@ Kaema- ya... I can't remember what they did for Easter this past year. I know the year before everyone was pissed because Gaia pretty much canceled the Easter event, which has been around since it began in 2003. They just gave us a stupid ticking egg that exploded a few weeks later. Lame. The item still is suck-tactullar in the marketplace.

Originally Posted by lufflysmitten

Gaia isn't a complete mess. It's a growing site and to maintain it certain things must be done. A lot blame it on the cash shop. Well, no one in their thirty year old lives (where most of the staff is at) will willingly work on Gaia for free when they can be living out their adult life making a 100 grand a year as compared to the presumably average check they make working with the site.
And with a ton of people, you will/are bound to run into people you don't like, just like in the real world.
But enough of that, I have great hopes for this site. I love the pixels :heart: I hope lands open up and the community grows :D

This is true, but I do believe that it is getting to be quite a bit... excessive. I mean, I know you will always run into people you don't like, but I get tired of fun things being spam-milked for gold. Also, as the site grows, there is also an increase in income that they get from people buying cash items... so you would think that they could at least cut back on the advertising at least a little bit. I understand the need and desire to make money, but gaia was getting way too commercialized for my personal taste. ^^'

Easter isn't really an event they pay attention to much, is it? At least they seem to pay attention to Christmas! :) I always like the Christmas events.

I agree, I think the Christmas event is the only one Gaia really sits down and plans out. I think my favorite year was when the alien child posed as Santa so Christmas could happen XD It was the same year that Jack (Halloween pumpkin king) pretty much killed Santa.

But I think my favorite NPC is Jack. I just love his design and his attitude is fun and amusing XD That and you only see him a few times a year D; I absolutely hate robo-bunny for Easter. I love robots, but I hate that robot. He just annoys me for some reason -___-

I liked the year with the orphans. XD I joined in '07, so I've only been to two Christmas events.

I hate that stupid robobunny too. ._. Why a robot on Easter???

I wasn't as fond of the Orphan's one, but it wasn't too bad. I just though it was somewhat insulting since practically all the orphans had mental issues.

I have no idea why gaia made him, all I know is his back story is he was made by the Van Halon's (Von Helson? whatever the vampire slut twins are) for Easter. I much preferred Ian and Rufas dressed up as the Easter Bunny (which is how it was until robo-bunny was made) XP

I really hope this new cite doesn't sell out as much as gaia did.

I have been on Gaia since 2004, so I have been through all the changes and such. I prefer this site much better now because Gaia is filled with so much spam, n00bs and immature members. I enjoy the fact that I can have a proper discussion here, that alone goes a long way.

(Von Helson sisters XD)

I dunno, I kind of like having a robot Easter Bunny bent on killing all of Gaia's citizens because we prefer other holidays over his XD Like that Clock Egg he gave us.... It was disappointing that was all we got, but I still giggled at the result XD

My favorite NPCs are probably Devin or Nicu, though >.> Nicu because he's deliciously crooked, and Devin because he's such a sweetheart despite his appearance <3 (Of course, he seems to be losing that manly look he had when he first appeared. Pink shirt now? ;_; )

I seriously hope not. Gaia was great when I first joined, but over time it kept lagging, crashing and having unneeded updates. So far I haven't experienced anything like that on Menewsha. I'm actually hoping Menewsha will still be around long after either I've moved on or passed on so future generations can enjoy it.

He has a pink shirt now? o_o

edit: I guess the shopkeepers that didn't get updates for their pictures got them now. Rina is so cute! : D
Well...not all of them. Old Man Logan(ha, the picture he has is fine anyway :XD), the robots, Becky, and Julie didn't get any. Why do they even have the Sunset Couture shop? It hardly sells anything.
And about Devon's pink shirt...ever since that Lance guy came, Devon's manliness has been going away. :(

Yeah, the NPCs got their art updated a few weeks back =3 I'm in LOVE with Josie's new look! (You can find her in the Global Imports store now ;D)

Yeah, I noticed that too about Lance XD It's like that delivery guy woke up a whole new side to Devin. I like that they're not being heavy-handed about the male-male romance possibility, but still. It was nice having a macho-looking gay guy.

I'm very sared, I joined gaia while it was young, but didn't understand it...so i waited for it to properly establish itself and when i did it felt like...well high school!!!

