Frequently Asked Questions

General information about us is on our About Us page.

AVForums has two elements to it.

1. The Editorial - reviews and articles to help you make purchasing decisions and set up and use your equipment. Editorial starts with our reviews.
2. The Forums - where you can ask other people questions, share your experiences, help others and join in the community of like minded people. Click here for the full list of forums.

In the forums, you use the menu to navigate to the forum of interest and then read what other people are discussing. If you want to join in, then join up (click here - it only takes a few minutes) and then either

1. reply to an existing thread if you have something to contribute to the topic or
2. start your own new thread about your topic of choice. Whether that is to ask a question or share an experience.

As a guest, you can read AVForums, but if you wish to post messages, you need to become a member.
Membership gives you an identity on the forum, a fixed username on all messages you post and an online public profile.

Registration is free, and offers an extended range of features, including:

• Posting new threads
• Replying to other peoples' threads
• Receiving email notification of replies to posts and threads you specify
• Starting private conversations with other members
• Entering competitions
  
• Creating showcases
  
• Buying and selling for free in the classifieds
• Writing your own reviews

Registration is safe. AVForums was started in 2000 and has grown to be one of the larger online communities. The link to our privacy policy is at the bottom of every page.

How do I register?
You register by clicking the Log In or Sign Up link top right of the page. You can create a new account either using your Facebook, Twitter or Google accounts; or via the AVForums system. You will be asked to type a user name and password. In addition there may be some other information which you will be invited to enter. Please also make sure you read our terms and rules which are different from other websites.
If registering via the AVForums system, you will be sent an activation email to confirm your email address. Click the activation link in the email. Once you have done this your account will be confirmed.
Once registered, you can start posting messages and enjoying the other benefits of being a member.

Editorial
The Content Management System we use at AVForums to manage our editorial content was developed in-house. As too was the front-end system which is an addon for Xenforo. Both are bespoke to AVForums and will not be appropriate for use on any other website.

Forums
In October 2013, for the first time in 12 years, we migrated AVForums to new forum software. We moved from vBulletin to Xenforo.


What is Xenforo? And why did we change to it?
Xenforo is a relatively new forum platform released in 2011 by the original developers of vBulletin. These guys built vBulletin and grew it to be the market leader in forum software. But while vBulletin is, in my opinion, failing in the hands of new owners, the Xenforo team have moved on to create an efficient, user friendly, innovative, contemporary forum platform which we will all benefit from using.

The nitty gritty
For 12 years, we used Jelsoft's vBulletin software to run AVForums.
As late as 2013 we used vBulletin 3.8.2 while the latest currently available version is vBulletin 5 Connect. For a number of considered reasons, we, like many other vBulletin forum admin* had declined to upgrade to the newer versions of the software since 2009, after the key developers left the company following its purchase by Internet Brands.

The vBulletin 3 key developers, Kier Darby, Mike Sullivan and Scott MacVicar, wanted to redevelop vBulletin from scratch as far back as 2007. Internet Brands, however, insisted on working on the vBulletin 3 code to release vBulletin 4 as soon as possible. Kier, Mike and Scott all left Jelsoft in 2009.

In my opinion, Internet Brands has mismanaged the development of vBulletin, producing generally poor code in vBulletin 4, creating security problems and pricing structure issues. vBulletin 5 Connect has received considerable criticism for being a premature release absent many important features, containing old code inherited from vBulletin 2 and being ineptly inefficient.

When vBulletin 3 was developed, the future formatting of websites to maximise Search Engine Optimisation (SEO - primarily for Google) was not foreseen.
On our installation of vBulletin 3, we used an addon called vBSEO which helps make the forum more search engine friendly. It's kind of a standard addition to a vB3 forum.

vBSEO is dead
On July 13th 2013 I received notification that vBEO is suspending operations. There is a video from one of the co-founders about it and a discussion at Admin Talk.
Dear vBulletin Forum Community - vBSEO is Suspending Operations
I was aware that there were problems with vBSEO. There has been no development for some time, though the vBSEO product on AVForums will, of course, continue to work indefinitely. SEO evolves. If our SEO addon does not, it will become increasingly useless.

We had already made the decision to move away from vBulletin some time ago, so this news about vBSEO didn't really affect us. But it might give other forum owners the impetus to also migrate away from vBulletin.

What do others think about vBulletin?
I posted a link above to a single thread at Digital Point where people criticised vB5 soon after its release.
In the above thread at Admin Talk, several admin also comment on the status of vBulletin:

vBulletin is as good as dead

Click to expand...

