personal messages to the moderating team.
•   3.7.0 don't add moderators or admins to your MSN or other instant messaging list unless you've asked them in a PM first.
•   3.8.0 If you've been banned, don't complain. We give you plenty of chances to do the right thing.
•   3.9.0 Failing to comply with administrators or moderators requests may get you banned.
•   3.10.0 Arguing with an admin or moderator is also a good way to get yourself banned.
•   3.11.0Avoiding a ban will result in a re-ban
4.0.0 Avatars and Signatures
•   4.1.0 Please keep them clean. Some people like to browse OzBMXcentral at work and having obscene avatars or signatures makes this difficult.
•   4.2.0 Keep your signatures nice and trim, there's nothing worse than having signatures filling the screen. As a good guide keep them under 10 lines and images under 150 pixels, but don't have 10 lines and 150 pixels.
•   4.3.0 No commercial advertising unless you have prior approval from Administrators. Please contact OzBMXcentral for more information
•   4.4.0 You may link to your personal website however admins may remove it if they deem it to be unsuitable.
5.0.0 For Sale Areas
•   5.1.0 Please provide your location. This is an international forum and we can't guess where you are from. Make sure you specify where you are or where the item(s) are located. Items without a location specified may be deleted without notice.
•   5.2.0 Please provide a statement of the condition of the item(s).
•   5.3.0 Make sure you specify a price! We want to know how much you want for the item (or how much you want to pay)
•   5.4.0 No auctions! This isn't eBay.
•   5.5.0 Submit pictures of the item for sale if possible.
•   5.6.0 Sales are for personal items only, commercial sales must have the PRE APPROVAL of the administrators. Please contact OzBMXcentral for more information. Unapproved commercial sales or suspected commercial sales will be deleted and the user warned for each offense.
•   5.7.0 When someone asks for EOI, YOU make the offer. EOI stands for "Expressions of Interest". Do not ask for a price in an EOI thread, or you will be laughed at.
•   5.8.0 You are not allowed to "bump" (reply) or revise your item more than 2 times in any week or your item(s) will be removed. Excess "bumping" is unnecessary and very annoying. No bumps are allowed within the first 5 days of posting your item.
•   5.9.0 don't hijack other peoples for sale or wanted to buy threads. If you've got something for sale, start your own thread. If something is offered to someone in a wanted to buy thread the original poster gets first preference. Admins and moderators will warn people for this as its in unacceptable. Repeat offenders will be banned.
•   5.10.0 The Market Place section is not for Auctioning items, Please post your sales price up front either as a final price or EOI (Expression Of Interest). Failure to do so will result in your post being deleted.
•   5.11.0 DO NOT POST UNLESS you are actually interested in buying what the seller is offering. Posts like "Nice car good luck" are rubbish. Your post may be deleted and you may be warned.
•   5.12.0 For Sale, WTB, EOI etc threads are to be ONLY posted in the For Sale area. Please don't post them in the Region forums.
•   5.13.0 eBay Items are to be only posted in the eBay area found under "Off topic". Posting them in the for sale area will result in a warning.
•   5.14.0 OzBMXcentral Administration is not and WILL NOT be held liable for shonky traders, we only provide the service. By using this service, you just agreed to this statement. If the situation should arise, we will assist you 100% with any forensic evidence we can gather to help the police track an offender down. Please advise us immediately if you suspect you have been scammed so that we can take action as soon as possible.
6.0.0 Copy Rights on post content and photo's
• 6.1.0 All content in a members post remains that members property and may not be copied in full or part and used by anyone else on any other web site or form of media without the written permission of the original poster. You may however post a link back to the original post on this on another site.
• 6.2.0 All photo's posted on this site remain the property of the member posting that photo or photo's and may not be copied in full or part and used by anyone else on any other web site or form of media without the written permission of the original poster. You may however post a link back to the original post on this on another site.

These are the rules. They're not hard to follow. Admins and Moderators will be reasonable, but remember that its a PRIVILEGE NOT A RIGHT to post on OzBMXcentral. By making any posts you agree that you have read and understand these rules. Ignorance will not be accepted as an excuse. These rules may change without notice.

Updated 11/2/2010