Guidelines

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Shaun

Founder
Moderator
CycleChat is a community for cyclists aimed at providing help, advice, support, encouragement and conversations about cycling and other shared interests. We like to maintain a friendly atmosphere and our Forum Rules and guidelines help us to keep things running smoothly. Please keep them in mind when posting to ensure it is a pleasant place for members and guests alike.

Introduction

The moderators cannot read every message posted on CycleChat so if you feel something is inappropriate or breaks one of our rules please help us by reporting it. If you are a guest, use our Contact Form.

Any content that violates our Forum Rules may be removed, and interpretation of our rules and guidelines is at the discretion of the moderators and administrator.

Access to our community is a privilege, not a right, anyone who continually violate our rules will be permanently excluded (regardless of any other contributions they might have made).

These guidelines are not exhaustive and may be modified over time when necessary.

Guidelines
  • Content – We want users to view our forums in any environment, including work, public spaces and at home with the family. Users should not have to concern themselves with whether it is safe to visit CycleChat – they should be able to do so anytime, anywhere. As such, do not post anything inappropriate such as profanity, sexual content, nudity, hateful, threatening, racist, provocative or vulgar content, illegal activity, and links to websites and discussions containing, encouraging or promoting the same. Do not circumvent the censoring options we have put in place.

  • Language – We are an English language community and require content to be posted in English so that it can be easily understood and moderated. Short, common use non-English phrases are allowed, as are requests to have text translated; and if you wish to post a quote in another language, please post the English translation alongside it so that the meaning is clear. Moderators will remove non-English text where there is no accompanying translation or any doubt as to its meaning.

  • Conduct – Please refrain from inflammatory and defamatory comments as well as flaming, taunting, stalking, bullying, trolling and general disrespect. Personal attacks, aggressive messages, and passive-aggressive behaviour are not acceptable. If you don’t agree with someone's opinion or advice, say why politely, don’t just put them down or tell them they are wrong or insult them.

  • Personal differences - During your interactions with other members you may find you develop strong personal differences. Politics, lifestyle choices, technical expertise, and many other differences are a natural part of being in a large community, but should be dealt with politely and limited to the threads regarding those subjects; they should not develop into continually disagreeable or disruptive behaviour towards each other, and should not impact on the rest of our community. If you don't like someone, put them on ignore. If you refuse to ignore them or continue to engage negatively, you can expect to be moderated.

  • Backseat moderation – Only our moderators have the authority and tools to manage CycleChat. If you feel someone has violated our Forum Rules do not respond publicly, instead report it. Trying to moderate others only leads to trouble. If someone attacks you and you respond in kind you will be dealt with the same as the person who started it. If you have issues with another member that cannot be reconciled, please put them on ignore so you no longer see their content.

  • Advertising / Spam / Affiliate Programs – We invest a lot in our community and take a very dim view of anyone using it primarily for self-promotion, marketing, free advertising, affiliate revenue generation, or solicitation of our membership. Doing so will result in your account being closed and your details reported to anti-spam databases. Contact Us before posting if you are unsure.

  • Moderation – Moderators have the final say. If they ask you to do something, please do it. If your content is modified by a moderator do not undo it. Creating threads or posts to question or reference moderation is not permitted and will be removed. We know are not perfect and if you feel we have made a mistake, please Contact Us.

    Moderators are trusted volunteers who give up their free time. Their work is managed by the site administrator and any harassment or abuse of the moderator team will result in penalties and eventually a permanent exclusion from the site.

    Moderators may queue, suspend or close the accounts of anyone who wilfully violates or shows disregard for our forum rules, our moderators or our community; continually needs warning; monopolises moderator time; or who tries to harm or damage CycleChat.

  • User Accounts - Your username should not be your real name and should not contain anything that would allow you to be personally identified (unless by agreement with the administrator). You are allowed one user account which must not contain anything inappropriate and must not include URLs or domain names. User accounts should not be used to impersonate any group or entity with which you are not associated. We reserve the right to merge, change, close or remove accounts without discussion or notice.

  • Post formatting - Our default style and font colour gives a consistent look and feel to make CycleChat easier to read. Do not use excessive formatting changes in your posts for colours, fonts, sizes, styles and smilies. Do not post thread titles in ALL CAPS (this is considered shouting). Moderators may adjust your posts where they feel the formatting is excessive or too out of line with the default style.

