Rules of The Forum

[The_Hawk]

We are a community and communities should look after each other's welfare. Rules are made to protect the sensible majority from the irresponsible minority. As owners of fine European cars, we have already shown that we are sensible. As members of this forum we have also demonstrated that we want to communicate with others who have similar interests so let's keep our communication socially responsible.

Always remember that the internet is a huge open forum. Anybody can visit this site and view its contents, good or not so good. As Audi VW watercooled owners let's show the world that we know how to interact and support our common interest.

Meet your Moderator and Admin Team:
Administrators:
The_Hawk - Aaron

Super Mods:
AdamD - Adam
evorobin - Robin
gldgti - Aydan
h100vw - Gavin
JustCruisn - Chris
OEM G60 - Matt
Peter Jones - Pete
tigger73 - Damien
Transporter - Miro
Treza360 - Trent

Do talk to the admins and moderators if you have a question. We are here not just to be forum janitors but to also assist you. We like it when you ask before doing something if you are unsure.

Terms of Service
The providers ("we", "us", "our") of the service provided by this web site ("Service") are not responsible for any user-generated content and accounts ("Content"). Content submitted express the views of their author only.

You agree to not use the Service to submit or link to any Content which is defamatory, abusive, hateful, threatening, spam or spam-like, likely to offend, contains adult or objectionable content, contains personal information of others, risks copyright infringement, encourages unlawful activity, or otherwise violates any laws. This includes a provision not to use VWWatercooled to solicit, access, generate, distribute or store class 1A/1B/1C/2A material as defined by the eSafety Commissioner.

All Content you submit or upload may be reviewed by the the moderators or admin. All Content you submit or upload may be sent to third-party verification services (including, but not limited to, spam prevention services). Do not submit any Content that you consider to be private or confidential.

We reserve the rights to remove or modify any Content submitted for any reason without explanation. Requests for Content to be removed or modified will be undertaken only at our discretion. We reserve the right to take action against any account with the Service at any time.

You are granting us with a non-exclusive, permanent, irrevocable, unlimited license to use, publish, or re-publish your Content in connection with the Service. You retain copyright over the Content.

These terms may be changed at any time without notice.

[The_Hawk]

General Rules
These rules Will be upheld by the Moderators and the Admin Team. If any member sees anything that they have a concern with please use the "report post" function in the top right of the post (red and white triangle) to bring it to the attention of the moderators. Reporting problem posts is a great way you can contribute to keeping the community running smoothly.


Membership
We welcome all people to join VWWatercooled however membership to is a privilege, not a right. If you continue to break the rules or it is considered that you are not conducting yourself in a way which is within the spirit of the community you may be asked to leave.


New Users
To help combat spam users located outside Australia (and a few other select regions) require a manual approval by one of the Administration team before their account becomes active. All new signups within Australia will pass through the automated system without issue.

Now, welcome aboard! You will notice you can only view the "First Stop" section of the board. Head over to the Newbies Corner and introduce yourself. This section has been specially created as a friendly place for new users to introduce themselves and their rides. Let us know who you are, what you drive, where you come from and ask us what you want to know.

The Newbies corner is not intended for asking technical questions, merely for you to introduce yourself to this community. Once you have posted the first post, feel free to goto the relevant section and search for info, or ask questions.

To post for sales in the classifieds sections users must have been a member for more than 90 days and have more than 10 posts. (Note that posts in the general chat section do not count towards your total).
Note: You can post "wanted to buy" threads at any time.


Read and Search Before Posting
Search the forums before you post about something unless you're certain it hasn't been posted before. If a thread already exists about something you want to talk about - add to it instead of starting your own.

Read all the posts in a thread before replying. Everyone hates it when you ask a question that's already been answered.


Private Information
When sharing information, remember that this is a public forum and consider protecting your privacy. Do not post personal phone numbers or addresses in the open forums, this is the internet and it is accessible to anyone who wants to view it. Please keep your personal details private as we cannot be responsible for any actions resulting from members posting personal details.


