By registering on the forums and browsing the associated web pages – you agree to abide by these forum and site rules. If you do not agree with these rules – do not register and do not browse the website. If you’ve never read the rules, already registered, but don’t want to abide by the rules: please cease logging in and browsing. It is your responsibility to keep up to date w/ these rules/terms – as new situations arise, new rules/terms may need to be added to address those concerns. You are responsible for your own actions – no one is singled out for personal reasons.

The staff here works hard to make sure the forums don’t end up like many internet forums. This is not an anything goes community. The forum is to always be safe for work and school, clean, informative, fun, and useful. To that end, we’ve created the following terms to ensure our purpose is accomplished. We run a tight ship, but we feel it is in the best interest of the community.

These “Extended Rules” only exist to cover the Administrations ‘back’ in the very very low percentage of times when a member questions an action taken by a Moderator or Administrator. 99% of the time posts and posters are within line and all is well. However, there is that 1% where someone will be out of line and the Moderator/Administrator needs to take action to keep the community on track – and THAT is when things get out of hand and these Rules need to be explained.

Why is this so long? Why do you even need Rules and a ToS – it’s just the internet-serious-business LOLZ? It’s not about being a “nazi” – it’s about needing to maintain order amongst a multitude of people hidden behind their keyboards. [Read more]

The admin staff has the unappreciated job of maintaining an overall vision for MDStreetScene and for keeping order within a virtual community of people behind their computers. MDStreetScene is a free service that takes time and effort to update and maintain. Given the nature of the internet, there needs to be Rules and Terms set in place to keep the mission and values of the site true. Understandably, this will irritate some users who want to things to run in a way that will allow them to act how they choose. We are unable to please everyone. Please familiarize yourself with the Rules of MDStreetScene.

The forum available at www.mdstreetscene.com/forum, and all linked pages (“Site”, “Forum”), are owned and operated by “MDStreetScene”, and is accessed by you under the Forum Rules described below and the Terms of Use (ToS).

MDStreetScene.com, MDStreetScene, MDSS, and “the site” are one-in-the-same.

“MDSS”, “MDStreetScene”, “the site”, “the forums”, “we” refers to the MDStreetScene online community. The forum community is comprised of hundreds of car enthusiasts who share opinions and information. The content on the forums does not necessarily represent the views of the owner, staff, vendors, or individuals members.

We reserve the right to moderate the forums/site in whatever manner we choose for the “greater good” of the community. We examine each incident on a situation-by-situation basis. This means that, even if you’re not technically breaking any of the previously-listed rules, you could still be subject to being banned, moderated, or removed from the site if we chose appropriate.

What we are about

• Bringing the automotive scene in Maryland to the web
• In depth automotive discussion
• Vibrant sharing of ideas and opinions of all aspects of life
• Drama free — “save the drama for yo mama”
• 100% work and school friendly
• Source for posting events/shows
• Source for meet-ups and new friendships
• Source for automotive help/suggestions
• Source for advertising to car enthusiasts
• Premium/private sections

The Rules [Extended Version]

Common acronyms used on MDSS

MDSS = MDStreetScene

PM = Private Message

OP = Original Poster

NWS = Not Work Safe

SFW = Safe For Work

Username/Accounts

• You may only have ONE USER NAME. Violation of this will result in indefinite banning. There is no situation where you will be permitted to have more than one, should you need anything on your account changed that you cannot change please contact the staff.
• To prevent spam, user accounts are checked and verified/approved by a Moderator before they are granted access. Generally, accounts that were registered in countries other than the United States will be denied access. If you are registering while in another country, send a message to the forum BEFORE you register and we’ll keep an eye out for your registration and push it through.
  • You should be approved within the day (or a few hours). If this isn’t the case, please send a message and we’ll get right on it!
• Accounts that DO have posts attached to them are not deleted from the forum
• Accounts that do not have posts attached to them and have not been active in a certain amount of time may be purged at the discretion of the Admin.

Duplicates

• Search Before Your Post!
• Please use the SEARCH function. It is better to revive an old thread than to create a duplicate redundant thread. Please refrain from making a post just to tell another member to use the search function. It is however ok to answer the question and suggest in the future that they use the search feature.

Correct Thread

• Please post in the correct forum. Do not post your car discussion threads in the “MDSS Lounge” section or any other section; those go in their respective forums. Do not post your photography in the “MDSS Lounge”; that goes in the Multimedia forum and etc.

