It's Baaaaaaaack ~ Hello CB!

Would you like to see Flynn's Booty/Chest rereleased?

Yes.	3.1%	[ 44 ]
Only in a very limited amount.	9.4%	[ 134 ]
No, never.	83.5%	[ 1196 ]
I'm indifferent.	4.1%	[ 59 ]
Total Votes:			[ 1433 ]

[frozen_water]

Gaia, everyone makes mistakes, I think we can all agree that being overly critical doesn't help anyone in the end.

However, over the course of the last few months, you've made several mistakes that, in my opinion are very serious, as they demonstrate a lack of consideration for your users and the community that's developed here over the years.

I am currently a member of Club Verge, I can guarantee right now that is coming to an end. I will not spend another cent on this site until I see some massive reconsideration of how you value your users and how you treat the community as a whole. I am not a cash cow, and I will not allow myself to be treated as one. I work hard for every dollar I make, and when I chose to spend my money here it was because I love this site and wanted to give something back to not only increase my enjoyment to help ensure it stayed around for years to come.

You have effectively changed my opinions on the matter. I would love to see the Gaia I've come to appreciate over the years continue, but I have no desire to see the site that has taken over in the last months go on at all. If Gaia fails because of their choices I will proably be a little sad over the lost years and memories, but I will not regret that a company who made their greed so blatant and mistreated it's loyal users went under.

NOTE:
11/25: Deletion of This Thread
For reasons you can see outlined HERE, this thread was temporarily unavailable for just over a week. Due to this short closure, issues through 25 Nov - 3 Dec. are less filled out. While originally this thread was located in the SF, at this point Gaia staff do not view this thread as appropriate content for the Site Feedback forum.

12/7: Thread giving feedback on the deletion of my thread now locked?
Right now my thread is locked with no explanation or reason that I can see. You can see for yourself by clicking the link provided in the above comment.The "reason" can be seen HERE at the bottom of the page.

December's Hot Topics:
Less than Limited Sales
Throughout the duration of the Black Friday Sale several items were not taken down at the proper time. There were initially some glitches and Gaia intentionally left certain items up to help other Gaians have a chance to purchase them, but even sales outside of the affected issue had delayed departures.

This reflects poorly on the professionalism of the company. If you cannot hold to your schedule, don't bother releasing one.

12/4: Flynn's Body Parts make their first appearance of the Month
Guess who's back, back again...

12/4: DJ Studio Headphones in Flash Sale
Another MC up for more $$$

12/6: Staff Updates Used for Ad
I really cannot stress enough how harmful this is. These updates are meant to be a way to keep dedicated Gaians informed on Site Issues, not as another means for Gaia to spam it's users with ads. This only makes people turn them off leaving more users in the dark about important information.

12/6: Now using Forum Threads for Advertising
Yup, you heard right folks. That brings us to what... 6 different ways of advertising the same thing? You can see the thread for yourself HERE.

12/6: Re-Release of Horns of The Demon
Or I guess, re-re-release. This is the second time they've appeared outside of their original release as a Monthly Collectible. I feel sorry for the poor users who purchased them before as well, seeing as they're now 40% off.

12/7: It's the Wombo Combo!
That's right folks, all your favorites bundled up into one CI, we have a gold generator, mass re-release of older MC's, and re-release of backwings all in just one item!

See Divinity's Reach

12/8: Rosamund's Rage False Advertising:
What's wrong with this picture?




If you said, "an item advertised as only available in a bundle shouldn't be up for individual sale" you'd be right! Apparently Uncle Kenny has already passed the message along so that this "mistake" can be rectified, but it is worth noting at the time I'm writing this message it has been 3 hrs since the message was sent, and it's still in the Cash Shop.

UPDATE: Sometime before 9:30 it appears to have finally gone down. I have a confirmed 5hrs 30min at least that it was up.

12/9: Another Ad in Staff Notices:
Seriously, this is such an abuse of the system. Not to mention it took 2 days to get something actually relevant to site issues posted, but there's no delay in posting what doesn't belong.

November's Hot Topics:

11/3: Released FB Without Notice:
I guess they're testing the waters for the month, or perhaps they just they those criticizing them wouldn't notice? Either way they're starting off the month with a bang.

Only 3 days in and the urge to put Flynn in again proved irresistible. You can also add screwing over the Verge members to the list on this one, I mean, why bother with the loyalty program if you're going to keep lowering the requirements and offer the items in other stores anyway? Drop the pretense of pretending like you care about "loyalty" and just put it all up for grabs like you obviously want to.

11/4: Officially Released Flynn again 13 hrs later
Without any acknowledgement of sneaking the item into the cash shop earlier, they gave official word it's here for another stint.

11/4: More Old MC's
We got some Seal Slippers and Portable Headphones up for sale.

11/5: More Old MC's
Today we've got Mini Angel Wings and Angelic Sash.

11/8: More Old MC's
"We've got AFK, Angelic Pendant, and Demonic Pendant hitting the shelves today!"
It's not even really noteworthy that they've been put up for sale at this point, but it doesn't make it any better.

11/10: The Return of Flynn
It's Baaaaack~

11/11: Sale of 2013 MC (for 4x the amount!)
There is no excuse. Not that it made it OK, but with the older MC's there was at least the defense that it made it more accessible to Gaians who never had the chance to get one over 10 years ago. This is just greedy, and unacceptable.

