For many months now a rule has been in place that doesnt allow a PassionFord member to "Self Promote" a business he is involved in personally. Here is a brief explanation as to how and why that became the case.

Basically, we have, over the last 6 months had an influx of people joining with a business name just touting for work from PF and contributing absolutely nothing of substance... Names like "JK Cars" "KG motors" "Barrys MotoX" "Sids Rs Spares" and a million others like it... (Feel free to check)

Now this turn of events is:
A) Unfair to traders currently paying to trade on here.
B) Creating problems with folk being ripped off by people whom they THINK are genuine PF approved Ford traders.

We decided that one way or another we have now got to put a stop to it completely but didnt know how.

So, after much delibberation it was decided that Trade members affiliated with a business can no longer have a trade name or signature on PF unless they are a registered and paid up trader who paid me personally for his advertismnent by company cheque. No other form of payment is acceptable anymore.

If the moderators spot a new trade name, he is directed to the rules and asked to nominate a new name. perfectly polite, job done, no harm.

Example of how a new member may gain free trade from just his username:
A member from say, Doncaster, joining As "Doncaster car repairs" could obviously gain himself a certain amount of local customers who may look towards him for parts,services and advice, especially if he seemed to know a bit about Fords/RS's etc. this is common sense and i am sure plenty of people off here have made new friends and customers local to them they never previously knew existed.

From now on, unless you are a paid up trader, we wont allow that name for obvious reasons, not least of all the simple fact that he may actually be some penniless clueless twerp in a one bed flat just waiting to get some orders in for parts and then do one with the cash, as HAS HAPPENED before on this very webforum. (Again, feel free to search)

Once a trader has contacted me directly and paid the fee with a business cheque, he can call himself whatever he likes to attract business via the forum and we wish him the best of luck with his new advertising promotion.

I hope this clarifies the situation and i also hope that people can actually see the reasoning behind it. Dont forget, mere users do NOT get to see how many of these peple we have to contact, bin, and involve ourselves with on an almost hourly basis. It was becoming a BIG problem and needed to be addressed before we ended up with 500 traders on here spamming the site with absolute bollox, as HAS happened on this very webforum. (Again, feel free to search)


Finally, with regards username changes, we couldnt decide wether to let the current traders keep their existing names and i voted yes, to let it slide, but the majority said one rule for all was the fairest and most corerct way to proceed and this was upheld, again, for obvious reasons.

How many members are affected and actually CARE? very few.
Many many members changed their name with no drama.

Generally speaking, if you have no business to gain from your username or signature, why exactly would you care if you cannot use it?

if nms made beer it would be called karlsberg