Staying on Topic

• Staying on topic is important. In the course of a thread it may go slightly off topic, that is the nature of discussion.
• The problem occurs when off topic posts are created to be “funny” or made with the intent to derail a thread – whether you are being funny/sarcastic or serious – whether intentionally derailing the thread or by nature of what you say the thread gets derailed.
• This is a gray area that will require moderation depending on the circumstance and what was said.
• If, at any time, you disagree with the decision, or see something that should be removed, please privately contact us.
• (Note: This rule/qualification was an incomplete thought (the sentence ended 1/2 way through) and was brought to the attention of MDSS Staff on 2/27/13. The sentence has been completed.

Questionable Content

• If you find something objectionable or if you have a question about something or suggestion about content, please PM a moderator of the section or the admin.
• If there is content posted about/involving you by another member and you want that content removed from the forums you need to contact the user that posted said content. Contacting the staff or Administrator will generally not get your content removed — we are very busy with other issues and are not your parents. Settle your differences respectfully and personally with each other OFF the public forum. PM’s are a good way to deal with it.
• No false advertisement. Intentional lying that will knowingly cause chaos is EXTREMELY annoying and no one wants to deal with that. If you have a serious problem, then feel free to post about it, but just saying, “IM GOING TO KILL MYSELF” for the heck of it is mean, rude, and immature.
• Please keep your language clean. We want to remain a site that is not blocked by most web filtering software (schools/businesses, etc.) If you use curse words or vulgar language you might be doing yourself a disservice… you never know who browses these forums. Think of who you would want reading what you write.
• Absolutely NO sexually explicit, gross/disgusting, or excessively vulgar content allowed. Anyone who attempts to post the aforementioned content risks being banned.
• • ALL CONTENT ON THE FORUMS MUST BE *SAFE FOR WORK*
    • Any post AND/OR link to nudity, partial nudity, or suggestive nudity will result in a ban from the site.
    • This includes, but is not limited to lingerie, bikinis, crotch-less chaps, low-cut shirts with breasts hanging out, etc.
    • Videos with foul language must be notated as such and placed w/ a *NSW* (*NWS*) tag
    • First and foremost this is a personal decision to keep the site clean of all such content. It is also to protect from embarrassment of users who browse this site at school, work, coffee shops, etc. There are no exceptions. At all. Under any circumstances. Ever. If you see it, report it.
  • Please limit your use of foul language (cursing & sexual)
    • We want this site to remain open and free of blocks at work and schools
    • Too much cursing and sexual references will hamper that mission
  • If you post something where a decent amount of the information or ideas presented are taken from an outside source, cite it. We don’t need it to be APA format or anything, just give us a link or an author and title. And definitely don’t try to pass it off as your own work if it’s not. Not only does it help all of us out, but it’s the law.
  • Re: the “Doughnut Section” — This is a place to find information or ask a question. It is not a forum for you to bash, flame, or name-call police officers

Bullying/Insults/Disrespect

• Disrespect, insult, hate, rudeness, bigotry  racism and making anyone feel uncomfortable will not be accepted here – whether you find it funny or “innocent’ or not. You would think this would be obvious – but it’s not.

Accuracy

• It’s very important to keep the information on this site as accurate as possible. This is extremely important in the tech-based areas, as incorrect information could result in members buying the wrong parts, or worse yet causing actual damage to their vehicle.
• Please be very careful with the way that you answer questions. If you are not sure, make that clear. Repeatedly posting inaccurate information (“talking out of your ass”) will subject you to the standard warning system the site uses.
• We want people to post and exchange ideas, but we do not want erroneous information floating around the site.

Buying & Selling

• All business transactions, receipts, sales, etc, is the responsibility of the seller and/or buyer.
• MDSS and its respectable faculty WILL NOT be held responsible for unpaid merchandise, un-received merchandise, theft, damaged goods, damage that my occur during shipping, or anything that goes on between a buyer and a seller. We do not promote fighting so if someone rips you off, its upon you to take action.
• MDSS takes no part in the sale other than to provide a medium in which to post and discuss items.
• *MDSS does not permit shops or businesses to advertise their services or sell their products/vehicles on our website or community forum without becoming a paying Vendor.
  • This includes employees posting inventory of their business. The staff will decide what is considered “advertising” when necessary.*
  • Advertising includes signature images, avatars, links in signatures, interjecting in others threads offering your services, etc.
  • You may not post your businesses/personal services information in your signature, profile, avatar, post/thread, or Private Message.
  • For information on supporting the site by becoming a Vendor, please contact us here. Information is located here.
  • MDSS Vendors are NOT immune from “negative” posts regarding their products or services. However, Forum Rules/Standards/Common Sense still does apply (i.e. tact, respectful, no name-calling, truthful, facts present, etc.)

