I recently had a banner removed from my sig by a Mod.
I am not the only one.
This banner had the Logo of a recently created
car enthusiast crew of friends here in SoCal.
The name of the group is 3FiveZeroZ.
Several members on this forum are members.

The banner was removed without any notice to me.

I thought it was a system glitch and replaced it.
The next day it disappeared again. I replaced it
again. Next I get a PM from a Mod with the subject
"Sig" and the Terms of Service for Advertising cut
and pasted.

I have no idea what is going on. The Banner had logos
of the companies I have mods . Nismo, Random Tech, etc.
I thought it looked cool. I figured that this is what
caused the Mod to remove my sig. So I replaced the sig banner
with a new one minus any Performance company logos. I just
had a sunset background and the Words 3FiveZeroZ.

That got the new sig removed and a warning to stop putting a banner in my sig.

Many non sponsor members have banners in their sigs, Some have performance company logos or names in them, A few have car club names in them.

Many members of the 3FiveZero Crew have a banner in their sig
similar to the one I had.

I sent a PM to the Mod asking what can I do in order to have a banner in my sig without violating the sites Terms of Service. I haven’t heard back.


My Point: Some people are allowed to run a banner in their sig while I am not. I was warned to not put a banner back. No details as to what was wrong.
is this fair? Is their a double standard here? I have been an active member of this site for over 6 months. I spend a lot of time here contributing to make this site fun and informational. I also have bought products from many of the vendors here. I know some personally. I try to be courteous and friendly and an overall member in good standing.

I was a little surprised to see the way this was handled.

I don’t understand why the banner was removed and why others are allowed to have it.

Can a Mod please explain to me and the rest of the members why this is so ?

 

Here are the relevent Terms of Use:

9.) COMMERCIAL/PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL
No commercial or promotional materials or links in posts and signatures. Any posts or signatures that can be competition of our sponsors or MY350Z.COM, or obvious traffic stealing posts "may" be removed without notice. Understand that we have sponsors paying money for advertising.

11.) SIGNATURES
Please keep signature sizes down whether it be picture(s) or text. For pictures please keep it below 1MB and at a reasonable resolution. Signatures load on every post, so having a large one will take the page to load longer (especially for those on dial-up). Do not place any advertisements in your signature unless you are an approved sponsor.

From what I recall, the 3FIVEZEROZ signature isn't what is causing the problems. 3FIVEZEROZ is not in competition with anyone. The problem is probably due to your signature having the actual logos of manufacturers. Most likely, some vendor complained that the use of the logos was competition or advertisement and a moderator responded.

What's unusual is that I know you are not the only one that posts their modifications by using company logos. I was considering doing the samething.

I am interested to see how this turns out because I don't believe your signature was inappropriate because you are not a competing vendor. Rather, you are an enthusiast who is displaying his modifications without the intent to advertise or solicit sales.

But, bottom line, if someone complaints about logo usage, it is within the moderator's discretion to take down your signature. You may have to indicate your mods without use of the logos.

 

It happened to me too, I was wondering what was going on. I thought someone was screwing around with my account and even changed the password, thinking someone got a hold of it. The only thing I had was the pic of my car with the "3fivezeroz" logo. I kept putting it back in and it keeps dissapearing. It has to be something with that 3fivezeroz logo I attached my signature, let's see if it dissappears???

 

Mods what's going on. We are not trying to make things difficult for others. Are we in violation if we have a club name here on a sig. I am also new and don't want to stir up someone's coffee. We are just a bunch of enthu's who get together and discuss our ideas as we know you guys are about you Z's.

 

"BTW, did anyone had trouble keeping the "3FiverZeroZ" banner in the sig? Mod keeps on taking mine off and told me its not allowed in the signature..." - Phatmitzu

"yeah bro the Mods killed my 3FiveZeroZ logo Sig. Didnt even tell me they removed it. I thought it was a system glitch and replaced it only to see it removed again, I replaced it again and then got a warning from the mods telling me this is the last time I am going to be warned about it?" - EL Diablo

"That's bizarre! I noticed that both my "3FIVEZEROZ" and "350ZFreak.com" logos were gone a couple days ago. I had just changed my sig to include my new Nismo Shift **** and figured I just screwed up the code somwhere. Hmmmmm... maybe the mods removed it? I haven't recieved any notice and after putting them back on, they are still in my sig so maybe I did just screw up when I updated? Why would they not want 3FIVEZEROZ logos? Are we outlaws now or something?

