Guidelines

The Guidelines and Rules detailed here are considered a living document as it may change from time to time without notice or announcement.
 

Summary: If you aren't going to read everything, make sure you read this!
1) Think before you post! Make sure it is where it should be (read the forum descriptions). 2) Follow the Golden Rule and treat each other with respect. Manage those two things and you should be good to go for the most part, but don't be offended if a Moderator quotes a passage below to you wink.gif

 


Membership Types:

 

  • Administration - Also known as BOD, which is elected by the Membership, as well as persons the BOD appoints as Administrators. Headed by the President. Administrators are responsible for the overall management of the Club and determining the Policies set forth for its Members.
  • Moderators - Volunteers from the Regular Members who donate their time managing the day to day tasks of the Forum, keeping discussions on topic, and otherwise keeping things organized on the Forum.
  • Regular Members - Our general membership population receiving full benefits of the club and able to vote in the periodic election of our Administration.
  • New Members - New Members have some restrictions and lower allotment of resources but otherwise enjoy the same benefits of Regular Members. New Members may not vote in the election of Administrators.
  • Guests / Validating Members - Visitors who have not yet registered, or who have not completed the validation procedure (responding to the email instructions send when registering). This group can not post and may not see all of the sections available to registered Members but can read most discussions.


Policies for Regular Members:

 

  • Appropriate Posting Placement - All Members will be expected to start topics in the appropriate section. For the most part, this means reading and understanding the forum descriptions and showing good judgment and choosing the section that represents the best fit for the content of your topic. Any topic that is not specifically smart car related probably belongs in the Community Chatter section. Any topic that is predictably controversial and is not smart related belongs in the Political Discussions sub-section of the Community Chatter forum. Moderators will move posts that are placed in the wrong area and, at the Moderator’s discretion, this can be grounds for a warning if a Member consistently places their topics in the wrong section after being appropriately informed.
  • Appropriate Posting Language/Content - In general, swearing and vulgarity will not be allowed in the public forums. We’re not going to be ultrastrict on this, but common sense should apply. Topics that encourage this kind of language must be put inside the “After Hours” section of the Community Chatter forum. The same goes for topics of sexuality or any other content that could be deemed “mature audiences only”. Racist or other hate-related topics and discussions will not be allowed anywhere in our community. Breaking these rules can range anywhere from Moderator warning to an Administrative ban depending on the severity.
  • Appropriate Posting Behaviour – Member to Member respect... While it is rather subjective as to what constitutes disrespect, Members may not display disrespect toward one another. This doesn’t mean people can’t argue or disagree – its about how something is said more than what is said. If you can’t reply in a respectful manner, then don't respond at all. The forum has an Ignore feature allowing you to completely ignore another Member and we suggest you use it if you can't control yourself otherwise. Breaking these rules can range anywhere from Moderator warning to an Administrative Ban depending on the severity.
  • Appropriate Use of Quotes in Posts - When utilizing quotes in a post, here are three elements that should be considered:
    • Members should rarely quote the post directly above theirs. People have just read it and it will be assumed they are responding to it. The exception being if they posted a long passage and the Member is replying to only part of it.
    • Members should quote posts not directly above theirs for clarity, unless it is otherwise obvious what the reply is in regards to.
    • In almost no circumstances should the entire post be quoted. The quoted passage should be edited to show only the pertinent points that the Member is actually responding to. One simply removes non-pertinent text between the [ quote ][/ quote ] tags.
  • Images in Posts - The limitations for posting on CsC are quite generous to allow for highly detailed pictures or large documents that are sometimes useful to our Members, however that leaves a lot of room for inappropriately sized photos that are simply wasteful. In general, no photo posted should ever be larger than around 75kb in file size or around 600 pixels wide. Many photos coming out of a modern digital camera are up to 100x that! All photos should be reduced, cropped, and resized as necessary to make it as small as possible while still maintaining reasonable quality. There are many tools available online to help you with this. This club is owned by all of us and it is important we all do our part to reduce the expenses or operating it. One over-sized picture posted in a popular thread can cost us over $10 per month in bandwidth charges!
  • Duplicate Posting - Duplicate current posts are not allowed. “Current” is a key criteria here. In general, it is not necessary for a Member to dig up some old topic just to continue it rather than starting a new one (there are exceptions). However, there is never any reason for the same topics being discussed at the same time in different places. Some Members feel it important that they start topics in different areas to “alert” everyone but this is expressly not allowed. If the information really is critical enough and of interest to everyone, it is possible for the Administration to announce it via mass pm/email but this will be in extremely rare circumstances. Offenders will be warned by the Moderator(s) of the section(s) that the duplicates were made.
  • “Bumping” - Despite there being a “bump” emoticon, in general bumping will not be allowed on our forum. Bumping is when a Member posts a useless reply (usually with the word “bump” or “Well?” or “Anyone?”) with the sole purpose of bringing the topic to the top of the discussion list thereby drawing attention to it. The presumption will be that if a topic falls down the discussion list, that it either held no interest to the community, it was poorly written or titled, or was in the wrong area – in all cases, its in nobody’s interest but the author’s to bring it back to the top and it should not be allowed. There are exceptions (eg. Topics that have periodic interest but nothing in between) but even then the poster should be able to find something more contributory than “bump”. At the Moderator’s discretion, this can be grounds for a warning.
  • Baiting, Trolling and Antagonizing - Call it whatever you want, but posts deliberately intended to antagonize another Member will not be tolerated. This can be explicit insults and it can also be carefully crafted passages that deliberately do NOT insult but where the intent is clear. It can also include single word or emoticon posts that serve no other purpose then to antagonize the poster. Such posts can be “sigh” or a rolling of the eyes, or a laugh... anything where the Member is not contributing to the discussion, but rather trying to bait, insult, ridicule, or otherwise antagonize another Member. At the Moderator’s discretion, this can be grounds for a warning.
  • Hijacking and Bullying - Hijacking a thread is when a Member posts in someone else’s topic with the intent of moving the discussion away from its intended subject. In terms of Self Promotion and Classified type forums, it is also when a Member (vendor or otherwise) posts with a different “deal” than the one the original author placed. To some degree, hijacking occurs naturally and where nobody is offended by it we can let it slide. In other cases, it is with mal-intent and can not be allowed. Topic hijackers will be warned by the Moderator.
  • Topic Titles - Topic titles should always be indicative of the content inside. “Look what happened” or “Guess what I saw” or similar titles are not allowed. If you can’t more-or-less tell what’s inside by reading the title, then the title must be changed. At the Moderator’s discretion, this can be grounds for a warning.
  • External Links - In general, external links are fine. However, the following will not be allowed: 1) Link-only posts (posts that contain nothing other than a link) should not occur except when in direct response to a question where someone asked for such a link. Link-only posts will never be allowed as the first post in a topic. The thread starter should always provide some reasonable commentary as to what the person will find when following that link, or quote a partial passage from the resulting link when appropriate. 2) Links to other forums or smart sites will be allowed so long as they are not presented in a way deliberately intended to drive our Members from our site to competing communities. In short – if it is helpful to our Members, then it is allowed. If it is helpful only to the person posting it – then its not. At the Moderator’s discretion, this can be grounds for a warning or banned at the Administrator’s discretion if it is simply spam.

