ALL USERS MUST READ: ApexSpeed Forum Rules
When you registered for ApexSpeed, you agreed to follow our Forum Rules. We feel that it is necessary to make sure that these are always kept visible for anyone to see at any time.
Registration Agreement (a refresher of the original registration form you agreed to when you signed up here)
PLEASE READ or you may not be approved for registration! We do insist that you abide by the forum rules and policies detailed below and on the forums. Because of recent spam attacks on the forums, we now require you to use your real name and insist that you fill out your real location in the required form fields. Failing to do so may result in not getting your account approved. If you agree to the terms, please check the 'I agree' check box and press the 'Register' button below. If you would like to cancel the registration, click here to return to the forums index.
Although the administrators and moderators of ApexSpeed will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the owners of ApexSpeed, nor Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. (developers of vBulletin) will be held responsible for the content of any message.
By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any messages on the forums or through PMs that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws.
The owners of ApexSpeed reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason. Once registered for this Community, you are not able to delete your posts or account for any reason. Please join the ApexSpeed.com forums knowing that what you say and post here will live on the internet indefinitely. This is YOUR responsibility.
Over the years, we have made major efforts to keep a pretty tight control over the tone of the discussions on ApexSpeed, without altering the actual content. In more than 16 years, the results have proven themselves out with the quality of this community. Any thread that degrades into political, religious or social stone throwing will be locked immediately. It's probably best that we keep our personal views and opinions away from our hobbies, anyway.
When it comes to specific topics of race, religion, politics, and other polarizing subjects (we all know what they are), there are plenty of other places on the internet that you can get your rocks off voicing your opinion at someone from behind your keyboard. Keep it away from ApexSpeed.
Registration & Passwords
Every so often, I need to remind everyone of a few forum problems that pop up with users (especially new users). Hopefully, everyone will read this...
1) If you have LOST your password, first of all, shame on you for not changing it to something you can remember. Second, you can retrieve it yourself very easily. When attempting to log in, there is a link that says, "Forgotten your password? Click HERE. Typing your address into that page will have a password sent to your registered e-mail address. Simple. We will NOT respond to password requests or change of passwords, sorry.
2) If you have CHANGED your e-mail, you can also change that yourself in your User Control Panel once you are logged in. Once you change your e-mail, the forum will automatically reset your password and remail it to the new address. Once you get it, log into the forums, and PLEASE CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD TO SOMETHING YOU CAN REMEMBER EASILY.
3) If you use automated systems to filter your e-mail to only allow "approved" domains or e-mail addresses to send you mail, shut it off before you might expect e-mail from the automated forum software (password retrieval, registration, forum e-mail, etc.). We will not approve SPAM check e-mail requests. If you don't get your password, it's because of your own system blocking mail.
4) We no longer allow AOL.com e-mail addresses to be used for your account e-mails or new registration. If you are an existing member with an AOL.com address, and try to change or reset your password, you will be instructed to also change your e-mail address on your account to something else. If you are new user trying to register, the forum system won't allow the registration using that address. We're sorry, but AOL brought this on themselves. We highly recommend other free e-mail providers like Gmail if you don't have another account to use.
Ad Hominem Personal Attacks
From this point on, we will be taking a serious stance on ad hominem attacks in the forums, for any reason. We have no problem with emotional and spirited arguments, but when the only way to argue against someone's point is to attack them personally or some other superficial reason, the offending user will be given a 10-day temporary posting ban on the forums. I don't care who it is that is guilty of the indiscretion, they will get a mandatory 10-day cooling off period without warning. Don't be the first example to everyone else.
We need to work together to fix the problems that we all see with the system, not fight against ourselves. Nothing good is accomplished by personal attacks and flame wars. And we won't tolerate it here on ApexSpeed.
We also do not allow threats or any abusive behavior, on the public forums or via Private Message. We take this very seriously. Any instance of bullying or threats toward another user is grounds for immediate expulsion from ApexSpeed at the Administration's discretion.
Race Teams, Prep Shops and Driver Coaching Advertisements
Something that we have usually overlooked in the past will be part of the ApexSpeed policy going forward. We have previously allowed postings for driving coaching, open seats and drives from prep shops or teams, but these are no longer allowed.
Any driving coaches, prep shops or race teams that have cars available for pay-to-play drives are required to be supporting banner advertisers here on ApexSpeed in order to post those listings looking for drivers. Like any other for-profit business, a simple return to the forums for the right to post Classifieds for cash-to-drive seats will be a requirement from here on out. Any posts that violate this policy will be moved offline until that company becomes a banner advertiser.
If you have questions about advertising or banners, see the "Advertising" link at the top of the forums, or PM Kim Carter for current rates and more information.
Classifieds Asking Prices
All Classified posts in all forums absolutely MUST have an asking price and contact information. This is not eBay or any other auction site, and we do not allow selling to the highest bidder. Sale transparency on the forum post is critical for open dealings and past selling values for items. All posts will remain on the forums indefinitely, as nothing is removed, so being able to use sales and asking prices for reference is important to all users. Classified posts without starting/asking prices will be removed without warning.
Thread Bumping
For those of you who like to "bump" your Classified threads to the tops of the forums on a regular basis, we do have a limit on how often you can do this. We don't mind you resurrecting an old thread of items to sell to bring it to the forefront of people's eyes, but bumping threads daily forces others to have to do the same to have the same visibility. What this creates is a mess of Classified posts, where the same things are always fighting to be at the top.
These forums don't move fast enough for people to not be able to see everything 2 or 3 pages deep every few days. We're going to set a limit on thread "bumping" to 1 week/7-days as the minimum time for moving a stale Classified post to the top.
If a moderator or admin finds that you are unnecessarily moving your post to the top of the forums too often, that post will be removed indefinitely. Multiple violations will result in a temporary and potentially permanent time-out from the forums.
Some moderators here are driven batty by unnecessary bumping, so do so at your own risk. ;)
ApexSpeed Image Hosting
We will not tolerate any linking of uploaded images to other forums or sites. Generally, this will include avatars and ad banners, as well. Again, any abuse of this feature, and that will be revoked on a per user basis. We have already seen this occur on our previous avatars in the past. If you want to use them elsewhere, go ahead, but upload them to your own server space.
You can upload and install your own avatars. Keep it clean, and we won't have any problems. We do reserve the right to remove your avatar if we find it objectionable or in poor taste. Avatars should be 80 pixels wide x 50 pixels high. We have previously also used a 10 pixel transparent band above each existing avatar to keep them from bumping into the user information.
Forum Post Spamming
Please do not post threads of the same topic in multiple forums. We consider this spamming, and the duplicates will be immediately removed. Keep conversations to one forum, please. The only exception is the Vintage Classifieds, in which threads can be also duplicated in their specific class forum Classifieds. Regular abuse of this rule will result in first a temporary suspension, and then a permanent ban for the next violation.
We will attempt to keep these rules updated and accurate and we will do our best to maintain the forums with consistent management. Know that we do not look at every thread or post on ApexSpeed, so the community must be proactive and alert the Moderators to violations of these policies. We do our best, but sometimes things can and do get missed. It's in all of our best interests to police the community and follow the rules set here.
