The Midas Forum Guidelines

Please read about the Midas Forum guidelines here

Moderator: The Midas Forum Staff

The Midas Forum Guidelines

Postby manifold » Tue Dec 02, 2008 9:20 pm

The Midas Forum Guidelines

To enhance the quality of the discussion on The Midas Forum, we ask that you abide by the guidelines outlined in this document when posting messages.

Violation of these guidelines will result in a warning being issued, further or more extreme violations will result in either a permanent or temporary ban. The action that is taken will depend on the severity of the violation.

The Midas Forum is intended for users of all ages, so we ask that persons of a younger age should be taken into consideration when posting content onto the public forums. Therefore it is asked that members use common sense when posting messages.

Warning System

All The Midas Forum users have a personal warning bar under their avatar. Moderators and Administrators are able to warn members who break the rules and issue the penalty associated with that rule.

The penalties are as follows:

Warning Level 1 (min) - PM from a moderator/admin detailing the offence.
Warning Level 2 - 1 day posting ban
Warning Level 3 - 2 day posting ban
Warning Level 4 - 3 day posting ban
Warning Level 5 (max) - Indefinite ban

Eg - if Joe receives one warning for spamming a thread he will receive a warning PM from a moderator/administrator. If he comes back a week later and receives 2 warnings (therefore increasing his warn level to 3), he will be suspended for 2 days.

General Rules


Spam (min warning level 1)

Posts that are completely off topic in order to raise post count or generally irritate other forum users will be removed. This includes posting the same message in multiple forums, the threads will be merged and the various original posts will be removed.

Single word replies to threads will be classed as spam. These posts are neither useful or helpful, and will be removed where necessary, and the user warned.

Posts that are obviously posted purely to raise the users post count will also be deleted, and the offending users post count will be reset to zero. Please note that posts in the 'Non Midas Chat' section of The Midas Forum do not count towards your post count.

The definition of spam is subject to the administrator or moderator's discretion.

Explicit and Pornographic Images (min warning level 1)
This includes, but is not limited to any distasteful photographs or images containing explicit imagery. Furthermore, this includes those of a graphic or vulgar nature, which would be deemed unsuitable for a community forum for all ages.

Flaming (min warning level 1)

Actions considered as Flaming (the act of being offensive towards others) will not be tolerated, we try to allow people to voice their opinions, and allow for debate, however we do not want to see posts that offend other forum members.

Use of Foul Language (min warning level 1)

The use of profanity will not be tolerated. Please show respect for yourself and the members of TMF. Many profanities are automatically removed by the forum software, any attempts to circumvent the censoring imposed by the board will be removed, repeat offenders will have their warning level increased.

Offence Towards Groups (min warning level 1)

Any racist, sexist, xenophobic, and other remarks towards a minority or specific group of people, will be deleted and the member will be warned or banned. The internet is one world, colour or creed is not an issue here!

Please also see below regarding MINIS/BMW MINI's/MINI MARCOS/GTM.

Utilising the Private messaging system for abuse of threats is also frowned upon and action will be taken if the system is abused.

The BMW MINI

The Midas Forum is MINIS/BMW MINI's/MINI MARCOS/GTM tolerant and posts that are in any way offensive towards owners of MINIS/BMW MINI's/MINI MARCOS/GTM will be removed and the forum member will be warned (min warning level 1) - continual disregarding of the guidelines will result in further action being taken.

TMF however is focused on the Classic Mini, therefore it is appropriate to direct any technical advice on MINIS/BMW MINI's/MINI MARCOS/GTM to a more relevant forum if you cannot answer the question.

General Silly Chat
The General Silly Chat (GSC) section of the forum is for off-topic banter and threads of a funny/ non-serious nature or those which are not suitable for any other area of the forum.

The GSC section is moderated using the same rules as every other area of the forum, so images or text of an adult nature, including swearing, will not be tolerated.

However, the Admin and Moderation team appreciate that some external websites (YouTube and others) contain links to, or content of an adult nature. If this is the case, the thread must have in its 'topic description' the words 'MAY CONTAIN ADULT MATERIAL'.

This serves two purposes. Firstly, it means that it is down to the individual member to decide if they are likely to be offended by the thread, and secondly, it means the thread will be more noticeable to the Moderation team, who will be able to assess if its content is fully suitable for the GSC section.


