Welcome to Gaia! ::

so please excuse my irrationality. I have not been in the ED for a very long time, i'm a bit rusty.



source



I! have the reason! as to why! gaia become! so worried! about its dear! little kiddy users! who have no right to be here! in the first place! due to! all the! sex drugs alcohol perversion swearing mother ******** cybering e-humping hentai yaoi Yuri shoutacon meatspin pot meth neo-Nazi Hitler loving creepy stalker thingy's on the internet. they! got sued! yes! you heard me. sued. by some 13 year old punk. not only that, but it was for $60.00 dollars. but! due to what they could have done, they took drastic measures. such as making the marketplace "safe" and "damn near scam proof" meaning its ******** hard to make a profit from it now. they also made some changes to the word filter. something about not wanting people to say/type out the word pedophile and of course pedobear, a practically iconic archetype held close to the hearts of all who have been on gaia for over a year. now, it all started when a little 13 year old girl got a generic scam pm. meh, it has happened to everybody. but! she did not understand it was a ******** scam. oh! she also did not read the TOS. yes. the all powerful TOS. stated in BOLD RED PRINT THAT PRACTICLY SCREAMS AT YOU is the thingy that says to never give your password out to anybody, the gaia admin and staff will never ask for it, so if you can read that thing at all, don't do it. so guess what! she called her mommy. she looked at it. they decided to GIVE THEM THE PASSWORD. and for some strange reason... HER ACCOUNT WAS HACKED! *le gasp* oh no! the horror of it all! all her hard earned items! ((which added up to 130k, so you know she is just looooooooooaded)) gone! but who could have done this? both Clementine ((name changed for sake of anonymity)) and her mother did not realize she got scammed. yes. AFTER they gave out her password, they did not know why the items were missing. *gasp for dramatic effect* so what happens? mother calls HQ. yes. but! she was such a b***h persistent little ********> good mother after oh, two, three months of calling the CEO of gaia got to talk with her. he explained what had happened, and that after they file a scam/hacking report on who totally scammed that b***h did this, they would try to get her items back. what would you know? two more months pass! psycho b***h of a mother has still been calling weekly and they finally get its daughters stuff back. all good right? when I got scammed I sure as hell would have liked to get my stuff back so its a win win right? she got her stuff, mother stops calling. WRONG! after that bonding time mother had with the CEO of gaiaonline.com she decides to file a ******** lawsuit against the site. to the amazingly large amount of $60.00 US dollars. for psychological damage this "identity theft" has left on her daughters young and impressionable psyche. see, thats my point. she is YOUNG. meaning she is not as "experienced" as well, almost everybody on the site. so to bypass this, GaiaOnline.com has promised to re-vamp the TOS, which already states in GIGANTIC BIG RED BOLD PRINT not to give out your password. ever. they also said they worked on making the marketplace new and "unscamable" and adding a PIN code to your items. yes. a mother ******** PIN code. how would you like to use a PIN code every time you want to change your avi? I personally change mine a good eight to nine times a day. I do not want a ******** PIN code to pop up every time. "but you could just disable it". ha. you know what happens if you disable the MOTHER ******** BIG RED IN YOUR FACE MAKE YOU SCREAM FOR YOUR MOMMY wall of text they now put up when you leave gaia? hold on, let me get an EXACT quote.

NOTICE -- READ CAREFULLY BEFORE CHANGING THIS OPTION!
If you set this field to "YES", you are NOT eligible for moderator-assisted item recovery if your account is scammmed, phished, or hacked as a result of following an off-site link.
By changing this option, you accept that any loss of your account, Gaia Gold, Gaia Cash, or your items that may occur is your own responsibility, and that Gaia staff will not assist you in recovering any of these items.

meaning what to you? if you turn off your PIN code thingy, I bet you my demonic pitchfork you will be getting this same message. oh wait! some religious zealot will file a lawsuit saying "the demonic pitchfork is to satanic for my young 13 year old child. I demand you get rid of it, or i'll sue you". meh. so much for that one. i'd give you my dark halo but looks like its the same deal. so! have fun as gaia becomes to scared to do anything that may offend anything. for this is only the beginning.

meh, as long as you can cover it up.

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! DANGER!

This article is a bit dangerous. Because it seems to say that measures are now in place to prevent you from posting your password.

Here, let's test it:

password: sexynojutsu388


Whoops, that didn't work. Now I'm hacked.


