Scoobynet Clarified Terms Of Service Effective As Of 8th July 2011.
 

Agreement to terms.
Any use of this website discussion forum shall be in accordance with these Terms of service. In using this Discussion Forum and our sites, you have agreed to be bound by them. ScoobyNet administrators reserve the right to make changes to these terms from time to time without notice and it is your responsibility to determine such changes. Continued use of the discussion forums shall be deemed acceptance of any changes to these terms so we suggest you visit and review them regularly.



1. Access to the Discussion Forum
In consideration of your use of the Discussion Forums, you agree to:

· Provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Discussion Forum registration form.

· Maintain and promptly update your registration data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete.

If we have reasonable grounds to suspect that any information is untrue, inaccurate not current or complete, we have the right to suspend or terminate your registration. You are also required to provide reasonable information about your personal identity to any member of the web team who have reason to ask. This may be done by PM should you prefer.



1a. Access Not Guaranteed. Use of Anonymisers.
We do not guarantee that the forums will be continuously accessible. We do not guarantee that your account will always be available. Do not store anything of importance in your account - especially PMs, as they may become unavailable - or be made unavailable, if your account is suspended or banned, for any reason or for no reason.

Do not rely on anonymisers to access ScoobyNet. We tend to ban entire IP ranges when we find a troublesome user is coming from one of these services. As we have the ability to cross reference these IP addresses to find out which other users came in through a given anonymiser, you may be placing your account at risk by using these services.



2. Members Conduct.
In posting on the ScoobyNet forums, you agree that you will not use the Discussion Forum, its private message and E-mail system or any other part of our site to:

· Register more than one username per member unless you have prior permission from a member of the webteam to do so.

· Upload, post or email any content that is unlawful, harmful, offensive, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, sexually graphic, pornographic, libellous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable. This includes, but is not limited to, pornographic pictures or videos of yourself or ANY current or past member of ScoobyNet.

· Upload, post or email any content that is repetitive, or irrelevant to the forums title.

· Harm or threaten to harm minors or adults in any way.

· Breach any applicable law or regulation.

· Infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, database right or other similar right of any party

· Impersonate any person or identity, falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity or disguise the origin of any content.

· Harass another person.

· Collect or store personal data about other users.

· Upload, post or e-mail any content that you do not have a right to transmit under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships.

· Upload, post or email any content that infringes any intellectual property rights of any third party.

· Upload, post or email and unsolicited or unauthorised advertising, promotional materials, 'junk mail', 'spam', 'chain letters', or any other form of solicitation.

· Upload, post or email any content that contain computer viruses or any other computer code, or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment

· Violate any applicable national or international laws or regulations.

· Advertise the sale or whereabouts of illegal bootleg material (such as copied DVDs, VCDs and computer software).

· Partake in or incite xenophobia, racism or any other form of personal abuse including sexism.

· Partake in anything invasive of a person's privacy, including the posting of photographs without that person's permission.

· Lie about your gender in order to get access any Men’s' or Ladies' Rooms that may be active, use someone else's account to access a room for the opposite gender, or allow someone else to access the opposite gender's room with your account.

· Enter rooms that are normally disabled on your account.
(IE: Entering the moderators room should a glitch become apparent on the forum software that allowed you to use it.)

Furthermore, within reason we require that you post in a literate manner using correct and understandable grammar. Drunken ramblings will be deleted as will posts written using excessive "text speak"


Without prejudice we reserve the right to act accordingly against any material that offends any of the above principles, including taking suitable action against the member responsible.




2a. Victimisation/Abuse of individuals and arguing.
This includes publishing, distributing, circulating or otherwise propagating any material, which may be deemed abusive, offensive, anti-social, racist, sexist, distressing, harmful, cause anxiety, be it of a threatening nature or be it of a general nuisance. Furthermore, any messages, private or otherwise, found to insult, discredit or bring disrepute to a moderator or moderators will be removed and the poster banned at the moderators discretion.

