Code of Conduct - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

The Skies are Open for All - Everyone is welcome to Microsoft Flight Simulator regardless of age, gender, race, sexuality, or creed.
One World, One Community - No matter how you play – regardless of platform, experience level, or reason – we are one community of aviation lovers.
Follow Your Checklist - Adhere to the set of rules from each community space. Skipping a checklist item can ground a flight quickly.
A Pilot is a Pilot - Treat everyone in the community with respect, and seek to have positive experiences with your fellow pilots.
Your Cabin Crew is there for your safety - Please respect all Microsoft Flight Simulator team members and volunteer community moderators as they are there to ensure everyone has a safe journey. Anyone who does not follow the Standard Operating Procedures will be asked to disembark the flight.

Welcome to the Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums, we are pleased to have you here!

Our goal is to keep these forums a positive environment for you to discuss Microsoft Flight Simulator related topics, and to provide a platform for your feedback on the sim.

To facilitate this, we require that all members of the forums adhere to the Xbox Community Standards (the “Code of Conduct”). The Code of Conduct is discussed below, but this discussion is not exhaustive and may not address every possible scenario.

Your access to these forums is a “privilege,” and not a “right.” We reserve the right to suspend your access to these forums at any time for reasons that include, but are not necessarily limited to, your failure to abide by these guidelines. The Code of Conduct applies to anything within the MSFS forums including public topics and private messages.

The Flight Simulator team and volunteer community moderators reserve the right to edit, remove, or alter any post that violates the Code of Conduct or an NDA agreement.

We reserve the right to evaluate each incident on a case-by-case basis. The actions we take may be more lenient or more severe than those listed under each category:

🔹 Discrimination

Discrimination and Slurs based on Race, Ethnicity, Sexuality, Gender, Gender Identity, Age, Religion, or Nationality both clear and masked in words or images are not appropriate, ever.

If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:

Receive a formal warning; or,
Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to, and including, indefinitely

🔹 Threats

Members of our forums should feel safe to express their thoughts and opinions about the game, and to do so without fear or intimidation. This includes:

Any harmful threats toward any person or company

If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:

Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to, and including, indefinitely

🔹Harassing or Defamatory Content

Harassing, bullying or defamatory content will not be tolerated and has a negative effect on everyone’s experience in the forums. This includes:

Throwing around insults with the intent to bully or targeting individuals or groups with malice.

If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:

Receive a formal warning; or,
Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to, and including, indefinitely

🔹 Obscene / Vulgar or Inappropriate Language and/or Media

This is a forum that caters to a variety of demographics around the world. We ask that our forum members remember to treat each other with courtesy and respect. Some examples are:

Language, images, or other media that could be considered objectionable (If there is doubt, there is no doubt)
Language, images, or other media that could be considered to represent or glorify violence and/or hate, even in a historical context
Discussion of weapons in a way that could represent or glorify violence, even in a historical context
Attempting to bypass the profanity filter

If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:

Receive a formal warning; or,
Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to, and including, indefinitely

🔹Politics, Religion, and Sexual Content

Politics, religion, and sexual content do not belong in the Microsoft Flight Simulator forums.

If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:

Receive a formal warning; or,
Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to, and including, indefinitely

🔹Improve the Discussion

We recognize that our forums are an official place for feedback on Microsoft Flight Simulator, whether it is positive, neutral, or negative. Help us make this a great place for discussion by always adding something constructive to the discussion, whether big or small. We do not remove posts for being negative; however, we do remove posts that are toxic or non-constructive (click here for specific examples on how to improve the discussion). Non-constructive posts do not add to the community and include but are not limited to:

Being intentionally disruptive
Derailing threads
Creating threads for the sole purpose of promoting other threads or enticing users to vote on specific issues or wishlist items
Creating posts or threads intended to cause unrest in the forums
Bumping threads (except occasional reminders in Multiplayer events)
Discussions that deviate from Microsoft Flight Simulator
Posting memes that break any of the other rules addressed in the Code of Conduct
Off-topic posts
Spamming
Using AI to generate spam-like posts

If a member is found to have participated in such actions, it may result in any of the following actions:

Be asked to remove the content from their post
Receive a formal warning; or,
Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to, and including, indefinitely

🔹Advertising and 3rd Party Addons

This forum is not to be used for any non-MSFS related businesses, organizations, or websites. The selling of personally-owned used products (such as selling an old peripheral) is not allowed on the forums. Asking for donations in your freeware or payware post is prohibited unless you are a Verified Forum 3rd Party Developer. Any form of piracy will not be tolerated. Soliciting for services for hire is not allowed.

3rd party addon discussion is to be conducted in the designated categories. Non-constructive feedback and excessive promotion will not be tolerated.

No direct download links (payware or freeware) allowed. Please direct to a 3rd party site.

3rd Party Support/Bug Reporting should be sent to the designated support funnels of each 3rd Party Developer, and should not be conducted in these forums.

Freeware may be discussed in our forums by any user. Any attempt to scam our community will result in a permanent ban and Microsoft internal inquiry.