-Chris" - ChrisMCagle

"I noticed my banner was missing last week. I put it back on. I thought it was a system glitch and had no idea mods were doing it. But WHY tho? Why is it not allowed to put our banners in the sig? I know you are not supposed to "link" to another forum website (free ads). But our "future" website is not going to be a competing site but merely an information purpose only website. Correct?" - SHO-TIME

"Thats what I thought too. Until Mike (Mod) told me "please keep your banner for ad out of your sig". I've explained that its not an ad but just a logo that we designed for the club...still got it taken off anyway
I really dont see it any way different than posting pictures of our cars in the sig. All we wanted is to represent..." - Phatmitzu

_______

Okay, something is definitely wrong. It sounds to me like Victor is thinking that our club is a manufacturer or vendor. Which we are not. If club names can't be posted, then, the Triangle Z club, Group Z, the Tennessee Z club et. al. shouldn't be able to post either.

This is probably a misunderstanding. But, it needs to be fixed.

 

Okay, another Term of Use applies:

3.) OTHER 350Z FORUMS/SITES
You are not allowed to post links to other 350Z forums or sites, unless the topic on hand is related to the topic elsewhere, but you must link directly to the topic, not the site itself. We pride ourselves on the information available here and on our integrity. We will not be affiliated with any other forum which may have lesser standings on rules and policies. If we catch anyone spamming another site via PM or in the forums they will be banned.

3FIVEZEROZ.com may not be linked. As a club, we use this forum for our communications. But, the admin and moderators may not understand that this new site is not in competition with this forum. We may need to discuss this in further detail. In the interim, I suggest we not post any links to any other sites.

 

It's a newly formed Southern California Z club correct?

What is the mods problem??

Why wouldn't they let you have a link TO A Z CLUB's webs site???

That is ridiculous.

 

Agree.. it is just a club .. and somebody pulled the plug ??!!!!




Victor .... mods .. what the hell is going on here ????


This site is not only slowing down .. your responses and feedback are also running at the same the slow speed.

 

I see the club images in your sigs...am I missing something?

Oh, and Victor is the only person with the ability to alter sigs...you can tell us other mods about it, but we can't fix it. If someone hasn't already I would suggest PMing Victor. The only thing that may slow down his response is that he is graduating any day now.

Edit...I see you guys' sigs except none for El Diablo. I don't understand why you wouldn't be able to display a legal sig...

 

I replaced the banner that had company logos in it with one that
said just 3FiveZeroZ. That banner was removed and I was given a stern warning not to put a banner in my sig.
I can understand that maybe company logos may not be ok so I removed them. But the new banner was no different than what most of us in 3FiveZeroZ have. Just the 3FiveZeroZ Logo.

I just recieved a PM from this Mod saying it's not a personal thing and that he is doing this to other people as well.

So it seems some people can have the 3FiveZeroZ logo and some cant, or this mod hasnt gotten around to removing the dozen or so other similar sigs.

Either way IMO it's totally unfair that I can not put 3FiveZeroZ in my banner Sig. We are not selling anything or trying to compete
with vendors. In fact our group of friends in this group support
the vendors here and have spent thousands of our hard earned dollars with them,

My questions are

Can I put a banner back in my sig
and can this Banner have the logo 3FiveZeroZ in it?

Thats all I want to know.

 

Since it's Victor removing the sigs, I suggest waiting until he returns from graduation. Again, he probably thought the banner was some form of advertisement. Hopefully, he'll read this thread and perhaps some of the mods, like Tim, will post that the banners are reasonable and shouldn't be taken down.

But, can you do something about your avatar? j/k. Pretty creepy Silent Hill kinda motive going on there Clint.

 

I guess we'll wait for Victor to see this thread and get an
Offical response wheter or not members of this site can have
their car club in thier sigs.

 

any reference to the 350z that is not on this site can and will be deleted

 

LOL Glad to hear that someone on the board knows what Silent Hill is... I'm guessing that there is a misinterpretation of the 3FIVEZERO theme... looks like if the logo is encompassed within an image it's passable, but if it's by its self then it might look suspect somehow....

 

Have you PMed Victor/Mike?

 

the mods are on this.
Just waiting for them to get back to all of us waiting for an Official answer.

 

Hola Victor. What's the word?

 

So far no new news from anyone.

On 5/15 I recieved a PM from another Mod stating that
this topic would be discussed among the Mods in the Moderators forum.

Sucks that I cant put a banner in my sig like many of us have.

Patiently Waiting...

 

Pretty lame.