There were the populars, of hate everyone not as "cool" as them, the people following trends (popular wannabes) and the nice people, who were few and streched to there final straws with gaia...then i came here!

The problum is meme is much like young gaia, and thanks to gaia i know really what to do with my time on now, but because mene is so much like young gaia it has alot of potencial to become like old gaia...

@ Kaema - I believe the Sunset Couture shop is a sponsors shop. It opened the same time as some fashion based quest thing a year or two ago and has never left. They update it once every blue moon

Haha. I rarely look at any of the designs for the shop ownser anymore because I rarely go in them XP Usually anything I want can holy be bought/is cheaper in the marketplace. I think the only standard NPC I really like still is Rufas XP I used to love Gino until the whole "my dead father is in me and I will bring him back to life" thing... and he got long hair and became a prat after that :/ He used to be so cute and innocent... now he's just a dumb-ass.

I used to like Ian too until the whole "I was a vampire in disguise" this. I thought he was better as a blond and a total dork XD

@Erailea: I completely agree. I've pretty much given up on Gaia's storyline entirely. I remember being really excited when they first released the manga, but now it's almost painful to read.

I don't understand why they went in such a strange and convoluted direction, but I did enjoy the writing in zOMG. I guess I have a thing for witty sarcasm. XD

@ Erailea: Yeah, the storylines stopped holding interest in me once I outgrew them. Even the manga that pulled me in when I first joined (the whole Ian/Sasha/Gino triangle) makes me cringe now. Maybe it's just the age group it's aimed at?

HOWEVER! I disagree on one point! Ian is more of a dork than ever <3 I love how he dresses in costume these days XD

Originally Posted by Erailea

I wasn't as fond of the Orphan's one, but it wasn't too bad. I just though it was somewhat insulting since practically all the orphans had mental issues.

:lol: I actually enjoyed the orphan event. I really liked the bald headed kid in the straight jacket with the stars over his head. I feel we really bonded. :P It was kinda sad to see him go, but I was happy later that we could get them back as an equippable item.... even though it was through a cash shop orphan RIG.

Personally, I think everything posted in this thread, especially Jellysundae's post, is very funny, hilarious, completely wrong, filled with misinformation, and completely misguided. :roll:

I could spend my time explaining why, but I think I would just be labeled as a Gaia lover and my opinion completely dismissed, how sad. :( No room for a different opinion.

You know, I'm not going to lie. I made an account just to defend Gaia for this thread. I mean, personally I don't like the feel of such a small community. I used to go on magivolve when it was still around and the community was too small. I often ran out of things to do. That's the main reason why I prefer Gaia to many of the smaller communities.

However, after reading this thread and reading a mod's journal here I'm a bit miffed at the generalizations being made.

"Having all your friends sit there and think your lie is truth isn't going to get your infraction or banning taken off."

This is exactly what every mod, anywhere has to deal with. Be it on Gaia, here or any other avatar site. So when you say people are getting banned on gaia at the drop of a hat, where is your evidence? Did you just read over time people being upset regarding their bans? Did everyone just decide that meant every banning where someone claimed to be innocent, was unfair? Did it occur to anyone that people would rather say it was an unfair banning then own up to the fact that they hacked/botted/scammed or perhaps had gotten so many temporary bans and warnings that they finally got a permanent ban for one of the many other ToS violations they can break?

It's hard to compare a site with only a handful of staff to a site who has had almost 500 mods pass through their ranks, with around 130-140 currently volunteering their time. If you're going to attack someone, don't attack the mods of any site. Many of the people in this thread should know modding can be time consuming, upsetting and thankless. Think of that on a site that is hundreds of times bigger then this one, with a team of 140 moderators, all of whom donate their time to the site and are unpaid.

Great you're going to be your own site. You like being small. Awesome. I respect that. I don't respect unfair generalizations about another site just because you don't like it.