My professional opinion- vb is dead. 4 sucks, 5 is worse. Jump to xenforo 1.2 when it's final and leave all this behind like everyone else has....

Click to expand...

vBulletin after being taken over by Internet Brands became a total failure, looking at vBulletin 5 should explain what I mean. Even if vBSEO started development again, do you really think people will come back to vBSEO?
vBulletin is losing customers daily to IPS or XF or other competitive forum softwares.
The current condition of vBulletin is dire and we don't know when Internet Brands will pull the plug on vBulletin if they stop generating positive revenue.

Click to expand...

a> VBulletin 4 is no longer developed. It's a matter of time before it becomes too obsolete.
b> VBulletin 5 is a failed software. The current market share of VB5 is about half a percent.

Click to expand...

There is also an interesting thread at The Admin Zone discussing the departure of Freddie Bingham, the last of the 'old guard' vB3 developers. The admin folks there really lay into Internet Brands.

These are just a taster of the general feeling amongst experienced admin. In the private vBulletin Licensed feedback forum, there is much dissent about the poor quality of vBulletin 5 Connect. It's criticised heavily for being slow (often unusably slow) and plagued by bugs.

So why not just stick with vBulletin 3?
The problem with sticking with vB3 is that modern internet users are used to websites with a better user experience. vB3 sites nowadays are starting to look pretty old.
That may not be a problem for existing and loyal forum users like most of you reading this right now, but new visitors to your site are less and less likely to be impressed by the clunky look and feel. And it is the retaining of new visitors which is so important for growing a community.

And believe me the look and feel of vB3 is clunky. It's also not particularly fast. Other forum platforms have taken advantage of the latest in framework development, CSS and jQuery widgetty niceties to make their forums function with fewer page loads (modal overlays instead) and faster page loads (inevitable from more evolved, efficient coding).
So to say vB3 is still fast may be true when running on a fast server with little traffic, but compared to different forum platforms, it is not necessarily so.

Because other forums use modern techniques (e.g. jQuery), they usually provide for a nicer, slicker user experience also. Less page loads, more slide-down notifications. Automatic message saving to draft for later, anyone? Drag and drop images into the new post form? Responsive design for people using mobiles? All these features and many more are missing from vB3 but available in competing forum platforms.

In my opinion, vBulletin is already a dead product. I would not recommend anyone choose vBulletin to run their community, and those currently using it should look now at migrating to an alternative forum platform.

Because vB3 is so out of date and vB4 and vB5 Connect are so poor, we could not continue using vBulletin to run AVForums.

[*] Other forums still using vBulletin 3 include:

1. 5Series.net - Forums
2. AudiForums.com - Powered by vBulletin
3. Audio Video Revolution Forum - Powered by vBulletin
4. DVD Talk Forum - Powered by vBulletin
5. FlyerTalk Forums
6. Land Rover Forums - Land Rover Enthusiast Forum
7. Mazda Forum - Mazda Enthusiast Forums

(and these are all owned by Internet Brands!)
Plus vBulletin.org Forum - the 'community' development site for vBulletin is on vBulletin 3 and the admin have no plans to move to a later version.

Who else is using Xenforo?
Here is a list of big forums.

If you see a You do not have permission error, it could be for a number of reasons depending on what you are trying to do.

If you're trying to change your login name, an explanation is here.

If you are trying to view or save an attachment in a post, and you are logged in but don't have permission to view the attachment, it is because you are blocking ads. See here for more information.

If you're trying to enter a competition and you get a You do not have permission or
Sorry, but you are not eligible to enter this competition error, an explanation is here.

If you're trying to start a new thread or post a reply in the classifieds forums, an explanation is here. If it's not in the classifieds forum, please look in the feedback forum for help.

If you are trying to leave classifieds trading feedback, and you are logged in but don't have permission, it is because you and/or the recipient are blocking ads. See here for more information.

If you're seeing this error anywhere else, please look in the feedback forum for help.

If you have logged in to AVForums using a browser on which adblock is installed, your account may well be assigned the adblock flag. This removes permission to do some things on AVForums like post in our classifieds forums.
To clear the adblock flag from your account requires two steps.

