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PG-13 VIOLATIONS & CYBERING

Cybering
Cybering is described as "descriptive sexual roleplay". Cybering in all forms is not allowed on Gaia. This includes requesting, offering or encouraging cybering in your threads, posts or PMs. Please be careful when posting vague requests for fun or offers of fun. If they could easily be seen as a cyber invitation or request, you risk getting warned for violating the cybering rule. Webcam shows also are not allowed.

Please also be aware that telling people to "take it to PMs" is considered encouragement to violate the Terms of Service. Some examples include making thread rules ("no cybering (take it to PMs if you must)" or "cyber in PMs, not here" wink or in thread conversation ("if you guys are going to do that, go somewhere private" wink . Anyone using these or similar phrases will receive a warning for PG-13 violations.

Image and Content Guidelines
Images and content also must comply with the PG-13 rating of Gaia. Sexually explicit images that are not artistic in nature are not allowed on Gaia. Only extremely limited artistic nudity is acceptable on Gaia. Sexually explicit and pornographic images are strictly forbidden. Posting, requesting, or selling such image or content will result in a warning. It is usually best but not required that you check with a mod before posting images you believe qualify as artistic nudity.

Cleavage images are not considered to be in violation of the PG-13 rating. However this only applies as long as they do not show any n****e and are not provocative or overly revealing. Images of cleavage/breasts or private areas not covered with any clothing even if blocked by limbs, a sign, other objects, etc. is considered overly revealing and thus not allowed.

Having only see-through clothing including but not limited to transparent bras, panties, etc. covering private areas are not sufficient to prevent an image from being overly revealing and thus a violation.

Artistic nudity must not be posted directly. It can be linked. The link cannot be misleading and must include a warning of what the content of the link is.

Images containing excessive gore or violence are also considered to violate Gaia's PG-13 standards.

Cleavage Quests
Users may have 'Cleavage Quests' as long as the images they are asking for fit in the Image Guidelines stated above. If a user asks for sexy, nude, provocative, etc. cleavage shots, they will be warned.

Panty/Boxer Images
Unlike cleavage images, images of users in just panties and boxer/briefs are not allowed. This standard applies to images of users. Other images still fall under the above image guidelines.

Strip Clubs/Slave RP
Strip clubs and other PG-13 violating roleplaying is prohibited. Such threads will be deleted and creators of the thread will be warned. Slave RP will fall under this category unless they meet the allowed conditions for Slave RP listed in the Barton Town sticky.

Remember, anything or anyone who says they need your password to give you something or for any other reason is trying to scam you and gain access to your account.

"Bump X times for Gold/Rare Items"
Creating a thread which makes false claims that users will get gold and/or items for posting a certain number of times is a bannable offense. You do not get more gold than normal for bumping in these threads and trunks and giftboxes are random events that happen...randomly.

Free Gold/Item Granters
Be aware that offers of free gold or items are often scams, especially when they involve a relatively new account which is offering up rare and expensive items. Any user who offers you free items/gold by linking to a site which asks for your password or security questions is SCAMMING. Please user the "Report this Post" or "Report this Thread" buttons to report them right away.

Some other scamming attempts have included users making a FAKE Gaia Login page. It looks exactly like Gaia but please be aware that the address (URL) will not be gaiaonline.com. If you come to a page that does not have gaiaonline.com in the address, do NOT login and report the link to a mod along with any information you have about who and how it is being distributed.

A new feature that could help with scams such as these is the inventory post type which allows users to display their items for others to see. While not entirely foolproof (items are still displayed after being traded), it can help to provide a bit more credibility to a user's claim or offer. However, not using this feature or not wearing the item is itself not sufficient or definitive evidence of a scam, but should make you cautious or suspicious.

Email/IM Scams
The admins and staff of Gaia will never ask for your password. Ever. The only emails you will ever receive from Gaia are those sent for the purpose of occasional announcements, registration, and banning (and always after the fact). These will never ask for your password. Do not respond to any emails or instant messages via chat programs that ask for your password or answers to your security questions.