Language
In any location on this forum foul/offensive language will be deleted or edited. We have censors on some words but we'd like to keep it clean please! Creative spelling to get around being censored is not allowed.

Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is members should refrain from using excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, excessive SMS or MSN abbreviations etc. Similarly members should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Members consistently abusing this will be warned.


Personal Attacks
Do not abuse or 'flame' other members, websites or businesses. If you disagree with a member, find a civil way to communicate that. Any personal arguments must be kept off the boards (eg, via email or PM). Name calling or rudeness is not okay. Any form of defamation or abuse will be deleted and the user receiving an infraction. Continuance will result in the user being banned.

If you have been offended by a member, we encourage you to contact them to clarify what they meant. Many online disagreements are caused by misunderstandings, and can be avoided when members contact one another to clarify (via PM or email).


Vendor Verdicts / Feedback / Reviews
We encourage customers to provide honest feedback about the products they have purchased or the services they have received. Positive feedback is preferred however, negative feedback is generally not deleted. In either case members should provide an appropriate level of detail including approximate date and value of the service and web links to the product/service being reviewed wherever possible. Photos are very strongly encouraged.
When it comes to disputes, these should be settled in private and the moderation team may close and/or delete any thread that is deemed to run too far off the rails or turns into a shouting contest. The original poster or the supplier in question may request a thread to be re-opened in order to provide any final outcomes subject to discretion of the moderation team.
Forum members who post negative comments about companies for which they are not a customer, do not own the product, or have any first hand experience with will be deleted as they deemed to be inciting arguments.
If you are concerned about the content of a post, please use the report post button or the contact us function (including a link to the thread in question) and it will be reviewed by the admin team.


Baiting
Do not stir or bait other members by posting controversial material with the intent of upsetting and/or offending them. Do not publicly judge or criticize other member's choices. We will have no hesitation removing troublemakers if it means our members will continue to have a supportive, non-threatening place to chat.


Commercially Sensitive Information and Discussing Illegal Activities
Including commercial in confidence information, street racing and the use of copyright protected information including software.
Users who are found to be irresponsibly posting such information will be reprimanded for their actions as this site has a zero tolerance stance on this issue. These actions have the potential to have a disastrous effect on both the forum and in serious circumstances may result in legal action against those who are found to be posting such privileged information.
It is the directive of the administration that we will work cooperatively with the legitimate owners of such information to resolve these situations in a timely fashion with the intent to protect the interests of the majority of our forums members by adhering to their request.
Please continue to be conscious of your posts and their content and the implications they may have on the site. If you see something that you consider to be out of order please alert the respective moderator of that section and they will asess the situation and escalate if necessary.


Off Topic Chat
Any chat that detracts from the origin and intent of the thread will be discouraged by the moderator turning the thread back on track. If the moderator deems it necessary the off-topic posts of chat will be deleted.

Meaningless posts to artificially inflate your post count (post-whoring) without also contributing meaningful content will not be tolerated, the posts may be merged or deleted.


Images
Images of non watercooled VW's and other makes will be tolerated to a point as long as the images are within the context of the original thread. Outside of this the image(s) will be deleted.

All images should be hosted through Photobucket or similar hosting service and should be resized to no larger than 800x600.
Signature images should be no larger than 500x100.
Avatar images should be no larger than 80x80 or 19.5 KB (whichever is smaller).


Discussion of Non Watercooled VW's and other makes
Along the same lines as images, discussion of non watercooled VW's and other makes will be tolerated to a point as long as the discussion is within the context of the original thread or the discussion refers to comparisons of; or is in relation to watercooled VW's. Outside of this posts or threads will be edited or deleted.


Discussion of other Forums/Facebook Groups/Communities
Discussion of other community groups will be tolerated to a point. Linking to discussions within other communities in order to answer a question (eg providing a link to a DIY walkthrough) is acceptable, where practical (ie short posts) you should quote the relevant text when providing a link.
Posting links for the sole purpose of encouraging people to join an alternative community will not be accepted, posts or threads will be edited or deleted as needed. Users who continue to post links may be banned.

