This is a community of new MINI Cooper enthusiasts. The goal of the community is to enhance the ownership of your MINI Cooper through the exchange of information. With that exchange the following guidelines must be followed when using our forums, review system, gallery, private messaging system, and other areas of the site:

1. ON-TOPIC
   Posts must be on-topic, relating to discussion of MINI Cooper's or other North American Motoring discussion areas. Posts in the wrong discussion areas will be moved without notice and posts that are not on topic for any North American Motoring discussion area will be deleted without notice.
   
   
2. RESPECT
   When posting, both members and vendors must ALWAYS be respectful of fellow members and vendors. Personal attacks, trolling/baiting, deliberate antagonizing, and flaming will not be tolerated. If you feel you are being attacked, report the post or private message rather than replying or flaming back. However, do not use the report bad post feature to "cry wolf" when you are in fact the instigator of the demise of a discussion. Doing so will result in an infraction or strike.
   
   
3. SEARCH
   Before posting, use the Search function to see if there has already been a thread on the same subject. Do not start identical threads or cross-post the same thread in different forums.
   
   
4. CLEAN
   Do not post explicit, obscene or vulgar language and do not solicit or offer explicit, X-rated, or similar content. Use of the private messaging system in this way is also prohibited.
   
   
5. LEGAL
   Posts relating to street racing, excessive speeding, or violations of other laws are prohibited. If you want to race, take it to a legal venue.
   
   
6. VENDOR
   If you wish to advertise and/or perform market research on North American Motoring, you must be a paying vendor. Click on Contact Us found in the Main Menu block to learn more. Group buys must be arranged through North American Motoring vendors.
   
   
7. DISCUSS
   If you are a vendor selling a product, and you make a quantitative claim about its function or performance, you should expect to be questioned for data to back up that claim. Since this is a discussion forum, posts in areas other than Vendor announcements will result in questions, scrutiny and discussions.
   
   
8. RESPONSIBILITY
   It is the responsibility of vendors and members to address inquiries however they see fit as long as it falls within the Site Guidelines. The moderation team will not respond on the behalf of vendors or other members. North American Motoring is not responsible for posts made by users of the site.
   
   
9. NO OTHER SITES
   Advertising of products or solicitation of traffic for other websites is forbidden without prior express written permission from North American Motoring staff.
   
   
10. POLITICS & BANNING
    Discussions related to politics and banning are not permitted. Comments or questions regarding banning should be sent in through the Contact Us link found in the Main Menu block.
    
    
11. SIGNATURES
    A maximum of 300 characters OR an image with dimensions of 500 pixels wide by 100 pixels and filesize of 30KB or less is allowed. Links to commercial web-sites are not allowed without prior express written permission from North American Motoring staff.
    
    
12. ACCOUNTS
    Each member may have only one North American Motoring user account.
    
    
13. TWO STRIKES POLICY
    Each user starts with 0 points on the site. Violation of any of the above rules can result in the offender being issued a "First Strike" worth 100 points. Warnings and other infractions may carry lower point numbers. Once a user accumulates 200 points, through a second strike or a number of warnings/infractions he is permanently banned from the site.
    
    
14. DISCIPLINE
    Violation of any of the above rules will result in a warning and/or "1st Strike" by the moderation team via email or PM. Interpretation and enforcement of these guidelines is done by the moderators and staff of North American Motoring and all judgments are final. It is not possible to list every possible contingency and variation on each rule, hence the need for human interpretation by the above parties for each specific case.