Removed Posts/Threads

At times, your posts (either partial or full) or thread may be removed/deleted from public view. (Historically, it has been because of blatant insults of a member or staff and comments that add nothing positive to the discussion and/or derail the thread.)

• If you have an issue with something being removed from pubic view please contact MDSS staff via PM or the Contact Form
• Do not create a new thread asking the public why something was deleted and why you feel it should not have been deleted
• Do not repost the thread.
• Do not post a thread asking why the thread was deleted or complaining about it.
• Do not complain about it in the chat box.
• If you repost a thread that has already been deleted or a post that has been deleted, it will result in an indefinite BAN determined by the Admin based on the content of what you reposted and your previous history.
• Don’t go spreading rumors, in correct facts, or gossip. That’s for high school girls…

Misunderstandings

• If you have a miscommunication or issue between you and another member(s) (or MDSS staff), keep it to PM.
• You must include a DIRECT LINK to the thread/post in question at ALL TIMES. We do not have the time to search around for it.
• Violation of this rule may result in a ban
• Don’t go spreading rumors, in correct facts, or gossip. That’s for high school girls…

Drama/Flaming

• “If you don’t like it, ignore it” or respond civilly
  • If you don’t like someone’s opinion, just ignore it. If it really bothers you, PM them or contact them some other way.
  • It’s all in how you say it.
• Respect each other. Show maturity. Be civil. Don’t call each other names (unless you are friends and are joking). Don’t come on here to be ignorant. Have some tact.
• It’s ok to disagree with someone
• What is not ok is to be directly slanderous. We do not want personal attacks taking place on the forums.
• If you register on the forums simply to cause drama or start an argument with a member, you will be banned.
• Posts or threads made to start drama will be deleted and the member will be dealt with accordingly
• Blatant attacks on members for no visible reason or to the management of the forum will not be tolerated. You have a right to disagree, use sarcasm, and question someone’s reasoning when it is deserved, but just attacking people for the heck of it isn’t courteous, polite, or wanted on this forum. We take this very seriously.
• When linking to outside websites, please use reasonable judgment. IF your website could be found mildly offensive to some people then IN CAPS post “MAY CONTAIN OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT” on either side of the link; preferably with a description of what the link is there for/about.
• Please don’t reply with one-worded posts. Posts that only consist of “haha” and “lol” aren’t benefiting anyone, and are quite annoying when used in bulk.
• No personal conversations via threads. If a thread turns into a personal conversation or if you want to have a personal/private conversation with someone in particular, use the PM’ing system or AOL Instant Messenger. That’s what it’s there for.
• Be courteous in your posting. Flaming, as in personal attacks on another member, will not be tolerated. Attack ideas, not people.
• Show some effort in your posts. Try to use at least minimal punctuation (IE commas, periods, paragraphs ect) when posting. CRAP LIKE THIS wIlL bE dElEaTeD 4 teh sake uf evry1.
  • If you want some help on this, go to http://toolbar.google.com/ and get Google toolbar, it has a spell checker in it.
  • Or get the FireFox web browser.

Posting for Others

• There will be NO posting for other people anywhere for any reason on the site. You’re the one making the post. That’s it. People who are BANNED or not REGISTERED CANNOT have posts created by other members or it will result in consequences. There is no excuse for ANYONE to post for someone else. If you are banned, your information is un-desired here on MDSS.
• At this time, we do have one exception, which is posting a part or vehicle for sale for someone else. You may do this. However, if this is abused, we will have to disallow it.
  • You may NOT post an item for sale for a user who was previously banned from MDStreetScene.com

Infractions

• The forum includes an “Infraction” system which allows Staff to issue infractions to users who break the rules.
• It’s basically like getting a ticket.
• We are working on this system and will not hand out infractions until we figure out points and logistics of how it will work.
• Infractions add up and can result in temporary or permanent bans
• It’s not the end of the world. The Staff has found that.
• Infractions can be viewed by other members of the community and could be viewed as a negative thing if you’re trying to sell something or it could affect how people respect your opinion.
• The infraction system is mostly automatic.

