Safety and Hacking Prevention

[Razumi Yazura]

Safety and Hacking Prevention

Hey, everyone. Here's a refresher on safety. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll answer as soon as I can.

If ever you see a situation that you feel violates Gaia's TOS while in the guild, report to your Captain or Vice Captain first. They will take the appropriate actions or give you further instructions as to what to do.

Your Captain, Vice Captain, and Crew are the moderators of this guild.

If there are complications, we have the right to remove users from the guild as long as there is absolutely a good reason.

1.) Inappropriate discussion or depiction of child sexuality, abuse, exploitation and/or related topics which promote, endorse or may be seen to promote or endorse child abuse in any form which may be considered to be harmful to or threaten the security of a child or minor is not allowed on Gaia Online.

2.) The use of images (real or artistic renditions) and/or text which explicitly promotes or endorses child sexuality, abuse, exploitation and/or related topics is not allowed on Gaia Online.

3.) Making light of child sexuality, abuse, exploitation and/or related topics through jokes, internet memes, comments or messages is not allowed on Gaia Online.

Violating the above rules, or otherwise submitting content or utilizing language or terms meant to imply or insinuate these situations, may result in a warning, permanent ban and/or other action by Gaia, including but not limited to removal of the content in question. If you are submitting content to Gaia Online and you are unsure whether that content violates our Terms of Service or other rules and guidelines, including the additional rules noted above, it is better to not submit the content and to ask a Gaia Moderator.

[Please note that, despite the prohibitions listed above, information provided by other Gaia users may contain inappropriate, offensive or sexually explicit material, and Gaia assumes no responsibility or liability for this material.]

If you become aware of misuse of Gaia Online by any person, please contact safety@gaiaonline.com. However, keep in mind that this email address is intended for parents, law enforcement, and members with urgent safety concerns only, so be absolutely sure before you send any emails.  

[Razumi Yazura]

Never Share Your Password

Your Gaia password should always be kept private. If somebody gets ahold of your password, they can do all sorts of things with your account. They can lock you out of the account itself, steal your items, change your profile, pretend to be you, and potentially cause severe violations with the account. You should never give your password to anyone. Even giving your password to friends is not advised! Also keep in mind that Gaia moderators and administrators will never ask you for your password by e-mail, by PM, or by any other means.

If you encounter anyone asking for your password, please report it so that it can be handled.
It's a scam and don't fall for it no matter how convincing it may be.

Be Careful when Following Offsite Links

If a link looks fishy, don't click it! Avoid clicking hyperlinks that lead to sites with strange, offensive, or confusing names. They could send you to sites that contain gross pictures, harmful software, or scams that will try to steal your password. Think before you click! Make sure you're going to a site that you trust.

Protecting Your Account

Most accounts that get "hacked" (and have all their gold and items stolen) are the result of users giving away their password. The most effective way to protect your account is to never give away your password to anyone, not even your friends. If you believe your password has been compromised, change it right away!

Also, we advise against letting anyone else use your account. If you let a friend use your account, you are responsible for anything that they post. If they break the rules, you might get banned!

Recognizing Scams

There are a few common ways that scammers try to break into people's accounts. Most of them involve scammers tricking you into giving them your password. For example, a scammer might send you an e-mail or a private message claiming to be an administrator and telling that you will be made a moderator if you give them your password, or they might threaten to ban your account if you don't reveal your password. These are scams; real moderators will never ask you for your password. Please report these PMs or e-mails to the moderators immediately. Remember that real moderators and administrators have colored usernames so you can easily recognize them.

Other scammers might send you links that look just like Gaia Online's homepage and ask you to log in, and then steal the username and password you log in with. Before logging in to Gaia, make sure that you are actually at the gaiaonline.com domain name.

Some scammers send links to sites that promise to transfer free gold into your account if you give them your username and password. These sites do not work; they just collect your username and password so that they can steal gold and items from your account.

The best thing to remember is that if anyone asks for your password, it's a scam! Remember that it's not real even if the user is threatening that you will be banned if you do not give them your password. They're lying to try to entice panic.

