Frequently Asked Questions

Promotion of your own business on this website, via shameless posts or over-large signatures or other means, is forbidden unless you are a paid up banner advertiser on this site. The webmaster's decision as to what constitutes an infringement of this rule is final.

The club, in order to fund the costs of running its website, will allow companies or individuals to advertise on the website subject to the following conditions:

• Cost is R250 per month, or R200 per month if you pay for the year in advance (ex VAT).
• Advert displayed in top right banner of every page, randomly rotated with other advertisers
• Advert size is 200x150 pixels
• Gif animation or static JPG suitable
• The advert can click through to your website, or to a page on the BMW site if you don't have a website

1. The table included below shows the statistics of one advertiser. On average, an ad is displayed 1000 times a day.
2. Having an advert on display means you can make posts on the forum advertising your products and services without being blocked for soliciting customers.
3. To keep administration down, we prefer payment annually in advance (hence the lower cost). Also, if you take the annual option I will build your advert for you free of charge.
4. If you provide the artwork we can put together the advert for you.

If you have any questions, please [http://bmwmotorcycleclubcape.co.za/user/charles contact the webmaster].

Statistics of one advert

{|
!Period!!Views!!Clicks!!Click-thru
|-
|This hour||51||0||0.00%
|-
|Last hour||11||0||0.00%
|-
|Today||103||0||0.00%
|-
|Yesterday||1130||3||0.27%
|-
|Last seven days||6707||7||0.10%
|-
|This month||17994||39||0.22%
|-
|Last month||4105||24||0.58%
|-
|This year||22099||63||0.29%
|-
|All time||22099||63||0.29%
|}

Club Policy regarding Adverts

1. the club reserves the right to accept or reject advertisements, and the right to terminate an advertisement at any time (with a pro-rata refund).
2. advertisements must be in the interest of the club and its members, and in keeping with the ethics of the club. This means that adult content, gambling and items irrelevant to motorcycling are expressely rejected. Companies or individuals that give our members poor service, or behave unethically will be rejected.
3. advertising space is sold annually in advance (to reduce overheads of administration).
4. advertising copy, graphics and design need to complement the website design. Flashing graphics, dynamic objects like Java Applets, Active-X and Flash, and colours that ruin the appearance of the site, will not be accepted.
5. a company in need of design work for their advertisement can have it designed and created by the site webmaster, on payment of a design fee.
6. adverts will be placed 'above the line' on selected pages.
7. adverts may be rotated with other adverts on a random basis, in proportion to the cost of the advert.
8. the sale of advertising space is for the privilege of displaying the advert, and the cost is determined by the views of the page and the target audience. There is no click-through fee, pay-per-view fee, and there is no click-through tracking from the club website. The club will provide only web statistics of the number of views of a given page in a given period.

NO REFUNDS WHATSOEVER shall be given for any payment or deposit made by any person who paid any monies, in respect of any Trip / Tour/ Event, organised directly or indirectly by the BMW Motorcycle Club Cape or Organisers acting on their behalf, unless the Trip / Tour/ Event is cancelled by the said BMW Club / Organisers.

In certain exceptional cases, and only once the consent of the said BMW Club / organisers has been obtained, participant(s) may find a suitable substitute(s), and the said participant must then obtain payment from the said substitute directly.

1. Petrol money: You fill up at the departure point and depending on the trip will not need to fill up again. Trips are planned to accommodate the bikes with the shortest range (if they start with a full tank).
2. Breakfast money: Breakfast prices depend on the venue and vary from R35 to clost to R100 (if you include extras, tip, and happen to come along to a venue that we subsequently boycott for unreasonable price).
3. Protective Gear: You need to cater for rain, cold, or heat. But, being a fairly conservative and safety-conscious group, you should wear (as far as possible), proper motorcycle safety gear:

• * Helmet (obviously) - preferrably full-face
• * Jacket, made of abrasion-resistant tough fabric and with padding at impact points. Some of us wear leathers, but by far the minority.
• * Pants and boots - either protective enduro pants, or kevlar jeans. Sturdy motorcycle boots
• * Gloves. Believe us, the first thing you hurt in even a standing fall will be your hands.

To make a clickable link that will take you to another page, you have two options:

1. Just put in the link as it stands, e.g. http://www.bmwmotorrad.co.za, and the system will turn it into a link, or
2. If you want the link to have text that isn't the actual link address, put square brackets around the link, and inside the square brackets after the link address put a space, then the text, like this: [http://bmwmotorrad.co.za The Official BMW Motorrad Site]

Tip:
I put the square brackets around the text I want to turn into a link, then find the link in my browser (in a separate tab or browser window), copy it and paste it just behind the opening square bracket, followed by a space.

A story is just an article with a teaser. Right now the site isn't completely set up for stories, but it boils down to tagging the story as relating to certain categories, and possibly putting it in a menu.

