New EA Forum Rules & Guidelines [ Edited ]

[EA_Forum_Team]

We want our players to feel at home on Answers HQ. Anyone should feel comfortable asking for help, sharing their tips and tricks, and having fun with other players. With such a broad community of passionate players across a wide array of games, we have a few rules that we'd like you to keep in mind so we can keep Answers HQ the great place that it is.

People get the best out of forums when everyone is treated with respect and courtesy. We ask everyone to interact in a civilized manner.

The guidelines and rules below explain further the type of behaviour that we expect. The guidelines are not exhaustive and moderators have full discretion to address any inappropriate behaviour.

Check out the official EA Forum Rules & Guidelines below and the EA User Agreement.

Any questions? Don't hesitate to ask an EA Community Manager or Moderator.

EA Forum Rules & Guidelines

Our forum moderators monitor posts. Posts that break the rules and guidelines may be removed. Breaking the rules can also result in sanctions or bans being applied to the forum account on a case by case basis.

 
Dos and Don'ts

Don'ts treated as Zero-Tolerance

Images, avatars, and signatures

I've been banned from posting on the forums - what now?

Dos and Don'ts

Here's a breakdown for what to do and what not to do here on EA Forums.

Dos

• Post in the right place. Check the section you're posting in before submitting. If a post is in the wrong place we might move or remove it.
• Use the search feature to see if there's already a thread for your question. If there is, use it instead of making a new one. Try to include all your points in a single place.
• Be descriptive. Give us as much information as you can. Name your thread "The Sims 4 Gallery - I need help with feature X" instead of just "Help!" That way everyone can be ready to help you, faster. Likewise, for discussions something like "FUT Synergy thread" will drive the conversation more than naming your topic "FUT."
• Be accurate. Make sure the title of your thread matches what your post is about.
• Link to first party sites when you're helping with tech issues. If someone needs help with their nVidia driver, link to the nVidia website. That way we know we can trust the source of the info.
• Post in the language of the forum. Answers HQ is available in English, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Nederlands, Polski, Português, Pусский.
• Keep it on-topic. If someone created a thread, it's because they're looking for an answer to their question or want to discuss a specific topic. Changing the topic of the thread isn't helpful.
• Keep it game-related. We're not here to debate politics or religion or lobby for anything, so keep the conversation about our games.
• Keep it appropriate. Players of all ages see EA Forums, this is true even for T and M rated games. Make sure that any posts or images you use are in line with the EA Forum Rules & Guidelines below and the EA User Agreement.
• Be patient. Keep track of your thread using bookmarks or by subscribing to the thread. Other players will post in your thread when they are interested or have an answer for you.
• Be polite and kind. Respect others even if they have a different opinion. If you disagree with someone, you are free to do so politely, but please don't make it personal. Respect also means you never harass, embarrass, or threaten other players.
• Be mindful of tagging. While we encourage folks to @ tag folks as appropriate, excessive or inappropriate tagging may be perceived as rude or as creating an inappropriate obligation. 

Don’ts

• Don't call out Community Managers and Officials in thread titles. Be cool, folks. We know you want to grab our attention, but good thread titles like the example in Dos will help you get our attention much easier.
• Don't call for boycotts or misuse petitions. Inappropriate petitions and boycott discussions do not contribute to a useful and productive forum.
• Don't cheat to rank up. Level up your forum account just like you would level up in one of our games, by participating and not by cheating. Any threads posted to boost points or otherwise influence your forum rank directly will be closed.
• Don't post personal information. Forum posts are visible to everyone and can show up in search engine results. Protect the privacy of yourself and others.
• Don't be inappropriate. That means no obscenity or other explicit posts i.e. sexting. This includes role play threads.
• Don't be rude. No matter what your feelings are about other people, EA Forums aren't the place to attack another person. That includes public figures, EA employees, or other forum users.
• Don't chat about moderation. Our moderators are here to keep this place happy and helpful for everyone. Discussing the way they do things on the forum is not okay, if you have any questions about your own moderation history feel free to reach out to a moderator or Community manager.
• Don't impersonate anybody. This includes EA employees, other community members, celebrities and anyone else. It also includes simulating privileges of forum accounts with a higher level rank, like signatures.
• Don't spam or flood boards. That means don't post disruptive numbers of messages, meme, gifs and images e.g. posting the same message in multiple forums, or sending the same DM multiple times. Spamming can include:
  • Bumping threads or messages: Doing this once or twice is fine. Multiple bumps in a short period of time is considered spamming. Use your bumps wisely.
  • Post blank or 'no text' messages: You won't receive an answer if your question is unclear.
  • Mass tags: It's very rare that more than one tag is needed. Don't tag multiple forum members or EA Employees to get attention.
• Don't curse or swear. Don't try to get away with it by using symbols in place of letters, too. We all k*** what you're trying to s**.
• Don't bully. Online bullying is against the rules. Bullying is a one-stop-shop to getting banned from the forums. Your gaming account will also be reviewed. Bullying can include:
  • Personal defamation
  • Gossiping about other people
  • Harassment
• Don't "name and shame." If you see a suspected cheater, please report them by using the appropriate tools. We can't take any action against such accounts on Answers HQ, and such posts can lead to harassment.
• Don't make false claims to EA staff.
• Don't advertise. For anything: pay-to-play gaming sites, products or items for sale, referral links or advert links/images in forum signatures, avatar posts, blogs, profiles, you name it! But feel free to link to free gaming fan sites and free-to-enter league sites.
• Use URL shortening tools
  You can use the linking button to shorten/embed links on AHQ. Please don't use external url shorteners as they can obfuscate unsafe links and in some cases used to embed ads. 
  
