Announcement: TNF's READ ME - UPDATED AND EXPANDED, JULY 2016

Dear All,

The Nostalgia Forum is a wonderful thing, part of one of the best motor sport forums on the Net. We have many loyal and longtime members and whether you are new here, or just wish to remind yourself of the rules that govern this forum (and to a great extent, the entire Bulletin Board - see also the rules in Racing Comments from which these are adapted), we ask that you please take the time to read this, despite its length. Please be aware that not reading through this does not absolve you from abiding by our rules and at all times we will assume that you have read them.

Moderation

The moderators of the forum are volunteers selected from the membership itself. They do not work for Autosport but do this to try and make the forum a better place for everyone to discuss and enjoy motor sport history. If you have any comments, questions or concerns about moderation or moderation policy, we are always happy to hear your feedback. We will always consider and discuss reasonable ideas so please feel free to let us know via Personal Message. Discussions or comments about moderator actions are therefore discouraged in the forum itself even where they involve you. If you want to enquire why your post was deleted or edited, your first step should be to check your PMs - you will probably find that a moderator has sent you one.

Accordingly we would strongly encourage you to switch on one or both of the options to either receive an email when you have a new PM or a pop-up notification when you log in. You can find these under Notifications in the 'My Settings' menu, accessed via the 'doorhanger' under your username at the top right of your screen. If you still can't find your post, ask one of us via PM, but before you do so, check threads with the words [split] or [merged] appended to them as these would have been generated by a moderator and your post may have been moved there.

We will never openly discuss whether a member has been issued with a warning, suspension or permanent ban from the forum. These will always be carried out in private and we believe it is important that it stays this way. Also remember that where your post has been edited, the only people who can see comments are the moderators and you. They - and the number of warning points (if any) displayed under your user name - are invisible to other members in line with general moderating policy.

Acceptable Behaviours

Remember that the most important moderator is you. Trolling and flamebait are strictly prohibited from this forum. Where we see them we remove such posts without warning, but please do not assume that we will have seen (and therefore approved) these posts unless you have taken the time to report them. Responsibility for the atmosphere across the forum or in a thread is as much yours as ours so if you start to attack or respond in a belligerent manner then you cannot really expect things to improve. Note that 'disagreeing with me' is not the same as trolling or flamebait.
When reporting posts, please expand briefly on why or refer to the rule that you think it violates. If you think a post is trolling, tell us that and why it is, as it will allow us to get to the root of the problem quicker, especially if it is not immediately obvious or is a possibly obscure reference. Reporting posts brings difficult posters and problem posts to our attention and while you might not see immediate changes, be assured that we will take note of and consider every single report. Please don't just assume that someone else will have reported a problem post!

Remember that "he started it" is not a valid reason for a personal attack and responding badly is just as much a part of the problem as the trolling. Whilst we welcome differences of opinion, flame baits and deliberately baiting another forum member into a response are not welcome. Neither is thread hijacking; if your post is not directly relevant to the subject being discussed then you should firstly consider whether you should post it at all and secondly whether it either merits its own thread or belongs in another existing one.

Please do not engage in a feud using any of AUTOSPORT.com's tools, whether it is in a public thread or via the Private Messaging system. We do have an "ignore" system on the forum so if you think someone is trying to engage in an ongoing cross-thread argument with you then either report them and say why, try and sort your differences out via PM or use the ignore function. If you receive abusive or spam PMs, please report them to a moderator.

Spammers and new users who troll and disrupt the forum will be banned immediately and without notice - as will previously banned members if we detect they have returned under a new user name. Whilst we welcome all new users, we do not tolerate new users who fail to read and adhere to our rules. Please note that when registering for the first time you will have to respond to an email in order to be accepted as a member - so you must use an address which is both active and can receive mail, otherwise your account will remain forever 'pending'. We try to approve accounts within a few hours of receiving your confirmation. You can manage email marketing permissions via your profile page - and AUTOSPORT will never sell on your details without your permission. If you have lost your log-in details for an existing account, please contact us by email and we will try to resolve this for you.

