If you're new to Gaia, welcome! This will be a mini guide to help you get started on this lovely relic of a site.
Starter Avatars
First thing first, lets get you an avatar that's not one of the default starter ones. Come by Gaia's Gold Shops. Unfortunately due to trolls, the default starter avatars have a pretty bad stigma to them and often get blocked on sight. If you want to avoid that, get started with a personalized avatar by picking out a few basic things from the Shops.
Marketplace
On your 3rd day of logging in, you will be able to buy a trading pass. This will allow you to buy and sell items for your avatar among other things. This is the way most users get their items. Most things you will find in the Marketplace are not available in the Gold Shops.
Keep an eye on ABP (average buy price) so not to be tricked into spending too much on inflated items. If an item is inflated, you can post in the Unlisted Items thread and or can make an offer of ABP with the Offer System.
Profiles
One of my favorite features of Gaia is its profile system. Miss the nostalgia of Myspace profiles? Or if that's before your time and you'd like to express yourself by customizing your profile? Gaia's got you covered. Take a look at my journal/blog entry where I give out Free profile assets, resources and tips.
Account Preferences
This is where you can set up a number of things such as Private Message settings, Gift receiving and many other things. Some recommended settings are the following.
Disable
- "Word Filter:" Set it to 'Minimal Filtering' which turns off the swear word censoring which is just juvenile and annoying.
- "Enabled (beta testing)" Strongly recommend NOT enabling as it will make the forums a very confusing, eye sore of a mess.
- If you want to avoid possible creepy messages you can disable anonymous gifting with "Receive Gifts from:"
- For less bulky/broken signatures you can go to "All Signatures:" and uncheck 'cars and aquariums.'
- If you don't want any images blocked go to "Image Display:" and select 'show_all_images'.
- "Re-Direct Warnings:" Uncheck if you don't want an annoying message that says you're clicking onto a NonGaia site when you click a link.
- "Inactive Verification Time:" You can set this to your liking if you don't want to have to reactivate your account after not having been on for a certain amount of time. I have mine set to one year.
- "Gaia Favorite:" Make sure this is unchecked as it's just an annoying feature in general. It's regarding the Favoriting feature where users can add your avatar to a collection of avatars they admire. If it's checked, your avatar is still collected but it wont show to users other than who collected it. It just seems pointless.
Profile Options
This is where you post code for your profile theme. Assets and resources for profile code will be linked below. For "Choose Profile:" I recommend 'current' as it looks better, is more customizable, there's more content you can add to it, and most profile codes are made for it and wont work with the other type.
In here you can also choose various settings such as if you're able to receive profile comments and if you want your profile private, public, or friends only. You can also choose how and what things show on your profile.
Image Hosting
Get an Imgur account as it's currently the best way to post images here on Gaia. Just make sure to use the 'BBCode' which is the link with 'img' '/img' in square brackets. Link types may vary for profiles which I get into in the Free Profile Assets link below. For having an image in your signature, post the aforementioned BBCode here. Just make sure the entirety of your sig is 500x500, otherwise a mod may disable your signature for being too large.
When posting a picture, remember to not post one that's too big. Either shrink it or put it in a spoiler or just link to the direct link.
Where to post
Since Gaia is a pretty old site and things just aren't the same anymore, its userbase has greatly shrunk and at most has around 2,000 active users. That being said, a lot of the old forums are unfortunately dead. The most active places to post are Chatterbox and General Discussion (GD). There are various other forum options but those two are some of the most active.
Keep in mind, CB (Chatterbox) is for whatever random topic and GD is more so for lengthier discussions. Also do NOT quote OP (original or first) post in a thread as it is annoying. Just click the 'reply' button to respond. If you want to respond to a person's post who isn't the OP, hit 'quote' on their post to reply to them. Otherwise, they might not notice you've said anything.
Avoid the bots
Bot accounts post in the slower forums such as GD. They are new accounts (you can tell by their default/starter avatars) that post what are likely malicious links that are advertising for various random products or services. Never click their links and just block the accounts if you don't want to see their continual spam.
You may also report those accounts if you wish. I personally only care to report them when they are posting more than usual, for instance, covering the entire first page with their spam thread/topics. In that case, report one using the report option next to posts and then reach out to a mod and they will ban them and remove the threads.
The reason I don't report every spam bot thread I see is because they are too numerous and the reporting system can be slow if you don't reach out to a mod giving them the report number. I don't want to have to reach out to a mod every single time as it just seems tedious. Just report when it gets to be too much like I do. You may do as you see fit though.
Trolling / Abuse
There is unfortunately a lot that goes on around here. Most users know to simply block and report which is what I also recommend. If you see such a thing, it's stated in the TOS to not engage with them but to report them instead and to add them to your ignored (blocked) list if you desire.
Reaching out to a Mod or Admin
If you need your report to be handled much faster, you may reach out to someone on the moderation team via a PM. Each fourm has a list of mods which you can find by scrolling to the bottom of the forum directory, ie underneath the page of threads. Here for example is the list of mods for CB.
If none appear online you can check their last login dates by copying/pasting their usernames on your Friends tab. A user doesn't have to be your friend for you to see their last login date. Which ever mod was on most recently would be the one I'd recommend reaching out to. Also keep a note of the report number when you make one to turn into the mod so they can find it quicker.
Questions and Assistance
If you have any questions relating to the site you can post a topic in that forum or you can post the question in Chatterbox as it gets even faster replies.
How to earn Gaia money?
Posting in forums earns you some and is why there are so many 'bump' threads. You also earn by doing things on the site in general, such as posting profile comments or in journals. Most Gaians tend to have their currency set to Platinum which is now the default. You earn more with it and it makes things not seem as insanely expensive. If you like bigger numbers however, feel free to switch to the original currency which was Gold.
Gaia also has a ton of little games where you can earn Plat/Gold but many no longer work or work as well due to Flash having died. Gaia however now uses the Flash replacement, Ruffle which has been improving over time.
Other Helpful Guides
Daily Rewards | zOMG! Guides and Resources | Kin Egg List
Threads of Interest
zOMG!, Gaia's MMO. It's a fun little game where you can earn some Plat/Gold. There are several Discord servers but most are pretty toxic. This one however is ran by my good friend Gothor and her friends and they do their best to keep it toxicity free. If you want to get crews, the best way is to be in a Discord server.
If you can't be bothered with Discord, that's fine and there's still some resources for the game here in this thread.
If you are goth or any type of alternative, you may be interested in my hangout thread. Have casual conversation with like minded individuals and it's a great resource of the goth subculture.
Again for goths, an item guide to Gaia's goth items. We have several types of goth covered. Come take a look if this peeks your interest.
Want to know what an item is if you can't reach out to the owner of the avatar? We got you covered here. Just post a screen shot of the item or describe it and someone will get to you as soon as possible.
Need an unlisted item? Offer system not working fast enough? Try posting here!
Want a more personalized Gaia experience? Get the browser extension Gaia Upgrade! I've been using it for years and don't Gaia without it.
For further guides for newbies, check out this thread here.
