GameFAQs Annotated Message Board Terms of Use

Last Updated: July 7, 2008

This is the Annotated GameFAQs Terms of Use, last updated on April 15, 2009. Below, embedded in the terms, are notes and detailed descriptions that are also intended to double as guidelines for our moderation staff.

The Service, Web site, and the community tools featured herein are brought to you by GameFAQs, a division of CNET Networks, Inc. ("CNET"). In addition to the general Terms of Use applicable to your use of any CNET Networks site (the "CNET Terms of Use"), the following additional Terms of Use (the "Additional Terms of Use") will apply to your use of the Service. Your continued use of the Service constitutes your binding acceptance of these Additional Terms of Use, the CNET Terms of Use, CNET's Privacy Policy, and any modifications made thereto.

GAMEFAQS ADDITIONAL TERMS OF USE

1. Some General Rules

We reserve the right to remove, at any time and without notice, any content from the Service.

This is the most straightforward notice, and probably the most important. Anything posted on the site may be removed at any time for any reason. While we attempt to delete only content that is detrimental to the site (as outlined below), we are a private business, and have the right to control what is transmitted in to and out of our network.

You must read and follow the stickied forum rules threads at the top of each forum in which you post.

Sticky topics are the first topic on a board, and are marked by moderators or administrators. Any rules laid out by a mod or admin in a sticky topic will be enforced for that board.

Refrain from using inappropriate language, including language that may look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate profanity, hate speech (including but not limited to racial, ethnic, or religious slurs), illegal drugs/controlled substances or illegal activities.

This is detailed further below in the Community Rules section.

You must be at least 13 years old to register for the Service. We do not knowingly collect any information from any users under 13 years of age, and if it is found that an underage user has fraudulently registered, their account will immediately be terminated.

These terms are not our own, but dictated by the United States government. through COPPA, Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. You will find on the Internet that other than sites that cater exclusively to younger children, registration for any online activities is restricted to users 13 years old and up. If a user, through their posts on the message boards, announces that they are under 13 years of age, their account will be immediately banned. Users who announce they under 13 as a joke or trick may be able to prove their real age and have their account restored, but this is a long and arduous process.

Cheating of any kind (including by exploiting any bug or error) is expressly prohibited, this includes exploiting any deficiency in our code or design, or in the code or design of any third party product or service used in connection with the Service, to gain an unfair advantage or to gain unearned or unauthorized privileges, access or abilities not clearly intended by the product's design. Communicating information about such activities to others will also be considered cheating.

This section was written with online gaming and promotions in mind, but the rule still applies towards the boards as a whole. If you are caught using, requesting, or sharing any kind of exploit or bug on the forums that grants additional priviliges, bypasses security measures, or is otherwise detrimental to the service, you will be banned. Users who wish to find exploits or bugs and report them should be very discrete in their testing, and should coordinate their tests with and immediately report their findings to a moderator or administrator.

We reserve the right to contact your ISP regarding any inappropriate activities by you on the Service.

We can and have numerous times in the past contacted user's ISPs (including schools and businesses) when that user is causing repeated severe violations. We will also work with law enforcement and impacted parties concerning illegal activities.

Your subscription to the Service is intended for your individual and personal use only. You may not share, license, sub-license, sub-lease, parse, pass-on or in any other way attempt to share, extend or monetize your access to the Service.

Accounts may not be traded, sold, shared, or otherwise normally be accessed by anyone other than the person who registered it. Account sharing or trading is not permitted, and any accounts offered as such or found to be so will be banned.

We reserve the right to immediately terminate or suspend anyone who fails to abide by these Additional Terms of Use. The decision to suspend or terminate accounts will be made at the sole discretion of the site administrators. All account terminations (bannings) are final.

All account terminations (bannings) are final and will not be overturned, except in the case of false underage (COPPA) violations. Account terminations and suspensions are handled at the sole discretion of the site administrators.

2. Protection of Your Password; Unauthorized Access
Users are solely responsible for protecting their accounts from access by others. You are strongly encouraged to select a hard-to-guess password and not re-use that password on any other sites where it may be read by the owners or administrators of that site. Accessing or attempting to access any user account not belonging to you without permission is prohibited. Accessing another user's account in this manner is grounds for a permanent ban of all accounts from the site.

If an account is reported as compromised by another user while that account is still in good standing, the account will be locked and we will take steps to return it to the original user. If the account is banned before it is reported, and the loss of the account was not the fault of GameFAQs or CNET, then the account will not be restored, and the ban permanent. Accounts locked due to actual or suspected hackings must be claimed by the original registered within 30 days. After 30 days, locked accounts will be permanently closed.

