... the whole section, for reference and for anyone who didn't see it (I missed this the first time):
The Admins, News & Announcements, January 21 2007
Recently, the admins have had some concerns about people buying Gaia Gold and items with real currency. Unscrupulous gold sellers have been trying to get around our "no selling our buying items" rule by offering their time spent on Gaia for sale instead of selling actual items, or by offering auctions which say things like "buy this toy bunny... oh, and by the way, I'll throw in an expensive Gaia Online item, too!" The effect, however, is all the same: a Gaian gives them money, they give the Gaian gold in return, and then both people get banned.
Please remember that buying people's time on Gaia is just as much against the Terms of Service as buying actual items. It is against the rules because it's unfair: people with lots of money can pay people to surf the site and rack up gold, meaning that people with more real-life money can get more Gaia Gold from botters, which leads to inflation, which means that honest questers have to work much harder to get the items they want. It's morally wrong, and it's against the rules.
Don't be fooled by people who say they're just selling you their Gaia "time" so they can get items for you, or by people who are selling random things and throwing in "real" Gaia items as part of the deal. They are botters, scammers, and cheaters, and dealing with them will just result in a ban.
My favorite part is this: " ...a Gaian gives them money, they give the Gaian gold in return, and then both people get banned."
Not only did I not buy gold or anything Gaia-related from *anywhere* other than Gaia itself, I know for a
fact that I am
at least the 3rd person "down the line" from the original "cheater" in the "spreading the gold" process*.... so WHY am I banned???
scream And there is absolutely no mention about things like:
... Who to contact to appeal an unfair banning?
... How long should we expect the process to take?
... Anything else relevant to getting unfairly banned accounts reinstated...
I have followed up to the best of my ability and knowledge so far, but find it interesting that Staff omits information essential to this whole banning fiasco. Yes, I'm sure they're being inundated with cheating kids whining and lying and complaining about accounts that were (fairly) banned, but c'mon!! Surely, the realize they're catching some innocents in their far-reaching, circumstancial-at-best, bannings!!
And yes, their logic here is spotty at best. Folks with RL money to spend can spend it on gift credits or on envelopes to then resell on the marketplace. I've actually had conversations with my husband about why they are so bent out of shape about "artificially manufactured currency" and neither of us, with our fairly expansive technical backgrounds, can sort out WHY they are so concerned and tend to react like some police-state for perceived "infractions". There must be some tie-in between gold and real-life money (advertising??) that we're just not seeing for them to react so severely to a game and game-only currency....
And no, I've not heard anything yet on my account. I am coming up on week #4 of having my account banned now...
*
(1) X person manufactured the gold... (2) Person 2 bought it from them and (3) gave it to me gonk 
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