First remove adblock for AVForums on your browser
Start by using your browser to navigate to AVForums.
If you are using Chrome, Firefox or Safari, then use your browser menu according to the appropriate screen capture below to click the indicated option.
With Chrome, click the area marked Enabled on this site.
With Firefox, click the area marked Disable on avforums.com.
With Safari, click the area marked Don't run on pages on this domain.
If you are using a different browser, there will be a similar method as one of these.

Second clear the ad blocking flag from your account
This is an important step.
Once you have disabled advert blocking in your browser you must

1. Log out of AVForums
2. Open any thread. E.g. this page.
3. Log back in to AVForums

If you have ad blocking disabled, this will clear the ad blocking flag set against your account.

Thank you for supporting AVForums. Adverts keep us alive. See why here.

Adverts keep AVForums alive because they pay our bills. For information on how to disable adblocking on AVForums click here.

We explain below why it costs money to run AVForums, how we make that money and why we encourage you to help us make it.

If I block ads, what can't I do?
The following features are unavailable to people who block ads at AVForums:

• Request a change to your user name
• View and save attachments to posts and use the attachment manager
• Have more than 5 private conversations
• Use the private conversation auto responder
• Enter Competitions
• Post in our classifieds forums and send or receive trading feedback

Why it costs money to run AVForums
AVForums uses several powerful web and database servers using fast internet connections in order to maintain a good user experience.
The cost of our web servers and database servers is several thousand UK pounds every month.

In addition to this, we have committed to producing editorial content to inform, educate and entertain our community. This costs several more thousands of pounds every month.

There are other costs related to running AVForums like there are running any small business such as development (producing new functionality for the website), administration, accounting, staff etc.
So we need to turn over a considerable sum every month just to break even.

How we fund our running costs
We work hard to sell advertising campaigns on AVForums for relevant companies like (at the time of writing) Panasonic, Samsung, Richer Sounds and Argos which are shown to our UK visitors.
If we did not have these advertising campaigns, we would not have sufficient income to continue running a usable website.
People who block adverts on AVForums, are restricting the amount of revenue that AVForums can earn and therefore restricting the quality of the service we can provide.

It seems reasonable, then, that we ask all our visitors to consider disabling adblock for AVForums.

As a reward for those people who disable ad blocking, we provide some premium services made exclusively available to them.

• Our classified advert forums, which are overseen by a dedicated and hardworking team of moderators, is available only to people who support AVForums by viewing the advertising we serve.
• Similarly our competitions are open only to members who do not block advertising on AVForums.
• Other features listed at the top of this page.

What we don't do is prevent anyone from reading or posting in the main forum areas.
I hope that explains how (most) websites work and why they need to display ads, and why, if you value that website, you should view them.

A user's title is displayed under their user name in messages, and profile information.
You can read more about user titles and what user title you have here.

What is the Profile page?
Every member has a publicly viewable profile page. This page includes information provided by the member, either during the registration process or later on via the account pages.

Whenever you see a member's name, clicking on it will usually show a pop-up panel showing their details in brief. From here you can view their public profile.

When logged in, you can also view your own public via the menu activated when clicking on your username shown in the header at the top of the page.

What's on the Profile page?
The public profile lists information about the member under various tabs such as recent activity and posts. In addition there may be information about the bookmarks which the member has publicly shared, the competitions they have entered, the showcases they have created and their trading statistics.

Your Privacy
When logged in to AVForums, you can navigate to /account/privacy to set your privacy options as shown below



What are Profile Posts?
Profile posts are messages posted on a member's profile. They are a method of sending a public message to a particular member and are viewable by everyone who has access to the forum. Members have control over which messages appear on their profiles and can use the Report link to alert moderators to any inappropriate messages posted there.

Your Personal Details pages show how you have used the forum over time - your alerts, ratings, watched threads, bookmarks and so on. It also presents you with several settings pages where you can update your contact details and forum preferences.

Signatures' contain information that you want to include at the bottom of all your posts. This might include information about yourself and your kit, a link to your personal website (to show people more about yourself and your kit), a favourite quote or any personal message.
You can set your signature in your Personal Details page
Our rules apply to signatures in the same way that they apply to posts.

To edit your signature, log in and click your name to drop down your user menu.
Then click the Signature menu link. If there is no link, it's because you do not have permission to have a signature.
View attachment 885025

Novice (new) Members do not have permission to add signatures because spammers have used them in the past to post spam messages.
Advancing to Standard Member is not difficult. Click here to see your usergroup status and the permissions you have, plus information on how to advance your membership.

Your avatar is the image which accompanies your profile and messages. You can set up your avatar on this page of your account.