3. Registration Requirements
In order to post messages on our message boards, view boards with level restrictions, and use other advanced services, you must register using a valid e-mail address and follow all required registration confirmation procedures. No posting privileges will be granted until the account is fully activated.

4. Community Rules
The following conduct is not allowed on our message boards, in instant messages, chat rooms, voice channels, user profiles, private messages, feedback forms, reviews, or inside hosted game servers:

Offensive Material - Users may not transmit or encourage others to transmit material or links to material considered patently offensive in nature. This includes, but is not limited to using vulgar, profane, or sexually explicit language; using race, religion, sexual orientation, culture, ethnicity, disability, nationality, or gender as a means of insult; using threatening, harassing, defamatory, hate-speech, or libelous language; and posting, requesting, linking to, or otherwise sharing material considered pornographic, obscene, graphic, or hate speech. Failing to abide by a warning that material or terms are offensive or prohibited is a violation.

Using terms for homosexuality or mental or physical disability as a means of insult in any way towards anyone or anything is considered offensive. This includes, but is not limited to, insinuating certain people (including video game characters) are homosexual or disabled in an insulting way, calling things "gay" or “retarded” as a synonym for "stupid", or using offensive slang terms. The use of any such derogatory language will result in an automatic suspension.
Jokes or humor about rape or incest are generally considered patently offensive.

Several other words and terms are flagged by the site censor when a message is posted, and users are clearly warned about the connotation and use of these words on the site. Failing to abide by the warning presented is a clear violation.
Links to sites with content that violates these terms are not permitted. Warning users about offensive content in a link does not grant permission to post that link.
Links to images or sites displaying images with nudity, near-nudity (i.e. see-through clothing, very skimpy coverings), or depictions of such are not permitted.
Images or descriptions of sexual acts, genetalia, or clearly graphic material (shock images, defecation) are considered offensive as well.
Using the word "rape" as a synonym for "owned", "destroyed", "decimated", etc is considered inappropriate.

Vulgar Language or Substitutes for Such - Our Service is programmed with a list of words that are considered vulgar under any context, and these words are not allowed to be used under any circumstances. Attempting to bypass the censor by misspelling, inserting spaces or symbols, transposing letters, using look-alike symbols, or any other method is not allowed. The only acceptable method of posting one of these vulgar words is to completely obscure it, making it impossible to determine what the word is without context. Additionally, certain words are prohibited from being used in topic titles and user information pages; bypassing the censor to post those words where they are restricted is also disallowed. For example, if "gris" is a banned word, the following are examples of bypassing that are not allowed: g***, ***s, g-r-i-s, gr*s, 9|-1$, girs, gryeeeas, Allowed: ****, ****ed, ****ing, g'ed, g-word. (Note: Neither -ed nor -ing are parts of the banned word "gris".) Taking advantage of any limits in the Service's language filtering capabilities is not allowed. Any limits in such filters shall not be taken as permission to bypass rules regarding vulgar language.

Just because a word is blotted out does not mean it cannot be a violation. If a posting is self-censored but still is in clear violation another rule (i.e. calling someone an obscured racial term, insulting a user with "**** you"), it is still a violation.
In certain cases, some legitimate, inoffensive words may be inadvertently flagged due to constraints of the censoring system. In these cases, a user should still take steps to ensure that their message does not contain the disallowed word, and report the inadvertent flagging to a moderator or administrator.
Cursing in foreign languages also falls under the vulgar language rule, and is not an acceptable substitute.

To reiterate, you are allowed to show either the first letter or the length of a censored word. You cannot give any other information about that word (rhyming, sounds like, etc.), as that defeats the purpose of blocking it out.
Certain terms and words are allowed in posts, but not allowed in topic titles or user profiles. Bypassing the censor to post these words where they are not permitted is also a violation.
Context is always taken into consideration when a word is censored. When the context makes it clear that the word is being used to violate another rule, the post will still be moderated.

Posting in Languages Other Than English - Foreign languages are only appropriate on regional forums and unions that cater to a location where the language is widely used. Any non-English content on the site that does not fall within the exception will be removed. For example, Japanese language should not be used in any forums except on the GameFAQs World: Japan forum and the GameSpot Japanese Union.
Flaming - Communications clearly insulting other users, individually or as a group, directly or indirectly, are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to: name-calling ("You're an idiot", "You moron"); direct insults and orders ("Screw you", "Go kill yourself"); insinuations ("Are you stupid or something?"); or insults towards family ("Your mom...").