  • Signatures - May contain up to four lines of text and three links and must not contain or link to inappropriate or offensive content. Images are not permitted except for CycleChat smilies and an approved progress ticker. Text should be no larger than the default forum post size and formatting should not overly emphasise your signature in comparison to the surrounding message text. Signatures are a privilege and can be modified and removed.

  • Personal Conversations - Allow you to communicate privately with other members. The same rules of conduct apply. It is reasonable to expect privacy, but we cannot guarantee it so we recommend you do not share anything that you would not want made public. Personal information and private discussions may not be posted on the forums, unless there is clear consent from all parties. Personal conversations from moderators should be considered strictly confidential.

  • Links - Open exchange of information is a basic tenet of the web, so we allow natural links to other resources (including competitors) if the linked page is helpful to our members and directly related to the discussion. However, we also make a substantial investment in our community and do not want our resources used for our competitor’s benefit, so we do not allow links to competing sites in signatures, unnatural promotion of competing site links in posts, and any links soliciting our members to leave our site and register at or join a competing site or service.

  • Classifieds - Our Classifieds forums are for personal sales only. Please try to put a guide price on items you are offering for sale. We have no control over buyer or seller, do not get involved in transactions, and do not hold personal details for any forum members so please take care in your transactions. Please read the Disclaimer and Rules before posting.

  • Charity Rides and Events - If you wish to post details of a charity ride or event please use our dedicated forum: Charity Rides and Cycling Events. For best results, make sure you provide the required information mentioned in the sticky thread at the top of the charity rides forum.

  • Giving Advice - Focus your advice on the questions asked by the thread starter; do not get into protracted debates with other members. Beginners will benefit from easy to digest basic advice, whilst experienced members might prefer more complex replies. If you feel advice given by others is potentially dangerous report it.

  • Cross-posting, Tagging and Bumping – Do not create the same thread in more than one forum. Make your tags useful and representative of the content being tagged. Do not bump threads unless you have something to add to the discussion.

  • Quoting - You may trim a post you are quoting or to break it up into parts to answer different points, but please do not alter the text. If you want to comment on something someone has said, quote it as-is and add your reply below. FTFY (fixed that for you) is only for politely correcting obvious errors and whilst altering quotes for comic effect can add to the enjoyment of the community, it should be clear what you have changed and that it is intended as harmless fun. Misquoting is considered disrespectful conduct and will be moderated according to the Forum Rules.

  • Stay On Topic - Posts outside of our off-topic forums should always be constructive and on topic. For common issues, telling someone to search is not acceptable. If you disagree with a post and need to say so, be respectful when explaining why and focus on post content and not the member who posted it. Off topic threads and posts may be moved to a more appropriate place or deleted.

  • Derailing - Do not derail or hijack discussions. Discussing side issues or elements of a conversation in detail can be done by starting your own thread or sending a message via the personal conversation system. If you are advised by a moderator to get back on track, do so or start a new thread for your side discussion - or risk being excluded from the thread.

  • Feedback - Feedback, suggestions and questions about the operation of the site are welcome but please send them directly to the moderator team via the site Contact Form. Please do not post them in the forums or send personal messages.

  • Leaving - On registering for a user account you accepted that information you posted publicly will remain in our database and on public record, even if you later decide to leave the site or close your account. If you leave our community (of your own free will or otherwise), you may request the removal of any personally identifiable information linked with your user account or public content, and additionally you may request that we anonymise your content (by attributing it to a non-specific username). If you wish to do this please Contact Us to let us know.
Our User Guidelines cannot cover everything so we reserve the right to edit or remove any content and take any action necessary to ensure the smooth running of the site and the protection of members, moderators, community, and reputation.

We will try to keep all objectionable material off the site but it is impossible for us to review everything that is posted. All messages express the views of the author, and neither CycleChat nor Xenforo Limited (developers of the software) will be held responsible for the content. We also do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message.

You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use the site to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law.

You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless you have permission from the author or the copyright is owned by you or by this site.

We reserve the right to reveal information we know about you in the event of any legal action arising from any content posted by you.

These guidelines are subject to change at any time without notice.

Thank you for visiting CycleChat.

See Also

Rules:
Moderation:

Last modified: 20 May, 2018
 
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