Welcome to Gaia! ::

Getting Started

These are the things I highly recommend you do before you do anything else! Some of these are important and greatly benefit your experience on Gaia.

1. Set up your Account Preferences.

If you haven't already, set up everything in your Account Preferences. This page covers things such as who is allowed to contact you through Gaia and your account security options. Here are the specific options I recommend you set most:

Security Settings

This section can be found on the bottom right of the page. Since you're new, I highly suggest checking all three boxes. Since I'm aware of phishing sites and their scams, I have the third box unchecked. If you know you're never going to fall for these, feel free to leave it unchecked. Remember that if you still do give a suspicious site or pop-up your password, you're on your own, because Gaia gave you the option to protect you from that.

I highly recommend the IP Verification to everyone. It protects your account from anyone that tries to log in from any device that isn't your own. So, even if you accidentally give out your password, this is a back-up that allows your account to stay safe. CHECK YOUR EMAIL after selecting that option.









Who can contact you

This section can be found in the top right part of the screen. Simply choose who is allowed to contact you and how you choose to be notified.

Note: Even if you have 'Notify me when I receive a private message.' unchecked, you will still be notified on Gaia. This box simply means you won't be notified through your email if you've been Private Messaged. If you don't want random spam cluttering your email inbox, I recommend unchecking this.

The other options are pretty much your preference.













2. The Other Stuff

Your My Gaia Notices
The Gaia Notices section of your account settings (Hover over the Gear Icon while on your My Gaia page and click 'Gaia Notices') allows you to choose what notifications you will be notified for. Ones such as 'Guild Announcement' and 'You've Received a Gift' are already things you are notified by default, so unless you want to be told twice, there is no need to have those checked. The other things are simply up to you. 'Special Announcements' simply means you will be notified about things like Monster Galaxy. Personally I don't care about Monster Galaxy so I don't have it checked since it's pretty bothersome. I highly recommend keeping You've Been Quoted, Reply To Thread You've Started, and Market Listing Sold checked.

































Gaia Labs



When it comes to customizing your Gaia experience, Gaia Labs is the place to go to. You can also use things like browser-add ons, but that is something I will explain in another section. Here are the things I recommend you activate to make things much, much easier:

Booty Grab Glow Indicator
Why?: Most people will usually tell you that Booty Grab is the fastest way to earn gold. Well, why not make it easier to access? I use the low-lag indicator mainly because in the threads that have multiple tanks for you to grab, having to look at aquariums in signatures makes computers slow. If you have an older computer, I highly suggest using the low lag indicator.
PowerUser Menus
Why?:This option makes getting to some of the most important parts of the site much easier and quicker. The alternative is having to hunt for these things yourself, so why not save yourself that trouble?

The other things like Centered Site and Outfit Changer are entirely your preference. They aren't necessary but they do make things more fun while you're on Gaia.





Clean out your Inventory

I'm not really sure if they still give you those silly starter items when you first join Gaia, but when I joined, one of the things I did first was get rid of the things I knew I'd never wear. If you haven't already, you really should do the same, because once you start earning gold and making new friends, you really aren't going to want them anymore!

If you don't know how to get rid of them yet, I'll show you how. If you already know how to get rid of items you don't want, move on to the next post.

I will use my own inventory as an example. For this tutorial I will sell 1 Ocean Summer Top.


Click on the item you want to sell.


This box should pop up.
If it's a gold shop item (which the Ocean Summer Top is) or a CI (chance item) prize,
there should be an amount that the item should sell for by
choosing the sell option. Other items such as Monthly Collectibles,
Evolving Items, and other things only give
you the option to sell on the Marketplace. For items like
Ocean Summer Tops, you get nothing but frustration by
trying to sell it on the Marketplace, especially for anything over
52 or 53 gold. Just save yourself the trouble
and sell it this way.

emotion_donotwant It may be tempting to sell gold shop items for crazy amounts such as 1 Million gold to get rich quickly. Don't do this! There are people that buy those things for fun with hacked or botted gold, and this can lead you to getting banned by accepting hacked or botted gold. Don't do it! There are better ways to get rich, and this guide will help you start getting rich!

Click 'Sell' to sell the item.


This confirmation box will show up just in case you clicked
the wrong item. If you're absolutely sure you
don't want the item anymore, click sell.


After you click sell, this box shows up to remind you how much
gold you made from selling the item and your
total gold amount. For privacy purposes and to
eliminate any misunderstandings, I have crossed out my current gold amount.


For items that are not soulbound there are also options to Donate and Trash items. Trashing items gets rid of it forever, while Donate lets you place it into Dumpster Dive for other people to find.


Once you take care of setting up your account and how you experience Gaia, congratulations! You're ready to really get into the nitty-gritty.

What do I do now? Fun things to do on Gaia

Flash Worlds

The flash worlds are all of the hangouts in the World section of Gaia. You can create your own room or join a room someone already made. In Towns, your only option is to join one of the rooms or name one yourself. However, naming
is generally cheap and many people put stupid or inappropriate names.

