Microsoft Tech Community Guidelines

The mission of our online community is to provide a platform for IT admins, developers, MVPs, and Microsoft employees to interact. We want Tech Community to be a central destination for education and thought leadership on product news, best practices, and live events.

 

Get started by signing in. You'll need a Microsoft email to register (@outlook, @hotmail, @live, etc.) For help with creating a Tech Community account, follow these steps.

 

Here are some guidelines and helpful tips to keep in mind when interacting across Tech Community:

 

DO:  

• Be positive, kind, and courteous. Be friendly with others on the network. Feel free to provide feedback but keep it constructive. 
• Be interactive - “Like” posts and ask questions!
• Browse our list of Community Hubs for the products you’re most interested in and join discussion conversations. Community Hubs are where most of the conversations happen.
• Post your question or comment in the applicable community! Is your question about Exchange? Post it to the Exchange group. Using labels like “SharePoint” and ”Microsoft 365” help people understand what product or topic you’re talking about.
• Not sure where to post? Post your question or comment in our Community Lounge in the Tech Community Discussion space, and one of our community admins will assist in finding the right Community Hub to post to.
• If you ask a question and a posted answer worked for you, select “Mark answer as best response.” This helps resolve the thread, so other community members and visitors know you received the answer you were looking for.
• Search before you post! There is a chance that your question has already been answered. The search bar at the top of the site is very useful, so take advantage of it.
• Keep private stuff private. Make sure if you post confidential information, you do so responsibly and in the correct place. 
• Add a profile photo and complete your profile! It’s quick, easy, and helps identify your expertise and role to other community members and visitors.
• Adjust your email notification preferences. Click on your profile photo in the upper right corner, go to My Settings > Subscriptions & Notifications > Notification Settings to set your preferred notifications. 
• Invite others to the community! Use the following short link: http://aka.ms/mstechcommunity.

 

DON’T

• Post support or break/fix questions. The best place to get product support is the Microsoft Answers community: http://answers.microsoft.com/. If you’re an IT admin, you can also open a support ticket through the Microsoft 365 admin center. Opening a support ticket is the best way to track an issue and ensure it gets escalated as needed so you’re back up and running as quickly as possible.
• Post solicitation, third-party links, content-free posts, or spam. First-time offenders will be given a warning, but future offenses may result in a temporary or permanent account ban. However, we have a zero-tolerance policy on spam. Violators who break the no spam rule will be permanently banned from the community on multiple instances of spamming.
• Don’t post personal information about yourself or anyone else, such as email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, etc. If you want to connect with another community member or employee, ask for their permission to send them a direct message through our site’s Private Message feature.
• Note: These guidelines outlined above still apply to private messages.
• Be negative. We welcome constructive feedback here, but don’t post personal or harassing remarks, sarcasm, or blame; it’s not helpful.  
• Use crazy fonts, profanity, or ALL CAPS. Not only are these things inappropriate, but they’re also unnecessary.  
• Wander off topic. Don’t post about religion, politics or other things that don’t belong here. We do have a dedicated space designed to be an online version of an office water cooler called, Away From Keyboard. However, the rule of no religion, politics and other taboo topics still applies here. Keep it light and fun!
• Share content from a private group. Respect your colleagues and our acceptable usage policy, and don’t share confidential information outside the community’s private groups.
• Harvest user data. Some members may share personal information here. If you spam members from this network, Microsoft may take legal action.

 

Badging rings

 

You will notice that some community members have colored rings around their profile photos. This means they were awarded a specific badge. Here is a breakdown of each badging ring:

 

• Microsoft employees are designated with a blue ring. Like you, they are members of the community with expertise in specific Microsoft products. We encourage them to share their knowledge, expertise, and opinions, and interact with other members on this platform.

• Community Managers are designated with a red ring. We are here to encourage conversation, event participation, provide direction, answer general community questions, and keep the community a healthy and fun place for everyone.

• MVPs are designated with a green ring. They are recognized technology experts who passionately share their knowledge and expertise with the community.

 

Similarly, you may notice badges and ranks next to usernames. Badges are achievements you can “unlock.” Ranks, such as MVP, can either be assigned or earned through community participation.

 

Microsoft Tech Community Feedback & Ideas

 

This is a community designed for you! If you have feedback or ideas about the Microsoft Tech Community website, please post them in our Tech Community Ideas space.

 

Flag inappropriate content for review

 

Tech Community is a big online community that continues to grow, so our admin team doesn’t always see everything to moderate accordingly. This is where you, the community member, can help! If you see any violation of these guidelines or our Terms and Conditions, please report the post by clicking the … button on the top right of the message, select Report Inappropriate Content, and provide a reason for why you think it’s inappropriate, such as if it breaks one of the guidelines outlined above.

 

If you have any questions about our guidelines, Terms and Conditions, or policies, email our team.

 

Thanks for being part of the Microsoft Tech Community! To learn how to get started, check out our Getting Started Guide.