Forum Rules

[Richard Marler]

The following is derived from Richard Marler's original post, and all credit should go to him.

First and foremost, Ariel.club members are a group of individuals united by our interest in the Ariel Products. Some of us are owners, some are to be future or former owners, and some just have an interest in the Atom/Nomad/Ace. With that in mind the Ariel.club forums and web site operate under the following rules:

1. As Ariel products are our unifying interest, we come from a variety of backgrounds and locations. In order to maintain the Ariel focus of this site, off-topic discussions should be limited to the specific off-topic areas of the site. Further, moderators may request posts which could be perceived as inflammatory or are false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, contain adult material, or are otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law or detrimental to the reputation of the Club be edited or removed.

2. Personal attacks are not permitted and moderators will request that such posts be edited or removed. This is a difficult area and each case will be taken on its merits. In general, what might constitute a personal attack is a post which employs unsubstantiated claims or highly emotional or evocative language to the detriment of a fellow poster. Continuous harassing or targeting of a poster because your personality happens not to agree with theirs will not be tolerated. Criticism of an opinion is absolutely fine but negative personal comment is not acceptable.

3. We recognise that each Car/motorbike is as individual as the person that owns it. We respect the right of each member to choose what options and modifications, if any, they select for their vehicle. We invite discussion of these options and/or modifications; however moderators may request posts that simply make negative comments (without any discussion of the reasoning behind the comment) be edited or removed.

4. We respect the intellectual property rights of Ariel and all other parties. Posting copyrighted material or links to infringing material may result in an immediate edit or removal by a moderator if the offence is particularly egregious or ariel.club has received notice of an intellectual property violation from the owner or authorised agent. In other cases, moderators may request that the poster edit or remove the post. As intellectual property is a complicated area of law with differing applications in different countries, moderators will adopt a "what would a reasonable person do?" approach. As an example, it is permissible to post material or links to material bearing a Copyright or similar notice, if the material is or was available in a non-infringing manner elsewhere on the Internet, such as the website of a defunct company.

5. There are varying levels of ariel.club forum membership; currently paid and free. Paying members will have access to additional material not available to free membership. Moderators may move material from a free to a paid forum, or the reverse, if appropriate. Moderators will consult with the topic creator, if reasonably possible, before moving a topic. When a topic is moved, the forum software will usually note that "This topic has been moved to..."], if the topic was moved from a free to a paid forum, that may render the topic unavailable to both the poster and other free members. As far as is technically possible, moderators will allow the topic creator, and in their discretion additional topic participants, access to the forum the topic was moved to for a reasonable period of time.

6. There are various topics which contain information which should not be available to the general public. An example would be how to start the vehicle, which some members do not like being common knowledge. Moderators may request that the poster edit or remove such information, or may confer with the user regarding moving the topic. Membership in these closed forums may be based on criteria such as paid membership, number of posts, length of time as a registered user, and so on.

7. As the forums exist for the sharing of information about Ariel vehicles, advertising is restricted. Individual members may post For Sale / Wanted topics in the appropriate forum. Commercial posts should be limited to Ariel-related items in the appropriate forum and limited in number. If a member has an affiliation with the product or service being sold, that must be disclosed in the topic. This extends to posts not directly selling a product. As an example, if you work for Company X, you may not make a post in a discussion forum such as "Company X makes the best widgets". If someone posts a question about widgets, it is perfectly reasonable to discuss why you feel that your widget is better than the one from Company Y, as long as it is a factual statement and not simply advertising. Moderators may request that the poster edit or remove posts deemed to be in violation of this rule.

8. Spamming (posting of advertisements for products/services unrelated to Ariel vehicles, posting links intended to interfere with the operation of this forum or other sites, posting images / documents intended to infect the user's computer with a virus) is not permitted. Such posts may be removed immediately at the moderator's discretion.

9. While it is perfectly acceptable for forum users to reference other sources of Ariel vehicle information, they may not actively promote other Ariel vehicle forums on the Ariel.club forum - doing so repeatedly will result in a ban at the discretion of the forum moderators and/or Ariel.club committee.  Any posts containing such promotions may be removed immediately at the moderator's discretion.

10.  All of the above rules apply to all content posted by you on the Ariel.club site. This includes the message itself, as well as your username, avatar (personal icon), signature, etc.

11. Many of the rules above state "Moderators may request that the poster edit or remove" a post. If there is an urgent need to edit, move, or delete a post (blatant copyright infringement, material that could be offensive to other users, posting of sensitive information as in rule #6, etc.) moderators may take immediate action. In such cases, they will usually notify the user via the preferred contact information in the users profile (PM, email, etc.). In all other cases, the moderator will usually contact the user and ask that the user modify or delete their post. Moderators will allow a reasonable period of time for the user to respond before taking action. It is important to remember that moderators, like users, live in many different time zones and thus allow reasonable time for communication in both directions. If a moderator edits a post, they will usually include a line at the bottom of the post with their username, date/time of the edit, and a brief description of the nature of the edit. Any subsequent modifications will add additional lines.

12. If a user feels that one or more of the above rules was applied to them unfairly, they may appeal to the Ariel.club committee by sending an e-mail to the President president@ariel.club . Any decision reached by the majority of the Ariel.club Committee will be binding.

13. These rules may be amended in the future.

Please note that it is impossible for the Ariel.club to confirm the validity of forum posts.The Ariel.club is not responsible for the content contained within forum, we do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented. The posted messages express the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of the Ariel.club. Anyone who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to notify an administrator or moderator of this forum immediately. The Ariel.club reserve the right to remove objectionable content, within a reasonable time frame, if they determine that removal is necessary.