I found this site just the other day and I'm really enjoying it. I've been a Gaia junkie for the past two years now and I still am in a way but lately the way they keep spitting out new items only available with cash is killing me. I have never spent real money on the site since I don't believe in that and have worked my way up the slow way. I did pretty well for awhile but now with these constant new items I might as well be poor because I simply can't keep up anymore. And although I actually find it slower to make gold on here I do love the laid back feel it has. Not to mention it could help cure my instant gratification illness. ^-^; Anyway I just think this site will be a nice improvement from the mirror corporate greed Gaia has been exhibiting lately. Also hopefully I won't be stalked or anything like I have been on Gaia. >.>

Originally Posted by Delandria

You know, I'm not going to lie. I made an account just to defend Gaia for this thread. I mean, personally I don't like the feel of such a small community. I used to go on magivolve when it was still around and the community was too small. I often ran out of things to do. That's the main reason why I prefer Gaia to many of the smaller communities.

However, after reading this thread and reading a mod's journal here I'm a bit miffed at the generalizations being made.

"Having all your friends sit there and think your lie is truth isn't going to get your infraction or banning taken off."

This is exactly what every mod, anywhere has to deal with. Be it on Gaia, here or any other avatar site. So when you say people are getting banned on gaia at the drop of a hat, where is your evidence? Did you just read over time people being upset regarding their bans? Did everyone just decide that meant every banning where someone claimed to be innocent, was unfair? Did it occur to anyone that people would rather say it was an unfair banning then own up to the fact that they hacked/botted/scammed or perhaps had gotten so many temporary bans and warnings that they finally got a permanent ban for one of the many other ToS violations they can break?

It's hard to compare a site with only a handful of staff to a site who has had almost 500 mods pass through their ranks, with around 130-140 currently volunteering their time. If you're going to attack someone, don't attack the mods of any site. Many of the people in this thread should know modding can be time consuming, upsetting and thankless. Think of that on a site that is hundreds of times bigger then this one, with a team of 140 moderators, all of whom donate their time to the site and are unpaid.

Great you're going to be your own site. You like being small. Awesome. I respect that. I don't respect unfair generalizations about another site just because you don't like it.

Delandria, everyone is entitled to their own opinion's. And I'll now give my own. Hell this could turn into a debate if you decide to come back xD

Firstly - No im not telling anyone to quit gaia and come here, or visa versa, however you crazy kids put spins on peoples wording these days

Whether you want to or anyone else wants to here it, guess what? Gaia sucks, do you know why? The site is run so poorly I think the macca's down the street run by 14 year olds is doing better than that site.

People only get these 'unfair generalizations' because of their own experiences and friend's experiences - even i've had my fair share of extreamly rude mods and unfair bannings that were actually very unfair.
Yes, i agree with you to an extent - there are alot of people who lie to their online friends about what really happened to get them banned, i see it all the time here and it makes me cringe how gullible some people really are. But there are thousands upon thousands of accounts that are banned unfairly too on Gaia, the ratio is almost equal (fair to unfair bannings) which is why people don't go back there or are turned off before they step foot in the site after hearing stories.
But on smaller sites like this, I think maybe 1 person out of 54,000 accounts was 'unfairly' banned, but that decision was out of staff control and was the previous owners fault. I think on almost every other small site there is a situation like ours, but thats what makes all these sites so much better - there is no unfairness and every case is dealt with accordingly and amazingly by staff on smaller sites.

Which brings me to my next point - yes you are right, Gaia is wayyyyyyy understaffed and has been pretty much since the begining. Those that do their job well (key word - well) i respect because i'm sure its a stressful job, but thats the higher ups own fault for not getting more moderators - in fact its probably the most idiotic decision Gaia staff have ever made, and yes, even more stupid then their cash shop. They are idiots for not getting more mods, well hell, more than idiots but i'll bite my tongue ;)
That is their biggest downfall - the rules aren't always kept so people run rampages there, but when they come to a site like ours they get their panties in a twist and then some because they get a reminder about something - not even a warning, just verbal reminders - that is against the rules here, complain and whine we are unfair then run back to the underbelly of the internet that is Gaia (dare i say, even the chan sites are better modded :P and thats saying something being a long time channer myself)
Small sites like us pride ourselves on always having a good number of staff to cover users, and our users love that we are so diligent with enforcing what we preech. All small site pride themselves on keeping their site tidy and spam free, which is excellent :)

Gaia could of been like that, but they never did. So sucks for them they are now paying the price having to constantly get more sponsors and bring out expensive cash shop items to buy more servers to support the spam from all the moneyless teenagers that fill those servers up with BUMP BUMP OMG CYBER ME BUMP!!!!!!11!!+shift!!1