Once you have set one up, readers of AVForums will start to recognise you and your messages by your avatar.
For this reason, we encourage you to use a high quality avatar which you are happy to 'represent' you. You may use either a JPG or PNG. We do not allow animated GIFs as we feel they can be distracting when trying to read the forums.

We support the Gravatar service which is convenient for managing a single avatar across many of your social websites.

When we migrated from previous forum software in October 2013, members' smaller avatars were transferred. Since we now support larger avatars, the older, smaller ones usually look somewhat pixelated or blurred.

See this example of an older avatar.


So we encourage you to upload a larger avatar, at least 200 pixels square.
This is an example of a new, higher quality avatar.

There is a link in your user preferences page to request user name change.
If you get a You do not have permission error when trying to change your login name, it is because you have either already changed it the maximum of 5 times, or you are blocking adverts. Please see here about advert blocking on AVForums.
Once requested, a moderator will approve or deny your user name change request. Name change requests are usually approved, and only denied if they break our rules in some way.
After your name has changed, your old one is displayed under your new one for a few days. This is so the community can see that you changed your name and still recognise who you are.
You can jump directly to the user name change page by clicking here.

What is a forum?
A forum is an online discussion site. It's sometimes also called a 'bulletin board' or 'board'. It may contain several categories, consisting of forums, threads and individual messages.

How is all this structured?
The forum as a whole contains various categories (broad subject areas), which themselves contain forums (more specific subject areas) which contain threads (conversations on a particular topic) which are made up of individual messages (where a user writes something).

Threads are also sometimes called 'discussions'.

Messages are 'posted' to the forums and are sometimes called 'posts'.

How do I find my way around the forums?
Because we have so many forums, we have created two views for the main forum list.
The forum list is here.

The default 'Compact View' shows the names of the categories and their top level forums. This view is designed to give an overview of the available forums in a more 'digestible' way for people new to AVForums.

The 'Detailed View' shows the traditional forum list like we see on most forums. It shows the categories, the top level forums and the top level sub forums, as well as forum statistics. This view is more appropriate for people who are confident at navigating around the forums.

You can swap between the two views using the 'Switch to Compact View' or 'Switch to Detailed View' button top right of the forum list.

About Threads
When you click on a forum's name, you are taken to the list of threads it contains. A thread is a conversation between members. Each thread starts out as a single message and grows as replies are added by different members.

To start a new thread simply click on the 'Post New Thread' button towards the top-right of the page. If there is no such button, it means you do not have permission to post a new thread (this is usually because you are not logged in, or the thread has been closed, or the thread is in a forum in which new replies are not permitted).

Threads can be ordered in many different ways. The default is to have the thread with the most recent activity at the top. But you can easily change this ordering, for example to have the thread with the most messages at the top, or the most views. Simply click on the appropriate column heading at the top of the list of threads. You can also reverse the sorting order by clicking the heading again. (Note that 'sticky' threads will always be at the top no matter how you change the viewing options).

The elements of the Thread Page are shown in the image below.

Multi-page views
When there are more threads to display than will fit on a single page, you may see the 'Page' navigator top-left of the list of threads, which contains page numbers. This indicates that the list of threads has been split over two or more pages. This method of splitting lists of items over many pages is used throughout the forum. If there are lots of pages, you can click a small arrow to change the displayed page numbers to find the page you want.

What are sticky threads?
'Sticky' threads are created by forum staff, and remain 'stuck' to the top of the listing, even if they haven't had any messages recently. Their purpose is to keep important information visible and accessible at all times.

How do I read a thread?
To read a thread, click on its title. Each message in a thread is created by a member. You'll see some brief information about the member who created the thread to the left of their message.

How to I reply to a thread?
To post a reply to an existing thread, type your reply in the box at the bottom of the list of messages and click on the 'Post Reply' button. If the 'Post Reply' button does not appear, it could mean that you are not logged in as a member, or that you do not have permission to reply, or that the thread has been closed to new replies.

The 'More Options' button gives you more options when replying to a thread such as the ability to preview your reply prior to posting it.

Is there a faster way to get to forums?
If you know which forum you want to go to, you can use the 'Forum Jump' control, which appears to the right of the breadcrumb (see below).

How do I find out more about members?
To view information about a particular member, click on the user name. This will take you to their public profile page.

What is the Breadcrumb?
The breadcrumb is a navigation aid which shows you the location of the forum page you are currently viewing in relation to other forum pages. The term comes from the trail of breadcrumbs left by Hansel and Gretel in the popular fairytale.

