So this was updated 18 hours ago:
And it seems very vague.
If it is the article I am thinking of, I think you added a 4.
No. It isn’t against policy to give gold to another player, or to receive it. Nothing has changed there. There are “gifts” that aren’t so legitimate though, which has always been against policy.
Assuming it isn’t GDKP on versions where that practice is prohibited, there shouldn’t be an issue.
Both, where applicable.
See the first question response.
If you use the “Common Problems” as a reference you’ll notice that all of samples are trades that can’t be facilitated by normal in-game systems. As I understand it, that is what is prohibited.
Oh! Apparently I did! o.O
I’ll fix that. lol
Well, sure… but one of them is:
Can I trade gold with a friend on another realm?
Since our friends can pretty much be on any server now and we can be in same groups, same guilds, etc… that’s the concern.
So for this part:
Can I trade gold with a friend on another realm?
We would just need to be on the same realm as our friend? For instance, if I wanted to give some gold to an IRL friend who plays – then I just need to make a character on their realm first (and obviously, their same faction)?
Or would that be construed as circumventing the restriction?
How do you differentiate that.
Like I won’t be messaging my friend in game to give him gold if he needs to buy sockets or something for PVP, I’d be doing that over discord. He’s a seperate guild, server, faction.
By how it’s written we’d be punished for this just due to the lack of being able to tell EVEN IF he buys items that are for a legitimate reason.
I think the confusion is resulting from the word “trade”. They’re using “trade” to mean swap here. As in, I give you 5k on your toon on my server, and then you give me 5k on my toon on a different version of the game, or a different server. THAT is what’s not allowed any longer. Those types of “trades” were overwhelmingly dominated by gold sellers laundering money.
Warbanks allow us to move gold to different servers all on our own. I’m not reading it as against policy for me to give my friend 5k gold on a different server. I just use my warbank to move the gold, and trade it to my friend. That’s not a “gold swap”.
Using an intermediary to move gold to a different server is not necessary anymore thanks to warbanks, there is no legitimate use for that anymore, and if you see someone offering that it’s probably a gold seller.
That just goes back to what I asked Vrak earlier, that he’s in the midst of clarifying for us now:
As far as I am aware if our systems allow for it (i.e. the trade window), then there shouldn’t be an issue. I’ll seek further clarification, but likely won’t see it until next week. We may be seeing further clarification soon in a Community post.
Sorry, those aren’t details I can really get into. There is often a difference between a legitimate player and say… a level 10 character on a new account that seems to be trading a lot of gold with a bunch of strangers…
Thank you, Vrak! 
I get that but I don’t see how there’s any difference. One person could have two people;
One they trade 50k to so they can buy their bloodstones from AH for gems. This friend is a legitimate friend.
The other friend can be traded 50k and be an RMT behind the scenes. There’s no way to differentiate that if you don’t actively know the hardware behind it.
As it’s written, no one is legit.
If you have a magic bullet to stop such, Blizzard, along with any other MMOs/online games, would be happy to hear it, as nothing anyone had done stop it.
I’m really observant when it comes to picky wording, I think the way they’re using “trade”, they don’t mean “the trade window”. I think they mean an agreement outside of that, like I give you this and then you give me that in return on another server/version. Servers are irrelevant now with warbanks, if I make an alt on a new server I can use the warbank to give them as much gold as I want. If I just gift a friend gold on another server, that’s not a trade, because they aren’t giving me anything in return. That’s just me giving my friend gold.
I think for many, the assumption is that standard trading via the trade window, cross-server or not and receiving anything in return or not, will continue to be allowed as normal. That’s what makes the most sense - the support article is pretty clearly aimed at gold-for-gold swaps (across servers, factions, or game versions), not general trading.
I think we mostly just want the wording of the article to actually reflect that instead of leaving room to interpret it as “You can no longer trade gold to someone on a different server or faction”, despite pretty much the entire game being cross-server and cross-faction.
The intent is (mostly) clear but the wording is not, is the issue.
Sounds like we’ll probably have that confirmation at least next week though.
There’s a thread in GD if you want to give feedback and opinions.
Thank you, Vrak, it is very much appreciated. Also, happy Saturday
Lots of salt and not enough tequila in here. Long story short is don’t swap gold. Period. You want to give a gift/help someone out, fine, but don’t do it with the intention of getting gold back on a different realm/faction/version.
What about giving gold to guild members for winning a guild event? Now that guilds are cross-server, cross-faction does this violate the new policy.
This has already been answered really. Look at the section of the article “Common Problems”.
I’d love some clarification on codes vs gold as a lot of collectibles are sold for amounts more than a goldcap that may not be traded directly.