Game Board Moderation Notices

If you are a frequent poster of the game boards, then you might not realize that these forums are moderated and powered by GameFAQs. Many years ago, GameSpot combined the game boards with GameFAQs game boards. If you are moderated for posting in the game boards, then the only way you might know is if you were suspended, which would give you an error that you had no access to the game boards (which also took your karma away on the site). With the new change, you will now receive a notice via private message about the broken violation made while using a game board. In the near future, you will notice a reason based on the Terms of Use violation instead of the current reason, which is quite vague "GameFAQs reason."

GameSpot and GameFAQs have the same Terms of Use agreement, but not all of the rules are handled in the same manner. GameFAQs uses a karma system (GF) and GameSpot measures based on moderator/admin investigations on the user's tenure, activity (post count), and how he or she contributes to the site (GS). Check out GameFAQs annotated Terms of Use to make sure you are familiar with the site if you frequently use the game boards. Another helpful page is GameFAQs frequently asked questions page.

Now that you understand how the game boards function, I might as well share some tips about ways you can avoid being moderated for reasons you had not imagined. The game boards should be used in a manner of “text” only. If you use the WYSIWYG editor, .html, or even spoiler tags, then none of that can be viewed on the GameFAQs end at this time. Many users do not realize that sharing a spoiler tag might display properly while using the GameSpot game board pages, but that entire spoiler and the tag will display entirely for a GameFAQs user. On a related note, an imbedded image will also not display to a GameFAQs user.

You might think, “Well, at least another GameSpot user can see my content or image,” but the problem that I notice the most is that a GameFAQs user will flag the content for being disruptive or sharing a spoiler. The GameFAQs moderator or admin will see the violation on his or her end and the reported abuse will be considered valid.

You can avoid receiving these kinds of moderations by using text only (paste your content into a notepad and that’s how it will look to a GameFAQs user), or you can go to the game board to view the post.

To get to GameFAQs version of the game board, go to the front page of the GameSpot game board and scroll to the bottom of the page. For an example, go to the Halo Reach forum. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the “GameFAQs” hyperlink located on the bottom, which will lead you to the Halo Reach forum on GameFAQs.

We have some more related announcements regarding moderation policies, which will be shared in the coming weeks.