Forums Code of Conduct
by Thundgot | 24/08/2006 18:45:00 http://www.wow-europe.com/en/policy/guidelines.html These guidelines (the “Forums Guidelines”) are an integral part of the “World of Warcraft Website Terms of Use” Blizzard Entertainment®, a division of Davidson & Associates, Inc., and affiliates, including Vivendi Universal Games International, S.A (hereinafter collectively referred to as "Blizzard") provides the World of Warcraft forums (the “Forums”), which are part of the World of Warcraft Website (the “Site”) as a service for the users to discuss Blizzard’s latest games. You understand that according to the applicable Laws and Regulations Blizzard doesn’t have any general obligation to monitor the electronic communications and content posted on the Forums (the “Posts”). You also understand that you, and not Blizzard, are responsible for your Posts. Without prior warning or explanation and at the sole discretion of Blizzard, your Posts can be deleted and Blizzard may terminate or restrict your use of access to the Forums or to the Site. All decisions of Blizzard regarding any violations of the Forum Guidelines are final. The offences subject to such a sanction include, but are not limited to, the following list of activities. You may not use the Forums to: 1. Transmit any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable content. 2. Post or transmit sexually explicit images or other content that is deemed by Blizzard to be offensive. 3. Advocate cheating during gameplay including, but not limited to, the modification of the game program files. 4. Impersonate any person including, but not limited to, a representative of Blizzard. 5. Post or transmit chain letters or pyramid or money schemes. 6. "Spam" by posting frequent and/or annoying messages in the forums. Please find below examples of what the above activities may consist in. Offensive or Damaging Links Users who post links to "browser bombs," which open multiple windows or sites with offensive content, will be banned. Posting Cheats, Hacks, or Trojan Horses Users who post links to cheating or hacking programs will be sanctioned. If you wish to report information regarding cheats or hacks to Blizzard, send it to our Customer Support (http://www.wow-europe.com/en/support/webform/billingDefault.html?lan=e n). Do not post this information on the Forums. Harassment Harassment occurs when a Forums user targets another individual to cause distress, embarrassment, unwanted attention, or other personal discomfort. Blizzard does not condone harassment in any form. While you may disagree with someone's point of view, personal attacks, or attacks based on a person's race, national origin, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disablement, or other such affiliation are prohibited. If you have a disagreement with someone's point of view, address the subject, not the person. Harrassment can also consist in posting harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, or obscene content about individual Blizzard employees. This includes the posting of email addresses, street addresses, or phone numbers of individual Blizzard employees, which could expose you to civil liability as a violation of privacy. Objectionable Content The Forums are a gaming-community-oriented service comprised of many different types of people. Therefore, the use of vulgar or abusive language, even if masked by symbols or other characters, or engaging in other impermissible behaviour, will be sanctioned. Sexually Explicit Images Blizzard prohibits the transfer or posting of sexually explicit images or other content deemed offensive by Blizzard. In addition to the sanctions mentioned above, you may be subject to civil liability and/or investigation and prosecution by law enforcement. Impersonation This can involve the use of another person’s identity, such as employees or representatives of Blizzard. Users must, amongst other things, avoid the use of Blizzard employees or representatives’ identity in all forms of online communication, including, but not limited to, user names, user profiles, and voice, text, and graphic chat and message postings. Chain Letters or Pyramid or Money Schemes Transmission of chain letters or pyramid schemes of any kind is not allowed in the Forums. These materials are considered a nuisance by many users, and certain chain letters and pyramid schemes may be illegal. Users who create Posts for commercial purposes or any Posts that are designed to generate money for themselves will be sanctioned. Spamming Your access to the Forums and/or to the Site may be terminated for posting frequent and/or annoying messages in the Forums. An example is posting the same message to multiple Forums. If repeated spamming occurs, you may be sanctioned. These Forum Guidelines shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws applicable in your country of residence. If any provision of these Forums Guidelines shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from these Forums Guidelines and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. Blizzard may revise these Forums Guidelines at any time and in its sole discretion. By using the Forums, you agree to be bound by any such revisions and you agree to periodically visit this page to determine the then current Forum Guidelines to which you are bound. It is your responsibility to understand the Forums Guidelines currently in force and conduct yourself in accordance therewith. [ Post edited by Thundgot ] |