Victimising, inciting and/or hateful posts, as well as any private retaliation against a single member or a group of members is strictly prohibited. Messages found to contain private or personal information will also be removed / censored at the sole discretion of a moderator.

All off topic postings that will by nature of their content move the subject away from the topic starters intended subject will be deleted without warning and the poster banned should he continue to re-offend. This rule will be enforced very strongly on topics of a technical nature. The topic starter dictated the topic subject, if you wish to start a new discussion, start your own new topic.

Should an argument breakout that we feel can be left on ScoobyNet to appease the disputing parties, the topic will normally be moved to our Fight club forum so as not to disturb the harmony of the main rooms, but there may be exceptions. Be aware that when an argument breaks out in a forum it is standard procedure for us to remove all members’ rights to edit their own posts within that forum until such time as a web team member has investigated the complaint. This is so that any illegal material, defamatory comments, insulting personal or racist abuse that is against our regulations cannot be secretly deleted by the author when they get wind of a complaint to the web team being lodged. This rule is to protect the membership as a whole from abuse going undealt with and also the ScoobyNet administration from prosecution.


2b. Anti Community spirit, trolling & baiting.
Without exception, we will not tolerate users whom appear to be using the community to amuse themselves by promoting anti community spirit, posting in ways deemed to be trolling or baiting other members be it on the open forums or via PM.


Anti community spirit:
Members showing a flagrant disregard for the interests of the community or posting subjects that would obviously cause unrest.


Trolling:
Members posting controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages, with the intention of provoking other users into an emotional response, or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.


Baiting:
Members intentionally posting in order to provoke a negative response and / or make forum owners, moderators or users look foolish.



2c. Your language and the use of profanities.
As its important to us to keep a community atmosphere of a fun and banterous nature, we feel it would at this time be inappropriate to ban all forms of swearing completely due to some words being a generally accepted part of the everyday English language in use today. However; we have banned the offensive ones and require a few simple common courtesies be employed by members:

· Do not aim any allowed swear words at other individuals; keep them to a bare minimum and also in context.

· Do not, ever, use swear words in the title of a Topic.

. Do not, ever, circumvent the swear filter via use of any markup code or images.

Many swear words are still allowed at the moment. We are constantly reviewing this situation and can assure you that if the swearing leniency is abused we will simply strengthen the swear filter already available in our forum software. Keep it sensible is all we ask. Topics with titles containing swear words will be either.

· A) Moved to a more suitable room.
· B) Edited.
· C) Totally deleted.

The above actions are entirely at the webteams discretion and no explanation will be given.



3. Content posted to the Discussion Forum
The web team will move topics to rooms that they feel to be more appropriate if they wish to do so. This is done to keep each room both topical and interesting. Each room has a title and a description that should help you to determine what is, and conversely, is not allowed so please try your best to post in the correct forum or sub forum to start with.


A moderator may PM you to inform you of a topic being moved to a more suitable forum but they are by no means obliged to. It is worth noting that one of the rules we do allow to be bent slightly is the posting of pictures of a members new cars within the general discussion area. Moderators may allow this topic to stay for up to 48hrs. This is deemed a good thing as we feel it brings maximum exposure to the new car and its owner which is good for the member and the forum's "feel good factor" in general. After this time has elapsed the topic will likely be moved across to the pictures forum via a web team member.

Sales topics must be in an allocated sales forum and will not be tolerated in any other part of the forum. We also ask that members selling many items at once try to do so in one topic as opposed to listing each item separately, this aids the smooth running of the busy commercial sections.

A lot of people try to get round the rule above by posting a topic called "What’s it worth?" under the pretence that they are just wondering how much to sell it for. Due to the fact that such a member would receive many private messages about such an item for sale, we only allow this to happen in the Items for sale forums, which are of course plus members only areas. This rule only applies if the user does in fact have one of these items that they may want to sell.

