Announcement: Chatterbox: Rules and Guidelines

[The Admin]

Chatterbox Forum Rules and Guidelines

Welcome to the Chatterbox (CB) forum! Chatterbox is intended for users to have a place to do everything from spamming and bumping to conversing and role-playing. Threads or posts on any topic are acceptable here provided they follow the ToS and rules outlined in this sticky.


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 Chatterbox - Explicit Content Violations & Cybering
   
4. Rules & Guidelines for Posting in Chatterbox - Scams & Contests
   
5. Rules & Guidelines for Posting in Chatterbox - Spam Violations
   
6. Rules & Guidelines for Posting in Chatterbox - Flaming & Abuse
   
7. 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:

Scamming. Taking or attempting to take another member's gold, items or efforts, through false promises, deception, tricks or get-rich-quick schemes is considered scamming and is not tolerated on Gaia.

Reporting Non-Violations. Using the report system to report things such as spam, swearing, and advertising is not the proper use of the report system. Such things are allowed in the Chatterbox and in-thread rules must be enforced by the thread creator. Abusing the report system in this way may result in a warn on your account.

Quoting ToS Violations. Users should NOT quote Terms of Service violations of any type at any time in the forums. This includes, but is not limited to the following:

• Explicit images or text
  
• Flaming/trolling
  
• Page stretching
  
• Scam links/posts
When you quote a Terms of Service violation, it is almost as bad as posting them yourself. Feel free to report the post through the forum report system.

When to Contact a Moderator Directly

• People continuously posting offensive images.
  
• People continuously posting images which are not appropriate for Gaia.
  
• People continuously scam spamming.
  
• Anyone continuously violating a major rule.

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 Chatterbox - Explicit Content Violations & Cybering

• Make sure to follow Gaia Appropriate Content Guidelines at all times.
  
  
• Cybering is described as "descriptive sexual roleplay." Cybering in all forms is not allowed on Gaia. This includes requesting, offering or encouraging cybering in your threads, posts or PMs. Please be careful when posting vague requests for fun or offers of fun. If they could easily be seen as a cyber invitation or request, you risk getting warned for violating the cybering rule.
  
  • Please also be aware that telling people to "take it to PMs" is considered encouragement to violate the Terms of Service. Some examples include making thread rules ("no cybering (take it to PMs if you must)" or "cyber in PMs, not here") or in thread conversation ("if you guys are going to do that, go somewhere private") Anyone using these or similar phrases may receive a warning for explicit content violations. You should report users who are cybering instead of encouraging them.
  
  
• Regarding RP requests. Do not recruit for sexually explicit or violently graphic roleplays, which are in violation of Gaia's Terms of Service. Recruitment threads for group or one-one-one roleplays should:
  
  • Never propose adult/sexual ratings (e.g. "Rated R", "Rated XXX" )
    
  • Never ask for limits/ratings from potential roleplayers, or offer to discuss limits/ratings in private
    
  • Never propose "no limit" roleplays
    
  • Never request roleplays involving any sort of adult/pornographic/explicit genre or concept (eg."Futanari", "Incest", "Cyber" )
  
  
  
• Strip clubs and other roleplaying that violates explicit content rules is prohibited. Such threads will be deleted and creator(s) of the thread will be warned. Slave RP will fall under this category unless they meet the allowed conditions for Slave RP listed in the Barton Town sticky.
  
  
• Webcam shows also are not allowed.
  
  
• Images and content also must comply with Gaia's rules regarding explicit content.
  • Artistic nudity must not be posted directly, however it may be linked. The link cannot be misleading and must include a warning with the content of the link.
    
  • Only extremely limited artistic nudity is acceptable on Gaia. If you are unsure whether a particular image follows this guideline, ask a mod. You are responsible for what you post.
    
  • Sexually explicit images that are not artistic in nature are not allowed on Gaia.
    
  • Sexually explicit and pornographic images are strictly forbidden.
    