Our aim is to have stories under the 'Articles' section. The Articles page will be similar to the home page, with lists of recent content and indexes into articles about biking safety, riding techniques, the physics of motorcycling, etc.

Also consider the 'Book' content type. It allows you to add pages with prev/next, and up/down links, so you can write an article with 'chapters' and 'sections' and you can move bits around as appropriate.

These content types will still have the option of 'comments' so people can discuss the content, but the intention is that this is much more for reference and as a resource than a fireside chat like the forum content.

Put 2 single quotes around the text you want emphasized (italicized), ''like this''.

Netiquette is etiquette for the internet - the rules and manners that apply when you do things on the internet. A lot of it is just obvious good manners, but some of it is not obvious (especially to beginners), and some is specific to a given community.

General Forum Netiquette

1. Do not hijack threads. This is the same as interrupting a conversation in polite company, except worse:
2. # The threads in a forum are designed to allow others to find the information they are looking for easily. If you post content in a thread that is not related to that thread, you not only make the thread irrelevant, you also make it impossible to find whatever information you contributed.
3. # If you need to post something that is not related to other existing threads, create a new thread with a meaningful title.
4. Do not use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. In web-speak this is the same as shouting. It is considered poor form if you couldn't be bothered to type properly (this goes for SMS-style spelling, consistently bad spelling in general, and failure to structure your content using paragraphs, proper sentences, bullets and headings. If you don't care, why should we care about what you have to say?

BMW Motorcycle Club Forum Netiquette

This is specific to our website (i.e. these are our rules and if you don't like them go somewhere else):

1. Keep it clean - the occasional expletive may be tolerated when used entertainingly, but gratuitous swearing, blasphemy or poor taste will not be tolerated. Many companies and homes have content filters on their web browsers that will block pages perceived to be inappropriate. If you put such language into your posts you are guaranteeing that very few people will be able to see it.
2. Keep it useful.
3. # What seems witty and clever in the heat of the moment may look childish and stupid in the cold light of day a few weeks from now. Before you post, ask yourself whether your contribution is adding to a magnificent site, or diluting it with noise.
4. # For comments that are directed at a small audience and that do not contribute to the site and other users in general, consider using the [http://bmwmotorcycleclubcape.co.za/messenger Messenger] in the right menu bar.
5. Keep it friendly. Remember, the web is forever. Many prospective employers will scan the web for information on candidates - if you would not want your post to appear on your CV, don't do it.

The table below shows the shortcuts (acronyms) you can use to put smileys in. Even though all you will see while you are editing is the shortcut, when it gets displayed the system will subsitute a picture.

Smiley	Acronyms	Description
	:) :-) :smile:	Smiling
	;) ;-) :wink:	Eye-wink
	:( :-( :sad:	Sad
	:D :-D :lol:	Laughing out loud
	}:) }:-) :evil:	Evil
	:P :-P :tongue:	Sticking out tongue
	:O :-O :shocked:	Shocked
	:? :-? :puzzled:	Puzzled
	8) 8-) :cool:	Cool
	:jawdrop:	Jawdropping!
	:sick: :barf:	Barf!
	:beer: :)B	Cheers with a beer
	:cross: :angry: >:(	Angry frown
	:thumbsup:	Thumbs up smile

Please Note

All the images in this answer can be opened larger, in a new popup window, by clicking on them.

Inserting Images into a Post

1. Start the 'Add Image' screen

At the bottom of the text box where you type in the article is a little image with a plus sign icon. Put your cursor in the text box where you want the image to appear, then click on the icon (see 1).

2. Click 'Upload' on the popup

You need to click the upload button (see 2) to get to the image upload screen (see 3).

Now you will get a pop-up window that allows you to enter a title for the image and choose a file off your PC hard drive.

3. Browse your hard-drive to find the image

The image must be on your PC so that you can find it here and upload it to the website. Also make sure it has a filesize of less than 800kB. Click 'upload' to go and find the image (see 4).

4. Choose the image file on your PC

Then click OK or 'Open' on the 'find file' window (see 4), so that it closes and the name of your image file is left in the text field next to the 'Browse...' button (see 5)

You should end up with a screen that looks like 5.

5. After choosing the image to upload, enter the title

Now, you must scroll to the bottom of the popup window. Ignore all the detail and focus only on the buttons at the bottom (see 6).

6. Scroll to the bottom to click 'Submit'

Now, you get to set the display properties of the image in your post. If you don't select the properties, you will get the default settings, which are a half-screen width image, floating left in your text, that will popup a full-size image in a new window if you click on it.

The properties screen is shown in 7.

7. Setting image display properties

The New screen looks like this

With the new screen, sensible defaults have been set and all you need to do is click the 'insert' button. The detail below is not recommended unless you have good reason to change the defaults by clicking on the advanced options line.

