Gaia Guides and Resources: Rules and Guidelines

[The Admin]

Gaia Guides and Resources Forum Rules and Guidelines

Welcome to the Gaia Guides and Resources forum! Gaia Guides and Resources (GG&R) is intended for housing helpful threads, guides, data-banks, tutorials, and other important resources for the use of Gaia users. Here you will find a wide array of step-by-step guides, lists of items, and other such threads.


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 Gaia Guides and Resources
   
4. 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:

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. If you must post something off-topic, it must be done as an addition to something legitimately on-topic (i.e. "This tutorial could use some _____. And by the way, your avatar is great." ) Posting to thank someone for creating the thread is allowed (however, repeatedly posting thanks will be considered spam).

Plagiarism. Claiming another persons work as your own, or posting another persons work without giving proper credit are all forms of plagiarism. Plagiarism should be reported with the name of the original author and a link to the original work.

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 procedure for this may be found below.

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 Gaia Guides and Resources

Threads that Belong in This Forum
The following is a list of the kinds of threads generally appropriate for GG&R. For the most part, any long term thread with useful information is allowed in GG&R:

• Tutorials/Guides about aspects of the site
  
• Threads designed to answer users' questions about a specific aspect of the site or about the site in general.
  
• FAQs
  
• Resource threads (Mod list, Item list, Themes Codes, etc.)
  
• Helpful threads (Make a strong password, protect yourself from hacking, how to report)
  
  
• Repeat Threads: Repeat threads are allowed. It is difficult for any thread to be completely comprehensive and there are generally alternative ways to explain most things. However, prior to making a thread, please at least browse through the first page of the forum listing and try to make sure that your thread will cover something new. If a subject already has many threads about it, a new thread could be moved if it does not add anything further than what was contained in older threads.
  

Posting Restrictions

• Bumping: Gaia Guides & Resources is one of the slowest moving forums in Gaia. A thread may be bumped only when it is no longer on the first page of forum listings.
  
  
• Inaccurate Information: Do not give out inaccurate information. Doing so may result in the thread being removed from Gaia Guides and Resources. If you are not sure about something, then let someone else make the thread about that subject.
  

Commonly Misplaced Threads

• If you have a question related to Gaia, use: Questions & Assistance.
  (If you have a question about a GG&R thread, ask it in the thread itself. Don't make a new thread asking about it.)
  
  
• "Answer threads" are not allowed. These are threads that do not present information but instead has users ask questions to be answered. That is the purpose of the Questions & Assistance forum. If you want to answer questions, then simply post replies to threads in the Questions & Assistance forum.
  
  
• If you have some feedback related to Gaia, use: Site Feedback.
  
  
• If you want to test something, use: Test Forum.
  (Possibly something you just learned in a tutorial.)
  
  
• If you want to spam or post any other low content topics, use: the Chatterbox.
  

Tips and Guidelines for Thread Creation
There are some things to consider when thinking about making a thread in GG&R. These often relate to how successful your thread can be. It would be a shame to go through all the effort involved in a GG&R thread and have very few people use it.

• Originality: It is suggested that you look through the forum to see if there is not already something similar. If a topic is already well covered, then making a successful new thread is more difficult. Try to consider if your thread will be presenting additional information or the information in a way that may be easier to understand.
  
  
• Utility: Consider how useful the topic you plan to cover will be. Feel free to make a guide about any aspect of Gaia. However, there are certain tasks that probably do not require as much explanation. Or put another way, the information presented should that take more than cursory explaining. Making a guide on something that is well known or can be efficiently explained in a compact way may not be very necessary.
  
  
• Understanding: How well do you know the topic you want to make a thread about? If you are unclear about some aspects, then it would be difficult for you to explain it to others. Make sure you consider if you understand the topic well enough to make a complete guide without any inaccurate information.
  
  If you are sure you want to make a GG&R thread, then please consider these final notes:
  
  
• Layout: Try to plan out how you will present the information you want in your thread. This often invovles the use of multiple posts and/or images. If you have an organized layout, it becomes easier for other users to understand.
  
  
• Initial Setup: It is usually preferable to make the thread in the Test Forum and have it moved into GG&R once completely set up. If you do start your thread in GG&R but are taking significant time to complete setup, it may be moved to the Test Forum until setup is done. It is also recommended that you reserve a few more posts than you feel are necessary for possible future modification of the thread.
  
  
• Joining Forces: If a thread exists for the topic you want to make a thread about, consider combining forces with the existing thread. (Though you are still allowed to make your own).
  

[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.