Welcome to Gaia! :: Posts By User Unknown User | Forum

Observant viewers may have noticed that Gaia has a brand new look and feel! We've made some big changes to the site's layout and navigation in order to provide a better-looking and more streamlined experience. Here's a brief rundown on some of the changes:

-We've added some new pages. Clicking the "News & Events" link beneath the header will take you to a new page where you can get a quick overview of the latest happenings, and the "Market" link will bring you to an overview of Gaia's shops, Marketplace, trade system and more. Many other pages have been revamped as well, so be sure to have a look around.

-The new "Shortcuts" bar in the site's header gives you quick access to your avatar, inventory, subscribed threads, guilds and journals.

-Your avatar is now full-sized in the header! The old layout showed a "squished" version of your avatar, but now it's shown in all its glory.

-A new logo! Lanzer recently explained the logo change in a journal post:


Quote:
We've been thinking a lot about Gaia's logo. When our logo was first created, there was no Gaia community. The Gaia logo reflected our vision of what Gaia was at the time, but the community has grown and matured so much since then that it no longer seems appropriate. Gaia was once a website that created a community, but throughout the years it's become a website that is defined by its community.

With that in mind, we decided to create a logo that does a better job of reflecting the style and spirit of our members. We wanted something that looked cooler, more unique and more fun. We put in a lot of thought about who we are as a site and as a community, and we came up with something that, in our opinion, really looks the way Gaia feels.


-The new layout is a little bit wider. While Gaia's old look was designed with 800 by 600 resolution in mind, the new layout is designed for 1024 by 768 resolution. This size increase allows us to put more information and features on every page.

-Though the new header may look tall, it's actually shorter than the old one. Mysterious!

-You may have noticed that the site took a little longer to load the first time you viewed it. This is because the code for the new layout was being cached in your browser. After the first load, the rest of the site should be faster.

-Many of the site's pages (such as the forum index and marketplace) remain unchanged for now. We're gearing up for phase two of the site update, which will bring Gaia's new look to every page across the site.

-We announced this long ago, but it has finally come to pass: the Channels page is no more. As we continue to refine the interface, we plan to add enough customizable elements to effectively replace Channels.

-As with any major release, there are still a few bugs buzzing around here and there. We'll be working very hard on ironing all of them out this week.

Get out there and explore the world!

Hi everyone,

Our artists and user interface team have been hard at work for quite a while on a huge overhaul of Gaia's look and navigation. The first phase of their work is almost complete, and you'll be seeing some big changes in the next few days!

Allow us to break you off a little preview. Some of you may have already seen this information posted in staff journals, but we figured the time was right to show it to everyone!

First of all, here's a scaled-down image of what the new interface will look like:



Check out the new header and logo! The title bar has all sorts of cool features: a shortcut menu to get to some of the site's most popular features, a mail indicator that shows how many messages you have, and a little map that shows you where you are in the Gaia world. Your avatar is also present and accounted for-- at FULL SIZE, finally! No more squished pixels!

(Don't worry, we haven't taken away the gold status thingie. In that screenshot, it just happens to be hidden under the shortcuts menu.)

As for the logo, we're very excited about the new look. Lanzer recently explained the change in his Journal.



Other cool stuff:

-New landing pages! Gaia's main pages (Home, My Gaia, Community, etc) have been given a new style better presentation.

-The background changes depending on where you are on the site! We currently have one background for each town, but we're working on even more, as well as backgrounds for forums, marketplace, and other features/areas.

-Daily Chance will have a new look! You can't see it in this shot, but it's gonna be cool.

-New navigation! We've reorganized the dropdown menus and navigation elements to make it easier to get around.

-Though it looks all big and beautiful and vibrant, the new header actually takes up less vertical space than the old one.

These changes should be happening later this week. We hope you like the new look as much as we do!

Hi everyone,

We've received a lot of complaints from members about game room names that break Gaia's Terms of Service. Although our moderators work hard to weed out game chat names that break the rules, the high volume of game chat rooms created every day makes it very difficult to keep up.

In order to keep Gaia safe and clean, we've decided to change the way game chat rooms are named. You may have noticed that Gaia Rally has a different naming system: instead of allowing users to choose a title for their room, it is generated automatically based on the name of the room's creator (for example, "PorkWizard's minimart" or "AnimeLuvr230846230's carshow" wink . We've decided to make all game chat rooms work like this.

From now on, instead of selecting a name for your room, your room will be named according to your username. We've already made this change to some of our games, but the rest will be changed within a few days.

