New to TOPG? - Guide to the Guild

[Artemis Wolfe]

Guide to the Guild

Welcome to The Official Pokemon Guild! Whether you're new to the guild or a long-time member, you'll find helpful information throughout this guide. This guide is designed to help relieve confusion throughout the guild, as well as provide a directory for where to post or who to contact for help.

Index

Post 1: Introductory Post/Table Of Contents
Post 2: The Official Pokemon Guild
Post 3: The Forums
Post 4: The Rules
Post 5: The Crew  

[Artemis Wolfe]

The Official Pokemon Guild

The official pokemon guild (aka TOPG) is an online community dedicated to the discussion and entertainment of pokemon. We are a sub-part of GaiaOnline, one of the internet's largest online community forums. In TOPG, we hope to promote the members knowledge of pokemon, encourage their activity in the various aspects of Pokemon (Videogames, Anime, TCG, etc.), and over all else, be a strong and active community.

What is Pokemon? Pokemon started as a japanese Video Game. It was orignally called Pocket Monsters in Japan, but was shortened to the now universal name "Pokemon". It was created by a group called "Game Freak", headed by Satoshi Tajiri. Game Freak existed prior to pokemon as a gaming magazine, and eventually partnered with Nintendo. Now, Pokemon is one of Nintendo's largest selling games, as well as a popular Anime (with new episodes still airing), a trading card game, and much more. The Pokemon themselves are creatures with abilities and capabilities beyond those of our world, where they can be caught and trained. There exist 493 pokemon to date; over the years this number increased from 151 to 251 to 386 to what it is now. It is expected that Pokemon will continue to grow, with new things to look forward to as it develops.

Pokemon takes place in a fictional world that is based on our own. Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh are the four major areas of this world that are inhabited by pokemon - these areas are also based on real world places in Japan. There are more regions that exist, including Orre, Fiore, and other un-named areas featured in games like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.

Pokemon Trainers are people who capture and train pokemon. A device known as a Poke Ball is used to catch them. A Poke Ball is essentially a capsule, that shrinks down and contains the pokemon within them. There exist several types, some of which are harder to obtain or have different effects in the catching of pokemon. Trainers will use the pokemon they have captured to battle against one another. Many trainers have the hopes of becoming a Pokemon Master, but what that entales is a mystery even to long time fans.

The Guild As previously stated, The Official Pokemon Guild is an online commmunity. Guilds on gaia are self-promoted by their owners, who paid a fee of 20,000g to create them. The Guilds are, basically, forums. Gaia contains their own forums, such as the Chatterbox or the GD. Guilds enable members of gaia to create their own areas of the site, to run with their own rules, so long as they comply with the GaiaOnline Terms of Service.  

[Artemis Wolfe]

The Forums

Many members that are new to the guild often question what the guild is. The guild is just like any other area of gaia; it is a forum. Being so, it is made up of many different sections, consisting of one Main Forum and 14 Subforums. The main forum is for General Pokemon Discussion, while the other areas are for more specific means of discussion or activity.

It is a misconception that the main forum is the most important area of discussion. It is simply the most active, by popular demand of higher posting rates. The other areas of the guild offer, perhaps, less activity, but lurkers of those subforums are usually more knowledgeable.

The Subforums

[currently undergoing reconstruction]  

[Artemis Wolfe]

Rules and Guidelines

TOPG consists of regular members, crew members, vice captains, and myself as Captain of the guild. The Rules and Guidelines are expected to be followed by all members, regardless if you've read them or not. Breaking the rules will force the Crew to take disciplinary action. Any rule breaking will result in an evaluation. Based on the severity of the rule breaking, decisions will be made by popular vote of the crew. This is our attempt to remove bias from decisions being made, and to help create a fair environment in the guild.

However, to avoid such time consuming evaluations, we would greatly appreciate you reading through and following these rules:

-Follow Gaia Online's Terms of Service. If you can't abide by Gaia's rules, then you are not meant to be here. Breaking this rule will not only get you permanently banned from this guild, but it will also get you reported.
This especially pertains to posting about illegal ROMs - whether it's posting download links, or even asking where to obtain them.

-Be courteous to each other. We are a community, and as a community, each individual's opinions are to be valued equally. Disagreements will arise, as discussions and debates ensue, but these should be handled in a mature manner. Simply put, if you have nothing kind to say to another member, don't say anything at all. Blatant insulting someone, be it for the Pokemon they use or in terms of general disagreement, will not be tolerated.

-Please post in the appropriate area of the guild. The subforums are made in order to keep the guild orderly and organized. Posting in the wrong forum will not get you into trouble, as long as it is a first offense. If you are unsure as to where your topic belongs, feel free to contact a crew member for help.

-Do not create multiples of the same thread. If an existing thread is not on the main page, and you were unaware of it's existence, it is okay. However, if we have a Sticky or a popular thread on the main page, do not make another of those threads. This is to keep our guild clean and free of wasted space.

-If you are to create a topic, make sure to ask yourself the following questions before making your topic: Has anyone made a topic about this before? Does it relate to the forum it is being placed in? If it's a question, is it asked in a way that others will understand? If it is a statement, will anyone care to respond? If you say no to any of these, don't make the topic.

-When posting or replying to a topic, ensure that the post is on topic to that topic, and that you are not directly offending anyone. It is perfectly fine to express your opinion, but do so in a way that can be understood. Meaning, please make your posting readable. If you have learned to use a computer, get online, and make an account here on Gaia, it means you probably have a basic understanding of the English language. Therefore, it should mean you should be able to read and write. So, I will conclude that you should also be able to type in a manner that others will understand you.

-If someone is breaking the rules, don't post back and make the situation worse. Instead, please contact a crew member, and they will take disciplinary action. If it is a severe issue, the crew member is then responsible for (if I have not already seen the issue and taken care of it) contacting me.

-Please do not beg crew or members for gold or even Pokemon. It is extremely rude, and very much frowned upon. Feel free to post requests in your signature - we are hardly going to be policing those.
Furthermore, we recommend that you do not donate any gold to the guild account (via the homepage), as we have plenty, and cannot access it or use it for anything save for making announcements and subforums. An alternative would be to donate to the guild mule instead, as we can then use this gold for contests and such! (We assure you that this gold is being used properly, and is only accessible to the guild Captain, and is not being used as income as any kind for TOPG crew.)

-The addition and alteration of rules is a possibility in the future based on situations as time passes. Announcements will be made if the rules are changed, and I advise members to ensure they familiarize themselves with the rules. If there is any misunderstanding of these rules, please feel free to contact any crew member via private message. Also, in addition to the rules, I, as guild captain, am able to bend any of the rules based on circumstance.  

[Artemis Wolfe]

The Crew

The Crew Members of this guild are those members who have the capability of ensuring the Guild's Rules and Guidelines are followed. They are able to move and lock threads, delete posts and threads, and even edit the posts of other people. Crew Members have certain responsibilities around the guild, which might not be known to the general public. In addition to this, there are three types of Crew Member (Captain, Vice Captain, and Crew).

Captain: Artemis Wolfe

Vice Captain: Marsuru

Crew: Avalite

Crew: BogiePop