I got hit with a 10-day suspension for “advertising” with a simple LFG dungeon queue note: “Tank Service // Message Me”. No chat spam, no Trade/General/LFG posts, no RMT, just offering tanking for gold (in my auth note) while queued normally.
I appealed twice with full details:
Explained no chat advertising.
Referenced the policy allowing individual gold-for-service in Services/Trade.
Offered logs for review
Both appeals got the exact same copy-paste GM response: “Greetings, This action has been taken in accordance with our Terms of Use and our In-game Policies ( https://blizzard.com/support/article/42673 )…”
No review, no clarification, no reduction. Feels automated.
Recent policy updates (Jan 2026 TBC Classic Anniversary) say Services channel allows individual services for gold, but LFG notes seem to be a gray area treated as bannable “advertising.” If that’s the case, it should be explicitly stated, many tanks use LFG notes for services without issues.
Has anyone else gotten banned for similar LFG notes? Did appeals work for you? GMs/Blizzard, can we get clarification on LFG notes vs Services channel? Individual gold tanking shouldn’t be equated to boosting rings.
This kills legit play for players like me trying to help the community earning gold wile doing so to afford things like a epic mount. Hoping for awareness and a fix.
My LFG note isn’t viewable unless you go out of your way to view it. So I’m not advertising it to anyone.
The policy targets **“organizations operating across multiple realms and excessively advertising non-traditional in-game sales.”
From their policy.
They are targeting.
“Organizations who offer boosting, matchmaking, escrow, or other non-traditional services… are prohibited.”**
Accounts in violation “are subject to warnings, suspensions, or permanent closure.”
The policy states: This policy update does not restrict individuals or guilds from using the provided in-game tools (such as the Services chat channel) to buy or sell in-game services for in-game currency. However, “boosting communities”, especially those who operate across multiple realms, are not permitted.
A player is selling a mount code in the General chat
There is a player spamming a gold selling website in Trade chat
Accounts that are used for the primary purpose of advertising will be closed.
Selling in-game items and services such as carries or boosting for real money is not allowed. Organizations who offer boosting, matchmaking, escrow, or other non-traditional services (including those offered for gold) are prohibited, especially those operated across multiple realms.
Individuals and guilds are allowed to sell items, crafted items, profession services, etc. for gold but can only advertise these trades in-game through the Trade chat channel.
Individuals and guilds are allowed to offer GDKP* runs and boosting services for gold, as well as request gold tips for assistance in raiding, completing dungeons, or PvP activities. Any and all advertisement must occur in the Services chat channel**. The advertisement must be done by the WoW player-character who intends to participate in the gameplay activity. This means there should be no cross-realm advertising, and there should be no advertising from non-participating players.
*GDKP is not allowed in Anniversary, Hardcore, and Season of Discovery realms.
**You can type /join Services or /leave Services in any major city to join or leave the Services chat channel.
Reporting
To report a player for inappropriate advertisement, use the right-click option. You will not receive a direct response, but we take all reports very seriously.
And the wording updated 1 week ago on that article you guys are posting? Holy….
On the in-game advertising post, this is what got me.
This policy update does not restrict individuals or guilds from using the provided in-game tools (such as the Services chat channel) to buy or sell in-game services for in-game currency. However, “boosting communities”, especially those who operate across multiple realms, are not permitted.
The used the wording SUCH AS, and they left me to believe we could use other in-game tools, like LFG NOTES.
On the good side, now you know the policy and hopefully that won’t happen again!
Also beware spamming too. If you advertise too often on your realm and people get annoyed that can result in spam reports. If your server is slow, keep the advertisements well spaced.
The one that says this kind of advertising is only allowed in the services channel, nowhere else.
“For further information regarding in-game advertising and the use of these channels, please go to our Support article here: https://us.support.blizzard.com/en/help/article/187406”
The post was made on Jan 27th, and the policy was updated 1 week ago. Did they hotfix the policy and not give a blue post to let people know about the updates? It seems like a lot of people are getting banned for this, and it’s a failure to update people on the policy updates.
That’s been their policy in versions of the game with the services channel ever since the services channel was introduced about 3 and a half years ago, seen here with this blue post from August 2022: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/new-services-advertisement-policy/1307494
What changed recently is that Anniversary only had services added with TBC pre-patch.
The policy has been that LFG is not to be used for advertising forever. That part is not new.
Advertising for services was first changed in 2022 when they rolled out the Trade Services channel to contain it all.
Any updates to policies since then have been to reinforce that - and to clarify Classic game version policies - esp with regard to GDKP and such. They also only recently added the Services channel in classic - previously you would have been required to use Trade.
This policy update does not restrict individuals or guilds from using the provided in-game tools (such as the Services chat channel) to buy or sell in-game services for in-game currency. However, “boosting communities”, especially those who operate across multiple realms, are not permitted.
When you say stuff like this, you confuse people, in-game tool —> LFG FINDER.
And if you wanna be technical, All my note said was Tank Service, So it’s only taken out of context that was any gold involved in the first place. I could have been just tanking for greens on the floor, because I’m a enchanter.
Only those who don’t read the article where it’s clarified.
The exact clarification is in the linked article, but I’ll put it here as well for your convenience:
" Individuals and guilds are allowed to offer GDKP* runs and boosting services for gold, as well as request gold tips for assistance in raiding, completing dungeons, or PvP activities.
Any and all advertisement must occur in the Services chat channel**.
The advertisement must be done by the WoW player-character who intends to participate in the gameplay activity. This means there should be no cross-realm advertising, and there should be no advertising from non-participating players."