You understand that all data, text, messages or other materials ('content') that are publicly posted or privately transmitted are the sole responsibility of the person from which the content originated. This means that you, and not ScoobyNet, are solely responsible for all content that you upload, post or email via the discussion forum and its hosting facilities. The views posted by others do not necessarily reflect the opinion of ScoobyNet. We do not control the content posted via the discussion forum and therefore do not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of the content.


Under no circumstances will we be liable in any way for content, including (without limitation) any errors or omissions in any content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of your use of any content. You agree that you must evaluate and bear all risks associated with the use of any content including reliance on its accuracy or completeness. You also understand that by using our discussion forum and our site, you may possibly be exposed to content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable to you as an individual.


Furthermore, when interacting with members of the forum selling items you should take your own measures to ensure the seller is trustworthy and reliable. The fact the user is a member of a large forum or has a lot of posts to their username does not guarantee a reliable transaction. As with all internet transaction, we advise that the buyer beware.



4. Our Right to erase messages and suspend access.
As soon as we are made aware of activities that breach these Terms and Conditions or our privacy policy, prompt action will be taken. If you witness such breaches in the discussion forum or anywhere else on the site, please notify a moderator of ScoobyNet immediately via the "Report post" feature.

On being made aware of such breaches, ScoobyNet may ban, delete or prohibit any content that relates to those breaches or that we judge harmful to individuals or to the rights of ScoobyNet or any of our affiliates, licensor's or partners;



We reserve the right to take whatever action we deem necessary to prevent such breaches including the following:


· Breaches we deem minor may simply result in receipt of a warning from a moderator or administrator of ScoobyNet

· Breaches we deem serious may result in your automatic ban from the Discussion Forum and the site as a whole.

· Having a paid membership (AA, Banner Trader, etc.) does not protect you in any way, shape, or form should you break the rules. If deemed appropriate, you can be suspended temporarily or banned permanently without a refund so please ensure you are fully aware of all rules before you pay any form of membership fees.


All incidents will be logged and our decision is final in all cases. Any breaches may also lead to us reporting your activities to your internet service provider, your employer, relevant authorities, or to legal action being taken against you, or both.


In addition we may at any time move, modify or remove any content or take further legal action as a result of breaches or suspected breaches of these terms, our privacy policy any applicable laws or regulations or where our rights or third party rights are threatened or infringed.


The webteam will not tolerate posts on any of the active forums seeking to berate a member of the web team for their decision or bring the web team into disrepute.


If you feel you have been unfairly treated, you should contact a member of the web team directly and request it be reviewed which they will do in the moderator’s room, with the administrator.


The administrator also reserves the right to take punitive action against individuals who either persistently question decisions that he deems to be fair. He may also, at his sole discretion, choose to take action against individuals whom he feels are using the post reporting feature as a vendetta against another member of ScoobyNet, or in a subversion fashion i.e. frequent spurious reports of activity on ScoobyNet.



Users will banned from the forum in the following way:
The first ban is 24hrs. (This is the shortest ban we have.)
From then on it doubles... 2 days, 4 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 4 months, and finally, a lifetime ban. Obviously, if your initial offense warranted a 1 month ban, then your second ban would likely be two months.

However, should a member of the web team feel an individual requires an instant lifetime ban then they can implement one at their discretion but this can be overruled by the administrator if required.


The unacceptable post that gets a member banned will also give that user an infraction so that other users can see that the exhibited behaviour is unacceptable. So the member will receive a ban and infraction points simultaneously.


Be aware that establishing additional accounts to circumvent a ban - irrespective of its duration- is strictly prohibited; any such accounts will be banned permanently and you risk your IP address being banned too.


Right to Appeal.
A member banned from the forum may sign up one new username in order to appeal and state their case to the web team by PM. This account must have the same name as the banned account but with the words Appeal at the beginning. IE: Appeal [insert banned ID here]

This account must NOT be used to post anywhere on the forum.
Failure to appeal in this manner may result in the appeal being dismissed and the second username being banned.