The only exception to this rule is invitations to events in the Das Social Club (Meets and Events).


Spam
Spamming by any member will not be tolerated. Any new member who post spam will get an automatic permanent ban.


Advertising and Selling
The classifieds sections are designed for occasional use by private individuals.

Posts by new members who have joined to simply to post an advert will be immediately deleted. We frown upon people that just join to use us as a selling tool. The classifieds is here for our community not a free ride. Take the time to introduce yourself, share a bit of your history and how you came to the place.

Members considered to be abusing the classified section may have their posts removed.

Posts that are clearly commercial in nature will be deleted unless posted by a paid sponsor who has agreed to the terms and conditions (This includes links within your signature).

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please read here, then contact one of the Admin Team.
Full rules for advertising located HERE.

[The_Hawk]

General Chat
General Chat is exactly that and will be less strictly monitored.
This forum is intended as an information source so please make an effort to post your threads in the appropriate section and not everything in general chat.
All threads in the General Chat Forum will be purged after one month lying dormant.

In all other sections posts may be edited to remove any irrelevant comments. This preserves the integrity of our archive and makes the search function more effective.


Moderators and Admin
The Moderators will be responsible for enforcing these rules, any complaints about the handling of any issue should be addressed to the admin staff, in all cases the Admin teams decisions are final.
In cases of minor departure from the rules moderators may simply edit or delete posts. In more serious or repeated departures moderators may issue infractions to the user(s) involved.

Do not debate moderator decisions on the forums. There is to be no online defamation, complaining or arguments in regards to a decision made by the moderation team. If you have any issues with a decision you may refer it to a member of the admin team for resolution. All contact must be via email or PM.


Banning
In circumstances where a serious breach or breaches of these rules occur only a member of the Admin Team will have the authority to ban a user, however this does not include automatic bans that may be incurred through the infraction system.
Users caught creating or using multiple accounts to get around any bans handed down may have their account suspended indefinitely, any additional user accounts will be permanently locked and/or deleted.


Infractions
Infractions may be given to users who break the rules. Each infraction is worth a number of points as follows:

Spammed Advertisements - 1 Point
Signature Rule Violation - 1 Point
Excessive Pointless Posts - 2 Point
Excessive Language - 1 Point
Forum Rule Violation - 2 Points
Openly question moderator or admin decisions - 3 Points (take it to PM or send it to one the Admin team if you have an issue).
Antagonising / Unnecessarily argumentative / Provoking Unrest – 3 Points
Insulted Other Member(s) (Minor) – 5 Points
Insult/Attack Other Member(s) - 10 Points

Each infraction will expire after a period of time, however if you reach any of the following milestones you will earn yourself an automatic ban.


7 Infraction points = banned for 24 hours
12 Infraction points = banned for 7 days
24 Infraction points = banned for 1 month
30 Infraction points = banned for 3 months
45 Infraction points = banned for 6 months


Stickers
Where can I get one? Check out the VWWatercooled Stickers & Flyers thread for full details.


Deletion of Membership
When you post on VWWatercooled, the information you post becomes public knowledge and part of the VWWatercooled.org.au forums. If members wish to be removed, then we will deactivate their account, change the username to retired (or similar) and delete all profile information. NOTE: Your posts will remain on the board, in order to maintain consistency of threads for other users. Only post what you don't mind anyone else reading.

We will consider special cases, however you must be willing to fully explain your situation and the final decision lies with VWWatercooled administrators.

Any membership/fees/sponsorship paid during your time at VWWatercooled will not be refunded, either in part or in full. The hard work has already been done in setting up email accounts, access privileges etc. As well as the members having full benefits of those forums/advertising links during their time at VWWatercooled. This also includes if you have access to closed groups removed due to a guideline breech as mentioned in the Privacy Guidelines.