Post in English

When posting on the forums, please use English! Don't speak entirely in all-capitals, or so called 'TEXT' speak.

Also if you're able to speak good English, use your abilities - computers provide you with a full keyboard, and there is no need to shorten words to letters (for example you = u, and your = ur) therefore please use full words.

The forum software (with 95% of browsers) includes a spell-check facility - please use it! Any words spelt incorrectly will be underlined in red. Excuses such as "I suffer from dyslexia" no longer apply due to the introduction of this software.

Usernames and Accounts

When creating a user name, please take into account the guidelines, any abusive/bad language seen in usernames will be looked upon harshly and will more then likely be deleted on sight. Please also note that for aesthetic purposes please use short words and spaces to break up longer user names.

You may request for your account on The Midas Forum to be removed if you so wish. The decision is at the Administration team's discretion, who will delete your personal details. However, we will not blanket delete anyone's posts, as they may contain information which could be potentially useful to other The Midas Forum members.

Sock Puppet accounts will not be allowed. A sock puppet is an account made on an internet message board by a person who already has an account for the purpose of posting anonymously. Use your own account for posting personal opinions. Posts from known sock puppet accounts will be deleted and both the puppet and actual account may be banned from The Midas Forum.

Signatures

Users are requested to appreciate other users of the site and keep the size of their signatures to a reasonable size. A reasonable size is a maxium height of 125 pixels or 5 lines of text. Signatures may be edited if too large.

Thread Topic Titles

Topic titles such as "Problems" or "Help me" will often be ignored, members will be more likely to view a thread if the topic title is more definitive. We want to help, however we can't if we are not lead to the thread.

Forum Specific Rules


Reporting A Thread

If you feel a thread is going off-topic, or you wish to report any breach of the rules listed above, please use the 'report' function to the bottom left of each post. This will alert the moderating team, who will investigate the thread and take any action they deem necessary.

If a member of the moderating team feels that the reported thread has got out of hand, then they will issue either a yellow or red card to the thread, using the following images:



A yellow card will be issued if a member of the moderating team feels that a thread is beginning to veer off-topic, or if any of the rules listed above are in danger of being broken. When a yellow card is issued it is the users' responsibility to 'rescue' the thread.

A red card will be issued if a member of the moderating team feels that the rules above have been broken and the thread no longer has any useful purpose. The red card will be issued and the thread closed.

Yellow and red cards are thread specific - any warnings issued to forum users will be in addition to the cards.

Classified Adverts

The Mini Forum is a public forum, accessible to anyone. The for sale/wanted sections are kept open and moderated for the use of TMF users. All purchases must be arranged between the seller and prospective buyer The Midas Forum is not involved in any transactions.

The Midas Forum will not accept any liability for subsequent losses/damages during posting, or for incorrect description of items for sale.

Contacting Staff

Please do not contact members of the The Midas Forum team regarding general Midas related problems, post your question in the appropriate forum section and other forum members will have the answer you need. You will have a better chance at getting the answer you are looking for in a timely fashion.

Staff may be contacted regarding content violating the guidelines (see below), site errors, or any other matter of urgency relating to the site.

All staff members are listed on the following page:

The Midas Forum Team

General Disclaimer

The The Midas Forum Administration and Moderation team reserve the right to edit or delete any message that does not adhere to or comply with these guidelines. We also reserve the right to ban individuals who repeatedly violate them. If your thread is moved to the junkyard or deleted, you will be contacted via a Private Message if necessary.

To ensure that the forum guidelines are enforced the moderators have the ability to edit, move, rename or delete all content posted to the public forums, which includes but is not limited to Threads, Posts and Polls.

Please note that it is impossible for us to confirm the validity of posts on this forum. Please remember that we do not actively monitor the posted messages and are not responsible for their content. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information presented. The messages express the views of the author, not necessarily the views of The Midas Forum or its staff members.

Any pictures posted on The Midas Forum may only be reproduced with the owners/posted consent unless stated otherwise.

This is a privately owned forum and all decisions on how it is run are ultimately made by the Administration team. The Administration team's decision is final.


Enjoy Yourself!

Above all else we are here because of our love and enthusiasm for the Midas. We want you to enjoy yourself while getting the most from your Midas and your visit to the forum. Keep these guidelines in mind when posting. These rules are subject to change as situations arise. Check back here if you are unsure about content that you wish to post.
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