Barton Town: Rules and Guidelines

[The Admin]

Barton Town Forum Rules and Guidelines

Welcome to the Barton Town forum! Barton Town (BT) and its subforums are intended for the activity known as roleplaying, where you and other users take on the 'role' of invented characters through writing.

BT is specifically focused on the roleplaying of original roleplays.

As a member, it is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with the forum's rules before posting. Posting in this forum implies that you read and understand the rules and guidelines and that you accept responsibility for the appropriateness of your thread or post.

Navigation:

1. Introduction
   
2. General Posting Guidelines
   
3. Rules & Guidelines for Posting in Barton Town
   
4. Gaia-Appropriate Content in Detail
   
5. How to Report

[The Admin]

General Posting Guidelines

Please be sure to follow the Terms of Service and Rules and Guidelines here, as in all forums.

Common violations to avoid:

Sexually explicit content. Posting, requesting, distributing, or offering sexually explicit material is not permitted anywhere on Gaia. Sexually explicit content includes explicit photographs, text, artwork, video, or cybersex conversations.

Spam. Posts that are gibberish, off-topic, contain advertisements or begging, or have low or no content are considered spam. Please ensure that your posts are on topic and contain an appropriate amount of discussable content.

Flaming & trolling. Posts directed at another member which are hateful, abusive, or intentionally inflammatory are considered flaming. Making intentionally inflammatory or provocative posts to incite responses from other members is considered trolling.

Terms of Service violations may result in a warning or a ban on your account.

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.

[The Admin]

Rules & Guidelines for Posting in Barton Town

What belongs in Barton Town?

• Threads in Barton Town should be created for the purpose of roleplaying an original roleplay (e.g. not based on existing series or characters).
  
  
• Roleplays posted in this forum should have content. The more detailed and thought-out your roleplay idea, the better your roleplay will be! Please ensure that any roleplay you post here has at least one paragraph outlining the main concept - it could be an opening paragraph, a description of a location, a summary of the story or characters, anything you like! Roleplays which are not deemed to have this level of content may be moved to the Chatterbox.
  

Posting Rules

• No Cybering
  The explicit roleplay of sexual encounters is strictly forbidden. The posting of explicit and graphic content, in written or visual forms, is a violation of the Terms of Service. For details on how far is "too far", see the Gaia-Appropriate Content in Detail post.
  
  
• No Explicit Roleplay Encouragement
  Users often post rules regarding inappropriate content within their own roleplays. Using ratings like "PG-13" is fine, but directing users to "take cybering to PMs", or using ratings such as "Rated R" which clearly indicate adult themes, is not permitted. In all cases, the Gaia Terms of Service and forum rules override individual roleplay rules.
  
  
• No Abusive Comments
  This includes abusive comments to other users, flaming, trolling, harassment and stalking. You are allowed to swear on Gaia, but you are not allowed to insult other users, go into their thread without permission and start trouble, or refuse to leave after the creator has asked you to.
  
  
• No Advertising
  Advertising in this forum is not allowed; you may not create a new thread with the intention of advertising, or post in existing threads purely to advertise your own content. If you wish to advertise a roleplay please see the Barton OOC forum. Please note that although you may also roleplay offsite, offsite advertisements are not permitted at all in the roleplaying forums.
  
  
• No Hate Based Roleplays
  Hate roleplays that are negatively directed towards a Gaia user, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation are not allowed on Gaia. These roleplays that are found will be removed and the owner punished.
  
  
• No "Copycat" roleplays
  Just like art theft is not allowed, copying another person's work for a roleplay is also not permitted as it infringes copyright. If you want to use another person's writing for your roleplay, word for word or only slightly changed, you must get permission and credit them or else you will face the same serious consequences that art theft does on Gaia Online.
  

Commonly Misplaced Threads

Certain topics are not suitable for Barton Town; please follow the guide below to find out where to post these threads, and be sure to read the rules of other forums before posting there.

