Terms and rules

Ford Thunderbird Forum (https://forums.fordthunderbirdforum.com)

1. Introduction and Disclaimers
Not Affiliated with Ford Motor Company: This website and its content are entirely independent and are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. The products, opinions, and views expressed on this website and linked sites do not necessarily reflect those of the Ford Motor Company.

No Warranty and Mechanical Advice: The providers of this website ("we," "us," "our") provide this service on an "AS-IS" basis. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or safety of any user-generated content. Any mechanical work or modifications performed on automobiles based on information from this site should be verified and executed by a professional, trusted mechanic.

2. User Conduct and Community Guidelines
By registering and using this Service, you agree to abide by the following rules. We strive to maintain a drama-free environment. A good rule of thumb: Do not post anything you wouldn't say to someone's face at a car show!

• Prohibited Content: You may not submit or link to content that is defamatory, abusive, hateful, threatening, offensive, or illegal. This includes adult content, copyright infringement, spam, self-promotion for commercial purposes, and promoting other forums.
• Profanity & Censors: Profanity, including abbreviations (e.g., "WTF" or "A HOLE"), is strictly prohibited. Do not attempt to bypass our automated word censors by using spaces or special characters. If a word is replaced with asterisks (********), that word or link is not permitted.
• Behavior: Personal attacks against other users will not be tolerated. We are not here to criticize other people, their communications, or their vehicles.
• Classifieds (For Sale/Wanted): All buy/sell/trade listings must be posted in the designated For Sale/Wanted section. Only personal items are allowed. You may not sell mass-produced parts or operate a business entity (personal or otherwise) through our classifieds. Cross-posting threads across multiple forums is prohibited.
• Restricted Access Methods: Logins from VPNs, iCloud Private Relay, proxies, or IP anonymizers are strictly prohibited due to the high risk of fraud associated with these services.

3. Privacy, Monitoring, and Content Rights

• Monitoring: All content you submit, including Direct Messages, may be reviewed by staff members or sent to third-party verification services (such as spam prevention tools).
• Privacy Warning: Do not post private or confidential information, such as your phone number or email address. You are solely responsible for ensuring your posts do not cause legal liability.
• Content License: While you retain the copyright to your content, by posting on this site, you grant us a non-exclusive, permanent, irrevocable, and unlimited license to use, publish, or re-publish your content.
• Promotional Use: Any content you upload, including photographs, may be used by us for promotional purposes, print advertisements, or on our official social media channels.

4. Monetization and Affiliate Links
To keep the site running, we rely on advertising and affiliate commissions.

• Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Links to Walmart, eBay, and other merchants may also be tied to affiliate programs that pay the site owner a commission for sales.
• Automated Links: Your posts may be edited, and phrases may be manually or automatically converted into hyperlinks directing to various affiliate sites (like Amazon or eBay) to support the site.

5. Account Management and Moderation

• Moderation Rights: We reserve the right to remove, edit, or modify any content for any reason, without explanation. Posts that do not add meaningful value to a discussion may be deleted to keep the forum easy to read.
• Bans & Access: We reserve the right to take action against any account at any time. This includes soft banning, permanent banning, and blocking IP addresses. We will determine what is appropriate and remove/ban users as we see fit.
• No Account Deletion: Accounts and related posts will not be deleted after they are created. Forum posts are of historical and public interest. Deleting accounts damages site SEO and wastes administrative resources. Banned account information is retained indefinitely to prevent re-registration under different aliases. If you no longer wish to use the site, simply unsubscribe from emails and stop logging in.
• Memberships & Refunds: Paid memberships are non-refundable and non-transferable. Disputing a membership charge or requesting a refund will result in an immediate account ban.
• Spam Complaints: Do not report our forum emails as spam to providers like Yahoo or Hotmail. If you no longer want emails, use the "unsubscribe" link provided at the bottom of every message. Filing false spam complaints will result in an account ban.

We are a United States-based company doing business exclusively in the US. We reserve the right to update these terms at any time without prior notice. If you do not agree with these terms, please do not register for or use this Service.

6. Cookie Policy

What Are Cookies?
As is common practice with almost all professional websites, this site uses cookies—tiny files downloaded to your computer—to improve your experience. This section describes what information they gather, how we use it, and why we need to store them.

How We Use Cookies
We use cookies for a variety of reasons detailed below. Disabling cookies will downgrade or 'break' certain elements of the site's functionality. Therefore, we recommend leaving all cookies enabled.

The Cookies We Set:

• Account & Login Cookies: Used to manage the signup process, general administration, and keep you logged in between pages. They are typically cleared when you log out, though some may remain to remember your site preferences.
• Email Newsletter Cookies: Used to remember if you are already registered and whether to show notifications valid only to subscribed/unsubscribed users.
• Order Processing Cookies: Essential for our e-commerce facilities to ensure your order is remembered between pages so we can process it properly.
• Forms & Preference Cookies: Set when you submit data through forms (like contact pages) to remember your user details for future correspondence, and to remember your customized site preferences.

Third-Party Cookies
In some special cases, we use cookies provided by trusted third parties:

• Google Analytics: Helps us understand how you use the site (e.g., time spent on the site, pages visited) so we can improve your experience and create engaging content.
• Google AdSense (DoubleClick): Used to serve advertising, providing more relevant ads across the web and limiting the number of times a specific ad is shown to you.
• Facebook Pixel: Used to help us measure and choose our advertising audiences.
• Social Media Plugins: Buttons/plugins for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google set cookies through our site to enhance your profile on their respective platforms or contribute to their data collection as outlined in their privacy policies.
• Testing Cookies: From time to time, we test new features. Cookies ensure you receive a consistent experience while allowing us to understand which optimizations work best.

Disabling Cookies
You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings in your web browser (see your browser's Help section). Be aware that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites you visit.

Contact Us
If you have any questions regarding these terms or our cookie policy, please contact us at: tbird@fordthunderbirdforum.com