Welcome to Gaia! :: Gaia Community Discussion: Rules and Guidelines

General Posting Guidelines

Please be sure to follow the Terms of Service and Rules and Guidelines here, as in all forums. A few specific examples of things to avoid:

1. Spamming
   Posts must be kept on topic for the thread you are posting in. "Quoting for Emphasis", excessive bumping, telling people their threads are misplaced and creating threads with misleading titles or information will also be treated as spam.
   
   
2. Flaming
   Sarcastic, unhelpful, or abusive comments like "GTFO" and "You fail" are not permitted, especially in misplaced threads, since they are examples of flaming.
   
   
3. Trolling
   Threads that contain shock images or provoke certain groups of users are troll threads. Threads about fake updates and items, those in regards to early release of expected features in particular, will also be treated as trolling.
   

Please remember that you should NOT quote ToS violations; it is almost as bad as making the original post. Quoting violations only makes them more visible and we don't want that.

If you find Terms of Service violations, or threads that may need moved to a different forum, please use an appropriate report. The procedures for doing so can be found here.

You can find online moderators by following the "View Forum Moderators" link at the top of the forum.

Gaia Staff will NEVER ask for your password! If anyone asks you for your password, report it.

This post should hopefully answer any other questions you may have about what we mean when we say "discussion".

• Off-topic Discussion and Chatter
  When creating a topic, discussion need not be very serious or particularly complex, but conversation should stay mostly on topic. A certain level of chatter is understandable in threads with a core user base, due to the fact that tangents may arise during normal conversation.
  
  Threads that are persistently offtopic, or make no attempt at ensuring that their threads continue to provoke discussion as they grow larger, will be relocated to more appropriate forums.
  
  
  
• Cross-Forum Discussion
  Discussion of other forums, be it in a positive or a negative light, is acceptable and encouraged. However, it is not acceptable to give false, misleading, or unnecessarily hostile information with the intent to provoke a reaction from the regulars of a specific forum.
  
  In addition, please remember that the criticism you see expressed about a forum in GCD does not justify going to that forum expressly to emphasize this issue in a negative light so as to provoke a reaction. Both this and the above are trolling, and are not tolerated on Gaia.
  
  
  
• Anecdotes and Personal Experiences
  GCD threads should have topics that are accessible to many users, not just to a small group or a single user. The focus of your thread must be on generating discussion rather than just sharing a story or experience. If all you wish to do is share something that you have done or that happened to you, or to rant about an issue, we ask that you use your journal.
  
  Threads in which the discussion is merely an afterthought to the personal experience are not permitted, but personal experiences may by all means be used as stepping stones to share your thoughts on larger issues.
  
  
  
• Discussion Questions / "Spoonfeeding"
  Discussion questions are not a requirement for a discussion thread and their inclusion are a matter of personal preference. The meaning of "tacked on" or "tagged on" questions refers only to threads that are using discussion questions as an attempt to hide that they are not really discussions.
  
  As a general rule of thumb, if the removal of your discussion questions would result in your thread having no discussable content, it is likely that your thread is not suitable for this forum and should be posted elsewhere.