Highest Donator Contests
Highest donator contests and variations of it are prohibited. These contests involve the promise of an item to the person giving the highest amount of donations. They are essentially like auctions except bids for the item are not returned. More information can be found here.

Also, giveaway threads that claim that donating more will increase chances to getting the item(s) being given away are considered variants of this type of contest and not allowed as well.

Contest Fees Are Not Donations
Mislabeled contest entry fees cannot be taken as donations and threats to do so are not allowed. It is fine to request that a trade with the entry fee is somehow labeled so that you know what it is for (useful if you are running multiple auctions/charities/lotteries). However, refusing the person entry and instead taking the trade as a donation because it is not labeled a particular way is not allowed, as it is exploiting users to gain gold.

If you accidentally mistake an entry fee and discover that it wasn't a donation, you still need enter them into the contest or refund the fee. The essence of the rule is that you cannot enforce trade labeling by mentioning the potential of taking a trade as a donation (accidental or intentional).

It's best not to mention donations at all in relation to trade labeling. That is:
"Please label trade as ____, or I might mistake it as a donation."
should simply be
"Please label trade as ____."

Intentional Misrepresentation of Item Value
Gaia has a free market, however, using temporary extreme inflations of prices of low-value items in order to trade for high-value items is considered a scam. Users are free to make such trades or price items at whatever value they want. However, it becomes a scam when one party presents inaccurate information to convince someone to make the exchange.

When another user starts to abuse or harass you, there is a wonderful feature to help you out before you even have to resort to filling out a form? It's called the Ignore feature and surprisingly, many users are unaware of exactly what it does.

So next time you're having problems with another user, just go to their profile and click Add to Ignored. (This feature can also be reached by clicking the "Ignored" tab on your Friendlist page). Once you have added a user to your ignore list, the following things will happen:

They will not be able to PM you

They will not be able to post in any thread that you created.

Many times, this simple step stops the harassment right at the beginning and stops it from escalating any further. If the user continues to harass you after being placed on ignore, then you should report them through the proper channels, as addressed below.

THREAD RULES

Many thread creators have a list of posted rules at the beginning of the thread. Please attempt to respect these rules even if what you are doing is not a violation of Gaia's rules.

If you make your own thread rules that are not reflected in Gaia's rules, then you or your clearly designated agents (commonly called "thread mods" or "thread staff" wink may have to enforce them on your own. For example, if a thread has rules against posting advertisements in the thread, you may have to enforce this on your own.

This can be done in several ways. First, in select forums such as the Chatterbox, thread creators have the ability to delete any post in threads they create (and not just their own posts). Second, as mentioned above, thread creators can use the Ignorelist feature to prevent a user from making further posts in a thread. Third, as designated agents do not have the above two abilities, you can set up a blacklist.

In essence, a blacklist allows designated agents to disallow users from staying in the thread. After being clearly asked to leave a thread by thread creator or designated agents for any reason, a user should stop posting in the thread or face the possibility of violating Gaia's rules regarding harassment. When reporting this kind of harassment (ie. if the user continues to post), you need to include a link to where the user was asked to leave the thread by the thread creator or their clearly designated agents.

IMPORTANT:
Do not be rude when telling users to leave. Just clearly tell them to leave the thread.

Make sure the post telling someone to leave is clearly directed at the intended user. This can be done by quoting their post or including their full username in the message.

When blacklisting, include a link on the blacklist to the post where the user is informed they are being blacklisted.

If you are not the thread creator or their clearly designated agent, then telling someone to leave will not hold any weight. (Yes. Even if you are a "regular".) However, you can still report them if they are violating Gaia's rules.

By "clearly designated agent", we mean that they are listed prominently in the thread's introductory posts as having the ability to enforce the thread's rules.