Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

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What is Gaia?
Gaia Online now is described as an online hangout, before it was an anime resource and roleplaying site. Gaia is a forum website which also offers games, customizable avatars and a virtual economy.

A Very Brief History of Gaia
Gaia Online, originally "go-gaia.com" was born on Feb 18, 2003. It was a small community started by Lanzer and a few others. The main highlights of the site were roleplaying, a link list and an art arena. Many of the original features of Gaia have been removed such as The Personals and The Link List because they became to difficult to moderate (too much porn was sneaking in). The Personals building can see be seen on the map.

The map was the original way of navigating the site. It was a little difficult because it didn't have the teleport feature at first... but it also didn't have nearly as many towns. To find the shops and other features you would have to explore the map by using the arrow keys and clicking on a desired location.

Gaia has gone through many changes over the years but there are a few things you can always count on such as holiday events. Holidays are a big deal on Gaia. There are many events through out the year such as Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Gaia Anniversary Ball and more. Many of these holidays have religious aspects but those are not celebrated, only the commercial side of the holiday has a part on Gaia. The Halloween event is typically the most popular event of the year because it has a special event skin (the skin replaces the base model of your avatar), aside from that events come with cool free items.

To see a list of all the event items and Monthly Collectibles go here:
Monthly Collectible FAQ

The Halloween event skins are as follows:
• H2K4 (2004) The Zombie
• H2K5 (2005) The Grombie (has 3 stages)
• H2K6 The Zurg
• H2K7 The Vampire

all event skins can be viewed here, click on "Special Bases".

Every month since June 2003 Gaia has released items called "Monthly Collectibles", abbreviated "MCs", formerly known as donation items. These items are highly collectible and play a major role in the site's economy. These items are gained by purchasing them for real money or buying them from other people in the user-run Marketplace or Exchange Forum. These items almost always shoot up in value and are the most expensive items on the site. The halo is the rarest item on Gaia and is the only true donation item. Cash Shop items and bonus items from the $25 Target Cash Cards should not be confused with MCs. MCs are available only for one month and start off as sealed letters. Sealed letters change to Thank You letters which used to open the last week of the month, then on the 15th of every month. On that day the letters can then be opened and you can select one of two (sometimes 3) items.

Other items not available in the shops are from random events. These events don't happen very often, but when they do be sure to click the gift box/ trunk floating on your screen quickly so you don't miss it. Info on these items can be found here, look under "Rare Items", note that ancient chests are from OMG boxes which were a cash shop item.

Aside from those there is the Quest System where you can get sponsored items. There are also special Daily Chance only items.
Quest Items
Daily Chance Only Items
*If it just shows some blue items in the search bar at the top type "daily chance" or "quest" and hit the enter key.

Another thing to know about Gaia is the time, on the map and in Towns you'll notice that time is very different. GST is what is used and goes twice as fast as normal time so there are 2 Gaia days for every 1 real day.

Be sure to visit The News Room and read the Gaia Manga to find out about the plot! The plot line is very important on Gaia and reading the past story will give you a better understanding of the site.

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The Gaia Staff
It's important to be able to recognize who is staff and who isn't on Gaia.

• orange- admins
• brown- developers
• red- NPCs
• green- mods
• forum assistants (formerly moderator assistants, formerly helpers)

(blue usernames mean they are on your friendslist.)

All officials at Gaia will also have a specific title under their username specifying their role on Gaia. Anyone without a title underneath their username is NOT an official of Gaia in any way!

Admins and developers are the ones who make the site, they create new features and fix code problems. The art team falls under the developers category and they create all our wonderful pixelated items. The admins are the site creators, they make the site policies. They usually don't interact with users directly because they are very busy.

That's why they have moderators. Mods enforce the site rules and investigate report forms. They deal with users directly. Mods are here to help and each title under their name indicates what they do specifically: Omni Moderators- Responsible for resolving account issues, hacking cases, and scamming cases. Global Moderators- Handle abuse and harassment cases, as well as help oversee ToS issues across the entire site. Site Moderators (formerly Dedicated GAIA Moderators)- Work in a specific part of the site, handling ToS violations and thread move requests. Moderator Assistants (formerly Gaia Helpers) assist mods with moving threads. Their powers only apply to the forum they work in. Mod Assistants do not handle ToS violations and can not ban users.

NPCs are non-playable characters, they are usually controlled by the admins and/or deliver automated messages. NPCs run our shops and play important roles in the Gaia plot.

All staff accounts have more abilities than regular user accounts so they'd never need your password to check things for you. Mods and Admins can see your trading history with out logging in as you.

This is what a staff member's name will look like in forums and PMs:

View a real NPC here
View a real admin here
View the complete list of Gaia Staff here

Many users like to impersonate staff members to try to hack and/or scam you. It's very important to never share your password or any personal info with anyone.

♥ Avoid Getting Hacked ♥
Safety Tips <- PLEASE READ THESE!