And now lets turn the tables around - now pay attention to this sentence if anything in my post.
Hardcore gaia users that believe that anything with a forum is instantly copying gaia turn around and see all these smaller sites and flame the hell out of them - instantly called copycats and ugly just because they are so narrow minded you couldn't get a needle through their brains. Now thats unfair generalization in the definition right there because they have absolutely no evidence to support their claims. That there is the true unfair generalization - smaller sites are most defently not copycats in the slightest, they all come up with their own ideas for everything including items, events and overall looks of layout - especially considering gaia would of gotten the idea off earlier avatar sites like 4 Leaf (which was made early 2002) and half their items are inspired off some already copyrighted item from a game, show, anime or movie.
But gaia has earned such a reputation from real and (unfortuently) made up stories that you can't call it 'unfair generalization' at all. They earned that rep and they won't do anything about it, so sucks to be them really.

SO overall now

Lets do a quick compare now;
Gaia

• Biggest and busiest
• Completly undermodded
• Staff very rarely interact with users/seem to care what users have to say at times
• Higher ratio of rude users/hackers and scammers/general idiocy
• Turns anything popular from modern culture into some item that usually costs money (aka unoriginal ideas)

Smaller avatar sites

• Small and cosy, not as busy
• Well equipped staff, usually good ratio of mods to users
• Always see staff interacting and discussing users ideas and general chatter
• Minimal amount of rude users/hackers and scammers/general idiocy
• Original ideas for items, events and other things, and rarely for money

Hmm gee i wonder which one sounds better...

Of course, this is all my opinion, made after many years of personal experience and research :)

Originally Posted by Genrou Aiden

Personally, I think everything posted in this thread, especially Jellysundae's post, is very funny, hilarious, completely wrong, filled with misinformation, and completely misguided. :roll:

I could spend my time explaining why, but I think I would just be labeled as a Gaia lover and my opinion completely dismissed, how sad. :( No room for a different opinion.

No, please do explain why. You seem to have completely misinterpreted my post anyway. I did state very clearly that it was just my opinion, so I'm a little perplexed as to how you can say that I'm giving out misinformation.

And it really means nothing if you are a Gaia lover. I don't hate Gaia, very few of the users on here do. Those who do hate it are generally those who've got into trouble for some reason or another, or are just sulky because they can't get the items that they want. The majority of us are long-term Gaia account holders, I've been on there since January '05 myself and I don't hate the place at all. I just see flaws in their set up as I previously mentioned. :)

Tre Le Coco: The point Delandria is trying to make is that you don't know that these unfair bans you are hearing about are unfair. Unless it's your account, you don't know what it was banned for. I could get banned for selling porn and tell all my friends it was because I'd had a fight with a mod/bought a botted item/let my little brother log into my account/etc. My friends are obviously going to believe me but they have no way of knowing what I'd done.

Just take a minute and think. Exactly how would Gaia/Gaia moderators benefit by banning innocent users? They wouldn't gain anything at all from it and the time spent banning that one innocent person would be much better spent banning the trolls, spammers, hackers, etc. There is no reason for Gaia staff to ban anyone without reason, just as there is no reason for Menewsha staff to ban anyone without reason.

Put quite simply, people lie. Constantly. To see someone saying "Having all your friends sit there and think your lie is truth isn't going to get your infraction or banning taken off." and then talk about all these unfair bans their friends have had is just a complete "wtf" moment for me.

I'm sure both sites have their good and bad points, but I think it should be pretty obvious that people lie about their bans/warnings on Gaia exactly as they do here.

Just for the record, I was one of those who got banned unfairly. ;)

Sure, you don't have to take my word for it and call me a lier, and that's exactly what Gaia's trying to tell me, never giving me any proof for me 'botting' on their site, but that's that. *shrugs* I've been banned unfairly, completely out of the blue, and all Gaia's been doing about it is slap a big fat automated response in my face when I politely send in an Inquiry asking for proof from them that I've been botting. The mod I PM'd also brushed me off and just told me to send in another Inquiry. It's been a year since my account has been banned. I see no sign of them ever getting to my case of which they claimed to have 'put in a que and awaiting a moderator to take care of'. :roll:

Gaia just put up an announcement about how cars are going to cost Gaia cash now, and if you don't have one, then you just get a Scion xB. They just won't stop with the Gaia cash! :(