Unpopular Decisions and You

[Thaliat Everwood]

My choice to end a bad friendship and move out of the apartment was a tough one for me to make, but eventually I realized I needed to do what was best for me. Besides, it was affecting my finances and my well being. So it made me less than popular with some people here, but my real friends still supported my decision. It was a tough choice though because I expected it would be an issue among some people because they knew both of us. Still, I had to worry about me first since I was affected the most by the situation. The only person in that situation that I needed to be responsible for was myself. Looking back, I have no regrets because I chose well.

The thing is, it took me a few months to to make a decision because it was such a tough decision at the time. I tend to spend a good amount of time weighing my options before committing to a decision.  

[Jafthasleftthebuilding]

Couldn't you have removed the links instead? Or move the thread to the Crew Quarters?

Can you also provide the TOS quote? >_>  

[Arcanas]

Most decisions tend to be pretty tough.

and of course, some decisions are made for you and you have to go with them, other wise you're out of a job and homeless.

what really pisses me off, is that the guys who makes those decisions don't take into account family issues, or transportation issues.

Jerks -_-  

[Thaliat Everwood]

Under the ToS is this list of no-no's:

Quote:

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.

The bolded section is what I suspect was meant as the possible violation (well, I am guessing), but my legalese isn't always the best so perhaps I am mistaken. I think Kyla was right in locking the thread to protect the guild. I'd rather that thread be locked/deleted until it can be determined if it was indeed a ToS violation. If not, we can always start a new thread. It's better than possibly having some one report our guild for an innocent mistake.

Does this mean the Dragon Cave egg thing or the link in my signature to my DA account are no-no's? Er...I hope not. Especially since so many Gaians have similar things on their profiles. The legalese does seem rather loosely worded so it could go either way.

You know what, I'm going to go hunt down a site mod on a mule account and ask about that My Brute thing. Now I'm curious.  

[Slightly Blue]

"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;"

....unsolicited? So, if someone requested that all those who participate in My Brute provide their link, it would be okay?  

[Thaliat Everwood]

Ok, here's the chat I've got going with on of the gaming forum moderators at the moment:

Melian

Thaliat

I need a little help resolving a dispute between some of my Gaia friends about a thread regarding another site called My Brute. One of them found the site and posted a thread about it. A few of us joined in posted links to it so we could play our characters against each other. Then someone was informed that the thread might have been a violation of the ToS. She was a guild mod and quickly locked and deleted the thread just in case. Now some of the others are saying it was not in violation. It's becoming a bit muddled. Can you please tell me, is linking to a site like My Brute (er, or Deviant Art) a violation of the ToS is it is posted in a thread or profile or signature?

I've read the ToS a few times and it is still unclear to me.

I appreciate your help.

~Thaliat

I can't say that I'm familiar with the mybrute website and it looks like its down at the moment. Do you have a link to this thread by chance?

We don't generally allow links of a referral nature (if you would get points or something for recruiting people) - but things like deviantart are fine in signatures or in a Chatterbox thread.

Any more info you can give me about the site would be helpful in determining this. 3nodding

Oh yeah, the site is always down for maintenance late at night...forgot about that.

The thread was deleted by the guild mod so as not to get the guild in trouble just in case. The My Brute site does not give bonus points for referrals from what I can tell. In the thread we just linked to our characters so they could duel and talked about our progress. We didn't think it was a ToS violation or the thread would not have been made, but after reading the ToS we weren't sure. So I thought I'd run it by a forum mod because you guys are up on the ToS more than we are.


EDIT: Sorry if I'm stepping on toes by consulting with a forum mod on my own, but I don't want to see this get blown out of proportion. And I want a clear cut answer so there is no more doubt. Then we can either re-establish the thread or move on without it. (Hm, I didn't think that was a tough decision when I made it, but maybe I should have thought about it...oh well, I don't mind being "hated" over this choice mrgreen )  

[Jafthasleftthebuilding]

Well, it isn't inappropriate and I'd think they'd want more attention. >_>

Hrm.

Edit: It's helpful, not detrimental.  

[Thaliat Everwood]

I'm surprised the forum mods don't have me on some kind of black list by now. I'm always bugging them...

Hm...if Gaia would advertise for My Brute, or the other way around, we'd be all set. Win-win for everyone! Too bad things aren't going to go like that. Meh.

Yay for me being "helpful" and not a nuisance (for once).  

[Jafthasleftthebuilding]

Oh, interesting.

I wonder what the reward was.

Edit: Experience: http://reizencroft.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/the-truth-in-mybrute/  

[Xikrai the Risen]

Speaking of a specific unpopular decision you guys shoulda totally check something out, it is time for the ATG to branch and take over else where.  

[Elcia]

I'm terrible at making simple decisions like what to have for dinner.
I'm too easy going for the most part so any such choice will satisfy me. (except I like good food so that makes that decision harder in the long run)
On more important things it depends... Some I make on gut instinct and others I spend a lot of time weighing out. It all depends on the specifics of the situation.

I am the sort of person who prefers to suggest what usually is the best corse of action and let those who "need" to be in charge either take or leave what I've put on the table.

On the MyBrute thing... I'm going to guess that since we can get pupils which does help us level up that they are going to say we can't have the thread back... but what we where actually posting in the thread was probably fine.
 

[Thaliat Everwood]

I think, so long as we never link to it, discussing My Brute and our progress is permissible.