Only TL2 (Trust Level 2) Members of the community may create topics concerning a payware add-on. All others will be removed with a written (non-formal) warning. Further warnings will result in the following:

Receive a formal warning; or,
Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to, and including, indefinitely

🔹 Impersonating a Microsoft Flight Simulator Employee or Moderator

Passing yourself off as a Microsoft Flight Simulator employee or moderator is not okay. If you want to work for the Microsoft Flight Simulator team, keep an eye on the Asobo and Microsoft websites for potential openings.

If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:

Receive a formal warning; or,
Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to and including, indefinitely

🔹 Topic Titles and Posts

Be mindful with topic titles. The title and/or post should be clear in its intent and focus on the topic at hand. The following is prohibited:

Demanding Microsoft, MSFS or Asobo staff to read your post (e.g. “Asobo Read Now”)
Calling out or pinging community member names inappropriately (e.g. to attack or spam them)
Petitioning for votes in a way that spams the forums
Using all caps throughout your title and/or post
Excessive use of font formatting or memes

If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:

Have their post title changed
Receive a formal warning from the moderator staff
Have their post be closed or deleted

🔹 Circumventing a Suspension / Ban or Duplicate Accounts

Includes:

Having more than one account for any reason
Having another forum user post on your behalf
Creating another account after receiving a ban or suspension

If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:

Receive a formal warning; or,
Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to and including, indefinitely

🔹 Discussing Moderator Actions Privately

If you wish to inquire about a specific moderator action that was made on your topic, post, or account, direct message the @moderators to learn more. We will be happy to assist and talk with you. The public forums are not a place to call out specific actions on your account. If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:

Have their topic turned into a direct message instead of a public post if relevant
Be asked to remove the content from their post if it is demeaning or derogatory of our moderator team
Receive a formal warning; or,
Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to and including, indefinitely

🔹 Revenge Flagging

Do not excessively flag posts out of anger, malice, or ill-will directed towards one individual or a group of individuals.

If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:

Have their Trust Level lowered
Receive a formal warning; or,
Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to and including, indefinitely

🔹Creating Duplicate Threads

Creating multiple threads on the same topic does not make it more likely that your post will be seen. It does make it more likely you will irritate and confuse your fellow forum users.

If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:

Receive a formal warning; or,
Post will be closed and deleted

🔹Language

This forum is only able to support the English language currently, thus English only posts. However, the only exception where other languages are acceptable is the Friends, Clubs & Groups section.

🔹Distribution of Real-Life Personal Information

Releasing or distributing identifying real-life information without consent (“doxxing”) of players, 3rd Party Developers, members of the Microsoft Flight Simulator team, or anyone else in the MSFS community is not allowed on the forums. This even applies to your own personal information! Think about what is safe to share and be cautious if you plan to tell other posters your name or general location. If you do share your own information (such as your email address) with another forum poster, please do so in a private message, never in a public forum post.

If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:

Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to and including, indefinitely

🔹Cheats

This includes:

In-game exploits that affect the integrity of the game experience
Sharing ways to alter the sims code or files
Discussing mods that alter licensed data

If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:

Receive a formal warning; or,
Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to and including, indefinitely

We encourage players to report cheating and exploiting to the Customer Support team when they see it.

🔹 Illegal Activities

The Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums are not a place for discussing illegal activity.

If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will be subject to the consequences outlined in the Code of Conduct.

🔹Community Managers & other Microsoft Flight Simulator Staff

The most frequent staff members you will see posting on the forums are the community managers and moderators. We enforce the Code of Conduct and respond to threads and posts, whether it is to address an issue or simply having fun.

If you don’t see us responding, it isn’t because we are ignoring you. Sometimes we don’t have a good answer, or we are looking for an answer or we cannot comment on the issue at the time.

We also have other work we have to do that isn’t on the forums so if you don’t see us around, we are working on something else for you!

The community team member list can be found here.

🔹Important notice

Any in-game suspension or ban will be duplicated in the forum.

🔹Warning Point System

We’ve implemented a warning point system with our forums. The model is as follows:

1 Warning Point: No action
2 Warning Points: Three Day Posting Ban
3 Warning Points: Seven Day Posting Ban
4 Warning Points: Thirty Day Posting Ban
5 Warning Points: Permanent Forum Ban

The team reserves the right to deviate from this model, depending on the severity of the offense.

🔹Issues?

If you have a problem with a moderator, feel you are being treated unfairly, or would like to appeal a ban, please open a ticket to MSFS Support on Zendesk here.

Please report posts that violate our Code of Conduct. If you have reached Trust Level 2 you can report a post or topic by clicking the Report button. If you have not reached TL2 or wish to alert us to another issue, please send a private message to @moderators.

If you flag something as wanting to be merged into another existing topic, please flag as the reason ‘Something Else’ and do include where you believe it should be merged to. This helps the Community Team further investigate the flagged thread as well as other possible duplicates. That all helps.

If you are having trouble accessing your account, please contact Customer Support and they will be able to provide assistance with restoring access to the account.

Thanks!