Terms of Service and Rules

General Terms of Service

The providers ("we", "us", "our") of the service provided by this web site ("Service") are not responsible for any user-generated content and accounts ("Content"). Content submitted express the views of their author only.

You agree to not use the Service to submit or link to any Content which is defamatory, abusive, hateful, threatening, spam or spam-like, likely to offend, contains adult or objectionable content, contains personal information of others, risks copyright infringement, encourages unlawful activity, or otherwise violates any laws.

All Content you submit or upload may be reviewed by staff members. All Content you submit or upload may be sent to third-party verification services (including, but not limited to, spam prevention services). Do not submit any Content that you consider to be private or confidential.

We reserve the rights to remove or modify any Content submitted for any reason without explanation. Requests for Content to be removed or modified will be undertaken only at our discretion. We reserve the right to take action against any account with the Service at any time.

You are granting us with a non-exclusive, permanent, irrevocable, unlimited license to use, publish, or re-publish your Content in connection with the Service. You retain copyright over the Content.

These terms may be changed at any time without notice.

If you do not agree with these terms, please do not register or use this Service. If you wish to close your account, please contact us.

ZL-Owners Association General Rules and Guidelines

As with any community, rules and guidelines are important to keep the community running smoothly. Please keep in mind our rules whenever posting to keep our community pleasant for members and guests alike.

The ZL-OA community is primarily a general chat/discussion community that targets the Kawasaki^® ZL series of motorcycles. However, any motorcycles enthusiasts are welcome as basic theory and principal applies to many different motorcycle repairs and maintenance.

ZL-OA is a community built around people getting and giving help and guidance. Your behaviour should reflect that. The rules here are not exhaustive and will be modified over time as necessary. Use common sense.

Access to the community is a privilege, not a right, and members who continually breach these rules will find themselves limited or removed from the community, regardless of the contributions they have made to the community.

1. The ZL-OA forums business friendly and should be viewable in business contexts or by children. Please do not post anything which is inappropriate in a business setting. This includes, but is not limited to, profanity, sexual, sexualized or illicit content, illicit drug use, hateful, threatening, provocative or vulgar content, links and websites and discussion encouraging the use of piracy or warez distributions, or any otherwise illegal content. Please do not attempt to circumvent the censoring options we have set up.


2. Be courteous and respect your fellow members. To be clear, personal attacks, aggressive messages, and passive-aggressive behavior is unacceptable. If you take particular issue with another user and are unable to reply in a civilised and constructive way to their posts, you should ignore the user. Members who post for the sole reason of being disruptive (as determined by the Moderators) may be subject to an immediate ban. (Trolling, Flame Wars, etc.)


3. In these ZL-OA forums from time to time there is good natured ribbing but when a thread is started or turns to "make" bashing, these threads will be locked! Please respect that there are members here that own and ride one or more brands.


4. Posts should always be constructive and on topic. For common issues, simply telling someone to search is not acceptable. New or junior members may not know how to get around on the site very well. It would be acceptable to post a link to what they are looking for and tell them you found it using the search engine if need be, or point them to a FAQ section for common answers. If you disagree with a post and feel the need to reply as such, it’s important that you explain why. Off topic posts may be moved or deleted as required.


5. Members are asked to respect the bandwidth of other sites. If you quote text from another web site, please post the source of the text and/or a courtesy link back to the source. Remember fair use of quoted text means no full articles will be allowed. Moderators will edit the post and ask you to repost the article in lesser length along with your comments.


6. If you feel another user is attacking or being aggressive towards you, report their message to staff. Do not respond publicly. This simply continues the back and forth that derails topics and makes them uncomfortable for other users. If someone attacks you and you respond with an attack, you will be warned regardless of who started it.


7. Posts should be made in the relevant forum. Please read the forum descriptions before posting. Moderators will move threads to the correct forum when necessary. Please do not cross-post or double-post topics


8. Do not bump threads unless you have something else to add to the discussion. Updates for the primary purpose of bumping the resource will be removed. Additionally, replying to discussions which have been inactive for several months or longer should be avoided unless you have something of value to add.


9. Please do not attempt to sell or trade any products or services in our community, outside what is explicitly allowed in the classifieds section. This rule also extends to giveaways.


10. ZL-OA is in no way liable if you choose to use Member Services provided by other members here at ZL-OA. However, these services are listed as a good-will and recommended because of positive feedback we have received. If you feel something should be removed due to a problem please contact an administrator.


11. If you recommend a product or service and link to it with an affiliate code, you must disclose the affiliate relationship.


12. Personal information and private discussions may not be posted unless it’s clear that all parties involved have consented.


13. If a moderator or staff member takes an action or posts a directive (for example, to stop with a particular topic), you must adhere to this. If you discover a directive only after you’ve posted a message that contravenes it, delete your post or it will be taken to be ignoring moderators. If you feel that the moderator has abused his or her power do not take matters into your own hands. Contact one of the administrators as a mediator.


