Boards usage policy

Board usage policy overview

Public chat, help, and discussion boards

The public chat, help and discussion boards on eBay can be informative, helpful and entertaining. People can receive support, learn about eBay members and their collective interests, and meet new friends on the boards. When members abide by the principles found in the eBay Community Values, the boards are a positive and enjoyable experience for all members.

By following the rules listed below, the entire eBay community will continue to find the boards helpful, educational and an enjoyable place to meet and converse with other members. Courteous and respectful postings are expected from all participants.

Content posted to the eBay chat, help or discussion boards by eBay community members are solely the opinion and responsibility of the person posting the content. eBay is not responsible for content posted by eBay members. You are responsible for your own posts.

Grounds for immediate content removal, board sanction and/or eBay suspension

The following types of postings can result in immediate post removal, warning, board sanction and/or suspension from the site. Other inappropriate postings not listed below may also warrant removal and/or suspension from the board or the site. eBay reserves the right to remove any post without warning or further notice.

• Be respectful. Courteous and respectful postings are expected from all participants. We welcome debate but content that is harmful, hostile, hate or racist speech, threatening, abusive, attacking, baiting, name calling, profane, vulgar, defamatory, harassing, misleading, attempts to circumvent this policy or content that is otherwise objectionable will not be tolerated and will be edited or removed
• Discussion of moderation actions, reposting of deleted posts or discussion of suspended or no longer registered members. It is not permitted to discuss or repost removed content. It is inappropriate to talk about others who are suspended from the community or eBay
• Advertising merchandise, auctions, services or commercial web sites. This is related to our Avoiding eBay fees policy. Members are not permitted to tell others to stop selling on eBay or to leave eBay for any reason to include naming or posting links to off-eBay sites, groups or forums, for more information read our eBay fee avoidance policy
• Encouraging others to breach eBay policies or the eBay User Agreement. You are asked to never suggest to others that they do something that may be in breach of eBay policy. It is against the spirit of the community to expose other members to the potential negative consequences that may result from such actions
• Misusing helpfuls. Members are not permitted to misuse helpfuls which includes soliciting others for helpfuls, giving an excessive number of helpfuls to a specific user or users, using multiple accounts to give themselves or others multiple helpfuls, and marking another member's post as helpful in an attempt to push the post to the top of leaderboards
• Refusing to follow eBay staff and the moderation teams instruction or direction. eBay staff or the moderation team may issue specific instructions or guidelines relating to the use of the Community or other areas of the site. For example, we may request that members refrain from certain discourteous behaviours
• Repetitive, disruptive, or inappropriate threads or posts. Members should only post one thread per topic on the most relevant board for the issue or question. Topics or posts that are inappropriate or disruptive serve no value to the community and may be removed without notice. This can include if the original post is in relation to a general question and users reply with accusations or replies that are unrelated to the original thread
• Stay on topic. The eBay community is a place to discuss all things eBay. As public chat, help and discussion boards are part of the eBay community, discussions on these forums should be eBay related. Make sure that every thread you create is related to eBay. The general course of conversation should be on topic and relevant to the original post on the thread.
• Misusing the Report link to maliciously or frivolously report posts. Only report posts that are in violation of the guidelines and only submit a report once per post
• Naming and shaming: Including another member's username or contact information and/or email address in a post is not permitted. Including item numbers, auction links or negative/neutral Feedback scores for the purpose of shaming another member is not permitted. For more information read our Contact information sharing policy
• Only persons aged 18 or over may post to the boards, without regard to whether an adult actually owns the registration or parental/guardian permission. This is related to our Underage users policy, for more information read our Underage user policy
• Posting copyrighted content without the permission of the copyright owner
• Posting images that depict persons without the permission of the depicted person
• Posting listing reports or member violations
• Posting material (graphic or text) that is obscene, pornographic or adult in nature. This is related to our Adult items policy, for more information read our Restricted adult items policy
• Posting material containing profanity, vulgarity, hate speech, or threats of violence. For more information read our Threats and offensive language policy and our Member-to-member contact policy
• Posting material that in any way violates the eBay User Agreement or Community Values
• Posting private emails and private messages including the ones of the moderators or any other community member. Please do not post the content of emails sent to you by other people. When people send email, we should assume that they only intend the recipient(s) to read it, therefore posting it on a public forum could be deemed an invasion of privacy
• Reporters and third party representatives need permission from the eBay Legal Department prior to posting or emailing members in their official capacity. This rule helps assure that the eBay community is made aware if they are speaking to someone who is acting in a professional capacity, rather than as a fellow member
• Using JavaScript, active code, any type of code other than simple HTML used in standard ways or other actions that interfere with site operations. For more information read our JavaScript policy
• "Wanted" posts, or posting solicitations of interest in the sale of an item or service. For more information read our No item listings policy

Notes

eBay may sanction an account from the boards without suspending them from the site. eBay may suspend any member from the boards and from the site who has been previously warned of board policy violations, though we reserve the right to suspend a member immediately depending on the violation. Sanctions/suspensions may range from 1 day to indefinite. A sanction or suspension of one ID will apply to all IDs of that member and may, at our discretion, apply to members of the same household. The use of false registration information or creating multiple accounts for use on eBay's boards for the purpose of disruption or to avoid detection may result in permanent sanction or suspension of all associated registrations.

All warnings and suspensions are in accordance with the guidelines set out in the eBay User Agreement and policies.

Please note that due to the variety of eBay boards, additional policies may be implemented on specific boards. At our discretion, there may be exceptions made for certain eBay sponsored programmes or events.

Members using the group functionality must abide by the Groups usage policy.

Activity on eBay is required to follow this policy, the eBay User Agreement and all applicable laws, as well as respect the rights of third parties. If it doesn’t, eBay may take action consistent with applicable laws and the eBay User Agreement, and may even be legally required to do so. Such actions may include, as an example only: Removing the listing or other content, issuing a warning, restricting activity or account suspension.