Some additional notes on the Flaming rule:

People are allowed to debate one another and argue opinions in any way they see fit. The instant it degrades to a name-calling contest, it's in violation of the rules. No matter how many good points a post has, if it contains an insult, it's a flame.
No matter the intent, a post that insults another user can easily be considered Flaming, even if the user is a friend and you are joking around. There is no way that a moderator or another user can tell that you are joking. Allowing friends to flame one another would lead to confusion about the Flaming rule.

Trolling (Inciting Flames) - Messages intended solely to annoy and/or offend other users by going against the clear nature of a board, topic or chat room are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to: provoking other users to respond with flames; provoking fans of a particular system or game, especially on boards or topics dedicated to that system or game; making misleading topic titles; asking obviously useless questions; posting false information as fact; and using another user’s quote in your signature without permission.

Some additional notes on the Trolling rule:

"If you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all." Message boards are set up specifically for fans of a particular game or system to discuss that game. While criticizing and analyzing a topic is always acceptable, if you don't like (or hate) a particular game or system (or have never even played it), you probably shouldn't be posting on that board.
Criticisms should be backed with valid points. If you have an opinion about something, make sure you state it as an opinion and not a fact. "This game is stupid" is a clear troll. "I felt the game's story went nowhere" is critical, but clearly stated as an opinion.
Announcing that you have marked a user for moderation or that you have added them to your ignore list is considered trolling; it adds nothing to any conversation and only serves to incite the target.

Illegal Activity - Communications that violate or incite others to violate the law are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to, asking for or providing: illegal copies of copyrighted software; methods of circumventing copyright protection; methods of cheating in online games; illegal copies of copyrighted music, movies, videos, or any other type of media; reprints of material from web sites or text sources; or any sort of plagiarism.

Game music, like most other music, is copyrighted. Distributing MP3s or other sound files from a game or any other source without the consent of the copyright owner is illegal.
Exchanging files using torrent technology can be illegal. When you are discussing your use of the technology the burden is on you to show that you are using it for a legal purpose by explicitly indicating the legal files that you are uploading and/or downloading.
Discussion of mod chips, copying games, playing copied games, cracking games, No-CD patches, piracy releases, homebrew, copyrighted ROMs, copyrighted ISOs, and basically anything related to game, movie, TV, or music piracy is not permitted.
Discussion of illegal drug use or abuse is not permitted.
Discussion of gambling is not permitted.

Material distributed by a company (i.e. a band putting up MP3s on their site) is not necessarily free for further distribution. You may link back to the official site that distributes the material, but not distribute it yourself (unless clear permission is given).
Short clips and excerpts from media are generally considered Fair Use (i.e. 10-30 seconds of a song, an excerpt or highlight from a sporting event, part of a game's opening movie). However, the full content of the material is almost always going to be a copyright violation (entire songs, skits, or movies, full wrestling matches, full episodes), unless it's being distributed by the owner of the content.
Material hosted on various video hosting sites are not necessarily legal to link to, as the audio or video could be copyrighted.
When asking where to obtain copyrighted material, users should make it clear that they are looking for a legal source of the copyrighted material. For example, "Where can I download this game?" can be considered Illegal Activities. "Where can I buy this game?" or "Where can I legally download this game?" would not be considered Illegal Activities.
The restriction on "homebrew" listed above is in reference specifically to programs designed to run on game systems that require an exploit of the system's design to run. While many homebrew applications are legal, the methods by which they are executed are often not (under the DMCA), and the lines are far too often crossed once discussion begins. Use of flashcards is one example of homebrew discussion that is not allowed.
The restriction on "gambling" listed above is in reference specifically to real world wagers for cash or cash equivalents, both online and off. This does not apply to gambling video games where no real money is used, or "account bets" where an account will be closed.

Advertising - Messages that clearly advertise a service or product are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to: unsolicited commercial or personal web site advertisements; For-Sale/For-Trade/For-Auction/Wanted notices; "Make Money Fast" scams, chain letters, and pyramid schemes; or any referrer-ID based sites (including both games and free-item marketing sites). Users are allowed to include their web site address in a signature, request comments on their personal site in a social setting, or provide, only once, an interesting or relevant link to another site. If a user directly or indirectly profits from a site or link, it may not be posted on the Service.

