Welcome back and happy new year. You'll notice a few differences from 2005. To name a few:
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1. Rookies are now called New Members.... it seemed some people just couldn't grasp the concept of the term "rookie" meaning "new to the site". Some people took offense and didn't feel the title described them well. So we changed it to a title that better reflects the people who fall into that group. We also renamed the Registered Member group to Proven Member. Though this title may not accurately depict everyone who is in that group, we find that it's a better description of the next step up from being a New Member. We can (and will) be sending those who do not belong in the Proven Member group back to the New Member group as needed.
2. Warning System. For those people who cannot follow the rules that they agreed to when registering, we've implemented a warning system. It's a simple system. You post something that violates our policies, you receive a warning from the moderating team. You can see quickly when you've been warned, as there will be an indicator next to each of your posts that you and the moderators can see. After a certain number of warnings, you'll be automatically suspended for a week. I'll tell you right now, we'll be cracking down on those who feel the need to flame and insult others. I strongly suggest that you start using the
button to report posts instead of getting caught up in arguments and flamewars. There will be no excuse for insults and/or retaliation to insults.
3. Avatars. Please edit your avatar ASAP. We used to use avatars differently than all other sites. They were mostly used as signature photos. Now, your avatar will show up under your username next to each post. This photo should be of your car, and it should be exactly 170 pixels wide. If you need help creating one, I'd suggest using the Photoshop forum in the Hangout to ask for help. You can still use a photo of your car in your signature if you like.
4. A few other minor changes - users can no longer give negative reputation points, as the feature was being misused/abused too much. To combat misinformation, you should use the
button next to the post. This will send a note to the Wisemen and Moderators and we'll see about removing blatant misinformation so that others don't follow bad advice. We'll be adjusting the reputation system even more very soon - more info to come on that later. You'll also see descriptions of the forum you're in up at the top. You'll notice some new functionality in the Gallery, as well as photos showing up in user profiles.
5. Some cool new features - you'll notice there is less clicking necessary to do certain things in the forums. For example, editing a post doesn't require a new page load. That will hopefully make things easier and more efficient. We've decided to turn the Quick Reply back on.
If you come across any errors or problems, please let us know in the Site Feedback forum. Thanks guys, and enjoy!
