Appropriate Language

For the most part, Forum moderators try to be reasonable in the enforcement of the rules when it involves profanity, however leaving out one letter isn’t acceptable. Neither is adding a letter or substituting letters that look like the letters that have been omitted.

Forum moderators are not tolerant in the enforcement of the rules when racial or ethnic slurs are involved or in instances where language is used in a demeaning or vindictive manner toward a group of people or, worse, against a specific Forum member.

As always, decisions on the enforcement of the Forum’s rules/guidelines will by nature require subjective judgment at times. If you disagree with a moderator’s judgment call, do it by PM or e-mail to a moderator or administrator.

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No Posting of Trail Pictures

In view of the difficulty to the off-road community in maintaining an open trail system, we have decided to minimize any images which may be detrimental to our efforts to continue to use the trail systems. Since discretionary calls have continued to be a subject of sometimes heated and deteriorating debate, we have elected to ban all trail pictures and pictures deemed to be a negative image on the open forums. The ### member forums and private gallery are available for ### member’s private use. The ### will provide a limited, controlled gallery for non-member viewing.

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Personal, Organisation or Business Attacks

Personal attacks are absolutely not allowed. Even if you believe another member is a troll or a jerk or whatever, do not make personal attacks.
That means no name-calling, no posting pictures or links that are hostile, no hateful posts, no posting of personal information, etc. Personal attacks cannot be tolerated.

Dealer or service bashing is also prohibited. If a question on "where to buy..." elicits an urge to comment on a bad experience, PM if you wish, but do not post on the public forum. Postings deemed inappropriate will be removed with no further explanation.

Comments need to be kept civil or they will be deleted and posting privileges will be jeopardized.

The Forum should be a fun and friendly place to hang out and not a hostile environment. Civility to fellow Forum members is always appropriate.

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Confidential Information

Post responsibly. Do not post anything that can be considered "confidential" or "slanderous" information. It's not worth the liability to you, the ###, or fair to the party/s involved.


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Freedom of Speech

Canada, where we enjoy protected rights.
Free speech, although not absolute, is one of those rights.
Being a forum participant at #######jeep.com is not, however, a protected right.

The Forum is a private enterprise and has the right to establish rules of behaviour for participants.

Participants who do not follow forum rules will have their inappropriate posts deleted.

A pattern of such defiance of the Forum’s rules/guidelines can jeopardize a member’s posting privileges.

Regarding Post Appropriateness

Keep in mind that many people of both genders and different religions, backgrounds, occupations, sexual orientation, race, etc. read what you post.

The best test that can be used is this...

When you are just about to submit your post, think about these questions:
"Would you be willing to stand on a podium and read aloud your post in front of a room full of strangers, knowing that everyone can hear you well, even record and re-listen you what you are about to post, realizing that the thousands of folks in the room come from all different backgrounds, religions, races, etc.?
Are you fairly certain your post wouldn't be extremely offensive to anyone (not whether everyone will agree, would they find it offensive)?
Are there no stereotypical groups that you would be uncomfortable saying these things to if you were around a group of just those folks?"
If you can answer yes to these questions, your post is likely not offensive. And if you still answer yes but find your post modified or deleted by the Administrator or Moderator in the future, don't be offended - just respect that it's possible your post may have been offensive and been reported, or was borderline enough to warrant action.

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Selling on the Site

You are welcome to use the For Sale thread. This section is intended for private individuals and supporting dealers to advertise items for sale. Please be advised of the following rules when participating in this forum.

Commercial Posting

Only Supporting Dealers and Vendors, who have paid for the exclusive rights to advertise on this forum, may commercially advertise vehicles, products, and services for sale. Any commercial posting done by members who are not a Supporting Dealer/Vendor will have their post deleted.
Individuals/businesses who wish to become a supporting dealer/vendor may contact: (Not currently available)
For more details on commercial posting rules, please refer to the following link:

Private For Sale ads

Individuals may place for sale adds to sell their own vehicles and other items. They may not use the forum to promote sales/services beyond that. Seller must actually possess any items or vehicles they offer for sale. Bulk sale of items is prohibited.

Disputes on Transactions

The Forum allows paid up ### CLUB MEMBERS to post regarding a bad transaction with a vendor or another Forum member on the ### MEMBER forum, but only after they have made a reasonable effort to resolve the issue offline. Then, when a post is made outlining the problem, the post must be factual and may not deteriorate into a rant or a vendor/tuner/member-bashing exercise.

We leave such threads open as long as they conform with Forum rules/guidelines and in order to give all sides in an issue the opportunity to comment. Then, the threads are locked and archived for future reference. Posts interpreted as bashing will be removed at the discretion of the ### moderator.

The matter may not be addressed in multiple threads or revisited with the same already-posted information on subsequent days.

Etiquette for posting

It is inappropriate to throw cold water on the For Sale threads posted by other members or a vendor by attacking the price or quality of the [JEEP], parts or service being offered for sale or suggesting alternate sources for the item.

If you don’t like the price or the item being offered, move on.
It boils down to this: If your contribution to a For Sale thread does not advance the sale of the item being offered, you’re probably in the way and shouldn’t be in the thread. If you don’t like the deal, you should take it to e-mail or PMs.

