Welcome to Gaia! ::

Guilds are like your own little mini Gaia. You have your own threads to create and control as you would. Your own crew of "Moderators" to help you keep the place clean and friendly. Your own rules (within boundaries of the ToS) and most importantly, control over whom you allow in and whom you do not.

If you think of Gaia as a town, city, or even state, think of your guild as your home. In general, the cops aren't going to come and bust down your door unless you really mess up, conversely, they aren't going to help you when your kid won't go to bed on time. It is up to you to control, keep safe, and keep healthy



Clans are very similar to guilds with a slight few differences, as follows:
You can only be in one clan at a time.
Being in a clan is related to playing zOMG, Gaia's long-awaited MMO. You can chat with fellow clan members via a special tab on the chat pane while in game.
Clans are also currently free to create.

In all technicality, the guild is yours. You can do whatever you want with it if you are Captain. You may, however, wish to include a message when you are banning/demoting the former members, letting them know what is going on (the guild being under new ownership) or even offering them the opportunity to check out your new guild. That is up to you. As with my prior "house" analogy, the "children" (members) don't really have a say, though be warned: if you want your guild to be successful, your members SHOULD have a voice in what goes on.

When you buy a guild from someone, it is most often that the guild is being sold because it is a "dead" (unused) and the members probably forgot the place exists.

To summarize: The guild is yours to do with as you please, but that doesn't mean you need to be rude.

Members are obvious, why have a club without them, but why do you need Crew and VCs?

Crew are your basic enforcers. People you trust to help keep your place tidy and operating within your rules and the ToS.

Why do I need a Vice Captain though? Isn't it dangerous?

Vice Captains are there in case you die... In case something needs to be done to the guild and you are in prison and can't get to a computer. If you decide to quit Gaia or get yourself banned, all the hard work of your crew will not go to waste if you have a VC, for THEY can takeover in your stead. If you do not have a person on Gaia that you trust with your prized possessions, do not make them VC. Instead, create a mule account and make it VC, that way, if something happens you can just use the mule if you get banned, or you can give the mule to a friend to run things for you without the possibility of losing the items on your main account. Many guilds use a mule anyway, which I will touch on later.
To reiterate: under the newest version of clans and guilds a clan or guild cannot be taken by a VC unless the Captain has been banned or inactive for 60 days.

So, for a good long time everyone wondered what the Guild/Clan Account would be used for. Now, we have some answers. Aside from the rumours I hear floating around, here is what I know for certain:

Sub-Forums: 2500 gold

To buy a subforum, go to the Moderator Panel and choose Edit Guild/Clan Forums

Mass PMs: Unknown gold

Guild/Clan Halls: Unknown gold

THERE IS NO WAY TO TAKE THE MONEY OUT OF THE GUILD OR CLAN ACCOUNT AND USE IT FOR YOURSELF, THINK OF IT AS A GIFT CERTIFICATE TO A STORE, IT CAN ONLY BE USED TO MAKE OFFICIAL GUILD OR CLAN PURCHASES

While not officially endorsed, many guilds and clans have taken to using a mule account to collect donations for contests, prizes, etc. Trust your captain and it usually works out extremely well for everyone!

As more features are added to guilds and uses for gold are added, this will be updated. (hint hint)

If you want to buy a guild, be careful of whom you buy from. As any of you that sell art must know, there is potential to be cheated. Here are some Suggestions:

Know from whom you buy/to whom you sell: There are a few of us out here that sell guilds as regular business. These folks have a reputation for doing so, and by simply checking their posts, the guilds they own, how long they have been on Gaia; you can find good indications toward their honesty. I hate (love) to make an example of myself, but I AM a good one. I've been on Gaia since 2003, I currently own about 15 guilds. If you check my public posts, they are almost exclusively bumping my sales thread. And if you are in this guild, you can check the Captain's Guild Selling Thread and see just how many I've sold.

Mules: Lots of people use mules, especially guild owners, so that alone shouldn't discourage you. But try finding for whom they are a mule, ask them if you like. If they say they aren't, they are lying, no new user can afford a guild, and if they could, they wouldn't be selling it so quickly.

Trading the Gold: When it comes time to trade, LABEL THE TRADE! Label it with the guild ID# which you can find at the end of the URL of each guild home page. Label the price you are paying, too. If someone changes the trade title and it makes you uncomfortable, ask them to restart the trade and not to do that.

Vice Captains As soon as the guild becomes yours, IMMEDIATELY demote all Vice Captains down to crew.

Extra Insurance: If you want extra insurance, aside from the normal screenshots of conversations, post publicly that you are buying/selling [Name of person]'s Guild [provide a link] for [how much gold/items]
After posting publicly, have them quote your post and agree to it.

WARNING: If you think you are in danger of being scammed, simply back out. Tell the person you don't feel comfortable, or hell, even lie and say you thought you had more gold than you did. Whatever, just try not to be rude over what could very well be a misunderstanding or mutual mistrust

Your Lord and Master, Darknrgy

This is one busy man. No oner eally knows him, nor do they know what is going on with him. What I DO know is that he is THE programmer for the GGN. He is rarely seen posting in the CG, much to our dismay, for he is the only one who can fix most our problems here. Running to him every time you have a tiny problem, however, just slows things down.

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... Arethic or Doji Kurohito

Arethic pokes around here often enough and Doji Kurohito has always been helpful in the past when concerned with GGN issues

Update 1/9/06: Recently badloki has been the most frequent lurker of the CG, and quite helpful at that

Loki Omg! would be your new head of the CG and Nana_Wing runs some of its subforums now. Turn to them for help, although we DO have a GGN modlist now.

Wow, this post needs a heck of a lot of updating!