Some additional notes on the Advertising rule:

There's a fine line between providing information and advertising. If someone asks for information, and a second user provides it as a link to a web site, it's acceptable. If a user is simply giving out links to their site in multiple topics, it's spam, regardless of the content of that site.
If a user creates a single topic about his/her web personal site, it's acceptable as long as it's in a social setting and that kind of topic is generally welcomed by other board users. If a user creates multiple topics, it's spam. If the user is encouraging people to leave GameFAQs and visit his/her message boards instead, it's spam.
If a user is directly or indirectly profiting from a site or link, it may not be posted.
Having a web address in a user's signature or profile is perfectly acceptable, but posting to draw attention to that signature or profile to it is not.
Asking for or offering games over online services such as XBox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, Virtual Console, etc is considered spamming and will be deleted. Asking for or offering to give out pre-order codes, beta codes, etc is also considered spamming and will be deleted.

Off-Topic Postings - The main purpose of the message boards and chat rooms within the Service is to provide discussion forums and opportunities for various video and computer games and their systems. Topicality is expected and will be enforced on all message boards and chat rooms not noted as purely social in nature.

Some additional notes on the Off-Topic rule:

Unless a board specifically is listed as a social board, you should assume that topicality is enforced. All boards for games on modern systems are topical. When creating a topic, a warning will be displayed to the user reminding them when a board is topical.
On a board for a particular game or system, topics should always be related to that game or system in some manner. Topics about users on the board, the board itself, or not about the game or system in any way are clearly off-topic.
When a special interest board has been created for a particular topic, discussion of that topic on game boards will normally be considered off-topic. For example, discussion of the current NFL season belongs on the Sports and Racing: Football board, but not on the Madden NFL game board.
Creating a topic that does not relate to the game or system and then adding small "on-topic" content to the post does not make the post on-topic. Your entire topic should relate to the game or system in question, not just some small portion of it.
The message boards are a public forum, and not meant for private messages between users - topics used for private messages to individuals or groups (even about in-game activities) can be considered off-topic on gaming or special interest boards.

Disruptive Behavior - Behavior that disrupts the Service for other users, intentional or not, are prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: messages or topic titles that force browsers to scroll horizontally; large blank or content-free messages, including quoting another user without adding any additional content and posts that consist only of one or more smiley faces; “rick rolls” (posting misleading or disruptive links); "bumping" older topics (posting in them well after the last post); posting identical or near-identical messages or topics, including "fad" posts or topics; intentionally hard-to-read topic titles or posts (i.e. ALL CAPS, AlTeRnAtE cApS, no spaces, no or excessive punctuation); posting hard-to-read or nonsensical messages in a single or multiple topics; posting large ASCII art (except in social topics specifically calling for it); or post counting (i.e. "First", "100th Post"). Shouting or otherwise creating noise in an active voice channel is considered disruptive behavior.

Extra-harsh penalties will be applied for posting any link that overtakes a person’s browser or computer when clicked on.

To sum up the rule, users should post in order to communicate, not just for the sake of posting.
Adding in (caps) or substituting a couple of lower-case letters in an ALL CAPS topic title does not exempt it from the rule. Any topic title designed to draw attention in this manner is a violation of the Disruptive rule.
Signatures should conform to the maximum size limitations (2 lines, 160 characters). Manually editing your signature to bypass these limitations, changing the default signature divider (three dashes, "---"), adding line(s) of text above the default signature divider (commonly referred to as "Pre-Sigging"), or any other alteration of your signature is considered disruptive and not allowed.

Plot Spoilers - Posting "spoilers" (critical plot details) about games, movies, time-delayed broadcast events, or other media in the title of a topic or in a message without a clear notice is prohibited. To discuss such information in a topic, users should leave the title of the topic as vague as possible, ensuring that no mention of the actual spoiler itself is included, and include a warning (i.e. "SPOILER") in the topic title. In a message post in a non-marked or otherwise unexpected topic, users should leave several blank lines in a post after a warning before revealing any vital plot information.

Some additional notes on the Spoilers rule:

When a spoiler does not involve the current game/movie/etc. being discussed in a board or topic, then the spoiler warning must denote what the spoiler is about. Having a generic spoiler warning in a topic does not grant you freedom to spoil anything you want unrelated to what's being discussed.
When you want to post a spoiler in a topic that goes beyond the current discussion in it (i.e. talking about the end of a game in which the topic so far has been about the middle of it), an additional spoiler warning in your message is warranted.
There is no cut-off time for spoilers. Regardless of the age of a movie or game, there is always going to be someone reading the boards who has not seen it yet.
In many games, the names of a boss or enemy can be a spoiler, especially when that enemy initially is portrayed as a friend. Use discretion when asking for help.

Flooding, Invading, and Board Wars - Flooding a board or chat room with disruptive topics or messages; invading another board (flooding a board as a group with topics or messages); instigating, participating in, or retaliating in an invasion of a message board or any other online service; announcing or inciting a "war" or any conflict with the regular members of another board. Posting a link to a third-party site that allows modification (i.e. posting comments) in a situation where an invasion is even remotely implied (i.e. "Look at this stupid blog") will be considered an invasion.

