Rules of the Märklin H0 - Forum

We kindly ask you to always keep the following 10 rules in mind to avoid any unpleasant surprises for you, the administrators or your fellow forum members. By clicking on "=> more" you can find detailed information regarding each rule. In case this detailed information does not answer your question please do not hesitate to contact one of the administrators.

1. Selling- and buying offers as well as requests to assess the value  - are not allowed, for the posts mentioned above => more
2. Violating the rules of good behaviour – Be nice to each other and please think  how you would like to be treated in posts by fellow members. => more
3. Freedom of speach vs. "let off some steam" - Posts with inflammatory content or hate posts are prohibited. Settle your differences via PM with whomever you're having an argument.  => more
4. No advice resp. support for third-party product – Questions/Answers regarding locomotives, loco-decoder resp. engines and control devices of external brands are not allowed unless it is carrying the official „fits mfx“ logo  => more
5. Pricing debates are not allowed – Any kind of price comparisons between Märklin and other manufacturers are prohibited.  => more
6. Posts of 1:1 archetype not appreciated - Posting of reality pictures in 1:1, other gauge than H0 and other unrelated areas is not appreciated. => more
7. Advertising and selling links - Commercial advertising as well as offering the sell of goods of any kind including links to ebay auctions and similar is prohibited. => more
8. Links of external sites/groups – Promoting Clubs, private homepages or external groups is not allowed.  => more
9. Coordinate charity in advance – For posting links supporting a charity the approval of an administrator in advance is mandatory.  => more 
10. Layout and system pictures in photo album – Pictures of your layout are preferably posted in an album and not as single posts.  => more

If you have understood everything then there is no need to continue reading.

In general a deleted post is not followed by further action, small violations against the rules are „dealt with“ by deleting the post. In case of a severe violation, especially in relation to rules 1 to 5 and in case of repetitive violations, further action may be taken. In the case of repetitive violations against rules 6 to 10 an administrator will contact you to avoid further violations.  

What actions might be taken? Facebook offers numerous tools for administrators; an administrator’s action will be final. Please find below a list of possible actions:

1. Delete of post – no additional consequences
2. Deactivating the possibility to comment the post
3. Muting the member from 24 hours to 7 days
4. Individual approval of a warned member
5. Temporarily exclusion of a member without blocking
6. Permanent exclusion with blocking

The administrators will vote about the actions 3-6 in every case to ensure a balanced view is taken and to make sure actions will not be taken arbitrarily.

Selling- and buying offers as well as requests to assess the value of goods -  Any attempts to sell, including suggestions that items are for sale are prohibited and get deleted immediately. ‘Wanted’ request are prohibited as well, as they end in selling discussions. Requests to assess the value are prohibited in the forum as well as the exchange group. We recommend the eBay function to check the average price of past auctions of recent months. To do so check eBay for your article and filter for „sold articles“ this will show you the recent results. As an alternative there is a search tool Search tool for sold articles. => back

Violating the rules of good behaviour- Be nice to each other and please think  how you would like to be treated in posts by fellow members. Observing netiquette is essential. But what is it? As we don´t want to reinvent it for example the BBC gives a good example on their page about these rules.

Be aware that we have the full range from very young to elderly members which can easily lead to misunderstandings as different styles of language are used. Therefore we kindly ask our younger members to avoid jokes that can be understood by same aged members but might be taken the wrong way by older members. We also kindly ask the older generation to be patiently with the younger ones and their language. We need the offspring and want to welcome everyone interested. Therefore please be patient and not didactic. Professionals started as amateurs too.

And please keep in mind: there are people who are not good at spelling. It is considered good manners to not permanently correct or didact them. Also bear in mind that not everyone is communicating in their native language.

If it is brought to the administrators’ attention that screenshots of private conversations are made public, the offending member will be immediately expelled from the group and blocked.  => back

Freedom of speach vs. "let out frustration" - Posts with inflammatory content, especially smear posts are prohibited. Kindness and respect are essential for the enjoyment and fun in the forum. We do not allow any personal attacks or arguments. 