Please remember, the web team are all humans doing this job for the love of the community. They can, and will make mistakes. That’s why an appeal system exists, but it must be used in a polite and civilised manner or your appeal, will not be heard.


5. Signature and avatar pictures:
We may allow the user a signature picture and an avatar of your choice on ScoobyNet. These must not be suggestive or in any way rude or offensive and are subject to the same set of rules that cover post content.


5A. Picture Gallery.
Users are able to upload pictures into our built in picture gallery (If activated). Most pictures are allowable as long as they are deemed suitable for viewing by families and young children. Posting of unsuitable images in the picture gallery such as glamour or pornography may result in an instant ban for the offending member.


6. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify and hold ScoobyNet, and all and any of its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, employees, agents or partners harmless from and against any direct or indirect loss or damage (including consequential loss and loss of profits, goodwill or business opportunities including reasonable legal costs arising from any third party claim in relation to any content you upload, post or email through the Discussion Forum or the site, your use of the Discussion Forum and our site, or your breach of the provisions of these Terms. This indemnity may be enforced by an Indemnified Party in his own right and the Contract (Rights of Third Parties) 1999 shall apply.



7. General practice regarding use and storage
You acknowledge that ScoobyNet may establish general practices and limits concerning use of the Discussion Forum service, including without limitation the maximum number of days that postings or other uploaded content will be retained or archived within this Discussion Forum, the maximum size of any email message that may be sent from or received by an individual on the Discussion Forum and the maximum disk space that will be allotted on ScoobyNet’s servers on your behalf.



8. Suspension or modification of the Discussion Forum
We reserve the right at any time and from time to time to modify, suspend or discontinue the Discussion Forum (or any part thereof) with or without notice.



9. General protection
ScoobyNet accepts no liability or responsibility whatsoever for any loss, disruption or damage to your data or your computer system whilst linked to this website.






This forum is for non-commercial private sales by paying members. If you cannot post an advert in the sales sections, this is usually because you haven't paid for a scoobynet subscription, or it has expired. (payment info can be found here: https://www.scoobynet.com/payments.php).

No commercial or trader advertising is allowed, except in the traders forums by 'Authorised Advertisers' (AA). If you wish to advertise commercially on Scoobynet please contact advertise@scoobynet.com to discuss the excellent opportunities available to you.

Marketplace Rules

• Scoobynet takes no responsibility for any transactions being made between seller and buyer.
• All adverts must have an asking price for all goods offered.
• Nothing that you post for sale must be illegal under UK law.
  • Vehicles, or items intended for use on vehicles must be fully legal for use on the road and must adhere to all UK laws unless its lack of legality is SPECIFICALLY stated in the advertisement in good clear text of normal or larger font size. I.E: For off road use only.
• All posts and threads within this forum must only contain information pertaining to the advertising of goods, or the request for information about such goods.
  • All sale items must stay strictly on topic. General chit chat may lead to thread removal.
  • If you don't like the price or item being offered and not interested in buying, do not reply, just move on.
  • Non sale related or negative comments will be deleted and the poster potentially infracted.
• Poor conduct and bad language from either buyer or seller in public or private will not be tolerated and may result in a ban from the forums.
• Sale posts solely linking to adverts on other sites (such as Ebay) is not allowed. Posts containing such links will be edited or deleted.
• Auctions, Raffles or selling items via a competition is not allowed.
• Members should not offer goods on behalf of a third party. Any such threads will be deleted.
• Limit thread 'Bumping' (or BTT). Bumping is anti-community and should only be done if your thread has moved down further than page 2 or had no reply for 2 days since the last post.
• Avoid creating duplicate threads.
  • If you cannot find your thread, check your thread age cut off settings in your user CP. You can also use automatic subscriptions to keep track of your threads or search using 'advanced' search for threads created by your user name.
• Avoid creating lots of separate threads for individual parts.
  • If they are all from the same (or similar) car, advertise a list of the parts in a single thread with an appropriate title (eg: Suspension parts for MY99 STi). Users found creating too many multiple threads in one go may have them merged into a single thread. This is to prevent one single user from hogging the entire page of the sales section and make it fairer for users selling single items.
  
