Ok, this is where we are at. I got this not too long after kicking some ppl out of the guild for inactivity. I'm not really sure what it means because it's referencing stuff from at LEAST months ago.....
Ironically I get this letter during what is arguably RAWR's slowest period since our inception.
Anyways, here is a transcript of how things are going so far. I posted it here along with replying to the mod herself.
I'm not sure who reported us or why.... but I want you guys to know I'm dead serious with every word in my response. I've... no, WE'VE put too much work into this guild over the years to have some yuppie mod go "that's not right" and deactivate our guild for not understanding what he/she is seeing.
Feel free to post your comments.
Ambu
raisedpassion
Ambu
Hello,
It recently came to my attention that you and other Crew Members of your RAWR guild have been violating the rules of Gaia Online. Please keep in mind that you must follow the rules of Gaia everywhere, including guilds. As the Captain and crew you are all expected to make sure your guild is free of violations. Failure to remove violations or participating in these violations can result in the disabling of your Guild.
A few of the violations I came across were in the following threads;
Theme for Next Raid/Event - This thread is not necessarily a violation on it's own as it's fine to have guild planned events. However, please keep in mind that raiding in the form of ToS violations is not permitted. This includes, as suggested by one of your Crew Members, to spam towns and intentionally get "under peoples skin". This is called Trolling, as are spamming users in towns in general to the point that causes disruption to the normal flow of chat.
I specifically bring this thread up because it's clear your guild frequently does these raids/events together.
'For you Raisedpassion' ~ This thread has been deleted as it includes several posts by yourself and other members of your crew verbally abusing and taunting another member of the guild. This sort of behavior is unacceptable. This is your warning that continued behaviors such as this will result in the deactivation of your guild and warnings issued to all accounts involved.
As Guild Captain it is your responsibility to ensure that your crew follow the rules. If you cannot trust your crew members to follow these guidelines it's in your best interest to remove them as crew.
Ambu
Gaia Online
Omni Moderator
It recently came to my attention that you and other Crew Members of your RAWR guild have been violating the rules of Gaia Online. Please keep in mind that you must follow the rules of Gaia everywhere, including guilds. As the Captain and crew you are all expected to make sure your guild is free of violations. Failure to remove violations or participating in these violations can result in the disabling of your Guild.
A few of the violations I came across were in the following threads;
Theme for Next Raid/Event - This thread is not necessarily a violation on it's own as it's fine to have guild planned events. However, please keep in mind that raiding in the form of ToS violations is not permitted. This includes, as suggested by one of your Crew Members, to spam towns and intentionally get "under peoples skin". This is called Trolling, as are spamming users in towns in general to the point that causes disruption to the normal flow of chat.
I specifically bring this thread up because it's clear your guild frequently does these raids/events together.
'For you Raisedpassion' ~ This thread has been deleted as it includes several posts by yourself and other members of your crew verbally abusing and taunting another member of the guild. This sort of behavior is unacceptable. This is your warning that continued behaviors such as this will result in the deactivation of your guild and warnings issued to all accounts involved.
As Guild Captain it is your responsibility to ensure that your crew follow the rules. If you cannot trust your crew members to follow these guidelines it's in your best interest to remove them as crew.
Ambu
Gaia Online
Omni Moderator
Ambu:
In regards to your recent guild warning:
As Guild Captain, I would humbly ask you to submit to me proof that my guild members have been violating Gaia TOS. I wouldn't consider myself a great guild leader if I wrongly attacked members on a whim for things they may or may not have done.
In your siting of Theme for Next Raid/Event, you fail to show me any proof that these people actually went out into gaia with intentions of violating TOS. For that matter, you've failed to relate that guild members were not simply thinking outloud or even roleplaying that they have done these sort of things in the past. Furthermore, if they HAD, where are the reports from fellow gaians that would coincide with these planned events we hold?
This guild has been active for almost 4 years. You are the first mod to report any problem of ANY kind with this guild, and without any sort of proof to back these claims.
On the matter of "For You raisedpassion", I remember the matter - however the thread has been deleted. I have no point of reference at my disposal to verify what took place, who was hurt, and who might be responsible for whatever it was you believe to be in violation of TOS.
As I am aware, this person, (tymat i believe), received what we considered friendship and playful banter amongst ourselves. At what point does your typical jeering amongst friends and editing each others posts become a violation of TOS?
Some people like to play a victim role, appearing to be hurt but meanwhile enjoying the attention for it. I believe this was what you observed on the deleted thread. If memory serves me correct, you will not find him saying "NO" or "Stop" in the thread. But again, you have brought these accusations against my guild without an point of reference or proof to any matter.