• Don't link to "shady" sites. Links to other sites should be appropriate and not contain content like cheat promotion, adult material or unsafe software.
• Don't "necropost." Reviving, updating or bumping old, outdated and irrelevant threads is not helpful for our community. It's best to check when the thread was created before you hit post, just to make sure it's not 2 years old for example.
• Don't make legal threats. The forums aren't the ideal place for legal discussions and posts including legal chat will be removed.

Don’ts treated with Zero-Tolerance

These are more serious don'ts. That means if you do something from this list, we might ban you right away.

• Link to or discuss pirated and/or harmful content: Such as Trojan horses. That's not allowed and will result in account action.
• Be a troll, bait or flame. This includes deliberately trying to cause an argument by making sarcastic, off-topic, rude or disruptive posts, and discussions.
• Do anything illegal. That includes:
  • Identity theft
  • Identity fraud
  • "Swatting"
  • Doxxing
  • Stalking
  • Making personal threats
  • Blackmail and extortion
• Discriminate. That means no sexism, racism etc.
• Promote or discuss activities that are against the EA User Agreement. This includes software piracy, "hacks", "torrents", game "cracks", and more. See that happening on the boards? Report it directly to EA.
• Posting anything that references adult materials. This includes linking to adult-themed mods for games. We've got young gamers on here, too.
• Asking for or giving out CD-Keys/Product Codes. Missing the code for your game? Head to help.ea.com to contact us.
• Sharing accounts. Sharing accounts will get you banned.
• Posting copyrighted material. This includes images as well as text from game guides. If you don't own it, don't post it.
• Creating more than one forum account. Accounts created for inappropriate or unauthorized reasons will be banned.
• Coin Buying / Selling / Promoting / Gambling. These are all against our EA User Agreement.
• Posting real-life threats.

Images, avatars, and signatures

IMAGES / AVATARS

A lot of our rules about images, avatars are the same as our Dos and Don'ts. But just to make sure it's clear, here's what you can and can't do.

You can:

• keep it clean, with appropriate images for all ages.
• make your own images. We like your style.
• have fun!

But don’t:

• use personal photos.
• include religious or political content. Debate which Madden is the best (2004, duh) all day on our boards, but don't bring religion or politics into EA Forums Keep it on-topic.
• use racist, hateful, controversial, or illegal content.

SIGNATURES

In some EA Forums signatures is a feature only available for certain ranks. If the option is available for you:

You can:

• include a cool picture. The above rules for images also apply for signatures.
• keep it tidy, with up to three lines of text.

But don’t:

• make it too long. The longer the signature, the more cluttered the boards will get. Limit your signature to three lines or less. Unless someone from the Forum Team has given you permission, keep it short.
• have large pictures or text. Sometimes bigger isn't always better.
• link to pirated and/or harmful content, like Trojan horses or adult-themed things. That's not allowed and will result in account action.

I've been banned from posting on the forums - what now?

Being temporarily banned from the Forums means that you have broken the rules or have not been participating in a constructive fashion. Take a break, go for a walk, have a snack, play some games: it's not a big deal. We're not mad at you; you just need a break. Please, take time to review the rules and guidelines as posted above.

A short-term ban is our way of preventing further disruptive behavior and asking you to reexamine how you behave. Do not discuss your ban on the public forums or ask your friends to post about it for you. That could get your ban extended and may even get your friends in trouble, too. Keep in mind that discussing moderation is against our rules.

If you think you've been banned by mistake, get in touch with our Terms of Service team by following the steps outlined here.