Remember that posters start threads to encourage discussion or find information on a particular topic of interest to them. Do try using the search function before starting a new thread, though - your question may have been asked and answered previously. You may even find that using Google Site Search, specifying site:forums.autosport.com/forum/10-the-nostalgia-forum as the source, produces better results. If you find a relevant discussion which doesn't quite answer your question, please strongly consider re-opening that old thread rather than starting a new one. Equally, we would ask members of long standing not to simply respond to 'newbies' with an abrupt message along the lines of 'we've done this before - why didn't you use search?'; if you know where the information is, direct the poster to it!

Specific Rules

Xenophobic, homophobic, sexist and other hateful comments are not welcome here. Please report them. Particularly egregious comments may result in the member being permanently excluded without warning. We accept that nationalism, feminism, religion and political viewpoints are important to motor sport but are welcome only where they concern it. Please take viewpoints on other matters to the Paddock Club, to which - if you are an established member - you can gain entry by sending a PM to Slartibartfast, who is the current Paddock Club bouncer.

Here in TNF, we apply slightly different rules to the rest of the board regarding commercial products - providing they are relevant to the history of our sport. Authors, bloggers, artists and webmasters working in this field may promote their work in a sensible - and restrained - fashion. We know how hard it often is to get publicity for your work, but please don't subject the forum to continual spam - or you WILL be banned!

As per this announcement, members may not use this forum to post content, feeds or illegal streaming links they have copied from other websites into the forum without adequate referencing, attribution and consideration of copyright. Since August 2012, this has included AUTOSPORT and AUTOSPORT PLUS articles. For a further explanation, see below.

Although they are part of the history of our sport, please also consider the sensibilities of others when posting potentially upsetting images or videos of what you know are (or suspect may be) fatal crashes. Even if they are relevant to the discussion it is strongly suggested that you either use the 'spoiler' tags which you can find under the 'Special BB code' link in the reply box or simply provide a link to an outside website. Whichever you choose, you should also warn people as a matter of courtesy. We reserve the right to remove or edit posts which do not abide by these guidelines and also to make appropriate edits to posts of previously unidentified images which subsequently prove to be of fatalities.

The forum is used by many people for whom English is a second language. For that reason, and in order to reduce misunderstanding or confusion, txt spk and other unusual contractions are discouraged. Occasionally it will be helpful or necessary for people to use them but users who constantly and habitually use this sort of language will be considered in breach of the rules.

If you are experiencing technical problems with the forum, please post in Website Feedback, not in TNF. You may find that your problem has already been reported by members using other parts of the website - and perhaps a 'fix' may even have been posted. If you can't find a solution, it will help the techies if you can provide as much detail as possible - particularly the operating system and browser you are using - in your opening post.

These rules are not challenges but rather boundaries. We didn't make them up because we were bored, we came up with them after five years of running what is the busiest and largest motor sport forum on the Internet and they still stand after more than twenty. So don't test us: we really do know by now what we're doing. Having said that, know that you can always - ALWAYS - contact one of the moderators by PM and offer advice, feedback, criticism or just make an inquiry.

Copyright

Your attention is drawn to the general terms and conditions for this website, to which you consented when you registered, particularly clause 3 'Prohibited Use' and clause 4 'User-generated Content', and also to this announcement, which, although it quotes a previous version of the terms and conditions dating back to AtlasF1 days, remains substantially in force - at least in spirit.

Please note that copyright issues are often obscure and complicated by the differences in local laws in various parts of the world, so are not open for debate and you must err on the side of caution: if you are unsure whether an image or text is copyright protected, don't post it. Even if you feel the law somehow protects your right to post copyrighted images or text - but you do not have the copyright owner's permission - do NOT post it here. Simple as that.

Notwithstanding clause 4.2 as above, copyright holders who spot breaches - be it an image or a chunk of text which doesn't fall under 'fair use' rules - should in the first instance contact a moderator, either by PM or by email to forums@autosport.com, giving details. Offending posts will be removed or edited as soon as is practicable and the member who posted it will be informed by PM. Any attempt to re-post previously removed copyright material will attract an immediate ban - whether or not you have read the PM (another reason to switch on notifications!)

Thanks for your patience and time. Please, enjoy the forum.

Richard & Tim.