In fact you may be surprised to learn, Tymat and I are still friends today.
In closing:
I cannot pursue this grave matter without seeing more from you. I need to see pictures, video or some sort of concrete evidence showing members of RAWR 'disrupting the normal flow of chat'. I also need a log of reports filed to Gaia from Tymat in reference to RAWR's activities concerning him - at minimum, I need access to the thread to follow up 'who did what'. Without any show of findings on the matters you've observed, I will consider this warning to be written in prejudice and deal with it accordingly.
I consider this matter very serious and will attend to it the best I can (up to and including dis-banning the guild altogether. I hope you view this matter with the same importance. For now all I can do is post this communication to RAWR's forum so that they know what is transpiring.
You have two days to respond with evidence of your accusations against my guild. Failure to do so will result in the forwarding of our communications to your superiors for further review of your remarks.
~raisedpassion
Hello again,
In regards to the Raid/Event thread I was merely bringing it to your attention that such things (as they were being suggested) would be in violation should your members choose to take part in them. Given that it was one of your Crew Members that was suggesting the violations I wanted you to be aware that those things were not permitted.
From the thread;
Quote:
"well we could have a zombie/monster one with lots of spam, spam seems to do the trick when you wanna raid out gaians from towns lol like as in make an assembly line of spam, all the same spam & enough to cover all there avis & piss them off, so many that they cannot ignore them all & will hab=ve no choice BUT to leave"
This is the definition of trolling, and was being suggested by a member of your Crew. As I had reports from Towns that at least 2 members of the guild were doing this I wanted you to be aware that your members could get in trouble for such things. I do not expect you and your crew to stop your members from doing this, that is their own responsibility. However as the Guild Captain/Crew it is part of your duties to not encourage or promote such things or allow others to encourage and promote such activities.
http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?page=2&t=22289041#323034185
From your own words,
Quote:
"dress up in cheap clothes and beg for gold / act like noobs. Use mule accounts, EVERYONE will be reported repeatedly lol."
Quote:
"If RAWR went out looking like supermodels.... well.... that would be trolling for sex... worse than noobs..... trolling.... for.... sex.... vic secret is pretty. RAWR should be UGLY..... -envisions 20 RAWR running around ugly assed medusa horrible GAWD UGLY trolling for sex, crying cuz they are too fat / ugly, trying to get noobs to marry them, begging for donations for plastic surgery..... -smiles- that'll work.... the "victoria secret panty raid" lolz. "
Intentionally behaving in a way that you know will result in user's filing reports is not only a form of trolling, but is intentionally attempting to spam the report system, that is unacceptable.
'trolling for sex' Sexual content is a violation of the Terms of Service. Regardless of if you are 'joking' or not it is not appropriate to ask others for sex on Gaia.
As for the 'For You Raisedpassion' thread, the invididual(s) involved in the actual abuse in that thread have been dealt with. As we respect the privacy of all individuals we will not release details about the warnings, who may have received them or the reporter(s). However, because the main point of that topic was continuing of the taunting it was ultimately deleted. Because it was necessary for me to remove the thread from the guild my initial PM was to inform you of the action.
My PM was not a warning that your thread was going to be deleted, but that if you (the guild Captain and Crew) continued to allow violations it can be disabled. Moderators only step in when the Captain and Crew fail to prevent violations from occurring. As this is the duty of the Captain and Crew, failure to do so can result in the disabling of a guild.
Ambu
Gaia Online
Omni Moderator
Ambu:
Thank you for your timely response to the matter. Dealings with staff in the past have usually gone unsuccessful. Any questions or input to a matter largely go ignored by gaia staff. Again I am very thankful for your cooperation on this matter.
Being that I am a leader of a guild filled with creative people, all with brilliant minds and downright awesome personalities, I find myself in a mix of congeries. I need to find a solution to maintain the fundamental creativity the guild without upsetting gaia staff in so doing. Moving the guild to another site similar to gaiaonline.com could be facilitated but I don't want to pursue that option at this point.
Quote:
However as the Guild Captain/Crew it is part of your duties to not encourage or promote such things or allow others to encourage and promote such activities.
Quote:
"dress up in cheap clothes and beg for gold / act like noobs. Use mule accounts, EVERYONE will be reported repeatedly lol."
My question about this post is: Is it against TOS for crew to make this post, or is it anyone in the guild. In other words, In regards to guild disablement, do I need to moderate my entire guild from creative brainstorming such as this or is it against TOS for only crew, VC, and captains to say it?
Thank you again for your time on this matter:
~raisedpassion
