Go Back  Bike Forums > FAQ
Reload this Page >

Board FAQ

Notices
Search FAQ Search FAQ
Search Word(s):
Matching Options:
Search in:

Guidelines and Rules or Site Operation: All Members Read, Please
*******Guidelines/Rules of Operation reference Guide Thread for Staff and Members

Basic Guidelines

The following seven categories of online conduct are unacceptable at BikeForums and constitute a violation of our Community Standards which may result in warning, suspension or loss of membership:

Harassment

Harassment occurs when a member insults, attacks, and denigrates another member at any time. We have zero tolerance for taking an argument about a any topic to a personal level. For instance, the use of terms such as "idiot, moron, stupid" and other derogatory terms constitutes harassment. The idea is to make this a pleasant environment to discuss cycling, not a schoolyard, or name-calling and rock-throwing festival. Repeated critical and sharply negative posts toward a forum member can also constitute harassment. This applies to all content submitted by users including posts, avatars and signatures.
Personal attacks and inflammatory behavior will not be tolerated. Respect the forum staff. We're not here to make life harder to anyone. Any decision taken by the administrators and moderators is final and must be respected.

Disruption

Posts which intend to disrupt the topic of conversation or steer the topic away from the focus of the forum and related news. Disruption can include harassment, multiple user profiles, multiple posting of the same post and posting completely off topic messages. Please do your best when it comes to grammar, punctuation and spelling. Excessive use of "AOL'ese" and "hAx0r" talk can be very disruptive so please keep it to a minimum. Private messages are to be kept private and never posted in the forums. Additionally, since we are a bicycle forum, primarily, and not a political forum, don't use political signatures or avatars, due to their controversy effect. Also, gun discussion and illegal personal drug use are not allowed in the open public forum.

Vulgarity

As a community with a diverse variety of members and readers, we ask that our members to post without using vulgarity. Vulgarity not only includes vulgar language and pictures but also sexist, racist, anti-religious, images of graphic violence, political statements and homophobic language which may offend other members. In addition, the "masking" of vulgarity by inserting * or another keystroke in place of one or more letters in a vulgar term is unacceptable in most cases. It will also be impermissible to anagramize a word to bypass the filters. This applies to all content submitted by users including posts, PMs, avatars and signatures.

Solicitation

Please refrain from using Bike Forums to promote your "crowdfunding campaign" (kickstarter/indiegogo), commercial services/website, or to advertise items for sale. If you are a Premium Member (Titanium or Red Star), you may attach a short link to your own blog or personal site within your profile or signature to your market items in our marketplace forums here (private sales only, no ebay auctions or online storefronts), or to a noncommercial website that you specifically own. Free members are not allowed sig links for their sites.

Spamming

Spamming is the multiple posting of an identical or similar post on one or more of our Forums. Spam is also flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services.

Copyrighted Material

You may post links to appropriate articles but posting articles from other sources in their entirety is a violation of our Forum Guidelines. If you must repost quotes or sentences, please credit the source.

High Maintenance Clause

Any member who occupies a majority of admin or moderator time unnecessarily will be shown the door. Any messages you post in these discussion forums will remain available to the public for as long as this discussion board is online. Once you have posted your message, it will stay online. Please post carefully and with due consideration to the content of your post. Any private communications will remain private at all times, sharing PM's is not allowed unless all members involved are in agreement. Communications between Moderation or Administrative Staff and the members are always private and no permission will ever be granted to share these messages in a public manner. Private Communications from other sites are also included in this proscription. In short, no communication where there was an expectation of privacy, regardless of source are to be posted on our forums. Usergroups are subject to the same guidelines as the main forums, and if these groups become a problem for the Administrators and Moderation staff, appropriate action, ranging from changes in the group founder to an outright disbanding of the offending group may be taken.

The Point System

This is a breakdown in the point system. Warning: no points Infraction: Varying points from 1-5 Standard infraction: 1 point Serious Infraction: 1-3 points Spamming: 5 points 3 points leads to an automatic 7 day ban, or longer at Admin discretion if the issue gets repeated. 5 points leads to a permanent ban.

General Principles

We expect that all members of BikeForums will behave in a way that’s conducive to the diversity, intelligence and respectfulness of the community. Each of these three general principles is fundamental to the quality of our site.

Diversity

We’re a community of cyclists, from different backgrounds and with different perspectives on sports and life. At all times, we expect our members to respect that.

Intelligence

We’re a community with quality standards and expect our members will make a sincere effort to contribute their thoughts on interesting subjects in a meaningful and respectful manner. Posting messages and otherwise interacting on BikeForums is completely optional; many members often prefer to just read what others have to say. But if you do post, we expect that you’ll be respectful of the time of others by posting meaningfully.

Respectfulness

We expect our member to show respect for others. Respecting their person, their views, their time and their opinions, and their belief systems ... even if you disagree with them.

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.