NOTE TO USERS OF THE FOR SALE SECTION
Other than asking for clarification or further information, postings are not for discussion. This section can be thought of as an online classified ad.
All transactions are "caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware), and it is the responsibility of the buyer to research their sale. RESEARCH, QUESTIONS NOT DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE SALE POSTED, DISCUSSION OF 'FAIR PRICE', ETC. CONDUCTED WITHIN A FOR SALE THREAD IS CONSIDERED THROWING COLD WATER ON THE SALE AND ARE NOT ALLOWED. There are many sources for researching and discussion such topics. Just don't do it here.
If you believe other Forum members are in jeopardy because of the seller's offer, notify a moderator.

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Thread Hijacking

Hijacking a thread is not considered good etiquette.
There are several definitions/methods of hijacking a thread; any and all are considered poor forum etiquette.
Examples;
Asking a new question that is completely off topic to the original thread post.
Two or more members begin “chatting” in a separate “personal” conversation.

Why the concern about “Hijacking threads”?

Users join threads because they find a thread compelling and feel they must get involved. A number of users sign on, hit "Today’s Active Topics" and read the few of interest to them. But, if the thread is titled for one topic and changes a few posts in, chances are only a very few people are ever going to see it, however marvellous and useful it ends up being.
Also, it isn't fair to the originator of the thread, since many are reluctant to interrupt an ongoing conversation, even if it's just to return to the title topic.

Yes, you can even hijack your own thread. I guess the thought process is something like "I started this thread, I'll discuss what I please". This is self-defeating, since once a thread is off-topic most will lose interest and never return, even if it drifts back.

Give a little consideration to other posters and readers. You can always start a new thread based on an offshoot of an ongoing thread.

P. S. If a thread is "hijacked" the hijacking post(s) may be edited and labelled with a friendly reminder or it may be removed/deleted.

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Forum Provocations

"Troll," in the context of forums and the like, describes somebody who is posting just to be confrontational or to raise hackles. Blatant trolling would be something obviously offensive to members of a forum ("The Jeep is an ugly piece of crap and should be banned from the hills" is one example).

There are more subtle trolling techniques as well. One Internet dictionary (www.whatis.com) gives a real example in which somebody posted about "the discovery of an ancient African carving containing a list of prime numbers." The poster listed some of the prime numbers supposedly on the carving, some of which weren't actually primes. People, who saw the message, thinking he was serious, responded with corrections. The troll then announced that those who spent their time responding to him had been "hooked."

Trolling aims to elicit an emotional reaction from those with a hair-trigger on the reply key. A really subtle troll makes some people lose their minds. A troll is someone who posts to simply gain attention. Trolls contribute nothing useful and often make fools of themselves in the end.
How does one deal with trolls? Many people feel trolls should simply be ignored, and I think most would agree here. If you happen to see a post that says DNFTT, it means "Do Not Feed The Trolls". Ignore a blatant rant, or respond only once and be done with it. Feeding them makes them grow - even negative responses are responses.

The other option is to pounce on every last falsehood and fabrication. This can lead to a classic flame war - which does nothing for topic advancement and can change the flavour of a Forum or make other members quit with the negative atmosphere.

A "Flame War" is back-and-forth posting in an attempt to get the last argumentative post in. It, by definition, stops short of personal attacks or name calling (which can get you banned), but degrades a topic thread discussion in exhaustive, repeated point making.

Best bet: if you're caught by a troll, shrug it off, ignore it, report the posts, and get on to better discussion topics.

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Avatar Limitations

Forum members can select their own avatars by picking an image that is roughly square and no wider than 100 pixels, and less than 26K in size.
The images selected should be in good taste. They should not include nudity or semi-nudity or any image that would be considered lewd, graphic, seductive or suggestive -- the same guidelines used to determine the appropriateness of any image posted on the Forum.

Moderators will try to be consistent in enforcing the Forum’s guidelines on avatar images, but will by necessity have to make subjective judgments. Their decisions will be final.

If you have any questions about the acceptability of an image as an avatar, just PM or e-mail any avatar for a review of the image.

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Emoticons

The use of emoticons without text in posting to a thread can appear to be free posting when it makes no apparent contribution in advancing the topic of the thread. Free posting is a violation of Forum rules. Moderators will use their best judgment in enforcing the rule against free posting.

Free posting is considered bad etiquette because the purpose of a forum is discussion and advancement of interesting topics. It is frustrating to other users who are notified of new activity in an interest when they find no new information was posted.

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Asking Questions

1) Before asking a question please try the search facility to see has it been asked before, to see if your question already has an answer. You might also try looking in each of the Sub-forums, as many times, there are relevant discussion threads "stuck" to the top and you may find your answer there as well.

If you do have a question that seems to be new, PLEASE...

2) Post your question in the appropriate forum
2a) be patient for a reply, and do not post the same question in two different discussion threads.

If you do happen to ask your version of the same question asked before, it's not a big deal, but you may see a senior member on the forum whose head was about to pop from repeated postings from new members asking the same exact question. These repeated new thread questions are called "head poppers."

You'll also likely get a gentle reminder to try the search facility or be directed to the correct area if your question is actually a duplicate. For clarity of the forum, your post/thread may be deleted if no significant discussion is started - but DO NOT FEEL BAD. You'll find the folks here very helpful and friendly.

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