We realize that this is kind of a bummer, since choosing your own name for a chat room can be a lot of fun, but this change will ease the constant burden on our moderator team and make Gaia Games safer and more appropriate for all of our members.

Thanks for understanding,
-The Gaia Admins

Hi guys,

If you have any questions regarding our public moderator applications announcement, we encourage you to ask them in this thread.

Many questions are already covered in the Q & A post beneath the announcement. Please refer to this post before asking questions here.

Hi guys,

We're releasing some patches today to update our forums. You may see some strange and unexpected glitches in the forums and around the site for a while as we gently massage Gaia's innards. The developers will be addressing any glitches as they pop up.

These patches will make room for an improved and updated forum system which will allow the forums to run smoothly even as more and more users continue to join the site. We'll give you further details of our new forum system a little later in the day.

Edit: Looks like we'll be releasing our new forum system a little later than we thought. Look for more info sometime in the next few days.

Thanks very much for your patience!

In the past few years, Gaia Online has grown by leaps and bounds to become one of the most popular hangouts on the web. As Gaia continues to grow, we plan to increase our support for our members in big ways. We have been working on plans for more than six months to improve the quality and quantity of moderation on our website. The mod colors/titles project was just the tip of the iceberg!

Soon you’ll see an extensive training program spring up, and you'll start hearing about a whole new movement to greatly enhance the numbers and abilities of our moderator teams. There have been rumblings in the forums and in conversations about us opening up moderator applications to the public, and the day has come for us to tell you that sometimes you get what you wish for!

That’s right, Gaians: today marks the first day ever that Gaia moderator applications are open to the general population of Gaia! You have a chance to be considered for a challenging and rewarding volunteer role as a moderator for Gaia Online!

Changes to the Mod System

How is this possible, you ask? First, let us explain what we are doing to define a moderator on Gaia, because we have redefined almost everything:

• We have divided the areas of the website that require support and member services and named leaders to each of these areas. These leaders will be building a group of responsible moderators under their direction and will ensure their realm of responsibility is covered. Each team will have a specialty that they will concentrate on, which will provide Gaia with total coverage from Minigames to PM’s.
  
  
• Moderators will have strict quality prerequisites to meet, and will be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure maximum education and fairness. Discipline amongst our ranks and adherence to our refined Terms of Service (Still under construction) will maximize our relationships with our members. A new Help Center will one day replace our Rules and Guidelines page to provide even more information.
  
  
• A complete and built-from-the-ground-up training center and team has been feverishly working on defining in hard terms what it is to be a Gaia moderator, what is expected of you and how to perform in this volunteer role. There will be a laundry list of curriculum and training staff to ensure maximum throughput for our newly announced public moderator induction process.

What Makes a Great Mod?

Now that you have a good idea of what we have been working on, we’d like you to consider these three words that define a good Gaia moderator:

Neutrality - People from all walks of life visit Gaia and spend time there. Can you put all of their religious beliefs, political opinions, temperaments, traditions and cultural differences aside and deal strictly with the matter at hand? If you think you could remain neutral at all times, this might be the role for you.

Creativity – Being a mod is much, much more than being a "hall monitor." Moderators are active members of the community who are devoted to creating a safe, fair and fun space for everyone. They earn the respect of their peers not by showing off their authority, but through good judgment and personal involvement in the community. Good leadership requires ingenuity, intelligence and, above all, creativity. A good moderator can solve issues in creative ways, without the use of moderation tools (even though those tools may be available to them).

Dedication – Being a Gaia moderator isn’t a job, it isn’t a lifestyle, it is a duty. When you are browsing the forums on Gaia, visiting towns to shake trees, or fishing your heart out as Bass’ken lake, you are a force on Gaia that protects and supports. You are not a powerful entity made to destroy evil across the website, but a gentle reminder of something long lost, something about commitment and purpose, something about inspiration and longevity. As a Gaia moderator, you’ll deal with the worst of the worst the internet has to offer, and if you can often come up from swimming with the sharks with a smile on your face, you’ll know you’ve succeeded. If you stay a moderator for a long time on Gaia, you’ll know what we mean. If you think you already understand, you might be the type of person we’re looking for!

How to Apply

We will be releasing more information on how all of this will play out, but please pay SUPER CLOSE attention to the prerequisites listed before you apply as a moderator. There is a long training phase you will have to go through before you will have any abilities whatsoever. There is also a tenure and post requirement so most mules need not apply. If you have extensive Terms of Service violations on record, your application may be declined.