Can we sue this guy now?


Also, it was REALLY hard to read your post, eater.


In any case, it is perfectly legit for 13 year olds to be on this site. That IS the minimum age limit.

And I can understand about being upset, and feeling violated, if your online identity was stolen. It's a terrible thing to do to someone.

But yes, giving away your password is always, always a stupid idea.


It's also interesting that in the comments, people that are bashing her for her stupidity and attatchment to Gaia mention that her avatar is "cluttered" and "would be ripped to shreds" in the AT. Who needs a reality check, again? What's that got to do with anything?

Apparantly if you're 13 you're not expected to be able to read or follow instructions. Neither are your parents.

Wait a goddamn ******** moment.

Did Gaia's lawyer enjoy eating his excretion or something?! Did he totally miss the ******** parts of Gaia which have DO NOT GIVE OUT YOUR PASSWORD YOU TARD! all over it?

Seriously, that is enough to stop this little brat! And where did this $60 dollars come from!?! At what point did that little b***h and her mother lose out in any data protection related way?! She gave out a shitting password because she was a ********, the judge was also a complete ********! One read of the TOS and that 13 year old b***h could be flawed straight away!!!


I'd love to know the little ******** in real life, just so I could scriek at her telling her what a ******** little b***h she is! Jesus christ, she needs a slap.

[/rant]


*deep breath*

But come on, a case like hers shouldn't have even reached court. It's so flawed!

Oh and I'm sorry for the multiple events of swearing. sweatdrop

I seriously thought that whoever wrote that was joking. When I realised they weren't, I almost screamed.

This is ******** retarded. It's like reading an extended version of "The poor, virginal, pure maiden of golden hair was attacked and killed by the dark, greedy, {etc etc etc etc etc} hacker."

Honestly. How much were they paid to write something like that?

meh. some of it is really funny, if taken out of context. first off, read this, and then look at my avi. I have no further comments. XD

In Jack Myers' book Virtual Worlds: Rewiring Your Emotional Future, he writes "Psychologists report a child's virtual self often reflects more about their core self-image that the self they display in their day-to-day behavior. Their virtual selves display their feelings about authority, their likes and dislikes unfettered by parental influence and controls. The worlds in which they immerse themselves often reflect more about their self-identities and how they want to be perceived than their more traditional activities and choices.

was not awake when written/slightly enraged. I basically summed up the article, girl gets a scam pm. shows mother and sister, they all agree that it would be in her best interest if she were to comply. so she did. then she got upset seeing as her account got hacked. nobody in her family new why so mother called gaia HQ. they tell her to file a hacking/scamming report on who sent the pm, and that they will do everything they can to get her items back. another month or two passes, mother keeps calling, gets the CEO of GaiaOnline.com to talk with her, and they finally get her items back. all good, except her lawyer says, and I quote, "a claim against Gaia, but that while it is "reasonable, it is not practical." Clementine's loss – meaningful to her – is less than $60, although that relatively small sum had been converted into more than 130,000 in Gaia gold, attesting to Clementine's collecting skills, passion and commitment. Unless a class action lawsuit were to be drafted, the cost of recovery would exceed any 'real' damages.". but! it gets better! looks like our lawyer has more to say on the issue. once again, I quote, "But he sees larger issues at stake. Most states take a position of nullifying the Terms of Service (TOS) of sites targeted to youth. TOS's are meant to be written with their audience in mind but this is a near-impossible feat when you're writing to a 13-year-old, plus users are, in fact, minors. In this case, Duranske argues, Gaia did their best to warn users throughout the site not to share their password. But what they failed to deal with was a hallmark of youth: apart from the rare rebel, most kids will defer to a figure of authority. If someone posing as a parental or authority figure makes a demand, they submit. And assets? Duranske and I first became acquainted during the Second Life bank collapse -- $200,000 real U.S. dollars were stolen and they have yet to be recovered. It's undetermined, then, if a virtual world host is responsible for compensating/reimbursing users when third parties steal their virtual booty. Even more questionable is what responsibility virtual worlds might have for mental duress caused by members' losses.".

so now he claims GaiaOnline fails to properly state to there younger audience that they should never give out there passwords, ever, even though it is stated in big red text of doom. if you even came to this page, I am sure you saw it.but the thing I enjoy most from that page would be, and I quote, "Most states take a position of nullifying the Terms of Service (TOS) of sites targeted to youth.". ha. if that does not mean were screwed, nothing will. again, I apologize for the irateness of my first post, I posted this in the lounge for that fact, but somebody thought mod powers would be better.