Some additional notes on the Invasion rule:

If it looks like an invasion, it is moderated like an invasion. There is little to no leeway given when concerning this rule. Large groups of users who regularly use one board "suddenly" posting in a new board or flooding a topic is considered an invasion.

Impersonation - Impersonating other users by creating and/or using a user account with a name clearly intended to impersonate, mock, or antagonize another user, or otherwise falsely claiming to be another member is strictly prohibited.

Some additional notes on the Impersonation rule:

Impersonating the site's administrators, moderators, or employees is strictly prohibited, and grounds for the loss of all accounts. Other impersonations are handled based on how well-known the victim is, and how serious the attempt at impersonation was.
You cannot be given permission to impersonate another user. The rule is universal, regardless of whether or not the impersonated user has allowed it.
The impersonation rule also covers well-known users or owners of other web sites and services, as well as video game developers and publishers.
Impersonating non-Internet celebrities (politicians, artists) is acceptable.

Harassment/Stalking/Privacy - Continual harassing behavior directed towards a certain individual or group with the intent of creating an intimidating, offensive, or hostile environment on the Service, with or without use of explicit or implicit threats, is strictly prohibited. Posting contact or other private information of any person (Service user or not) is also prohibited.

Some additional notes on the Harassment rule:

You cannot post phone numbers or private addresses of anyone, whether it be "with permission", or even yourself. It is impossible to distinguish the difference between a legitimate posting or one intended to harass.

5. Multiple Accounts
While it is acceptable for users to maintain multiple accounts, we can and do track all accounts used on the same computer(s) and consider them one account for the purpose of monitoring violations of these Additional Terms of Use. If these Additional Terms of Use are violated severely enough to warrant the termination of one account, all known accounts held by that user and/or all accounts using the same computer(s) may also be banned at the administrators' discretion.

Users are strongly discouraged from using their accounts on public computers, or computers where other members also log in. When two accounts are accessed on the same computer, it becomes impossible to distinguish the difference between the actual people using them. If one of these "linked" accounts severely violates the rules, all shared accounts may be banned as well.
Users are strongly discouraged from having multiple accounts at all. Multiple accounts are considered to be one account when it comes to violations, and single violations across multiple accounts will be considered identical multiple violations on a single account.

6. Violations and Penalties
Topics and messages that violate these Additional Terms of Use will be deleted from the boards and additional penalties may be applied at our moderators' discretion. Re-posting deleted violations (yours or those of others) is also considered a violation.

Messages and topics may be removed at any time and for any reason at the sole discretion of our editors and designated moderators. User accounts may be warned, suspended, or revoked at any time and for any reason at the sole discretion of our editors and our designated moderators. All determinations of what is "acceptable" and "unacceptable" content will be determined solely by our editors and moderators.

Intentional, repeated, or severe violations are cause for the banning of your account, all use of the boards from your IP address or your entire ISP. In such event, we also reserve the right to contact your ISP concerning your activities.

7. Violations and Penalties
We may contact you via e-mail or postal mail to provide you with information about the Service or your account or to provide you with information about special offers available only to Service subscribers.

8. No Warranty; Limitation of Liability
The Service, any software we may provide for the purpose of interacting with the Service (the "Software") and all related documentation are being provided to you "as is" and without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. We do not warrant that the functions contained in the Software or on Service will meet your requirements. We do not warrant that the Service or the Software will be uninterrupted, error free or free of viruses or other harmful components. We are not responsible for content posted by our users. No oral or written information or advice given by us or any of our authorized representatives shall create a warranty or in any way increase the scope of this warranty. The above exclusions will not apply in any jurisdiction that does not allow the exclusion of implied warranties.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, NEGLIGENCE, SHALL GAMESPOT, CNET, ANY PARTNER OF CNET THAT MAY BE INVOLVED IN THE DISTRIBUTION OR PROVISION OF THE SOFTWARE OR THE SERVICE, OR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, DIRECTORS, AGENTS, LICENSEES, SUBLICENSEE OR ASSIGNS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, THE SOFTWARE OR RELATED DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF SUCH PARTIES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF THOSE DAMAGES. THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS WILL NOT APPLY IN ANY JURISDICTION THAT DOES NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES. IN NO EVENT SHALL OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL DAMAGES, LOSSES, AND CAUSES OF ACTION (WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE) EXCEED THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU FOR THE SOFTWARE.