# Code of Conduct # BeerAdvocate (BA) Community forums are here to provide you with a friendly environment where you can ask questions about beer, give advice, converse with other beer enthusiasts and make some new friends in beer. BA Community forums are at their best when participants treat their fellow posters with respect. Therefore, we ask that you conduct yourself in a civilized manner when participating in these forums. The guidelines and rules explain what behavior is expected of you and what behavior you can expect from other community members. Note that the following guidelines are not exhaustive, and may not address all manner of offensive behavior. As such, the forum moderators shall have full discretion to address any behavior that they feel is inappropriate. Your access to the website is a "privilege," not a "right." We reserve the right to suspend your access to the website at any time for reasons that include, but are not necessarily limited to, your failure to abide by these guidelines. We reserve the right to evaluate each incident on a case by case basis, and the action we take may be more lenient or more severe as a result. By registering, you've already agreed to our Terms of Service and Rules which includes not using the this website to post or link to any content which is defamatory, abusive, hateful, threatening, spam or spam-like, likely to offend, contains adult or objectionable content, contains personal information of others, risks copyright infringement, encourages unlawful activity, or otherwise violates any laws. These terms may be changed at any time without notice. If you do not agree with these terms, please do not register or use this Service. If you wish to close your account, please contact us. Bottom-line: We want BA to be a fun community experience for everyone. You will encounter thousands of other members who share different experiences and come from vastly different backgrounds. While certain language and images may not be offensive to you, consider the fact that that same language and images may have a completely different effect on someone else. We've done everything we can to make this a great environment. Now it's up to you. Cheers!
# Beer Trading Rules # Before posting in the beer trading forums, please read our Beer Trading rules. # Posting Etiquette # Please don't ... Solicit our users in any way, shape or form. Post vague subject lines. Put some thought into your post. Be clear. Post off-topic. Beer related posts only. Post general regional or topical threads; example: "What's new in New Jersey?" They just turn into a mess. Posts that attempt to bump a thread. Post unexplained acronyms with the exception of the trading groups. Post ticket offers outside of the Classifieds forum. Post internet memes (ever) or unrelated images/videos as replies to a thread. Post MS Paint style avatars or imagines. Use signatures, characters or images in an attempt to sign or uniquely identify yourself or your posts. Abuse the use of the rich text editing features. Example: using formatting, fonts or colors to draw attention to your post. Reply to those who break the rules. Instead, use the "Report" link located at the bottom of the offender's post. Create multiple accounts. Complain about moderation.
# Frequently Asked Questions # Can I promote my events? No, but you can add your event to our calendar. Can I offer my services or goods to your users? No. Please do not solicit our users in the forums or private conversations. Can I tell users about my website, blog, app, project or poll? No. Please do not solicit our users in the forums or private conversations. If you wish to promote, please consider Advertising with BeerAdvocate. We offer both on-line and print options. How does moderation work? BA Community members report items they feel violate our rules. Those assigned to moderating review the items and will reject, handle and/or issue warnings and warning points. Warning points? If a user accumulates too many warning points, access to their account may be limited; temporarily or permanently.
