Guidelines

The Board

What are the general rules for posting on the site?

As well as the registration agreement terms (listed in front and at the end of the URL for the image (you can get this by right clicking on the image, selecting properties, and copying the URL), and putting a tag at the end. To paste an image from the gallery into your post, use this method above. For example, http :// www. celica-club.co.uk /forum/uploads/1152393997/gallery__26_4347.jpg " /> (without the spaces) will post a picture from the gen 7 facelift brochure.

Please follow the following rules though for posting images:

• Keep sizes realistic - most people have screens approximately 1000 pixels wide; try not to make them any wider. If taking pictures off a digital camera, resize them first.
• DO NOT post pictures of club member's cars' number-plates. If the owner has been identified elsewhere this can be a dangerous and irresponsible thing to do. Edit them out in a paint program
• JPG, JPEG, PNG, TIFF or GIF files only

As with all forum issues, if you have a problem, ask someone, as most people will be happy to help.

What are the rules for signatures?

Members are allowed up to 500 characters in their signatures. The forum software will not show graphics, the club does NOT allow these as they clog up pages and add to the download times. Signature banners will be removed.

The use of smilies in signatures is not recommended but is at the member's discretion. Links to other appropriate sites are acceptable (though commercial adverts will require the member to have a corporate membership, see previous rules on membership).

Who should I talk to about problems with the forum?

Please post details of any forum problem in general discussions or newbie discussions. If this isn't possible because the problem is severe enough to stop you posting, please email details of your problem to the relevant moderator as listed on the celica-club Contact Us page. Details on contacting moderators are listed later. Some problems are known (see below) so check the FAQ's first and foremost.

Arghhhh my thread has disappeared! What's happened?

There are four possible explanations. Firstly, if the topic has not been replied to in a while, the thread will come off the initial list. It is still on the system, but it's missing from the indexes, so you can't see it. However it is straightforward to get it back.

1. Click on the profile of someone who originally posted on the thread
2. Click on "Find content" on that user
3. Find the thread that has disappeared in the search results. Click on it
4. Reply to the thread with a short message or use the "Bump this topic" button to show you are bumping it back.
5. Change the default setting of xx days topics to show in that forum to a higher number, meaning it will then show you older topics.

The thread will now reappear in the indexes.

The second explanation is that you posted the thread in the wrong area. A moderator will have moved it to the correct area.

The third explanation is that the thread contents were unacceptable to the board, and it has been removed. In this instance, you may be notified privately.

The fourth explanation is that the topic was 'pruned', certain forums are pruned of topics ranging from 7-90 days. I.E. if you can't find a topic in a forum that you created or replied to after xx days, then it's possible that the topic was pruned as it had had no replies for x/xx days (depending on the setting for that forum).

What are all these abbreviations?

There are standard forum ones, such as;

IMHO = In My Humble Opinion. Good one to use to downplay an otherwise sensitive remark.

ROFLMAO = Rolling On Floor Laughing My Ass Off.

IMO = In My Opinion

ROFPML = Rolling on Floor Pissing Myself Laughing.

LOL = Laughing Out Loud.

AFAIK = As Far As I Know

BTW = By The Way

IIRC = If I Recall Correctly

HTH = Hope That Helps

However, within celica-club, you may see these used as well:

Mr T = Toyota

G7 = Generation 7 (also G6, G5 etc etc)

W2TC = Welcome to the club

HB2u = Happy Birthday to you!

FAFF = What owners of ST205 GT-Four's refer to their cars as due to the constant 'faffing' about they do!

I'm not sure how I should start joining into conversations?

The safest way is to lurk for a while and get the flavour of how the community works. Then post a thread in either Newbie Discussions or General Discussions saying hello, who you are, what car you have etc. You will be welcomed by members and the Moderators alike. It's best not to steam in with a big list of opinions if your counter shows its your first or second post, and you haven't said hello, because you might get shot down somewhat!

Why are people accusing me of shouting?

THIS IS BECAUSE YOU LEFT THE CAPS LOCK ON AND PEOPLE THINK IT'S EXTREMELY RUDE!! See what I mean? If you do this repeatedly (people will always point it out nicely first time) you may be flamed.

Am I allowed to swear?

Swearing can be tolerated on occasions but continuous usage of swearing and extremely explicit swearing will be reprimanded.

What's with the picture under people's names on the left? (the avatar)?

Members are allowed a picture up to 160 x 100 pixels and up to 50K under their name. If attempting to upload a picture above this size or file size, it will resize automatically. Details on the procedure to upload is Here

Pornographic or offensive images are not allowed as avatars. The avatar image is hosted on the celica-club site and so therefore must adhere to our server's hosting regulations.

Why can't I post in certain forums?