  • Posting, requesting, or selling such images or content will result in a warning.

• Cleavage images are not considered to be in violation of any explicit content rules. However this only applies as long as they do not show any n****e and are not provocative or overly revealing.
  • Images of cleavage/breasts or private areas not covered with any clothing even if blocked by limbs, a sign, other objects, etc. is considered overly revealing and thus not allowed.
    
  • Users may have 'Cleavage Quests' as long as the images they are asking for fit in the Image Guidelines. If a user asks for sexy, nude, provocative, etc. cleavage shots, they will be warned.
  
  
• Having only see-through clothing including but not limited to transparent bras, panties, etc. covering private areas are not sufficient to prevent an image from being overly revealing and thus a violation.
  
  
• Images of users in just panties and boxer/briefs are not allowed. This standard applies to photos of users. Other images still fall under the general image guidelines listed above.
  
  
• Images containing excessive gore or violence are also considered to violate Gaia's appropriate image guidelines.

[The Admin]

Rules & Guidelines for Posting in Chatterbox - Scams & Contests

Remember, anyone who says they need your password to give you something or for any other reason is trying to scam you and gain access to your account. The following information is intended to help you avoid being scammed and what to avoid when creating or joining contests:


• Creating a thread which makes false claims that users will get gold and/or items for posting a certain number of times is a bannable offense. This includes fake giveaway threads with misleading titles or white text in the post saying that it is just a joke. You do not get more gold than normal for bumping in these threads and trunks and giftboxes are random events that happen...randomly.
  
  
• Be aware that offers of free gold or items are often scams, especially when they involve a relatively new account which is offering up rare and expensive items.
  
  
• Any user who offers you free items/gold by linking to a site which asks for your password or security questions is SCAMMING.
  
  
• Another scamming attempt includes users making a FAKE Gaia Login page. It looks exactly like Gaia but please be aware that the address (URL) will not be gaiaonline.com. If you come to a page that does not have gaiaonline.com in the address, do NOT login and report the link to a mod along with any information you have about who and how it is being distributed.
  
  
• The admins and staff of Gaia will never ask for your password. Ever. The only emails you will ever receive from Gaia are those sent for the purpose of occasional announcements, registration, and banning (and always after the fact). These will never ask for your password. Do not respond to any emails or instant messages via chat programs that ask for your password or answers to ANY of your security questions.
  
  
• Highest donator contests and variations of it are prohibited. These contests involve the promise of an item to the person giving the highest amount of donations.
  • Giveaway threads that claim donating more will increase your chances of winning are considered variants of this type of contest and not allowed.
  
  
• Please be aware that while advertising avatar arena entires is permitted, buying votes is not.
  • This includes- but is not limited to- creating a thread to advertise your entry and having a bumping or any other type of contest in the same thread.
  
  
• Mislabeled contest entry fees cannot be taken as donations and threats to do so are not allowed. It is fine to request that a trade with the entry fee is somehow labeled so that you know what it is for (useful if you are running multiple auctions/charities/lotteries). However, refusing the person entry and instead taking the trade as a donation because it is not labeled a particular way is not allowed, as it is exploiting users to gain gold.
  • If you accidentally mistake an entry fee and discover that it wasn't a donation, you still need enter them into the contest or refund the fee. The essence of the rule is that you cannot enforce trade labeling by mentioning the potential of taking a trade as a donation (accidental or intentional).
  
  
• Gaia has a free market, however, using temporary extreme inflations of prices of low-value items in order to trade for high-value items is considered a scam. Users are free to make such trades or price items at whatever value they want. However, it becomes a scam when one party presents inaccurate information to convince someone to make the exchange.

[The Admin]

Rules & Guidelines for Posting in Chatterbox - Spam Violations

• Stretching the forum pages using excessive amounts of unnecessary text, text that contains no spaces, or large images is disruptive to the flow of the forum/conversation and is thus a violation of the Terms of Service of Gaia.
  
