User Guidelines as of June 11th, 2010

User guidelines for participation here at AutoBody101.com

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Site Admin
Posts: 3451
Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2003 3:02 am
Location: New York
Country:
USA
PostPosted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 10:48 am
The goal of AutoBody101.com is to provide a friendly atmosphere for the free exchange of auto body related information. Every member here, from the person that registered today to the person who has been here for years should feel 100% comfortable in either asking a question or giving advice.

The clock starts on Friday, June 11th, 2010, as this site is under new management. You may see offending content on this site that is older; we are not going through 7 years of prior posts to try to force adhesion to these terms. If I see something in older topics that is an obvious/blatant violation (e.g. spam, or outright advertising), I may remove it at my descretion.

The rules here are not complicated. They are not unreasonable. They do not impede discussion, they are designed to help encourage discussion.

Please understand ahead of time that any violation of the rules may result in your post being removed, and a warning placed against your account.

If you see a post here that is in violation of the following guidelines, please use the "report this post" link that can be found within each post. Do not respond to the offending post in any manner. Your reporting of a violating post is kept confidential.

Participation in the AutoBody101.com website constitutes agreement to the following:

1. Respect is the name of the game. You must respect your fellow members. Please refrain from inflammatory and defamatory comments as well as flaming, taunting and general disrespect. Do not simply put down the opinion or advice given by others. If you don't agree with it, say why - respectfully. We all have different opinions and different backgrounds, and none of us (including me and you!) are perfect.

2. As moderators are held to a higher standard than regular members, by the same token any personal attacks on moderators in the course of upholding these rules (either publically or via the private messaging system) will not be tolerated and may result in the immediate termination of your account. We are all human here...and will make mistakes...if you disagree with an action taken by a moderator or the site administrator (me!), please contact me directly via private message. I believe you will find me to be approachable and reasonable; that's what I strive for.

3. Vulgar language and inappropriate material is not allowed and will be removed. Everyone has their own idea of what is vulgar and what is not. I have a pretty conservative upbringing, so don't expect to push the envelope on this point.

4. Advertisements within posts are not allowed. You may reference a link to a product, service or other website that has information related to the topic -- but obvious attempts to drive traffic to a website you are affliated with are not allowed.

5. Links within signatures are allowed, under very specific circumstances. For example, if you are a professional and you wish to include a link to your website, you may do so. However it is required that you also include a link to AutoBody101.com on your website, as a "link exchange". You don't have to feature the link...just put it somewhere on your site (e.g. on a 'links' page). Signature links for the purpose of advertising a site that sells products, or competes with AutoBody101.com are not allowed.

6. Write in English, try to use at least a minimum of spelling accuracy and grammar -- and DO NOT POST IN ALL CAPITALS (see, you thought I was yelling didn't you?)

7. Do not post copyrighted materials (articles, videos, audio, etc.) that you do not have permission to reproduce or distribute. For text articles, most of the time you may quote a small portion of the article (usually no more than 1/5 or 1/6) and you must link to the source (if online) or provide the source (if offline). Posting the entire article, even with the source, constitutes copyright infringement.

8. When linking to images, videos, files, etc., please refrain from linking to other files you do not own (hot linking). For example, if you find an interesting photograph do not link directly to the image file -- instead provide a link to the overall page where the image is located. You may link to files held within storage services for photos (like photobucket, for example). If you own the photo, please consider uploading it here via the "attachment" feature available beneath each post. Over time, external links may change or disappear -- it is always better to store a copy of the photo here so your post remains as you intended it.

9. Each user is allowed to create one account. If you would like to change your username, please contact us and we will see if we can make the change for you.

10. Content published here is granted to us with perpetual electronic publishing rights. Any copying of content from this website to another website is not allowed, and will be pursued to the extent allowed by law.

11. Once you post something here you have 48 hours to edit or delete what you have posted. After that, if you wish to have something changed you will need to contact a moderator or the site admin for help.

12. Cross posting the same topic to multiple forums is not allowed and will result in the removal of one or more posts. Excessive "bumping" of topics is not allowed.

Any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me via private message.

Thank you for visiting AutoBody101.com

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