Rules of Posting
July 2, 2024
You will have read our site Terms and Conditions that you agreed to when you signed up to PistonHeads, but here are the important bits with regards to posting in the forums.
If you are a dealer advertising with us, you should also read our Guidelines for Dealer Pricing and Marketing on PistonHeads, which set out the additional rules you will need to follow in your adverts.
Our approach to moderation
PistonHeads is first and foremost a motoring forum. If our team feel that you are not here to primarily discuss motoring or your posts are not in keeping with the spirit of PistonHeads, we may suspend or ban your account.
We restrict new member access to certain forums for a period of 14 days; once that time has passed access will automatically be granted. As we are primarily a motoring forum, posting rights to our News, Politics & Economics forum are granted after one year of membership and a minimum of 1,000 posts. We also apply a rate limit to the frequency with which you can post, and AI tools to assess content of new posters, to help combat spam.
Swearing is not in itself prohibited (although abusing other users or our moderators is). We do however use automated tools to detect and redact certain swearwords in your posts automatically.
With thousands of posts every day, we cannot proactively moderate every individual post. However, our moderators do proactively monitor overall trends, and if they identify a significant outbreak of a particular kind of banned content or problems with banned users getting back in, they will proactively go looking for posts with that content or by that user.
How to report, how to complain, and how to contact us
If you see any material on our website that you would like to alert us to or if you feel you need moderator assistance, please use the "report" button in the top right of each post. We will be alerted and will take appropriate action in line with our rules referred to below.
If you have been subject to a moderation decision that you believe to be inconsistent with these rules, then you can raise a complaint according to the complaints procedure set out in our site Terms and Conditions.
If you have any other forum query, please read our FAQs first before contacting us. If you still need help, please contact PistonHeads through info@pistonheads.com.
Breaking any of these rules may result in us applying a sanction, such as a forum suspension or lifetime ban, without prior warning.
The minimum age to be a member on PistonHeads is 18 years old.
Offensive usernames and profile pictures are not allowed. Please keep your username under 15 characters; otherwise, we reserve the right to shorten it for you.
Do not post material that could be deemed as offensive, annoying or upsetting. It is illegal to post content that encourages the suicide or attempted suicide of another person under the 1961 Suicide Act. Any such content will be removed and you may be reported to the police.
Do not openly share personal information of your own or others (e.g. address, phone number or email address). Users that post requests for others personal details will be deleted. If you would like to communicate with another member privately, you may Private Message (PM) each other using the member profile page.
Do not name and shame any company or individual, or post content which could cause reputational damage or which could be deemed as libellous or defamatory. To do so puts you at risk of legal action and we may be obliged by law to disclose your personal data.
Do not post for the purpose of advertising for personal or business gain, unless you are responding to a thread in the Car Buying forum and sharing a link to your car that's for sale in the PistonHeads classifieds or adding your PistonHeads classifieds listing to your Readers' Cars thread. Starting a thread specifically to advertise your classified listing or business is not allowed. Other items for sale can only be posted in the respective Marketplace forum and you must not share links to your items for sale outside of this forum.
Amateur sleuthing for whatever reason is not allowed.
Do not bypass or circumnavigate the site's swear filter. Do not post images or links to content that would not pass the site's swear filter.
Do not be deliberately contrary, or argumentative for the sake of it, or post content that is off topic and not related to the thread.
Threatening someone with violence or harm will result in an instant ban and will be reported to the authorities.
Do not post links, gifs or images which could be seen as offensive or unlawful towards any of the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.
Posting any images, gifs or clips of pornographic material will result in an instant ban.
Do not post any Not Safe For Work (NSFW) images, links, gifs, or clips on any thread.
Do not post any copyright-protected material without permission including streaming sports content. If in doubt, don't post it.
Do not post links to sites that supply illegal material or encourage other unethical/illegal activity.
Do not copy and paste content from newspapers, news sites or other websites. This is a breach of their copyright and any such threads will be deleted.
Types of threads/posts that are not permitted in the forums:
Do not create threads about your own personal websites, blogs or social media channels. This will be deemed as advertising in line with rule 6.
For sale threads/posts are only allowed in their respective Marketplace forums. See rule 6 for what is allowed.
Valuation/what's it worth threads in any shape or form, regardless of item.
Requests for VIN or car registration data.
Vehicle wanted threads of any description. Parts wanted threads/posts may be allowed at the discretion of PH.
Swap threads in any form.
Where to advertise/sell, thinking of selling up threads.
Links to your friend's or family's adverts, unless you are posting in the Car Buying forum responding to an existing thread (see rule 6).
What's wrong with my ad/Why isn't it selling? type threads.
Job adverts (recruiting or wanted) are allowed in the "Jobs and Employment Matters" forum only.
General banter/nonsensical threads that don't fit into the spirit of PH may be removed.
Foreign language posts.
Spamming or trolling - members will receive an instant suspension/ban.
The publication of comments that could affect the outcome of an approaching or ongoing court case, whether criminal or civil.
Threads specifically to discuss the appearance of a person or group of people.
Do not post to encourage self-harm or suicide, including images and links to self-harm content. If you see someone is in need of support with their mental health, please report it to us immediately.
Group buys and limited run rare parts threads are permitted, but we reserve the right to remove them if we feel they are being abused or are overly commercial.
Cross posting across multiple forums is not allowed without prior permission/consent from info@pistonheads.com.
With the exception of the business forum, do not discuss business on the forums (e.g. supplying contact details or discussing prices). You may invite members to send you a PM through your profile, should you wish to discuss any such matters privately.
Do not create multiple profiles, attempt to use another members account to post content without permission, attempt to gain access to other users' data in any way, or impersonate anyone. A forum ban is for life, and you cannot create another profile if you are banned however you will be able to continue using the classifieds with your existing account.
You may not promote charity events; recruit for charitable donations, surveys or petitions; or seek votes for competitions.
Abuse towards our moderators will not be tolerated and will result in your account being suspended or banned. You cannot contact moderators directly. Do not start a Website Feedback thread about specific moderation cases, these will be deleted. If you have a complaint or issue with the moderation of the forums, please consult our forum FAQs and site Terms and Conditions.
Any messages involving threats of or encouraging public fear, terrorist threats or threats towards CarGurus/PistonHeads, its employees or other individuals will be escalated to the relevant authorities.
Any activity involving underage sex, the grooming of children or distribution of child exploitation content (e.g. publishing illegal website links or posting illegal photos) will be escalated to the relevant authorities.
PistonHeads and CarGurus UK Limited are committed to the privacy, safety and security of all our users and customers. If you discover any potential security vulnerability, please report it to us through info@pistonheads.com or privacy@cargurus.com and we will investigate it and respond to you as soon as possible. To help us to research and resolve any potential vulnerabilities as quickly as possible, please include full details of any issue when submitting your report. Publicly disclosing any potential vulnerability could put the wider community at risk; therefore, we encourage you not to publicly disclose any potential issues until they have been addressed and a resolution has been confirmed by us.
All matters relating to conduct in the forums and compliance with these posting rules will be determined by the moderators under guidance from PistonHeads management. We will take action if these rules are broken, so make sure you read them carefully as your continued membership depends upon it. PistonHeads reserves the right to remove threads and comments without prior notification or warning.
We actively encourage all users to report any content they feel is offensive or breaks the Rules of Posting. All reports will be reviewed by our moderators and/or PistonHeads to decide a course of action. Reporting is anonymous to public users. For the site to remain an enjoyable place to be this is imperative; troublemakers and bad behaviour are not welcome on PistonHeads.
Lastly, with all of the serious stuff out of the way, we hope you enjoy your time on PistonHeads!