  

Selling for Profit
Generally speaking, members should not be making a profit from other members. To clarify, we do not condone the buying and selling of goods purely for profit by anyone other than AA (Authorised Advertiser) status members.

• Activities considered to be buying/selling for profit include:
  • Members selling more than 4 cars per annum
  • Members found to be selling an unusual amount of items.
  • Members found to be breaking multiple cars for spares.
• Commercial posts are forbidden unless they are placed by members with AA status in the correct forums.
• Should you wish to sell any form of tickets, we only allow the sale of such items at or below face value.
• Please report suspected traders by clicking the RTM (Report to Moderator) http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...ons/report.gif icon on the relevant post, giving details of why you suspect the user is a trader to assist our investigation.

If you are trading, be it full time, part time or as a regular extra income, then you need to register as a Authorised Advertiser. Contact advertise@scoobynet.com for further information.

Group Buys
Group buys should be left to the registered traders as historically they are proven to cause nothing but problems when they don't go as planned and people start blaming the forum and its admin for things going wrong. Secondly, PassionFord's registered traders pay good money to use this site in a commercial manner and it would be unfair of us to allow a non registered trader to sell a large volume of items to our community via a group buy when they haven't paid for the privilege of doing so. If you wish to arrange group buys, please feel free to do so but please use our registered traders to do so or maybe even ask the supplier you have in mind if he would like to join us. With the prospect of a bulk sale lined up immediately upon joining why wouldnt he?.

Fraud/Scamming Advice

Members are advised to be aware of unscrupulous people using the market place. And therefore must take personal safeguards to minimise the risk of becoming a victim. These include:

• Only buy from subscribed paying members. These are either 'Plus Members' or 'Authorised Advertisers', and indicated by the logo beneath their avatar.
• Sellers should pay extra caution when selling to new members or members without a 'Plus member' status.
• NEVER use the gift option on Paypal transactions, you may avoid fees, but you will be unable to make a claim for refunds.
• Get a tracking number and use insured delivery for valuable goods.
• Check the insured value limits and delivery arrangements with the courrier.
• Beware of delaying tactics used to clear Paypal funds, this can be 21 days to empty funds and 45 days to lodge a claim dispute.
• In this day and age there is no reason why a transaction can't be fully completed from start to finish within two weeks. People who take longer are either scamming or are highly disorganised.
• If an item appears to be too good or cheap to be true, it often is.
• Check a user's past posting history: A genuine Subaru enthusiast will regularly post and interact outside of the sales areas, high post counts and good previous sales history is key here.
• Avoid goods offered by private messaging. Especially from non-paying members. If someone wants to sell, they should have an advert in the marketplace.
• Use the iTrader system to check a member's feedback and give feedback. Instructions on how to use iTrader can be found here: iTrader Instructions.
• Report possible unregistered traders or scams.
• It is not ScoobyNet's responsibility to check that goods are fit for purpose, accurately described and/or comply with UK road and traffic laws. That is for you as the buyer to ascertain for yourself.
• If you are a victim of fraud or scamming, contact the police and get legal advice from a representative or via the Citizens Advice Bureau on how best to proceed.
• Scoobynet does not condone witch-hunts or unlawful or violent activities against scammers: Click here for further information.