Policies for New Members:

 

 

  • All Policies for Regular Members above also apply to New Members.
  • Forum Restrictions - New Members can not see the contents of the “Restricted” sections of Community Chatter (an “After Hours” section for risqué themes or language and a “Political Discussions” for other
    controversial non-smart topics).
  • Requirements for Becoming a Regular Member - New Members must:
    1. Post in the Introductions thread (appropriately).
    2. Have a minimum of 3 quality contributions (new posts, or replies to a section other than community chatter that do not go against any of our rules)
    3. Edit their profile and at least put in their location in the form of city, prov/state (or country)
    4. Ask an appropriate person (Moderator or Administrator) by private message to be upgraded. While Moderators can not upgrade Members directly, they can forward the request to the Administration.


The Warning System:

 

 

The forum has a built-in Warning system. Each Member has a warning rating that starts at zero percent and goes to 100%. Moderators can warn Members within the sections they control. Global Moderators and Administrators can warn any Member regardless of where the infraction occurred. No Member can see your rating other than you (and the Moderator/Admin).

 

 

A Member's Warning level does

 

not
have to reach 100% for action to be taken! Suspensions and Banning can happen independently of the Warning level depending on the circumstances and/or how long the Member has been with the Club.

 

Members who have been warned are more than welcome to present any concerns they have to the Administration, who can reduce the Warning level at their discretion.

 

 

99% of our Members will never have any experience at all with the Warning system!

wink.gif

 

But don't be bothered too much if you do get a warning for something minor. It is simply a system that allows us to fairly and evenly apply enforcement to the rules. Simple mistakes, honest ignorance, etc can lead to rule violation and that's understood. The warnings are just there to keep you on track. So don't think of a Warning is "punishment"... if it leads to a suspension or banning, that's when you can consider it punishment.



Commercial Content:

  • Except where otherwise noted below, any member or business, large or small, advertising or selling any items of their own or someone else's must post their ads in the Self Promotions section.
  • Dealers selling smart cars must post their ads in the Dealer Showroom section.
  • Individuals selling private goods must post their ads in the Member Classified section.
  • A link to your business and a tasteful, non-obtrusive advertisement may go in your signature. Appropriateness is determined at the Administration's discretion. Non-contributing posts that are deemed placed solely for the purpose of getting your signature onto people's screen will be treated as spam and may be grounds for suspension or banning.
  • If a discussion relating to your product or type of product, started by another member, is occurring and you can provide information useful to the discussion that includes a mention of your product and/or a link to your website then it will be permitted. An obvious example is a member posting, "where can I buy XYZ?", but a general discussion related to your product may be ok. Suitability is subject to the Moderator or Administrator interpretation. Such posts are not permitted in any of the Market Place sections started by another author as they will be deemed as hijacking.


Thank you VERY MUCH for taking the time to read these rules and guidelines. If you have any questions, comments or concerns about them please feel free to make a post in Site Feedback and it will be addressed.