Roleplays centered around a school, university, college, dojo, or any form of educational site: University/School roleplay

Roleplays centered around a family, mansion, or a place of residence: The Gaian Neighborhood

Roleplays based on a TV series, movie, manga, book, game, or any other form of media or entertainment: Series-related/Miscellaneous Roleplay

Gaia-appropriate slave roleplays: Series-related/Miscellaneous Roleplay

Gaia roleplay advertisement/Threads recruiting other roleplayers/Out of Character threads/General roleplay discussion: Barton OOC

Character profile threads: Barton OOC

Roleplays centered around a bar, inn, tavern, hangout, or any form of business: Gaia Commerce

Private roleplays intended for a pre-selected group of people only: Invitation-Only Roleplay

Threads that are for bumping, randomness, or for other oddities: Chatterbox

[The Admin]

Gaia-Appropriate Content in Detail

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 users have asked what is considered inappropriate in a roleplay context. Below is a list of guidelines to help you judge what is appropriate and what is crossing the line.

Quote:

Summary

• Sexually explicit roleplaying is a violation and not permitted.
  
• Graphically violent roleplaying is a violation and not permitted.
  
• Encouraging or condoning these violations in your roleplay may result in the roleplay thread being removed and a warning issued to the involved accounts. Refrain from using adult ratings or directing explicit content to the private messaging system.

Content Guidelines

• Romance
  
  Roleplays that revolve around two or more characters meeting and falling in love are 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.
  
  
• Slave, Master, Kidnapping, and Pet
  These kinds of roleplays are based around a dominant/submissive style and may be 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-related/Miscellaneous Roleplay forum 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.
  

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. Examples include "Rated R", "Rated XXX", "No limits!".
  
• 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.

If at any point you spot roleplays or roleplay posts violating the above guidelines, report the post or thread. You will NOT be punished for roleplayers violating the Terms of Service in your own roleplaying thread if you have not encouraged the behavior, and have taken appropriate action to stop the behavior by reporting the relevant posts.

[The Admin]

How to Report

Abuse of the report system will result in a warning or ban of your account.

Report a Post

Use the button when an individual post in a topic contains inappropriate content.

Reasons to Report a Post:


• The content of the post violates the Terms of Service or forum rules.
  
  
• The content of the post is off-topic.
  
  
• The member who made the post has a signature which violates the rules.

Report a Topic

Use the Report this Topic button at the bottom of the page when a topic is not appropriate for the forum.

Reasons to Report a Topic:


• The topic violates the Terms of Service or forum rules.
  
  
• The topic is in the wrong forum and should be moved to a more appropriate forum.

If you need to contact a moderator via Private Message, please use the "View Forum Moderator" link at the top of this forum to find a moderator.



Report Hacking, Scamming or Abuse & Harassment?

The Hacking, Scamming and Abuse or Harassment report forms can be found at the bottom of the forum index. When submitting a report, ensure that you fill out all fields and include as much relevant information as possible.

Report A Hacking
Use this form to report a Hacking. Hacking, on Gaia Online, refers to the unauthorized access of an account by someone other than the account owner. In most typical hacking cases, an unauthorized person enters an account which does not belong to him or her and takes items or gold from the account, often changing the account information so that the original owner can no longer access his or her account.

Report A Scamming
Use this form to report a Scamming. Scamming is when another member of Gaia takes your gold or items, or tries to take your gold or items, by making false promises of giving you rare items, get-rich-quick schemes, or by any other deceptive means. Scamming generally involves a situation in which two members of Gaia make an arrangement to trade gold, items, or a Gaia approved service (e.g. avatar art commission) with each other and then one of the parties involved in the arrangement fails to live up to his or her promise of an exchange.

Report Abuse or Harassment
Use this form to report ongoing Abuse or Harassment. If you are reporting harassment or abuse that is occurring directly in a thread, please use the "Report This Post" button instead.