The controls on this screen work like this (follow the numbers):

1. Title defaults to the title you entered on the previous screen, but you can delete it or change it. This becomes a bold caption under the image.
2. Description becomes some centered text under the image - leave it blank if you want
3. Size has some preset dimensions that it will automatically resize your image to:
4. # Thumbnail is 100 pixels wide, (about a sixth of the width of the white area on this site's pages.
5. # Preview is 200 pixels wide,
6. # Half300 is 300 pixels wide, which is half the width of the text area. This size is ideal for adding pictures to your post if you set the picture to float left or right and have the text wrap around it.
7. # Full600 is the full width of the text area. This size should be centered. Be aware that filling your post with fullsize pictures will make it load slower - it is better to use half-size pictures so that readers can choose which ones they want to see full size and can click on them.
8. Alignment tells the system if the image should align left, right, centered, or not at all. Fullsize images should be centered, and smaller images should be left- or right-aligned.
9. Link decides what happens if a user clicks on the displayed image. The default is to open a fullsize image in a popup window. But you can set it to:
10. # Not a Link which does nothing when clicked
11. # Link to Image Page which opens the image in the same browser window on its own page within the site,
12. # Open in Popup Window which opens a fullsize image in a popup window, or
13. # Go to URL which lets you link the image to something else entirely (for e.g. a site where you can buy the bike shown in the image)
14. Insert mode - leave as is
15. Click Insert to insert the image into your post

You will end up with the following image placeholder inside your post:

8. The image placeholder

This placeholder is ordinary text. You can edit it if you know what you are doing, to change properties of the image that is displayed. You can also move it around in your post by cutting and pasting it to a different part of the text.

Yes, just put in the link to the photo, with no tags or decoration, starting with 'http:' and ending with the filename of the photo like 'charles.jpg'.

But, do remember that it is not necessary to upload your image to photobucket or flickr in order to display it on our site. You can just [http://bmwmotorcycleclubcape.co.za/how-do-i-add-pictures-my-articles follow these instructions] to upload the image directly onto our site. This has the advantage of automatically resizing the image to the same size as all the others, with a link that displays it fullsize if you click on it.

Use the search bar on the top right of the page. For example:

• you want to find the discussion about steering head bearings where somebody mentioned that they were not greased enough. Enter steering bearing grease in the search field and click 'Search';

It is most effective if you use words that are fairly unique to the topic you are looking for, and use a few words that narrow the search down.

Otherwise, use Google to search the BMW Motorcycle Club Cape site by entering the following for e.g. 'steering bearing grease site:bmwmotorcycleclubcape.co.za'

Put 3 single quotes around the text you want bold, like this '''text you want bold'''. Of course the single quotes won't show, but the text will be bold.

Unlike forum (or bulletin board) software, this site allows contributions and content in a variety of formats and places. In order to find new contributions you need to use the tools provided by the site, described below.

On the [http://bmwmotorcycleclubcape.co.za/ home] page, you have:

• a list of recent posts to the forum, and
• a list of recent comments to content throughout the site.

On the menu on the right, click on [http://bmwmotorcycleclubcape.co.za/tracker All New Content] link, to get a list of all content, with the most recent first.

To receive notifications of new or updated content, you need to subscribe to various categories or types of content:

In the menu bar on the right is an item called 'My Subscriptions' - that is where the 'notify me' stuff is done. (It is also in the 'My Account' section). At the top of the page are 4 tabs:

1. threads: lets you subscribe or unsubscribe to various forum threads...
2. categories: lets you subscribe to events, posts, articles or images that are categorized by location, forum section, trip type, and FAQ category. So, for example, you could subscribe to the offroad trip type, and you would be notified any time an article, trip-report or event is created or updated that is classified as offroad.
3. content-type: lets you subscribe to updates of any given type of content. For example, you might want to know about all trip reports, or images, or events.

It's your choice

The club always rides on the road in staggered formation. The ride captain rides in front with a bright yellow bib, close to the RHS of the lane. At a following distance of 1 second, the next rider rides in the same lane, but close to the LHS so that he is not directly in line with the rider in front.

Then the pattern continues, with each rider 2 seconds behind the rider in the same path as them, but only one second behind the rider in the other path.

We do this so that each rider has enough stopping distance in front of them, and no bike to the side so that they can swerve when necessary. And the whole group does not become too spread out.

The rider at the back often also wears a bib so that the ride captain can see that the whole group is together.

When we enter a pass, the bikes spread out a bit so that they can use the whole width of the road to negotiate turns.

Nobody overtakes the ride captain.

Just pitch up at the Engen in Plattekloof ([http://bmwmotorcycleclubcape.co.za/map-bmw-motorcycle-club-cape map]) about 20 minutes before the advertised departure time. You will find the riders gathering and they will invariably introduce themselves to you and talk about your bike.

When we depart on the ride we phone ahead to give the numbers to the restaurant.