Many users recently have been quoting entire posts directly before their own. This is rude, as it both insults the intelligence of the person being responded to - they are capable of comprehending to whom you are replying - and also wastes large portions of screen real estate, inconveniencing other users by forcing them to scroll farther.
On a different vein, users have also been posting prose work as a "solid wall of text", meaning with no formatting in the form of paragraphing. This is also rude, as in posting your work, you ask others the favour of spending their time reading (and possibly editing or critiquing it), but then snub them by making it hard to read. This is also rude, and may be fixed very easily.
One last note before transitioning to the rules of etiquette: please utilize the spell-check option in your browser or word processor before submitting work - they were programmed into existence for a reason.
How to paragraph in Gaia's forum system
This is quite simple, and is no different from how things are done in Word or Open Office.
1) When you have reached the end of your paragraph, press the "return" key twice (or the "enter" key, depending upon your keyboard manufacturer). This will insert a blank line between your paragraphs - each time the return key is pressed, a new line is created, thus, to make paragraphs evident, there must be an additional line between each of them.
Responding to posts by other users
When no notation is needed
This is the standard form of replying, and the most common, used in only one situation. If another notation is used when this is the most applicable one, you will be deemed as rude.
1) If you are replying to the post of a user that is the last post in a thread.
Using the "@username" notation
This form of referring to another post should be employed in a few situations:
1) If you are responding to the posts of multiple people within the same post, so long as the posts that you reference are the most immediate by those who wrote them.
2) If you are responding to the post of a person previous to the most recent post, and the post you reference is the most recent by said person.
Using the
username
notation
This is the least employed of all notations, and thus is the most rude to use in an incorrect context. There are a few situations in which it is allowable, however.
1) If you are responding to a post from a different page of the same thread, even if it is the last post made by that user.
2) If you are quoting a post from another thread entirely.
3) If you are responding to the post made by someone that is not their most recent post within the thread.
4) If you are editing or critiquing another person's writing, and wish to make apparent what you are referencing. This should be reserved for passages of one to two paragraphs - any more is rude, and any less would be better served by copying and pasting the sentence you refer to, then enclosing that in quotes.