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Terms of Service and Rules and Guidlines
ToS
Rules and Guidelines

These are two documents you MUST READ. Failure to read, understand and follow these documents will result in your account being banned. I urge you to read ALL of it and make an effort to understand it! All questions regarding Gaia should be asked in The Questions and Assistance Forum. If you do not understand any part of these documents make a post in the Q&A ASAP.

Important Points
• ToS Section 4, j: "exploiting a glitch" falls under this, you are not allowed to use glitches or tell other users how to do glitches.

• ToS Section 5: you are not allowed to lie about your age. You must be 13 years or older and provide the correct birth date in your account info. Users who admit to being underage will be reported and their accounts will be frozen (banned until they reach 13 years old in accordance with their supplied birth date).

• Nudity is not allowed, except "artistic nudity" in the Picture Post Forum. Naked Avatars are not allowed and are only possible by glitch.

• Selling and buying gold is not allowed, buying "time with gifts" is the same as buying gold, don't be fooled!

• Selling accounts for real money or gold is not allowed.

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Introduction to the Economy
The economy is a major part of Gaia. Buying and selling items to dress up your avatar in is not only challenging and fun, it's what makes Gaia so special.

Gaian Currency
• Gold: gold is the main currency on Gaia and is earned by being active on the site
• Gaia Cash: cash is purchased with real money and can be used in the Cash Shop and all NPC run shops except the Prize and Joy and not in the Marketplace, it also can not be traded
• Tickets: Tickets are earned by playing token games and are exchanged for items in the Prize and Joy shop, tokens are bought with gold at Gold Mountain (Gold Mountain can only be accessed by the map and is located on the Isle de Gambino).


Market Basics
Buy low and sell high! Limited edition items like MCs, event items, random event items and quest items are good investments. Buy them when they are new and cheap because over time they will get more expensive.

Some items are flops though and do not increase in value well... or at all so choose wisely. Playing the market requires some basic economic knowledge. It's important to understand inflation because it is a prominent factor of the Gaian economy. Gold sinks help curb inflation by taking gold out of the system- NPC shops are a gold sink as is the market listing fee. Many new users want more gold added to the system to help them get their dream items but you must realize that simply will not work because inflation is directly linked to the amount of gold users have to spend.

Terms
• g- abbreviation for gold
• k- 1000 (3k is 3000g)
• mil- short for million
• the vend- Marketplace
• the exchange- the Exchange Forum
• gc- abbreviation for Gaia cash
• cash- short for Gaia cash

Bidding VS Buy Now
If you bid on an item you are not buying it; however, the gold is deducted from your gold count and put on hold. If you are outbid (someone bids higher then you) you get your gold back, other wise you win the auction and get the item. Auctions can take a long time so be sure to look at the time left. There is no way to cancel a bid and it is very rude to PM a seller and ask them to cancel the auction so you can get your gold back. Auctions on Gaia are typically seen as risky because many bad sellers have given it a bad name by putting a low starting price and then canceling the auction when there is little time left because they did not get high enough bids. In general if you really want an item save up for the lowest "buy now" price so you can get it instantly and avoid the hassle of bidding.

Gold Guides These may be slightly out dated...
How to Make Gold
How to Earn Gold

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Introduction to the Forums
The forums are a whole lot of fun and a great way to make gold. As soon as you chose a forum to explore there will be a few things you need to red before making a post.

Always read the announcements and stickies before posting! The forum rules are very important to know, each forum has a different set and failure to follow them can result in you getting banned.

Terms and Definitions
• Forum: where all the threads are listed, forums are organized by topic
• Thread: a contained collection of posts about a single topic
• Topic: what the thread is about, ex: cars
• Post: an individual text blurb in the thread, posted by one user, makes up the thread
• OP: original post/ original poster/ opening post, what the topic is about or the person who made the topic (original poster)
• BUMP: "bring up my post", illegal in most forums, bumps topic up to the top of the forum list, does not have to say bump
• Spam: off topic post, includes bumping where not allowed
• Troll: a user who purposely posts inflammatory content, not allowed
• Flaming: verbally attacking another user, not allowed; note that swearing is allowed but swearing at someone constitutes flaming in most cases

BB Code
BB Code is the code language used to format posts.
BBCode Guide

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Introduction to the Profiles and Account Settings
The Account page is where you update all your info.

Key Info
• Changing username, gender and birthday: click "available" in the paragraph at the top. Gender and username are free to change only twice after that it gets quite expensive. The more you change them the more it costs.

• Profile Type: Classic vs Current- current is the one you get by default and is generally easier to use. Classic is fully customizable using the CSS code language.
Guide to CSS.

• Daily Chance: set it to "No" to enable it, "Yes" to disable it

• Profile Multimedia: Profile Multimedia Guide

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Helpful Guides for New users
Be sure to check out the Guides and Resources Forum!

♥ Avoid Getting Hacked ♥
Exchange System Guide
Fish Exchange Guide
Guide to CSS
BBCode Guide
Profile Multimedia Guide
You and Botting
The Signature Limits Guide
Gaia Online Dream Avi Creator and Other Tools
How to Make Gold
How to Earn Gold
Monthly Collectible FAQ


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