Towns

As of now Towns is the oldest (And most neglected) flash space. However, it still has
its charms and benefits. In Towns you can chat with other people in different
rooms that are open for anyone to name for a small fee. You can also
access houses and collect bugs, paper, and flowers, which can be used to make
items. You can also kick around a soccer ball and during Summer, Fall, and
Winter you can do extra stuff. It has its own time and during different
time frames you can collect different types of bugs and trash.

Seasons

Summer: During summer there are pools you can swim in and water guns and water
balloons you can buy for a very cheap fee to have water fights with.
Fall: Close to Halloween the scenery changes to reflect the holiday. You can also
trick-or-treat at peoples' houses.
Winter: There is snow and ice everywhere and you can skate on frozen ponds and purchase snowballs and have a snowball fight.

Fun Tidbit: Did you know that Ian is still a blond in Towns, but has black hair in Barton Boutique?

zOMG!
Why you should love zOMG!
zOMG! is probably the funnest place to hang out because
of its wide array of places to see. Click here for maps of the zOMG! areas. It also has a community of great people and it's generally a fun game.
Yes, zOMG! can be a hangout, too. See here!

--Rally
---What to expect
--Others

-Gaia's mini games
--Puzzles, etc
--Why do these games give so little gold?
--Why should I enjoy them anyway?

-Community-run events
--Contests, Giveaways, and More
--Raids and fun things to do with items in Flash worlds.

-Finding the right guild for you
--Why choose guilds?
--Different types of guilds: More than Roleplay and Random

-Finding the right forum for you
--Basic forum etiquette
--The most useful forums
---Site Feedback
----General etiquette and what to expect

--Forums people generally avoid and why
--What is Heaven?

The Arenas
-Rundown of each
-Avatar Arena vs Avatar Talk
Avatar Talk and Avatar Arena are very different things, and
it's important to remember the purpose of each.
Avatar Arena is for competing, and many people take it
as a serious competition. If you're just looking for advice on your avatar
or feedback, then don't waste the 10k to go into the Arena (Or save yourself
humiliation and butthurt). Go into the Avatar Talk forum and ask for help or
opinions on it. It's free, and there are quite a few people there that can help you.
Or, you can sometimes find a 'Rate the avatar above you' thread where you just continue the
game, which is probably the fastest way. And, once again, it's free.

-What to expect when entering the Avatar Arena

--Overdone themes and Do's and Don'ts



1. Don't use sets.
Can you tell which of the above avatars is likely to get a worse score? They both look nice,
so what could possibly be wrong? I'll give you a hint, one of them is breaking the biggest rule in the Arena book--don't use sets. Sets are multiples of the same item, and it ruins the whole idea of being creative when you submit an entry that wears only sets of items. So, if you guessed that the left avatar was the one breaking the rule, you guessed right! The one on the right still uses Rosamund's Revenge, but also wears many other items to make a nice looking avatar.

2. Avoid overused themes and color schemes.
One thing Arena regulars dislike as much as set avatars are overdone avatars, especially
if they use the same items as every other demon, angel, princess, or cutesy schoolgirl uses. Also,
if your submission is an avatar with a very common or popular color scheme, you might
expect to see somewhat low votes and maybe negative comments about how the color
scheme is over done and not really creative anymore.

Keep in mind some of the most over done themes and color schemes:

Themes
1. Angelic or Demonic
2. Angel of death
3. Assassins
4. Grim Reaper/Death
5. Lolita outfits
6. Cutesy outfits
7. God/Goddess of a season

Color schemes
1. Black and white, or all black or all white
2. Red black and gold
---Also black and red, black and gold, red and gold
3. Cream
4. .....

3. Don't submit half-attempts at avatars.
If you know that your avatar is total crap full of free junk from Daily Chance
that you threw together for laughs, then don't waste your time submitting it.
That 10k could have been spent on items you wanted. All you're going to get is low
votes, mean comments saying 'Why the heck did you waste your time submitting this?' and
probably a little bit of regret. There are much more fun things on Gaia to do besides submitting
crappy avatars into the Arenas, so why waste your time? Go play zOMG or something.

4. Do write a description
Some people do rate down if you have nothing in the description section of your entry. Some people even rate better if you write a small story with it. Descriptions are your best friend, and it's important
that you write something there. Write why you used certain items, why
you like it, why you're in the Arena, or whatever you think would be good there.

5. Don't write 'This is just my avatar' for the title or description.
People know it's your avatar. What is your avatar supposed to be? What do you like about it?
For pete's sakes, at least put something besides 'This is my avatar'.

6. Go into the correct Arena.
Slip-ups happen, but people take it very seriously when you don't go into
the right arena. You get downvoted (Sometimes severely) and people make sure
to tell you (Usually not very nicely) that you're in the
wrong arena. Double-check everything before you enter, or bad things could happen.
More on which arena is appropriate can be found in the next section.

--Cosplay or Original?

The Neat Little Tidbits

-The Gaia Wiki: Gaia's history and things you might want to know.
--Gaia resource threads

-Post styles, cool sigs and more
--BBCode tips and more
--Add-ons for Gaia
--What to avoid in your post style
--Please don't steal graphics

-Avatar Making Tips
--Tektek and more
--Where to get help

-Profiles
--Adding a playlist or video
--Cool themes and where to find them
--Wix profile basics
--Links to CSS coding guides.