Banning

• Should you follow the guidelines posted you should have no problems here on MD Street Scene, but we still need to outline our warning and banning policies.
• As threads go off topic a moderator may step in and warn the thread in general, this is not the same as being warned directly via a private message.
• TROLLS – If you register with the sole intent to start trouble you will be banned.
• It is also important to know that you may be banned without any, or minimal warning. This may result from your continuing to agitate a situation after a member of the staff has stepped in to try to resolve it. If you are banned in a situation like this the ban will generally be much shorter and will be used as a “cool off period”. A banning without warning may also result in troll situations.
• If you are banned (either temporarily or permanently) DO NOT RE-REGISTER. Temporary bans are just that! They will be lifted shortly. Should you attempt to re-register, at the discretion of the administrator, your account may be banned permanently. Serve your time.
• You may not allow a banned user to use your username/account for ANY REASON. (No PM’ing, selling things, posting content, etc.)
  • You may not post anything for sale of a banned member or make a post on a subject on their behalf. They should have no presence on the forum community whatsoever.
  • Your account will be banned if we discover you allowing a previously banned user using your account for any reason.

Premium Membership

• There are no refunds for Premium Membership subscriptions or donations.
• Subscriptions are recurring. Whether you chose a 1 month or 1 year subscription, you will be billed automatically by PayPal until you physically/manually cancel the subscription from within your PayPal control panel.
• It is the buyers responsibility to cancel the subscription if they wish PRIOR to being re-billed.
• If you are banned from the forums and you still have time left on your Premium Membership — you WILL NOT be refunded.
• If you would like to make a donation and/or get Premium Membership that will NOT be automatically re-billed — simply send money via PayPal to support@mdstreetscene.com — we’ll have to manually set you up w/ Premium Membership — but we won’t re-bill you later.

Signatures, Avatars, & Profiles

• We understand that people like to express their creativity by having signature images using snippets of their car, and or various other images. In fact there are even many threads in our “Multimedia” area discussing how to make them or even members offering to make them for you.
• Absolutely no Not Work Safe (NWS) content in signatures, profiles, avatars, or user titles. Text or images.
• Your signature may be a total of 4 lines w/ 1 single 500 x 100 image (max)
  • 1 image and 3 lines of text -or- no image and 4 lines of text
  • Text must not be larger than “Size 2”
    • Text may NOT be wider than the maximum width of a signature image. SO, that means 500 pixels.
• We require this to keep the forums clean, orderly, and easy to read.
• Signatures that don’t meet these requirements will simply be removed. We’re done dealing with it.
  • You may re-add your content of PROPER size as you wish.
    • If you re-add your original offending content, you will be given an infraction and may be temporarily banned.DON’T PUT IT BACK!

Judgment

• The judgment of the Staff/admins is final. While we are striving to keep the forum a place of open discussion, but there HAS to be a final say or chaos will ensue.
• We reserve the right to moderate the forums in whatever manner we choose for the “greater good” of the community. We examine each incident on a situation-by-situation basis. This means that, even if you’re not technically breaking any of the previously-listed rules, you could still be subject to being banned, moderated, or removed from the site if we choose appropriate.
• We play favoritism. We favor those that positively contribute to the community without causing issues. The Staff bases their decisions on your activity in this community. We look at what you say: past and present. If you’ve caused trouble before, we are going to be less likely to provide you with a favorable outcome – sorry. Keep that in mind.
• The administration of this site is to be respected at all times and in all situations. Should you have an issue with any staff member, please contact the administrator. Failure to show respect is grounds for an immediate permanent ban. We are providing a free service to you. It takes a lot of time and effort to run this community and website. Not being treated with respect is not acceptable – it’s rude.
• Please feel free to respectfully ask any questions you may have.

Copyright

• All content on this website (including text, photographs, audio files, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
• You must attribute the work in the manner that clearly identifies it was created by myself.
• You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
• You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.
• No portion of this site, including, but not limited to, text and photographs, may be reproduced either electronically, or by any other means, without prior written permission. (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0)
• By posting on the MDSS forum or website, you grant MDStreetScene the exclusive rights to re-post, share, and otherwise reuse the content you post (text, photos, videos) at the sole discretion of MDSS.

Section 230c of the Communications Decency Act

PROTECTION FOR `GOOD SAMARITAN’ BLOCKING AND SCREENING OF OFFENSIVE MATERIAL- `(1) TREATMENT OF PUBLISHER OR SPEAKER- No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider. `(2) CIVIL LIABILITY- No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be held liable on account of– `(A) any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected; or `(B) any action taken to enable or make available to information content providers or others the technical means to restrict access to material described in paragraph.

Last Updated: 27 February, 2013 @ 6:27PM by MDSS Admin (Staying on Topic section was modified)