14. If you have a problem with or question about a moderator’s decision, contact the moderator privately or submit a message through the contact system. Posts or topics discussing moderator actions will be removed.


15. Similarly, messages involving ZL-OA’s competitors must be constructive. Posts regarding their business practices, staff, and software are generally unacceptable. However, constructive criticism towards ZL-OA in relation to others’ features is acceptable (for example, saying that ZL-OA should function like X in software Y).


16. All content must be posted in English as it is not possible for us to moderate the forums otherwise. Members should post text in a normal and readable fashion. That means we delete a post if it's full of text message lingo. Moderators may adjust any post at their discretion to address this kind of issue. The occasional 'LOL', etc if acceptable.


17. Do not post PMs from other users or staff unless you have their prior permission to do so. Posting a PM or contents of moderated conversations from a moderator or admin may be grounds for a ban.


18. Each user may only have one account. If duplicate accounts are discovered, the duplicates will be banned. If you have problems logging into an account, please contact a moderator or administrator for assistance.
    

Images

1. Please limit size of linked or inserted images to 1024x768

Signatures

1. Signatures guidelines: 500 characters maximum; No images taller than 150 pixels and wider then 450 pixels.


2. Signature text should not be not be distracting by its size or color. (Text size limit = 4)
   Moderators will adjust or remove signatures as needed.


3. Links to competing sites in text or image sigs are not permitted and will be removed by the moderators.

Avatars

1. Users are permitted to upload their avatar, or use a remote image such as Gravatar.com.


2. Avatars guidelines: 96 x 96px maximum size or 144x168px for premium/lifetime/vendors.


3. Moderators will adjust or remove avatars as needed.

Advertising, Marketing & Spam

1. You may not use these forums to advertise your products, services, web sites, or otherwise solicit business or web traffic from the membership as a whole. Spam will be removed. This rule applies everywhere within this community, including the private message system. If you have an item to sell that you feel will help the community, please post it in the appropriate for sale section. See General rule #9. Posts will be removed at discretion of the moderators due to solicitation that does not apply or is off topic.


2. Links to your personal web site(s) are permitted in signatures providing your site complies with all provisions in point #1 above. They should be of normal text size and may not contain, precede, or follow any additional marketing language. As per above, links to competing sites are prohibited and will be removed at the discretion of the moderators.


3. Regular posters in good standing with this community will be allowed to talk about their website once in a while. Spamming a number of forums with this topic or only talking about their website will result in banning at admins discrection.

Policing

Disciplinary actions

1. While This community would love for all of its members to adhere to the board guidelines, we know that some members will not follow the rules. Rule violations have consequences as detailed below:
   
   A Warning - For the first offense of any of the board guidelines through the infraction system. Points may be given depending on the type and severity of the violation.
   Infraction point system – Points are given for violations and are cumulative.
   
   
   • Copyrighted material 1 (expire 14 Day(s))
   • Forum Disruptions 1 (expire 14 Day(s))
   • Repeated Baiting 2 (expire 14 Day(s))
   • "Postwhoring" 2 (expire 14 Day(s))
   • Trolling 2 (expire 14 Day(s))
   • Inappropriate Language 2 (expire 14 Day(s))
   • Insulted Other Member(s) 2 (expire 14 Day(s))
   • Signature Rule Violation 2 (expire 14 Day(s))
   • Advertising another forum 2 (expire 14 Day(s))
   • Commercial Posting 2 (expire 14 Day(s))
   • Inappropriate Language/Photo/Link 2 (expire 14 Day(s))
   • Editing over a Moderator's changes 5 (expire 30 Day(s))
   • Porn 10 (expire 60 Day(s))
   • Racism 10 (expire 60 Day(s))
   • Spammed Advertisements 50 (Never expire)
   • “Custom” points may be given at discretion of moderator/admin, typically between 2 to 10.
   
   **Nothing happens until 5 or more points are accumulated, however if/when your points total up to 5 you will be banned until the points expire. If multiple infractions are issued the points/days are cumulative. Get 50 points and you could be automatically permanently banned!


2. Members will either be warned, receive points or banned when found in violation of the rules. Bans can be temporary or permanent. Members will normally receive warnings prior to earning a ban, but in some extreme cases a ban may be applied without warning.

Every rule is enforced at the judgment of the Owners, administrators and moderators, and decisions are final.

Arguing with moderators in the open forums is strictly prohibited. Members who wish to question a Moderator must use the private message system. Please contact admin if situation cannot be resolved.


3. A Member who attempts to re-gain access to this web site while under temporary ban, will automatically incur a permanent ban. A member who attempts to re-gain access after permanent ban will be caught and dealt with. We do not tolerate rogue email addresses or false information to try to re-gain access.


4. Some permanent bans can be rescinded if certain requirements are met - PM an admin for more information on this. We reserve the right to edit, move or remove any content from these forums at any time for any reason without notice or liability. We reserve the right to ban or revoke privileges of any member at any time without notice or liability.