  
• An example of this rule includes 14/28 Gold Bumps. There are several versions of this kind of post, and all have the same general premise: that by copying and pasting a long message, you will get more gold than normal. You do not get more gold for longer posts.
  
  
• Other examples include excessively and unnecessarily repeating a word or phrase such as "bump" many times in one post, posting long song lyrics for no particular reason, posting images that are excessively large (either resize the image or use a link to the image), etc.
  
  
• Distribution of chainletters is prohibited on the forums, in PMs, and anywhere else on Gaia.
  • Many chainletters resemble something else such as a petition or warning message and sometimes even say "this is not a chainletter" on them.
    
  • Other chainletters claim to be from the admins and sometimes make threats about banning people if they don't send it on. The admins can use stickies and the Announcement forum to disperse information and will not use chainletters (something they have prohibited) to do it.
    
  • Just remember any message that asks or encourages you to repost/resend indiscriminately to other users can be considered a chainletter.
  
  
• Please report any threads that ask personal questions such as address, phone number, email address, or any questions related to security questions.
  
  
• Do not reply to these threads. However, threads that do not ask such questions and only ask harmless or neutral questions (favorite color, video game, etc) are allowed.

[The Admin]

Rules & Guidelines for Posting in Chatterbox - Flaming/Abuse/Trolling

• Any posts containing flaming, racial slurs, verbal abuse, etc. directed at a user or comments made with the purpose of provoking anger (trolling) are against the ToS.
  
  
• Posting any content (images, links, etc) that encourages other users to harm or kill themselves, even in a joking manner, can be considered abusive. In cases where a user has posted about their intent to commit suicide or harm themselves, any encouragement at all will lead to a warning or even a banning.
  
  
• When another user starts to abuse or harass you, there is a wonderful feature to help you out before you even have to resort to filling out a form. It's called the Ignore feature and surprisingly, many users are unaware of exactly what it does.
  
  Once you have added a user to your ignore list, the following things will happen:
  
  • They will not be able to PM you
    
  • They will not be able to post in any thread that you created.
    
  • They will not be able to comment in your profile.
    
  • They will not be able to start trades with you.
    
    Often this simple step stops the harassment right at the beginning and prevents it from escalating any further. If the user continues to harass you after being placed on ignore, then you should report them through the proper channels.
  
  
• Many thread creators have a list of posted rules at the beginning of the thread. Please attempt to respect these rules even if what you are doing is not a violation of Gaia's rules.
  
  
• If you make your own thread rules that are not reflected in Gaia's rules, then you or your clearly designated agents (commonly called "thread mods" or "thread staff") have to enforce them on your own.
  
  • In the Chatterbox thread creators have the ability to delete any post in threads they create (and not just their own posts).
    
  • Thread creators can use the Ignorelist feature to prevent a user from making further posts in a thread.
    
  • You can also set up a blacklist - this allows designated agents to disallow users from staying in the thread.

• After being clearly asked to leave a thread by thread creator or designated agents for any reason, a user should stop posting in the thread or face the possibility of violating Gaia's rules regarding harassment.
  
  
• When reporting this kind of harassment (ie. if the user continues to post), you need to include a link to where the user was asked to leave the thread by the thread creator or their clearly designated agents.
  • Do not be rude when telling users to leave. Just clearly tell them to leave the thread.
    
  • Make sure the post telling someone to leave is clearly directed at the intended user. This can be done by quoting their post or including their full username in the message.
    
  • When blacklisting, include a link on the blacklist to the post where the user is informed they are being blacklisted.
    
  • If you are not the thread creator or their clearly designated agent, then telling someone to leave will not hold any weight. (Yes. Even if you are a "regular".) However, you can still report them if they are violating Gaia's rules.
    
  • By "clearly designated agent", we mean that they are listed prominently in the thread's introductory posts as having the ability to enforce the thread's rules.

[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.