To post at all on Celica-club, you need to be logged in. Register to the forum by visiting this address Here. If you are already logged in but finding there are certain forums you cannot post to this is because you need to become a full member of celica-club. Details on membership are Here.

As a basic member, you can post in the following forums:

• Newbies Forum
• For Sale/Wanted
• Group Buys
• Complete Drivel

Club and Corporate members can post in ALL forums.

Please note: These capabilities are subject to future change

I'm not sure where to start my thread. Where do I put it?

As a basic member, all questions, discussions, and chat should go in Newbie's discussions. Posts within the other threads available should be as per the rules listed below.

For Club or Corporate members, the following rules of thumb should be used:

Newbie Forum: Any chat where the opinions and replies from non-subscribing members have been specifically canvassed.

General Discussion: Any Celica, celica-club, or indirectly celica-related chat that does not fit into any other category, that is not generation specific OR is generation specific but considered of interest to all members.

Modifications: Any chat related to the modification and/or maintenance and related technical discussion of the Celica, either directly or indirectly, that is not generation specific OR is generation specific but considered of interest to all members.

Meetings: Any chat related to car and/or member meetings, club or non-club related, and the organisation of future meets and reporting on previous meets.

Audio: All AV in car equipment. Also including electrical mods such as security, lighting, radar/laser equipment, etc.

Insurance: All chat related to car insurance.

Gen 1- 3 : Chat related to Gen's 1 to 3 of the Celica.

Gen 4 : Chat related to Generation 4 Celicas.

Gen 5 : Chat related to Generation 5 Celicas

Gen 6 : Chat related to Generation 6 Celicas

Gen 7 : Chat related to Generation 7 Celicas

GT4 : Chat related to All Generation's of GT-Four's

(when posting in the generation specific area, the best placed threads are those that which you are sure (in your judgement) would be of little or no interest to those members who are unconcerned with that generation of Celica)

Group Buys : Threads which are discussing, initiating, or gauging interest in Group Buys ONLY. (see rules below)

For Sale/Wanted : Items for sale or wanted. Preferably Celica/car related but not essential. (see rules below for exceptions)

Supplier/Part Reviews: Reviews, requests for information, or general information on celica/car related parts and suppliers.

Off Topic: Trivial posts about car/celica related topics, or sensible posts about topics not at all celica/car related, though excluding all posts deemed unconstructive or posted for no discernable reason. These should be placed in complete drivel. (below)

Complete Drivel: Very lightly moderated forum containing all Trivial/silly posts about topics not at all celica/car related, jokes, links to humours threads and pictures, and almost anything goes. However, any porn other than something you could buy off a top shelf, racism, and any other form of unacceptable abuse is not allowed. Any posts containing any of these will be instantly deleted and the member posted shall be warned. Strictly over 18 only.

Here is an example of what sort of threads would go in which forum.

• "How fast does a Celica go?" -> General Discussions
• "How fast does a Scooby go?" > Off Topic
• "How fast does a fart go?" > Complete Drivel

Help! I've been offended by something someone wrote, or 'flamed'. What can I do?

"Flaming" is what people do when they express a strongly held opinion without holding back any emotion. It's the kind of message that makes people respond, "Oh come on, tell us how you really feel." Tact is not its objective.

While flaming is a long-standing network tradition with the recipients of flames sometimes deserving the heat, it can easily spiral out of control. Netiquette does forbid the perpetuation of flame wars -- a series of angry letters, most of them from two or three people directed toward each other, which can dominate the tone and destroy the camaraderie of a discussion group. It's unfair to the other members of the group. And while flame wars can initially be amusing, they get boring very quickly to people who aren't involved in them.

A good rule is to do unto others as you'd have others do unto you. Imagine how you'd feel if you were in the other person's shoes. Stand up for yourself, but try not to hurt people's feelings. When you're holding a conversation online -- whether it's an email exchange or a response to a discussion group posting -- it's easy to misinterpret your correspondent's meaning. We can help communicate our feelings through the use Smilies and acronyms such as LOL, LMAO etc. (discussed elsewhere). We understand discussions can get heated and that's no bad thing, but if abuse goes too far or gets unnecessarily personal, and one party complains, we reserve the right to move or edit it. Overly racist, xenophobic, homophobic or vulgar postings may be removed entirely. If you are adamant your argument must be played out do it via PM (private messaging) - keep it off the forums.

What other celica forums are there?

Well, you shouldn't really need to ever visit any other, but our friends across the pond have a few very large sites worth visiting.
 
Can I make a donation to CCUK?
 
Yes you certainly can, there is a donate button at the bottom of the website so you can donate towards club equipment (or just to donate towards running costs etc..) any amount is welcome and once you do we add an icon to your profile in recognition of your donation.

