Welcome to Gaia! ::

O_o :laughs: I just imagine you dressed up in a jungle uniform sitting and watching the behaviour of this strange new creature.

Is it just Gaia in general? Or are you going to cover where you usually hang out as well?

The CB – The Chatterbox Forums
Ah yes, the Chatterbox, collective cesspool of Gaia, and its proverbial sewer. Harsh, I know. But I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true. For once, the opinion isn’t really biased. I have to admit, though, that once upon a time, I started out in the Chatterbox before moving on to bigger and better things. In fact, this is actually where most members of Gaia initially start out. Most new members find their way here, and immediately get sucked into the absolute…”ludiocrity” of the place.

The Chatterbox is so insane that I couldn’t even find an adequate word to describe it, and had to create my own. Sometimes these drastic online situations call for some “wordsmithing”. Just like a sword smith creates swords, a wordsmith creates words. In this case, “ludiocrity” obviously refers to the fact that the Chatterbox is so far gone from the realms of what is normally considered…normal…that it is absolutely ludicrous. Thus, I suppose its proper definition could be, “Having the trait of being especially ludicrous, or ridiculous.” While it still fails to truly capture the murky waters of the Chatterbox, it is close enough, and will have to do.

“Teh Chatterbox”, and that’s not a typo, is filled with young teenage angst, young teenage hormones, and a sea of “AIM Speak”. If you’ll remember, I made reference above to gibberish. Well, this is the biggest collection of gibberish on Gaia Online. “AIM Speak” is a term used to describe the utter grammatical slaughter of the English language, as only the bowels of “America Online Instant Messenger” can create. It has since leaked into the Chatterbox and become embedded in the typical lexicon of many users here. Usually, you’re lucky to see a period, much less a comma. Though, to their credit, some of these users do indeed use correct grammar within their posts. Not everyone in the Chatterbox is an invalid. The use of letters for words (u r teh suxxorz), lack of punctuation, and other things seen elsewhere on the forums are virtually unseen in many of these threads.

As an added note, this forum is perhaps the best place to look into the young teenage mind to see what might be running around in it. Filth and utter chaos aside, there are topics of users looking for girlfriends or boyfriends. Others are just looking for a public place to rant about their day to try and get a consoling word from the random passerby, or find some sort of acceptance within the community that they might be unable to find in their everyday life. Even the stranger topics such as, “Girls bend over, guys spank them” could be an insight into the mental nature of the early teen years when it comes to sex. Of course, Gaia is a “PG-13” community, and any sexual content is strictly forbidden. But like any community, the people will find a way if there is enough of a will to back it. The girls that visit these topics seem to have a desire to be accepted, and to be considered attractive to the opposite sex. The males have the same desire, and perhaps only to want to feel like that have someone to like them as well. Even the random threads of nonsense may just be another way of relieving stress after a long, and rigidly structured day. In this way, we can see that the Chatterbox, while disturbing and highly unorthodox to many, serves an integral part in many users’ online experiences on Gaia Online.

Of course, I can’t be TOO harsh when judging the Chatterbox. After all, I DID manage to climb out from there to join the more mature Gaia Community, and while it doesn’t look like it, many of these users may very well rise from their less than humble beginnings to join the more mainstream community as well. Everyone has to start somewhere, and the Chatterbox, while not recommended by me, is often the first choice by those looking to jump right in and get started.