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Gaia-Appropriate Roleplay Content in Detail

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Gaia Online is available to users as young as 13, and as such, all site content, including roleplays, must adhere strictly to the Terms of Service to ensure it is appropriate. Many people have asked what is considered inappropriate in a roleplay context. Below is a list of guidelines for roleplay content to help you judge what is appropriate and what is crossing the line.

Romance

Roleplays that revolve around two or more characters meeting and falling in love is perfectly safe on Gaia. However, certain romantic interactions and themes are not considered appropriate and may result in a warning for those involved. Roleplay threads based heavily on sexual themes or fetishes, such as cybering, rape or bondage, will be removed from the forums, and participants in the violating content will receive appropriate penalties against their account.

The roleplay of non-sexual interactions, such as hugging and kissing, is allowed on Gaia Online. This is a general display of affection and breaks no rules. However, there are several activities that are considered to cross the line and be inappropriate. The list below outlines such common violations:

• Grabbing/touching of private areas, fondling
  
• Sexual encounters, also known as cybering
  
• Inappropriate, sexually-explicit dialogue, "talking dirty"
  
• Nudity, a character stripping or being stripped in detail, or for acts of seduction

If you find users breaking these guidelines in your roleplay thread, or any other roleplay thread, please report their posts so that a moderator can review them.

Fighting and Violence

Many roleplayers enjoy a good fight now and again, but please use your discretion when depicting violence. A general portrayal of violence is allowed; this includes bloodshed, slicing, killing, beating, and other general actions. However, extremely graphic depictions of violence are not permitted. Going into explicit details down to the last organ hitting the floor is considered inappropriate and may result in a warning for graphic content.

Description

From entering an uncharted wilderness to seeking out items or chasing destiny, roleplays will usually involve written descriptions of many kinds. Please bear in mind that all descriptive writing should adhere to the content rules described in this post; refrain from violently graphic or sexually explicit writing in all cases.

Slave, Master, Kidnapping, and Pet

These kinds of roleplays are based around a dominant/submissive style and a common sight in the roleplay forums, but they are very prone to containing or encouraging Terms of Service violations. These types of roleplays belong in the Series/Miscellaneous and MUST NOT contain the following:

• Sexual content
  
• Abusive content
  
• Collar/charm/other slave systems which categorise slaves as targets of/preferring abuse or sexual advances

Slave roleplays which encourage or contain sexual or abusive content will be removed and those involved in the violating content will receive appropriate penalties against their accounts. Remember, as a roleplay creator it is your responsibility to monitor roleplay content within your thread. If you see someone violating the rules, report them using the Report This Post button.

How to keep a roleplay free of content violations

When setting up the rules of a roleplay, the following guidelines should help you enforce appropriate content in your thread:

• Cybering is not allowed anywhere on Gaia. This includes the forums, private messages (PMs), GAIA towns, and the game chats. Therefore, you should not post something like "take cybering to PMs". If your roleplay is found with something like this, you may be asked to change it and/or receive a warning for encouraging explicit content violations.
  
• Some users post "PG"-type ratings in their rules threads, such as "PG-13". This in itself is not a violation, but if a roleplay rating clearly supports or encourages explicit violations using the rating and other elements, the moderators may take action.
  
• Be especially careful with 'borderline' roleplay concepts, such as slave roleplays. Given the context, any suggestion of sexual or abuse-based content (e.g. through a collar/charm category system) may be viewed as encouraging content violations and result in the thread's removal.
  

What to do if roleplayers are posting content violations

• Users posting content violations in the roleplaying forums should be reported. Please use the Report a Post button to do this.
  
• If you see a roleplay with rules or overall content which are in violation of the Terms of Service, please use the Report a Thread button to report it.
  
• You will NOT be punished for roleplayers violating the Terms of Service in your own roleplaying thread if you have not encouraged the behaviour, and have taken appropriate action to stop the behaviour by reporting the relevant posts.

How do I report misplaced threads?

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Introduction & Rules
Gaia-Appropriate Roleplay Content in Detail
Where does my thread go?
How do I report...?

There are two ways to report something that does not belong in Barton Town. They are and

You use the button when there is just one or two posts in a thread that have content that is not welcome in Barton Town. Do not press this if the whole thread needs to be taken care of.

Reasons to report via :

• A user makes a post which is concidered spam/trolling/flaming/etc.
  
  
• A user who posts has a signature that is too large.

You use the when a thread needs moderator intervention, whether it be spam or a TOS violation. Please do not use this if there are only one or two posts that need to be taken care of.

Reasons to report via :

• A user makes a thread which is considered spam/trolling/flaming/etc.
  
• A users mistakenly posts a topic in the wrong forum.

If you need to contact a moderator via Private Message, please use the "View Forum Moderator" link. 3nodding



These are the links at the bottom of the forum index that you can click on to report a hacking, scamming, or abuse case. When submitting a report, it is imperative that you submit all important information for the moderator who recieves the report.

• You should click the button when your account has been hacked. That will lead you to this page. That is where you will fill out the form to submit to a Gaia moderator. Again, "... please fill out this form below to the best of your ability."
  
  
• You should click the button when you have been scammed by another user on Gaia. That will lead you to this page. That is where you will fill out the form to submit to a Gaia moderator. Again, "... please fill out this form below to the best of your ability."
  
  
• You should click the button when you have been abused/harassed by another user on Gaia. That will lead you to this page. That is where you will fill out the form to submit to a Gaia moderator. Again, "... please fill out this form below to the best of your ability."