In addition to the guidelines below, please see our new forums announcement post.

Community Support Guidelines

The objective of the Community Support Guidelines is to specify types of support you can expect on these forums, and what we expect from you if you're posting tips to other users, so that we'd maintain these forums as a helpful channel to everyone.
You can read these forum guidelines also in Spanish, Portuguese and Russian.

• No official support. These forums are NOT an official support channel. For official support, especially regarding payments and orders, we always ask you to submit a ticket on the Skype support site. Also, we ask you to review the knowledgebase for official latest tips.
• Update your software. The first thing we always ask is if you have up-to-date version of your operating system and all the drivers. Visit your vendor's site to see if any updates are available.
• Refer to previous knowledge. / No thread hijacking. Try reading other threads, and try previously suggested tips relating to your issue first. If they do not work, please start your own thread explaining your problem, system set up and what you already tried. Do not "hijack" other threads.
• One tip or question at a time. When you have something you need help with and post a question, we post only one or two tips or clarifying questions in response. You need to answer these before we move forward. Conversely, when someone has started to offer help in a thread, DO NOT add additional replies until the poster has responded to the previous questions.
• No old tips. In the past, there have been suggestions that have worked previously with Skype but have become irrelevant. Some examples: manually editing your Windows registry, Skype configuration files or installing patches for your operating system from unknown sources. We revisit the old tips from time to time and only post relevant and up-to-date ideas, as Skype versions keep improving and many old hints have become irrelevant. If you're a poster, re-visit your hints from time to time to confirm they're valid.
• No post deletion. Please be conscious of what you post in the forum and consider that it will be stored permanently for public display. We only remove posts that violate our forum policies (e.g are spam or abuse). We don't remove or edit your or someone else's posts simply because you "change your mind", so please think twice about if you are happy with your post being displayed publicly indefinitely.
  
• We do not support double, triple etc. posting. Double posts will be deleted without warning.
  
• PM (Private Message). Please keep in mind that it is not advised or even polite to post the content of a PM on this forum without the permission of the person that sent you the PM. And if the sender gives you permission, always mention this in your forum post..
• Limiting posting in General Discussion to regular members. Limited posting in General Discussion forum to Regular Members. A Regular Member is someone who has five or more posts. When you join the forum, you are first a Member. When you reach five posts, you automatically become a Regular Member, giving you posting access to this forum.

Forums Policy

Skype Forums are an open place of communication for all Skype users, enthusiasts, developers and anyone else interested in contributing to the discussion. To maintain the usefulness of forums, we expect all forum participants to follow these simple rules.

Choose an appropriate forum

If you are a new user, browse through the forums to find the one that most closely matches the topic of your interest. Read the forum description.

Search before you post

Many of your questions have been answered before. To minimize noise and duplicates, search through the forums and other materials (FAQ-s, user guides) before you post. The forums have a search feature that lets you search for keywords in existing posts.

Show respect to others

You are expected to maintain a helpful, respectful tone when posting. Opinions are welcome, but they may not escalate into flaming and rudeness against Skype, its staff, other forum members or any other party.

Unacceptable posts

The following types of posts are not accepted in Skype Forums.

• Spam. Skype maintains an aggressive no-spam policy. Spam in Skype forums will be deleted without warning. Note that informed discussion about Skype and competitor offerings or any related hardware, software or services is welcome in these forums. “Spam” in Skype forums context means blatant, offensive, repeated commercial advertising.
  
• Personal offences based on age, sex, race, location, cultural background or any other criteria. Skype is truly global and so are its forum members. Cultures, opinions and traditions differ, and Skype forums are a place for their cooperation, not clashes.
  
• Political flames. See previous point - Skype forum participants have different backgrounds and political views. Flaming each other based on these helps no one and will be intervened by Skype staff.

Help in maintaining the forums

If you notice novice users behaving improperly, give them guidance. If you see specific cases of abuse, rudeness or other violations of this policy, feel free to bring it to the attention of a Skype Staff member through a Private Message.

Reserved avatars

Please note that the Skype Staff, Skype Moderator and Skype Super User avatars are reserved to be assigned only by Skype Staff. You may not set them to be your avatar yourself. If you do so, the avatar will be removed and you will be notified.

Respect closed beta rules

Some forums are only open to Skype closed beta program members or privileged users. You must follow the closed beta rules in those forums.