I want to be thrown off as quickly as possible. What's the best way?

Hmm. Well, the following activities are frowned upon big style:

• Spamming (constant advertising, repeated posting)
• Cross-posting (putting the same threads across multiple boards)
• Swearing a lot (a little cursing is fine, but constantly is a no-no)
• Persistent or grossly offensive behaviour
• Threatening behaviour
• Shouting a lot (the Caps Lock key is like the fog light switch - if you push it again, it switches off. Amazing, huh?)
• Persistently breaking any of the rules listed

Any of the above may result in a warning or in extreme cases, being chucked off the board and out of the club.



The Club & The Website

Who should I talk to about problems with the website?

If you are experiencing any sort of problems with the website, sorry. But we're victims of our own success in this instance; due to the unprecedented growth in the club, the loading on the web servers can be quite high. At the time of writing, Celica-club is currently hosted with a 3rd party hosting company, but that company (or arrangement) may change at any time, to suit the needs of the club.

How do I contact a moderator?

Check the website's Contact Us page, found under the 'About Us' Menu. You can see the list of moderators there, along with their email addresses. You can also see the moderators by clicking on the 'The moderating team' Link on the index page. Email is the best method.
If you are experiencing technical difficulties, please read all the FAQ's to see if your problem is covered. Otherwise, contact the webmaster (see about us) if it cannot be resolved. Please note if the whole server is inoperable, the email might be too!

What are the listed suppliers?

These are companies that are either sponsors of celica-club (corporate membership, see above), companies offering discounts or incentives to celica-club, or companies who are good points of contact for all things related to the club. Rules on the inclusion to the list are on the relevant page - (old page removed, new page coming soon).

What's the gallery and how do I add my pictures to it?

The gallery is an area where you can upload your pictures too and display them (club & corporate members only), It is also used to display pictures from club meetings and events and can be found here. To create your gallery do the following:

Go To My Controls>>>Invision Gallery>>>Your Albums>>>Then click the create button, you can then start to add your pictures, to upload pictures to existing galleries (such as meetings etc..) Simply use the upload button in that gallery (if it is still a current gallery).

I'm having gallery problems, help!

Most problems encountered within the gallery can be rectified by the member. A common complaint is the inability for a member to see any folders. Usually this is a just simple case of forgetting to login to the forum. Other times it may be necessary to logout and then log back in again.

The password is also case-sensitive so please keep this in mind if you are having difficulty in logging into the gallery.

Be wary of going over your gallery space limit. For instance 1Mb should be sufficient for at least 10 images if the image size is kept to a minimum where possible.

I'm having website and/or forum access problems, help!

If you are having problems accessing the site, i.e. when you come to the url it just goes blank and so is the forum url's then it's possible that the following is happening.

The internet is made up of 100'000's of routers and nameservers, the simplest way to think of it is imagine the internet is a giant network which is made up of all these different routers and namservers.

When you access a website your connection goes through any number of these routers and nameservers and if one of them is down or having a fault, then it will affect your ability to access that site, You may well be able to access other sites and forum's but that's because it is more than likely going through different nameservers etc to access them.

There are some tests you can run on your pc which are a ping test and a tracert test, these are done by clicking on your start bar and then select run, simply type ping www.celica-club.co.uk in the bar that will appear and press ok, You should see it give you 3 results, if it comes back with request timed out instead, then that confirms it is not reaching the website (the box should close itself), then type tracert www.celica-club.co.uk in the bar and press ok, that will show you a list of ip address's and a list of names it's routing through to test the connection, the list will begin with your ip address and should end with the ip address of the site and name, if it gets to a certain point and then starts to come back with request timed out, then again it shows you are not reaching the website.

Doing a ping test and tracert test will show if you are reaching the site or not, if it times out then chances are you are also unable to access the site(as per the points above), when you can access the site the ping and tracert tests should work.

It is out of the control of your isp, and our server company, as it could be any nameserver out of the 100'000's that are out there, and any one or more of them that it routes through to get to the server. However it is still worth calling your isp just in case it is something else causing the problem.

This "network" applies to every website no matter where it is, you still have to go through any number of the 100'000's of router's and nameservers to access any website.

Although yes it's probable that changing your isp will mean it will go through different nameservers, It's a bit drastic to change your isp because of this! There's no guarantee that the same won't happen to the isp you move too at some point!

Most nameservers should correct themselves and update its dns info, depending on what the settings are to update them, when they realise that it's not working, and it should take between 24-48hrs, but of course it depends on how regularly it's monitored and who owns it.

The above issue is explained when users are able to access the site from one place (using a different isp and have a different ip address) and then cannot access when on there own isp and ip address.