The image below shows the anatomy of a typical thread.

The Breadcrumb is the navigation aid displayed below the header and above the footer of all forum pages. It allows users to keep track of their locations within the forum. The term comes from the trail of breadcrumbs left by Hansel and Gretel in the popular fairytale.



The breadcrumb is a standard feature of websites as explained by Wikipedia.

If you can't post a message it is because you are either not logged in, or you don't have permission to post in the particular forum.
Look in the FAQ for Membership information here to find out more.

The Post Ratings system allows you to Rate posts with one of a number of different ratings. These ratings include Like, Thank and Agree and provide an easy way for you to indicate how you feel about a particular post. Only one rating can be given per post.

In order to rate posts, you must be an AVForums member. A Novice Member will not have sufficient privileges to rate posts and must be promoted to Member before they can do so.

To rate a post, you must log in to the forums and mouse over the post in question. Once your mouse is over the post, the post ratings buttons will appear towards the bottom right of the post.
(On touch screen devices, the post rating buttons are always visible).

Click one of the ratings to rate the post. You can always undo your rating by clicking the Undo Rating link.

The ratings given to a particular post are shown below the post on the left.

Other members choose to give you a positive rating in appreciation for the contents of a post you make. So if you want positive ratings, post something useful in the forums. Do not ask people to give you a positive rating as this is against our rules.

The + Quote button allows you to select various posts (from different threads if you wish) to be quoted in a reply you type.

To select a message to be quoted, click the + Quote button. Note that the plus sign + changes to a minus sign - which indicates that you have selected this post to quote. Click the - Quote button to deselect it.

When at least one post has been selected for quoting, an Insert Quotes... button will appear below the reply text box.

Clicking the Insert Quotes... button will activate a pop-up window allowing you to confirm which of the selected posts you wish to quote in your reply. Select the required quoted posts and click the Quote These Messages button.

The posts will all be inserted into the reply box ready for you to add your comments.

To contact a moderator, you need to start a conversation with them.
If you know the name of the moderator you wish to contact then you should open your conversations page and type the moderator's name into the recipient box. Click here to open your conversations page.

If you don't know the name of the moderator to contact, you can navigate to the forum relevant to your issue and click the Moderator List link. This link is above the thread list of all forums.
The list of moderators shows the most recently online at the top. Start a Conversation with one of the moderators in the list.

To upload a picture to a post, press the Upload File button below the text box and the select the pictures or other files you wish to upload.

The AVForums header (see above) sticks to the top of the page when you scroll down. We think this is a very useful feature because it means that you always have quick access to your account information and the navigation menu.

If you would prefer the header to scroll off the top of the page in the traditional fashion, then access your preferences



Then choose which header you prefer.

Certain areas of the forums have a Digest View available via a large button to the right of the breadcrumb entitled Digest View. When Digest View is enabled, a list of threads from the current forum and all the sub forums will be displayed. In this way, you can see a 'digest' of all the threads in this section of the forums.

When Digest View is enabled, the button changes to read Standard View. Pressing it re-displays the page as it would normally appear.

Digest View is quite server intensive and so has to be manually activated each time. You can, however, bookmark the Digest View page if you want to easily navigate to it on a regular basis. Digest views have /?digest=1 at the end of the normal page address.

We use Skimwords to help generate income to keep AVForums running. It adds links (to retailers) to certain limited words in posts. It's easy to identify Skimwords links because they are green in colour.
If Skimwords is creating an unwanted link in your post, you can disable it by adding the noskim bbcode around the text.
For example:

We have a video tutorial here:

By using the search box in the header of every page, you can find the content on AVForums (messages, members and editorial) which matches the keyword(s) you enter.

To find your threads and your posts, click the 'Useful Searches' button in the search drop-down.

If you want to search for your threads in specific forums, then click the search box and then the More... button to activate the Search page. Then follow the instructions below.


and click the Search button.

Private Messages are called Conversations on AVForums. They are private conversations between two or more forum members.
Novice Members do not have permission to start new conversations. For more information click Membership Information.

To access your Conversations, log in to the forums and then click your name, top right of the page. This will drop down your user menu where you can click the Conversations link.
Or you can bookmark http://www.avforums.com/conversations/

To start a new Conversation, from your Conversations page, click the New Conversation button towards the top-right of the page and enter the user name of the person you wish to start a conversation with. Alternatively, click on the member's avatar and click the Start a Conversation link.
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Note that the small envelope you see next to your name, top-right of the desktop version of AVForums is a shortcut link to see the recent conversation messages you have received.

