De jure

De jure is an expression that means "based on law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "in fact".

Definition
The terms de jure and de facto are used instead of "in principle" and "in practice", respectively, when one is describing political situations. A practice may exist de facto, where the people obey a contract as though there were a law although there is none. A process known as "desuetude" may allow de facto practices to replace obsolete laws. On the other hand, practices may exist de jure and not be obeyed or observed by the people.

The Latin de jure should not be confused with the French du jour, which translates to "of the day", as, for example, in soupe du jour, or soup of the day.

Application in Gaia Online
De jure and de facto standards can differ greatly in certain parts of Gaia Online. For instance in General Discussion, a general rule of General Discussion is that is optional to tack the "Discuss" summary at the end of posts, but it is done anyway, especially with prominent users of General Discussion. Likewise, the discussion of "subjects" that tend to need to be placed in one's Gaia Journal are de jure not permitted, but de facto seem to be a common occurence for many topics in General Discussion