Forum Rules & Why We’re Here

The role of the Pedelecs forum is to facilitate a discussion about electric bikes both in the UK and also overseas.

E-bikes are both form of transport and still an emerging market. As such there is a lot to talk about in terms of new technology, the latest e-bikes, kits, trends, the law and so on. The forum's focus is on the progress of electric bikes and the benefits they bring to people and the environment.

Freedom of expression is a human right as well as a value that we, as a forum operator, value highly.

Freedom of speech means all sides of an issue can be debated – one person’s view may well not be another’s, but collectively forums like this one enable balanced and broad views to be heard. That in turn can provide useful lessons to benefit the industry.

Pedelecs is here to facilitate open discussion and will not be pressured into suppressing valid debate in the public interest, so please don’t ask us to.

Forum Rules & Terms of Use

These terms of use may be changed at any time without notice:

You are responsible for what you post.

We welcome constructive, informative, tasteful and civil posts.

The forum is intended to be as pleasant a place as possible for all – for newbies and veterans alike. No flaming or disrespect for others please.

We ask that you kindly abide by the following rules:

1. No profanity or obscenities of any kind, even written back to front or disguised with asterisks etc.

2. Be nice to each other - no personal attacks on other users. While differences of opinion may lead to disagreements, we ask our members to agree to disagree politely.

3. Freedom of speech does not extend to trolling. Or using the forum to further your own agenda, whether that is personally or commercially driven. Please do not use the Pedelecs forum to publicly pressurise or threaten another party in the event of a dispute. If you are a consumer and believe you have received sub-standard service, please try to settle the matter directly with the supplier. Disputes between businesses should always be settled away from this forum; such disputes are not in the public interest. We reserve the right to remove any potentially libellous, threatening, coercive or malicious posts or any post that may have legal implications.

4. Defamatory, obscene, indecent, lewd, pornographic, violent, abusive, insulting, threatening and harassing comments are not tolerated.

5. Do not stray from the discussion topic. We have also created separate forum categories for ease of reference (with a short description at the top for more information), please stick to those topics when posting in each.

6. No impersonation of other participants or public figures. A user may choose an appropriate nickname as long as a real name is used in the personal information field (which is not publicly visible). Please do not use brand/company names or trade marked names in your username if you are not a trader.

7. If you are not a paid-up trade member of the forum: No advertising or marketing of any kind, including non-profit organisations, not even subtle stuff, ever unless you have obtained express permission from Pedelecs UK. Please use your company name as a user name to identify yourself when offering unbiased, expert (technical) advice. We will not accept any sales slant on your services or products within those posts if you are not supporting Pedelecs with trade membership however. No URLs or sales spiel on signatures without prior permission from Pedelecs UK. No link building either.

8. No third party copyright material should be posted. Use links instead of quotes from sources rather than copying the material. Please always use links to images so we all have the choice whether to see them or not.

9. This forum is unmoderated but has the facility for users to report content that we will then respond to if appropriate. We adhere to the Defamation Act (Operators of Websites) 2013.

10. We are not liable for any content on this forum. To report violations of these rules, please email us at webmaster@pedelecs.co.uk and we will investigate, and may, at our discretion, amend or delete any offending posts as soon as possible. If you are issuing a formal Notice of Complaint under the Defamation Act, email the following information to the above address: (1) The name of the complainant and an e-mail address at which the complainant can be contacted (2) Where on the website the statement complained of was posted and URL (link) to the same (3) What the statement complained of says and why it is defamatory of the complainant (4) What meaning the complainant attributes to the statement complained of (5) The aspects of the statement which the complainant believes are factually inaccurate or opinions not supported by fact. (6) Confirmation that the complainant does not have sufficient information about the person who posted the statement to bring proceedings against that person (7) Confirmation of whether the complainant consents to his or her name and/or email address being provided to the poster.

Comments posted on the board may at our discretion be removed, whether in breach of the standards or not, without further comment or notice to you. We reserve the right to identify you in response to a court order or threat of legal action. You agree in our Terms and Conditions to permit us to remove any such material. User accounts may be closed without notice to you.

Additional general forum use terms here.

Business Use of the Forum – Trade Membership

Pedelecs offers paid-for trade membership which allows your posts to show contact details, your logo and respond to pre-sales queries in certain parts of the forum. This involves a small monthly fee to support the forum, please contact us for more details.

If you are not a paid-up trade member of the forum you cannot use your logo or a product image (thereby raising brand awareness) for your avatar since this is unfair on paying trade members supporting the forum. However, we do encourage people to register their forum username as their actual trading/company names to aid transparency. If a company is not paying to support Pedelecs, then its products cannot be sold on the forum, nor added for information or promoted in any way. You may respond in a support capacity to technical queries but otherwise the user account should not be used to promote the company’s business in any way.

If you join as a trade member, please remember our general rule: no hard sell please. The objective behind trade membership is primarily to assist forum members with your knowledge (in all forum areas); it is not to hard sell.

That said, trade members are able to show contact details and logo on their posts and by sharing their industry knowledge they are positioning themselves as knowledgeable, helpful traders that prospective buyers may wish to buy from one day. Posts are not just seen by members of the public participating, there are many thousands more viewing the forum without participation.

In brief:

No hard sales posts in the main chat areas of the forum. Factual information on bikes is OK if it's relevant to the thread and helpful to its readers - straight facts (bike spec) only, no 'buy it here' type info.

Which Electric Bike Should I Buy - you can promote in this area of the forum by replying to a potential customer if they ask about your bike brand or if your e-bikes are suitable and relevant to what they're asking about.

Electric Bikes: Trade Promotions & Offers. In this categories you can post details on product launches, special offers and promotions relating to electric bikes. There are additional 'Trade Announcements & New Products' posting areas within the Conversion Kits, eMTBs, eRoad, Technical, Leisure & Events sections for trade announcements more suited to those areas. These have been created to keep other general chat areas free of the hard sell.

Absolutely no SEO linking (anchor text or without) we are not a link farm.

What’s on your posts:

Becoming a paid-up trade member allows you to upload an image of your choice for your avatar, either your logo or product image.

Trade membership also allows contact details on your signature: one straight link to your website (without anchor text), a social media link (without anchor text), a telephone number and email contact address. Plus a line on your company description.

Specifically:

No hard sales posts at all in these forum categories please:

- Introduce Yourself
- Electric Bikes General Discussion
- Classifieds (individual, i.e. non-trade sales only)
- Conversions General Discussion
- eMTBs General Discussion
- eRoad/Commuting General
- Speed Pedelecs General
- Technical General
- Leisure/holidays general
- Events general
AND.. All Reviews sections in those areas too.
- Charging Post

General:

No linking

We are not a link farm. We have increasingly had to remove search engine optimisation links (both with anchor text and without) from the forum so we are now going to need to impose the strict rule for traders not to link to their own site or a partner site when posting please (your sig has one straight homepage [no anchor text] link to direct people to your site). If you want to detail information, cut and paste it into your thread rather than link to it please.

Be nice

Please don’t be impolite: do not put down other suppliers or their products. We welcome positive comments to further promote this industry and generally support Pedelecs in that aim. You should also accept that sometimes users will air complaints based on personal experience in the forum and that we do not remove such genuine posts (unless for legal reasons) but this is a good opportunity to get feedback and put things right.