 

[Razumi Yazura]

Don't Mislead People About Your Age

It's not only strictly against our Terms of Service, but it can be dangerous to mislead other people -- including Gaia's staff -- about your age. If you pretend to be older or younger than you really are, Gaia reserves the right to moderate or remove your profile at our discretion.

Report any instances where you see that someone has stated that they are under the age of 13.

Never Arrange Meetings with Strangers

There are lots of creepy people in the world, and you never know who you're really talking to on the Internet. Flirting with strangers online can have serious consequences, and some people will lie to you about who they are in real life. Never arrange real-life meetings with people you meet on the Internet, unless you do so under strict supervision from your parents. If anyone tries to lure you into meeting them in real life, or asks you to do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, you should inform your parents or an authority figure immediately! If you have suspicions or a funny feeling about a stranger contacting you through Gaia Online or anywhere else in cyberspace, trust your instincts and tell a parent.

You're also welcome to contact the Gaia Online administration team if you're confused and don't know how to handle a situation with another member. Gaia Administrators can be reached at: http://www.gaiaonline.com/info/feedback.php

Never Share Personal Identification Information

For your safety, never share things like your full name, your phone number or your home address, or anything else that could be used to identify you in the real world. Sharing personal information over the Internet can be dangerous; you never know who might read it. In addition, please make sure that your Gaia Online member name does not say too much about you -- a dangerous person might combine various clues about you to figure out who you are. Think twice about posting photos of yourself; people may misuse those photos, or use them to figure out information about you. Posting your private info is not only against our Terms of Service, it's against common sense!

Never Share Personally Embarrassing/Private Information

Things that you post on Gaia, or anywhere else on the web, will be available for everyone to see for a long time. You never know when somebody might recognize you from school, work, or anywhere else in real life, and reveal embarrassing information to people you know. Unfortunately, it happens! Even if you never share your real name or other personal info, always assume that what you're posting is not anonymous, and that somebody might find out about it.

 

[Razumi Yazura]

Also, this is a friendly reminder that in this guild, we strictly follow the Terms of Service and Rules of Guidelines.

Please be sure to read them if you are unsure. If you see anyone doing the following below, be sure to report them.

Prohibited Conduct -- BY USING GAIA ONLINE YOU AGREE NOT TO:

1.) "Stalk", harass, threaten, or defraud other Gaia Members;

2.) Send, post, or make available pornographic, threatening, embarrassing, hateful, racially or ethnically insulting, deceptive, tortious, defamatory, libelous, or otherwise inappropriate or offensive content to other Gaia Members;

3.) Make unsolicited or inappropriate offers, advertisements or proposals for goods, services or other commercial activities outside of Gaia, or send junk mail or chain letters to other Members;

4.) Impersonate another person or access another Member's account without permission, or impersonate Gaia staff;

5.) Fail to deliver payment for any purchases made on Gaia Online;

6.) Share Gaia-issued passwords with a third party or encourage another Member to do so;

7.) Misrepresent the source, identity, or content of information transmitted via Gaia Online, (such as claiming a created work as your own that is not actually yours) or otherwise infringing any trademark, copyright, right of publicity or other right of any other person or entity;

8.) Use or encourage others to use Gaia Online for any illegal purpose;

9.) Use site features for anything other than their intended purpose, including exploiting site glitches for personal gain;

10.) Interfere with any security-related features of Gaia Online;

11.) Intentionally interfere with the operation of Gaia Online or any Member's enjoyment of it, including intentionally posting inflammatory statements to get a reaction ("Trolling");

12.) Post, request, or link to sexually explicit material or conduct;

13.) Discuss, promote, or depict any form of child sexuality, abuse, exploitation, or related topics that may be harmful to or threaten the security of a child or minor;

14.) Post or distribute any content that contains software viruses or other code intended to damage or interfere with any software, hardware, equipment, system, data, or other information of Gaia or any third party;

15.) Decipher, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer or otherwise attempt to derive any source code or underlying ideas or algorithms of any part of Gaia Online, except to the limited extent applicable laws specifically prohibit such restriction;

16.) Use bots on the site; buy, sell or trade Gaia gold for non-Gaia items (including cash) or vice versa; or attempt to hack or scam other members;

17.) Engage in any other conduct prohibited by our Rules and Guidelines.