Terms of Service and Rules

Guidelines to using CycleChat

CycleChat is a growing online community for cyclists. It is aimed at a general audience so to help us keep CycleChat a friendly place please follow these simple site usage guidelines:

• Respect - Please be respectful and considerate to other CycleChat members.
• Inappropriate conduct - Don't insult, bully, undermine, stalk, flame, troll, bait or otherwise harass other members of CycleChat. If a disagreement makes you angry, take a break and come back later when you are more composed.
• Inappropriate content - Do not post anything that is obscene, vulgar, contains sexual imagery or text, is racist (including slang), hateful, threatening, or otherwise inappropriate for a cycling forum. Common sense should guide you in this.
• Swearing - Don't overly use swear words (including using *'s or other shortcuts to indicate swear words) - it is unnecessary and undesirable.
• Spamming - Your account will be closed, content removed, and your details reported to anti-spam databases. (If you are unsure whether your content will be considered spam, contact a moderator or the site administrator for clarification before posting.)
• Privacy - Do not post personal or private information about other members without their permission.
• One account only - Each member is allowed one login account. We reserve the right to merge or remove additional accounts without discussion or notice.
• No affiliate links - Do not post affiliate or referral links or solicit CycleChat members for referrals. Such posts will be considered spam and removed.
• Advertising and Self-promotion - Personal ads are only allowed in the Classifieds forums; commercial ads are only allowed in the Equipment and Services forum; self-promotion is only allowed if you make a positive contribution to our community.
• Post/thread removal - Whilst effort will be made to communicate all such removals, the moderator team reserves the right to remove posts and threads without notice.
• Warnings and bans - The moderator team may suspend or close the accounts of anyone who wilfully violates the forum guidelines, continually needs warning, monopolises the moderator's time, or who tries to damage the site or its reputation. Access to our site is a privilege, not a right.

The guidelines cannot cover everything so we reserve the right to take any and all action necessary to ensure the smooth running of the site and the protection of our members and staff.

MODERATORS
The moderator team is made up of trusted CycleChat forum members who volunteer their time to help run the site. If you need any help you can contact them directly (they have Moderator under their avatar) or use the contact link at the bottom of the page.

Moderators also help to clean out spam, remove inappropriate content and deal with disagreements and disruptive members.

Report tool
If you find spam or see anything you feel is inappropriate please use the report link to tell the moderator team about it - you'll find the report link at the bottom of each post.

Reminders
If the moderator team feels your conduct, language or content is inappropriate they will send you a reminder. These personal messages are designed to point you in the right direction so that you can self-moderate your future use of the site. They are between you and the moderator team and no one else sees them.

Suspensions and bans
We would hope that a couple of reminders would be enough to guide you in the right direction, however if you continue to use the site inappropriately the software will automatically suspend your account. If you continue after you return from suspension the software will eventually close your account:

• First reminder (no action)
• Second active reminder (no action)
• Third active reminder (no action)
• Fourth active reminder (24 hour suspension)
• Fifth active reminder (3 day suspension)
• Sixth active reminder (1 week suspension)
• Seventh active reminder (permanent ban)

Caveat: The moderator team reserves the right to remove your access to selected forums where they feel this is appropriate, and to immediately suspend any user account without notice where they feel it is in the best interest of the smooth running of the site.

Harassment of moderators
Please do not harass the moderator team or bring their moderator status into discussions where it is not relevant. They volunteer their free time to help keep your community in good order and are allowed to have and post their own opinions, just like you!

Complaints procedure
If you wish to complain about the conduct of any moderator please do so only to the site administrator and only via the personal conversation system (Inbox) or email (using the site contact form).

Public complaints will be locked as the membership cannot take any action on your behalf and the opinions of uninvolved parties will only serve to dilute the complaint.

HIGH MAINTENANCE CLAUSE
Anyone who occupies a majority of the moderator team's time unnecessarily, will be shown the door.

PERSONAL CONVERSATION SYSTEM
The personal conversation system (Inbox) allows you to communicate directly with CycleChat members outside of the public forums. The same rules of conduct apply as elsewhere on the site.

Whilst we expect everyone to maintain each other's privacy, we cannot stop people sharing things, so make sure you trust whomever you share things with. If you do not want something to be in the public domain, don't share it via the personal conversation system.

Personal conversations from the moderator team and site owner should be considered confidential. Sharing or publication of such messages may result in your account being closed.

CHAT ROOM (if available)
Real-time conversations are a great way to get to know other CCers, but again, the same rules of conduct are expected. All chat is recorded into a log and kept for 365 days so that the moderator team can properly investigate any reports of misconduct.

ADVERTISING AND SOLICITATION
Classified ads are for personal sales between forum members. All other advertising goes in the Equipment and Services forum.

Solicitation for donations is restricted to the Charity Rides forum only and must be as part of a specific ride thread.

SIGNATURES

• 6 lines of normal sized text up to 90 chars per line. (Blank lines count as lines).
• No images (unless permission is given by the site owner).
• Should not detract from the look of the forums.
• One web site link only, unless approved by the site owner.

The moderator team reserve the right to modify or remove signatures they deem inappropriate.

AVATARS
The moderator team reserve the right to modify or remove avatars they deem inappropriate.

CHARITY RIDES AND SPONSORED EVENTS
You may only announce charity rides or events in the specific Charity Rides forum (using the template provided in the READ ME post at the top of the forum).

Please do not do so with any expectation of raising funds from our members.

RESEARCH, SURVERYS AND QUESTIONNAIRES
May only be posted in the Research and Questionnaires forum.

CLASSIFIEDS FORUMS
The classified forums are for members to trade with each other and are for personal sales only. To post in For Sale you will need 10 posts on the forums or to have been registered for three months - whichever comes first. Commercial advertisers and traders should contact the site owner for rates and options.

Please put a price (or guide price) on your items and do not list items you are selling on auction web sites as this goes against the inter-membership trading that these forums are intended for.

We have no control over buyer or seller, do not get involved in any transactions, and do not hold any personal details for any forum members. With this in mind please be careful how you conduct your transactions.

We reserve the right to remove any listings at our sole discretion without notice.

SITE MANAGEMENT
The moderator team will try to keep 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 the site owner will not be held responsible for the content of any message.

The owner of CycleChat reserves the right to remove, edit, move, close or delete any content on the site or any user accounts without notification.

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

We also reserve the right to update and modify these guidelines as the needs of the CycleChat community change.

Last updated: 5 January, 2012