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I have received several PMs and even profile comments from people asking or needing help on how they can restore their banned account, which were also banned for the same reason - "profitting from botted gold". I will do my best to help those who were unfairly banned, sadly there is only one me and there's a lot of you. Hopefully this little journal entry can help for it's the most that I can do with the little spare time that I have.

Before I proceed I would like to remind people, that both in Gaia and Real Life "THERE IS NO PERFECT SYSTEM" - as human beings no one is perfect and so any application or system made by us humans are never perfect.

Considering there is no perfect system below are several DOs and DONTs to the unfairly banned users, their supporters and haters

UNFAIRLY BANNED USERS:

Dont react violently to Gaia Admins and Moderators
- This wont get your account back and definitely wont help your case

Dont Start a hate crusade against the entire Gaia system - Just because a certain flaw on Gaia's Judiciary System on botting doesn't mean 100% of Gaia's site and game features is terrible and worth destroying

Dont PM several Mods & Admins about your banning - Not ALL mods and admins handle banning cases, if you think you are banned and you want to find out how and why, contact an Omnimoderator

After talking to an omnimoderator and getting the information you need about your banned account, complete the feedback form - Make sure to be as detailed as possible, provide all available evidences to prove you are unfairly banned, like links to your threads (charity, quest or store), screen capture of your paypal account and ebay accounts (to prove you dont purchase virtual gaia items with real money), explain your connection with possible related banned accounts (siblings, shared mules etc). Sometimes if your feedback is insufficient, Gaia will require a 2nd email from you for additional information needed - again it will take another 3-5 weeks to get a response, so make sure to place as much information as you can on your first message to make the communication/investigation process short.

BE PATIENT - There's too many gaia users and not a lot of admins/moderators to manage the site. It takes awhile for moderators to read your submitted feedback, I am guessing base on my experience that there is a 3-5 weeks backlog on banned cases. Dont submit AGAIN because you are tired of waiting, this wont speed up your case and your adding more unneccessary REPORTS.

Fight for your case as smart as you can.
- Dealing with ignorant haters is not smart, letting your banned account stress you is not healthy. Lying about your case and posting incorrect information is not adviseable. If you did NOTHING wrong there is no need to Extend the TRUTH or LIE about it.

If you still want to play Gaia, dont be afraid to create a new account, or use an existing one
- Always remember, you started gaia with NOTHING, so starting over while waiting for your account to be restored is NOT a major lost - any item can be regained through hardwork even without the help of friends.

DONT BEG or ASK for DONATIONS - This only makes things worst for you and it discourages possible donators. Donation is a choice, asking or begging friends and other users to donate is no different from OBLIGATING them to give. If you need help, setup a quest thread or setup your quest in your journal. This way you can inform friends and users about your unfair banning and the same time post the items and gold you need, you never know a random user may help you gain it ALL back with just a single trade .


Try to be as positive as possible
- Despite your empty inventory you are very knowledgeable on how to earn gold and how the system works. The experience of losing an account UNFAIRLY is still beneficial, for this will help you identify REAL friends from FAKE ones, know existing enemies and AVOID them, help educate friends and other users to avoid getting banned for the same reason, and of course you learn from it and the knowledge acquired helps you become a better person - just remain as positive as you can, bad things happen to give way to BIGGER and BETTER things .


SUPPORTERS:

Investigate first
- Before you support or help someone you think is unfairly banned, make sure you review all available information about the user. Reading their past post, talking to their friends, journal entry and other things related to the user. Investigating WHILE USING your COMMON SENSE will help you come up with a better judgement. Dont TRUST HEARSAY, better focus on existing ACTIONS of the said user and test their credibility as a member of GAIA ( like member for 2 years with clean records, has reputable friends, guilds, threads, legitimate means of making gold, etc).

Respect the Banned User's Wishes and/or Requests
- You cant consider yourself a supporter if you refuse to respect the wish/es of the banned user you support. Requests and wishes were made by the banned user for they believe these wishes/requests are beneficial to them. Example: Informing people to not send donations to him/her - this way possible problems with POSERS and scammers can be avoided.

Dont OVER DO IT! - All unfairly banned users appreciate any form of support you can offer, like a message of support, donation to their quest (if they have any), providing information you think may help the user's case, continue their existing gaia projects and difussing situations that were made to DISCREDIT the said user. BUT REMEMBER DONT OVER DO IT! Too much support can become ugly even creepy - you dont want people to label you as a suck up, you also dont want them to misunderstood and think the said user DIED in real life. Remember BIG or SMALL help are labeled the same, even the thought of helping is appreciated a LOT so there is no need to go OVER BOARD when it comes to helping or supporting a banned user.

Avoid CONFLICTS
- You cant expect everyone to be on your side, arguments are bound to happen between users, everyone have different views on things - banning related or not. If you can avoid heated discussions, avoid it. If you cant avoid it, control yourself and try to handle it as smart as possible without offending anyone or violating ToS. Last thing you want is make the banned user feel bad that you were banned for defending him/her.

HATERS:

Do not JUDGE base on assumptions
-Not unless you are directly connected to the said user and the reason behind their banning. You shouldn't judge base on hearsay even if it is from someone you thought is a reliable source (not unless it's from the actual user himself/herself along with a detailed investigation)

Avoid posting your anti-supportive opinion in threads that support banned users
- You are just asking for trouble if you post your anti-supportive message/s in threads that support the banned user, this is no different from trolling and you can get yourself banned.

Avoid naming banned users or setting such users as examples in community threads/discussions
- It's never considered a good way of using your freedom of speech if you used it to discredit or attack someone - even if it is TRUE or FALSE. Regardless if your motive is to discuss a topic that revolves around the user it is considered a banned user's topic and not a community topic. You are only risking yourself from getting embarrassed and labeled as a jealous insecure individual.

If you confuse jealousy with hatred try not to make it obvious
- Stalking and harrassing supporters and/or anything related to the banned user wont do you any good. Your plan of discrediting the user will only backfire, you help increase the number of sympathizers not counting the fact you destroy your own image and credibility. This can also be used as grounds to get you banned for violating ToS - continued harrassment is a serious offense. If you think you are gaining supporters, actually you are only gathering people as jealous and insecure as you, doing so will only make you a part of a group that are miserable and/or insecure - such group use their time to attack or discredit a person because the said person have achievements they are most likely incapable of achieving--- this group are what we sometimes call as LOSERS


Hope the information above helps, my final message to the following:

To the unfairly banned users - I wish you goodluck in getting your account back - remember PATIENCE is a VIRTUE

Banned users supporters - I am sure your help/support are greatly appreciated by the banned user expect your good deeds to return - GOOD KARMA is always GOOD

To the anti-banned user - as long as you have good and valid reasoning, I wish you goodluck in fighting for what you believe in

Confused anti-banned users - Jealousy is good if you use it to motivate yourself to become a better person, trying to pull down a person you are jealous of and HATE them for it will only make things worst for you.

Pretending to be unfairly banned - You have my sympathy, for you lack respect for yourself and to the people who supports you. You cant expect great things if you are dishonest to yourself and the people close to you.



THERE IS NO NEED TO BE UPSET OR DEFENSIVE IF THE NEGATIVE DESCRIPTION ABOVE DOESN'T APPLY TO YOU!