Most users have a limit on the number of conversations they may participate in. This is in order to ensure people apply good 'housekeeping' and delete old conversations. But how do you delete conversations?
Use the 'Leave Conversation' option and you will then not be part of that conversation and it will be removed from your conversation list.

Navigate to the most appropriate classified advert forum (click here for the classified forum list) and then click the Post New Advert button to post a new advert. If you can't see that button, then you don't have the privileges to post an advert. To find out why not, click here.

We try and make AVForums classifieds as safe to use as possible, but we can't guarantee that everyone using our classifieds is honest. Because our classifieds focus on high value technology items, we tend to attract scammers, and for this reason we strongly advise you to follow these tips for trading:

Item Description

• Request clear photographs of the item
• Reject stock Internet or low-resolution photos
• Check if the listing is copy and pasted from another site
• Is there proof of purchase?
• Is the price too good to be true?
• Report suspicious threads to the moderators

Negotiations

• If you are contacted via private conversation about any prospective deal, report the member to the moderators
  
• Is the seller being pushy or making arbitrary price cuts to secure a deal?
• Is the seller avoiding questions about the item?
• Look out for last-minute changes in payment or delivery methods that are not properly explained

Completing a deal

• Obtain and verify the seller's details prior to payment
• Is the seller located where they say they are (phone their landline)?
• Ask for a photograph of the seller holding the item (e.g. in a mirror)
• Video chat with a seller so you know who you are dealing with

Seller

• Check the trading feedback of the purchaser
  
• Search their previous classified threads for conduct issues
• Report suspicious behaviour to the moderators

Before trading on AVForums, we ask that you familiarise yourself with our trading rules here.

Navigate to the profile of the person you want to leave feedback for, click the Trading Stats tab and press the Add Feedback link at the bottom.
When positive feedback is left by a member for a particular thread, the recipient is notified. That feedback does not add to the recipient's trading total until they return feedback for the same thread.
Then, both traders' totals are updated at the same time.
This feature encourages both parties involved in a trade to leave feedback for one another.

Assuming you have logged in to AVForums, there are three of reasons why you can't leave trading feedback:

• you haven't posted in an appropriate thread in one of the classified forums. All trading feedback must relate to a classified advert thread.
• you weren't either the classified thread starter or one of the posters in the classified thread. If you and your trading partner traded in someone else's thread, then you should have started your own thread as per the trading rules Trading Rules
• either you or your trading partner have been flagged as blocking ads. More information in the FAQ here.

There are four reasons why you may not be able to post a new classified advert:

1. You are using the AVForums app or Tapatalk. Because the app and Tapatalk do not support the particular features we use in our classifieds, you must use the standard website to post new adverts.
2. You aren't old enough. Only adults may use our classifieds because minors can not enter into a legally binding contract.
3. You already have a thread in the classifieds forum you are trying to create a new advert in. We allow one thread per member per classified forum. You will need to use the search tool to find your thread and then use the Thread Tools -> Archive option to archive your thread. Instructions on how to find your threads is here: Searching | AVForums. Help on how to archive your adverts is here: How do I archive my ads? | AVForums.
4. You are blocking adverts. For more information see here.

If you are seeing the above message on a competition page, it means you may not enter the competition for one of the following reasons:

1. The competition has already ended.
2. The competition is open to members who are in specific usergroups, and you are not in one of those groups. See here for membership information.
3. You are too young or you have no date of birth in your profile. Some competitions have an age restriction and are open only to members who are above that age. Also if your profile does not have your date of birth completed, then you will be considered ineligible. Contact a moderator if your date of birth is missing from your profile.
4. You are in an ineligible territory. Some competition sponsors are responsible for certain territories only and so make their prizes available only to members in that territory. The territory is determined by your IP address and if you are using a proxy IP with no country associated with it then you will also be considered ineligible.
5. Competition entry requires you to be a newsletter subscriber and you're not.
6. You are blocking adverts. While we acknowledge your right to block ads, we reward people who support AVForums by viewing ads with access to our competitions. If you wish to enter our competitions, please disable ad blocking on AVForums. Once disabled, you will need to log out and back in again and refresh the page a few times before the ad blocking restriction is lifted. You can check whether our system has detected ad blocking by visiting the membership information page. You can read more about our ad blocking policy here.