Bus Zone Forum
www.buszone.co.uk
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The Bus Zone Forum is hosted at Yahoo!Groups. If you have problems accessing the Yahoo site you can join the group via email by sending a blank message to buszone-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. If you still have problems, please get in contact as it still may be possible to sort something out.
Alternatively, all of the latest news is highlighted on the Bus Zone Updates page which has archives back to January 2002. Additionally, the Bus Zone News Page offers more detailed reviews of selected events from the Bus Zone area. Important items posted to the Yahoo!Group by members will usually be highlighted on these two pages shortly afterwards - if not before!
General Points
- The message archive is open for viewing with or without membership.
- You must become a member in order to post a message to the Forum. Alternatively you are also welcome to email items directly here for inclusion on the Forum, Updates Page, News Page or any other pages.
- Regular visitors are encouraged to register as a member.
- All membership requests have to be approved by a moderator to help prevent spam getting through. In normal circumstances requests will be approved within 48 hours.
- Whilst it is preferred that a username should help identify who the user is in the off-line world, this is not essential. However messages from those who choose not to provide an identity are more likely to be dismissed should their message contradict or conflict with those from others.
- Attachments are currently allowed with submissions to the group, but remember only those who are set to receieve messages via email will receive them. Please try to keep file sizes below 450kb.
- Files and photos can be uploaded to the relevant sections of the group home page for members to view.
Rules and Regulations
- Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. Flaming or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.
- Members should remember the forum is aimed at a general audience. Posting generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.
- Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc.
- Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Users consistently abusing this will be warned.
- Members should try to use an appropriate, descriptive title when posting a new topic. Examples of bad titles include; "Help me!", "I'm stuck!", "Question", etc. Examples of good titles include; "Route 17 Question", "Sightings from 28th May", etc.
- Please avoid posting test messages, and instead wait until you have something relevant to contribute.
- Please avoid posting thank-you messages, and instead email the person/people directly.
- Spam is not tolerated under any circumstance.
- The moderating team reserves the right to edit or remove any post at any time. The determination of what is construed as indecent, vulgar, spam, etc. as noted in these points is up to moderators and not users.
- The above forum rules where applicable also apply to the chat facility. Abuse of the system may lead to warnings (as above) and/or the revocation of the facility generally.
Policing
- Bus Zone operates a three strike policy. Users will be warned a maximum of three times for any and all offences in a three month period. If the need arises for a fourth warning a temporary ban will be put in place of between 1 to 7 days.
- Arguing with team members after having received a warning will lead to an immediate additional warning. Should this exceed three strikes a temporary ban will be put in place as above.
- Users who feel they have been unfairly warned are welcome to contact other moderators or the group owner. If they feel you were treated badly they can remove a warning. Their decision is final. Contacting group members over warning matters should be done so as a very last resort... group members do not want to be bothered unless vital.
- Any attempt to circumvent a temporary ban will lead to that ban being made permanent. Circumvention includes re-registering under a non-banned username or registering a new email account to evade an email ban. Circumvention includes posting as an anonymous user.
- An exception to the three strike rule applies when users contact team members personally (via any method) and post insulting, indecent or vulgar material. Such users may be subject to an immediate permanent ban.
- Permanent bans are a last resort and thought is given before implementing them. While Bus Zone may consider lifting permanent bans from time to time this is a rare occurrence.
Forum History
Until 6th January 2006 the Forum had been hosted by Bravenet here. The decision to move was taken primarily due to the increasing number of intrusive adverts being placed on the page by Bravenet, and the wider range of facilities that are available on Yahoo!Groups. Whilst Bravenet had it's advantages in terms of accessibility, it was felt that the time had come to make a move. If you have any comments about the move, please do make them known as the situation will be continually monitored. The Bravenet Forum will be kept online for the time being just in case any issues should arise with Yahoo. Beyond that however, it is intended that this page should become the first port of call should any problems develop.