Hints and Tips
In order to get the most attention from your advert, the following hints and tips should help make sure you make the most out of your advert:

• Use full and proper English (text talk is against forum rules).
• Keep the title short yet specific to what it is or what it is from, for example "Complete Engine for MY99 UK Turbo - £1500".
• Avoid excessive use of punctuation, colours or capitals. Its just annoying, and will deter people from viewing your advert.
• Place the advert in the correct forum.
• Be honest! Don't describe something as 'mint' when knowing it has a few dents or scratches. Misdescribing the condition of items will cause complaints and negative feedback.
• ALWAYS state a price. Its in our rules.
• Keep descriptions of specification, details or condition concise but informative. Use bullet points to highlight key details. Avoid too much random waffle.
• Pictures, make sure you include some that are clear, in focus and of the actual item you are selling. Tip: Its often wise to use the macro function on your camera for photographing small parts. This is usually activated by selecting this symbol on your camera: https://www.scoobynet.com/picture.ph...ictureid=15591
• Do not use a picture of a similar item found on the internet instead of your own, scammers often do this and you could receive complaints and negative feedback for doing so.
• State your general area location so people have an idea of how far away the item is.
• If you are too busy or preoccupied to sell an item, then don't advertise or sell an item until you are free to actually make the transaction.
• Do not accept money when knowing you are unable to send the item in a timely manner (i.e within 24hrs of receiving payment). Delays in sending goods after reciveing payment will result in complaints and disputes.
• Stay in touch. Give the other party in a transaction several means of contact, and keep them up to date with the situation.
• If there is a problem, sometimes its best to talk to the other party via telephone or face to face. Text messages and emails are easily ignored or forgotten.
• Keep the thread up to date: When an item is sold, make a post stating that.

Commercial users:
Traders (AA's) are permitted to directly compete with one another both in terms of service provided and pricing. If you are a paying advertiser you all have equal rights to offer your services and products within this competitive market. However this must be done in a respectful manner and must never descend into any form of disrespectful posting.


Posting on topics started by other traders in order to attempt to undercut them or win their business will not be accepted. This goes beyond fair competition and becomes bad practice.


Traders are not permitted to willingly attempt to damage another trader’s reputation via ScoobyNet in any way. Any kind of activity in this vain will be monitored carefully and malicious postings will be dealt with severely.


Traders are not permitted to pose as prospective customers to either elicit positive feedback for their own company, or to negatively comment on another.

All we ask is that traders ensure ScoobyNet remains a fair and pleasant place in which to do business and we will not form an allegiance toward any one trader so anyone stepping out of line will be dealt with in the same manner.


We also want the best environment for our members. This means we need to allow healthy competition so that our members have the most choice available to them. They don't want to see sniping between companies, and it only serves to show traders in a bad light to the community.


In a nutshell, you all have the same rights and the right to compete, just do so fairly and openly.

Members either known to be, or considered by the web team to be commercial users must be registered as official ScoobyNet AA's and have paid the current fee to be able to enter any sale advertisements whatsoever on the forum or be registered with a business name. Registration is also required in order to place or reply to wanted adverts.


In addition to this, because a commercial user will build up a level of trust and trade recognition within the community, they will no longer be allowed to trade on ScoobyNet or retain their commercial user name if they choose to withdraw their commercial user status and site support. This is to stop unscrupulous commercial users registering for a few months and then trading for free on the back of the status built up in that time. The selling ban for ex-commercial users includes offering items for sale in signatures and posts as well as replying to wanted adverts.

Please also be aware that Scoobynet takes NO responsibility for any issues between buyer and seller. Goods are advertised and bought at the risk of the individuals concerned. Scoobynet will not allow "Name & Shame" content within the forums and any such material will be removed. All issues need to be resolved out side of Scoobynet.


Disclaimer
When posting or buying an item for sale you are agreeing to our terms and conditions. ScoobyNet and its hosts only act as the publisher of the classified service and cannot be held responsible for and services or products offered within its forums. Any and all information displayed in these forums are the sole responsibility of the individual logged in and posting it under a user name so we strongly urge you to review the user names history before purchasing from him/her. Caveat Emptor - Buyer beware!


These guidelines and rules are the intellectual copyright of Stewart Sanderson and may be updated at any time without prior notification.