By filling out the application, you are agreeing to a legally binding contract, and if you are under the age of 18, you MUST WAIT until we have a separate method for you to get us your parent or legal guardian’s signature. Again: we are NOT accepting applications from those under the age of 18 at this time. We may accept applications in the future for members under the age of 18, but are NOT at this time.

Notice: if your application falls under any of the following categories, it will be declined immediately:

1. The application is not 100% complete
2. The application is not 100% accurate (to the best of our ability to judge)
3. The application does NOT meet the initial-pass prerequisites

Again, any submission that falls under the above three categories will be declined immediately for security reasons.

If you have read all of the above, and still feel you will be a qualified and excellent candidate for our moderator training program, please click on the following link to begin the process:

(WARNING: YOU MUST BE 18 YEARS OLD OR OLDER TO COMPLETE THIS PROCESS)




If you have any further questions, you are welcome to post them in this thread so we can address your concerns.

To alleviate some common questions you may have, we’ve compiled this small Q&A for you below. You can find the Q&A section in the post below.

Hey! Take a look at the upper right corner of your screen, next to where your Gold is displayed. See that new number? It's your Gaia Cash, the new replacement for the old Gift Credit system. As a little "thank you" to our loyal members, we've given every active Gaian a small introductory balance of Gaia Cash.

(If you already had Gift Credits in your account, you may have noticed that the number up there is much smaller. Don't worry! You're rich! Read on for more info.)

After a lot of debate and economic tweaking, we decided to phase out Gift Credits and create a new currency that would be much more valuable and versatile. Here are a few of the benefits:

• You can use it to buy shop items AND Monthly Collectibles, whereas Gift Credits could only be used in the shops.
  
  
• The value of Gaia Cash is much higher than Gift Credits. We didn't feel that Gift Credits were a good enough deal, so Gaia Cash will get you about three times as much value for every dollar.
  
  
• We introduced a promotional code system along with Gaia Cash that will allow us to do some massively cool stuff. These codes can be given out during special promotions (conventions, contests or whatever) and redeemed for Gold, items, Gaia Cash or just about anything else. Neat!

For now, Gaia Cash is just a cool new way to get a good value for your money. But in the future, we'll be able to do boundlessly cool stuff with it.

What are you waiting for? Hit the shops and spend your Gaia Cash! If you'd like to pick up a little more Cash, you can visit the Gaia Cash page here.

Gaia Cash Q&A:

What happened to my Gift Credits? I had a lot of them, and now I only have a few!
Your gift credits have been automatically converted into Gaia Cash. Though the number may be smaller ($1 is equal to 100 Gaia Cash), you can buy a lot more stuff with it. Gaia Cash has a much higher value than Gift Credits, so you actually have the equivalent of about three times as much purchasing power as you had before.

I didn't have any Gift Credits, but now I have a small balance of Gaia Cash in my account. Is this a bug?
No! We've given every active member a small balance of Gaia Cash to thank them for using Gaia. You can go ahead and spend your Cash in Gaia shops, or save it toward a future Monthly Collectible. Enjoy it!

Will everyone get free Gaia Cash, even new users?
The introductory balance of Gaia Cash was only given to people who already had active accounts. Any new accounts registered will not start out with any Gaia Cash. If you registered your account after this announcement was posted, or if you had not logged in for many months, you may not have received any free Gaia Cash.

Where can I buy Gaia Cash?
To get some Gaia Cash, you can click the "GStore" link in the top navigation bar and then click the Gaia Cash image. You can go directly to the Gaia Cash purchase page here.

Can I buy Gaia Cash for someone else?
This is another big difference from Gift Credits: for the moment, there is no way to purchase Gaia Cash for other people. In the coming months, it will be possible to purchase Gaia gift cards for your pals.

Can I trade my Gaia Cash with other members?
No. Once Gaia Cash is purchased, it stays in your account until you spend it.

Can I spend Gaia Cash in the marketplace?
No. Gaia Cash cannot be used to purchase items on the marketplace. It can only be used for items in the Gaia shops and for Monthly Collectibles.

Is this some sneaky way to turn Gaia into a pay site?
Absolutely not. Gaia will remain just as free as ever. We just wanted to make sure that the people who do choose to spend money on Gaia will just get a fair bargain for their money. Upcoming (optional!) items or features might use Gaia Cash, but they'll be worth it!