The rules are not open for debate; posts regarding the rules are pointless.

Freedom of speech is highly respected but that does not mean that everyone is allowed to endlessly pronounce their personal opinion in the forum or grind their personal axe. 

These kind of posts will likely lead to arguments and personal attacks. If someone insists in pronouncing their opinion please use the personal message to one of the administrators to let us know, but refrain from retaliatory posting in the group. The contacted administrator will take care of the topic with the other administrators and give feedback to the offender. So again: Refrain from posting stuff like this!

Posts with right and left political extreme content as well as posts violating the legal protection of children and young adults and posts with denigrating content are prohibited and may lead to direct exclusion. 

Posts that you consider as irrelevant, unnecessary or even annoying should just be ignored and not commented upon. => back

No advice or support for third-party product - Questions/Answers regarding locomotives, loco-decoder resp. engines and control devices of external brands are not allowed unless it is carrying the official „fits mfx“ logo. The past has shown that most problems and irritations have originated from these. The "glorification" and "sole theming" of foreign brands is absolutely undesirable.

Pricing debates are not allowed  - Any discussion regarding prices, price comparisons of any kind regarding Märklin or other products as well as discussions of prices in general are prohibited. These kind of posts always lead to arguments. => back

Posts of the 1:1 original are not encouraged - Posting of real-life pictures in 1:1 or other gauges than H0 and other unrelated subject is not encouraged. But what would a model be without the original? Posts of the real thing can be posted in limited numbers in pictures or video but the administrators keep the right to delete them in case of lack of interest (fewer than 25 Likes within one hour). => back

Advertising and selling links - Commercial advertising as well as offering the sale of goods of any kind, including links to eBay auctions and similar is prohibited. An exception to that rule are our sponsors as they support us with donations and discounts for our members. Our sponsors or the administrators will point towards special actions via links or their logos. => back

Links of external sites/groups  - Links for sites relating to model railroads and railway specific topics may be posted in moderation as long as copyright is obeyed. Frequent advertising for clubs you are active in is not appreciated. Links to personally owned sites is not allowed.  => back

Coordinate charity in advance – For posting links supporting a charity the approval of an administrator in advance is required. Donations should not be discussed in public as they frequently lead to discussions and envy. => back

Layout and system pictures in photo album – Pictures of your layout are preferably posted in an album and not as single posts

Pictures in albums have the advantage that they can be found any time. (see photoalbum A-Z). All comments and likes stay with the pictures and can be found months and years later as precious suggestions for viewers. 

The following links show you how you make an album:  For PC/Laptop-users, for mobile-users and a Video for mobile-users 

Those who post single pictures take the risk that they get deleted, as they flood the forum unnecessarily and deter from the enjoyment of the forum. => back

Naming brands is allowed only for description purposes. It is not allowed to copy and paste any logos, pictures and articles of the brands (e.g. Märklin) into the forum. Please use a link instead. The same rules apply to any pictures and articles under copyright.

The Märklin company supports us. Please bear in mind their views on copyright in Märklin´s reply on our copyright request:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Maerklin.H0.Forum/permalink/421558551273969

We, the admins take care to offer you a joyful and helpful forum and work constantly on improvements. Each action gets discussed and democratically voted on by the admins. Please support us by respecting and obeying the rules. If you have a problem with anything or anyone please do not hesitate to contact one of us.

Finally, something about the birthday posts. It is good old tradition to do these birthday posts. For you to be included you need to be a Facebook friend with either Christian Hanke or Dirk Hansen and of course have your birth date shown. If you want to have one of these birthday posts for yourself, please send a friend request to either Christian or Dirk.

Have fun and enjoy :)

Yours admins

Christian, Guido, Magnus, Micha und Rüdiger