| by Thundgot | 24/08/2006 18:46:28 In addition to the Forum Code of Conduct above, here are some common courtesy guidelines to follow. The word “general” can be somewhat misleading, but the General Discussion forum is for threads about the game itself. If you wish to discuss other topics – whether it’s polling for real-life statistics or asking what one listens to while playing – please post in our Off-Topic Forum. As the support of these forums is entirely in English we must insist that all posts are also in English. This practice is used to draw attention to one’s post. While everyone wants their posts read, we ask that you refrain from using sensational tactics in order to bring more people to your thread. Let your post stand on its own merit. This is another way of drawing attention to a post, and as above we ask that you let the post linked to stand on its own merits and refrain from such tactics to give it attention. An exploit is basically considered to be any ‘trick’ to get to areas you’re not supposed to be in or gain unintended benefits. For more information about exploits, check the exploits policy. http://www.wow-europe.com/en/policy/exploitation.html Always be politically correct and considerate of what other people might find offensive. An example is to call something you don’t like “gay”. Everyone would like Blizzard to read and acknowledge his or her post, and we understand that. However, use of such words in the topic does not help that come to pass. Please make your thread title relevant to the post subject. We appreciate that our posters understand the Code of Conduct to the point where they can “call” whether or not a thread is in violation; however, saying “in before the lock” does not contribute to a constructive community and it does fall under spamming. If you wish to acknowledge a post that violates policy, please report it instead. Posts made only to point out you were first in the thread do not contribute constructively to the thread and is considered spamming. The same goes for making a post to "reserve" your space for editing in a reply later. Also, while ASCII art is often a fun addition to a thread they generally take up a lot of space to say very little and should be kept to the Off-Topic forum. Several users posting the same thread on multiple forums or repeatedly on the same forum is also considered spam. The act of “bumping” one’s post is considered spamming and contributes nothing constructive to the discussion. Your thread will be seen; there is no need to continually “bump” it to the top of the list. The vast majority of threads fit into a single forum, or at most two forums. Starting the same thread on multiple forums is considered spamming. This is especially true for guild recruitment threads, which we have a separate forum for. Posting guild recruitment threads across multiple realm forums will lead to removal of your forum access (and your posts). Calling for a nerf on something is very provocative to those at the other end of the stick. Such threads are by nature unconstructive and in most cases considered trolling. This is a discussion forum. Petition threads do not contain much discussion – instead, a petition is usually page after page of “/signed.” This is not constructive. If you have an issue with the game, please discuss it in a civil fashion. There are other places on the internet to form online petitions. Posts that are locked or deleted have a reason behind the moderation. We generally lock before we post on a locked thread to stop the violation in question as soon as possible, so if you have yet to see a comment by a member of the community team on a locked thread, please wait for it and do not post on the subject. In some cases the moderator may consider the reason obvious enough to not need explaining, or simply not wish to bring the post back to the top of the forums. Please do not post linking to threads you feel should be moderated. By using the methods we have in place, we can moderate more efficiently. The reporting system is for moderation purposes only. Reporting a post to e.g. try to get a Blizzard response to it is considered abuse of the report system and may lead to sanctions. [ Post edited by Thundgot ] |
| by Thundgot | 24/08/2006 18:46:47 We’ve seen a worrying increase in the naming and shaming trend, especially on the realm forums, and have decided to adopt a very strict policy on this kind of threads and posts. While we do understand the community’s wish to point out people acting in ways that are not appreciated, the ease at which a false claim can be made and supported, and the lack of possibility for us to validate such claims, means naming and shaming on the forums is a shady area at best. We wish to make it clear that the naming and shaming policy is made in order to protect the innocent, and thus prevent the extensive harassment of those wrongfully accused. However since a zero-tolerance policy has a potential to also protect the guilty, we have made the following rules for such threads:
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| by Thundgot | 24/08/2006 18:47:03 In order to keep discussion in the Realm Forums constructive and to keep the Forums themselves clean, we’ve decided to enforce stricter rules in the Realm Forums. We will be suspending ‘bad’ posters at the first sign of trouble, this could be a week or more, depending on the severity. [ Post edited by Thundgot ] |
| by Thundgot | 20/03/2008 14:41:58 We're of course open to both reviewing bans and giving people a second chance after having been blocked from the forums for a while. If you feel a permanent ban was uncalled for or would like a second chance due to the ban having been in effect for a long time, please contact us through the community web form, using the category "Forums". Web form: https://www.wow-europe.com/community/webform/index.html |
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