((edit, by me)) I will now slowly rip the article to shreds, bit by bit.

more entertaining things scattered throughout there article. and I quote, "While the perp that scammed Bluebird has been banned, (by IP address) it took this episode to remind the virtual world that teen users need to be handled with kid gloves. Sherman's bottom line here is: "If our users aren't satisfied, we won't grow." so whats next? more kiddy friendly events? kid friendly items? the destruction of the dancer bottom as we know it! the horror.

if you know me at all, I like to make mules, alot of mules. mules are my life. I have yet to see this "mandatory education" thingy there talking about. and yes, I quote, "Sherman agrees that the Bluebird matter might have been handled differently and offers that Gaia has learned from the Clementine/Bluebird case. It now has a root fix that seems intuitive but was not-so-simple to implement: even though users are sending over a million posts a day, Gaia actively checks every name and password embedded in a message and double checks to assure a password is not being shared. Gaia has also launched a more comprehensive and mandatory education campaign for all new users, introducing them to examples of potential dangerous activity in a game-like interactive format. "Young people learn through experience, not through a set of paperwork," advises dana boyd, a Ph.D. candidate at Berkeley's School of Information. boyd studies how one negotiates a presentation of self in networked, mediated contexts such as YouTube, MySpace and Facebook. Rather than read a Terms of Service agreement, she agrees it is more valuable to walk children and teens through a set of exercises and scenarios. "But it's not bulletproof," she warns. Sherman's added solution is a full-time team that is focusing on actively helping people like Clementine." but, as I have stated just a few times, BIG RED BOLD PRINT OF DOOM just does not cut it for today's youth.

and yet more! as I said earlier,among other things, is that when you take it out of there speech and give snippets, its quite funny. this would be for anybody who has parents saying you need to get off, its rotting your brain. AND! I quote, "Scientists, sociologists and anthropologists suggest that active social participation and involvement in online virtual worlds is a more constructive and healthy human experience than passively watching television, reading a book, or being in an unhappy job or relationship." so nya, gaia is better than your crappy job.

I could see a news headline about this next bit. this one, by far, takes the cake in my opinion. "mod fired for banning" and I quote! "While lawyer Duranske is investigating an emerging body of thought that binds law and play, he says this issue isn't new – it dates back to 1938's Homo Ludens: A Study of The Play Element in Culture by Dutch historian Johan Huizinga. While it's tempting to laugh off both the popularity and implications of virtual worlds, for kids these environments are now part of their leisure routine and they are very real societies where legitimate relationships are formed. Psychologists also recognize the importance of play and how it shapes identity formation. Prof. Larry Rosen of Cal State, author of Me, MySpace, and I: Parenting the Net Generation, believes that "banning someone can have major psychological impact."
yes. the banning of somebody, in his professional opinion, has a major psychological impact. I am ((almost)) positive everybody here has gotten atleast a temp ban for one thing or another. ((I got a 15 day ban for "stalking" my next door neighbors account)) its not the worse thing to have ever happened. sure, your mad about it, you just lost your items, but unless you have an unhealthy obsession about Gaia, you know there just pixes, and you will be able to get them back, eventually. ((or am I alone on this issue?)) point being,I have an opinion about what he's saying, allow me to demonstrate. "mod fired for being a power-twisted sociopath hell bent on the destruction of children's psyche's by perma banning for no reason". yuss, I went there.

and so on that fun note, I get to brin up another thing I don't like. holding the company responsible for the loss of well, anything, that technically the company owns. and so I doth quote, "It's undetermined, then, if a virtual world host is responsible for compensating/reimbursing users when third parties steal their virtual booty. Even more questionable is what responsibility virtual worlds might have for mental duress caused by members' losses." so! not only are they saying GaiaOnline.com should compensate for the loss of items the user has lost, but also for whatever psychological issues arise from this very, very troubling ordeal. haha! idea. there new updated TOS. "I hereby agree by clicking accept that GaiaOnline.com holds no responsibility for psychological issues caused by the using of this site". I kind of like that, actually. meh, more ways for people to argue about how the internet is screwing with our brains.