11/11: The replacement for AtA is unveiled - and it sucks.
Maybe that was a bit harsh, but you know what? They deserve it. To remove a direct line of communication with all kinds of staff and replace it with a brief Q & A that skirts around all the actual issues we care about is just another slap in face.

If you'd like to read my more in depth analysis of this issue CLICK HERE.

11/11: Apparently Gaia is now Guaranteeing Nice Payouts for it's Flynn buyers
That's right, despite the fact that Flynn is a random payout generator Gaia has now taken to catering to it's Flynn purchasers when they don't get as much as they wanted out of the item. A user complaining in the SF Posted a thread complaining about their payout being low, and was then offered "justice" by Gaia Online.

Forget the calls to nerf the payouts, it's clear that Gaia is willing to forsake the good of the community anyday as long as it means more money from it's "devoted" GC buyers.

11/12: More old MC's
What else is new right?

11/17: Ninja Flynn Strikes Again
This time in bundle form! Another un-announced visit from the most controversial Space Pirate in existence.

Pro Tip: Gaia we aren't OK with you releasing Flynn just because we don't have to hear about it. The reason people are upset is the consequences the whole community has to suffer when these massive gold influxes take place. By deciding to release it in sneaky ways you don't help solve any of the problems, you just make yourself appear more manipulative and sleazy.

11/18: More Old MC's
Nightmare Scarf and Mini Wings this time.

You'd think like, one set of old MC's a month might be reasonable, but Gaia just isn't hearing any of that "reason bullshit" these days. They know what's best, trust them.

11/19: Philo Cache for Cash
This is probably the most upsetting thing this month for me. All the other stuff is bad, but honestly par for the course by now. This is something actually note worthy, do all you oldbies remember waiting for the Alchemy system to be released? Do you remember the fabled tales of yesteryear where all the young Gaians were told told stories about a system that would reward hard work and dedication on the site, with end goal items (like back wings *cough* *cough*) that couldn't just be bought and would be a representation of a users loyalty and efforts on the site?

Well forget all that, (not that Gaia hadn't already let go of that a while back anyway by selling back wings in the shop) now Gaia is don't keeping up any pretenses of holding themselves to their word. Pesky things like promises and obligations won't hold them back, no siree. They've now gone ahead and put the Philosopher Cashes (and essential part of Alchemy) up for sale in the Bifrost for the ridiculous price of $2.50. Eat it community, eat it up.

11/19: Ninja Flynn Strikes Again Again
Back in the shop and at a discount that screws over those poor suckers who purchased just two days ago! (Here I would say Karma, but seeing as Gaia is being the worst of all in this whole thing and still isn't really suffering I'll hold off for the time being.)

11/22: Annnnnd Another Day of Ninja Flynn
That makes 5 times this month!

11/22: More Censorship:
Everyone remember those images that circulated with the COO giving a presentation on Gamification and using Flynn's Booty as an example? Well I hope you do, because you won't be seeing them again on this site. Apparently these images are now against the rules to even display without the COO's consent (despite the fact they were obtained from public sources).

I feel sick.

I am so sorry that I had to censor the images from this thread, I really feel that it is wrong for Gaia to try and keep these images from you. They are relevant to how this site is run, and who's running it. I think it's inexcusable for them to do this, but I don't want to have my thread pulled down just to display the now censored material. I truly believe that the visibility this thread has managed to get is very important, and the my ability to keep users informed of what information I can is dear to me. I hope you'll understand why I chose to pull the images, if you have any further question feel free to ask me via PM.

11/23: 6th Release of Flynn this Month (Unannounced)
Well, the title for this one says it all.

11/24: Announced Flynn Release
That makes 7 releases in 24 days.

11/25: Deletion of This Thread
For reasons you can see outlined HERE, this thread was temporarily unavailable for just over a week. Due to this short closure, issues through 25 Nov - 3 Dec. are less filled out.

11/25: Re-Release of Halo for BFS
Nothing is sacred, $ > everything else.

11/30: Staff Updates used for Advertising (Again)
Earlier the announcements were used to inform the community about some glitches and the alterations to the schedule following from that, however today's notice did nothing but advertise the BFS and let us know they put the "limited" items back up (even though they had already extended their times previously) to "account for the glitches".

October's Hot Topics:

10/01: Use of Staff Advertisement to Make GC Push
This one may seem nitpicky, but this is particular upsetting to me because we were told in AtA that they were looking at a way to separate out Cash Pushes from the Staff notices, and then shortly after we began receiving pop-up adds. It was believed the Pop-Ups were the new feature, but now we're left to wonder if they plan on continuing their cash pushes in the staff alerts despite telling us otherwise, or if there's another way of spamming users with GC offers in store for us.

Additional Cash Pushes Sent through Staff Alerts:
= 10/03: GC Notice about Crystalline Velvetine sale (apparently there was a technical issue preventing some users from purchasing?)
= 10/03: Faust's Bottle & Onei the Dark Unicorn, and Loli Pop
= 10/24: Halloween Potions/Consumables
= 10/25: Advertising for Social Vibe offers
= 10/25: Demonic Flash Sale

AtA Quote:

Narumi Misuhara

frozen_water

Hey guys! I just have two questions I've been wanting to get addressed for a while now.

1) Can you please stop sending us Cash Shop notices through Staff Alerts? You already provide that information from announcements, and I would prefer to have a source for site updates/information that does not double as advertising space.

2) And, any plans for updates to the arenas? They've kinda fallen by the wayside and have become outdated and a little buggy.

1. We're looking at way to separate them out.

2. None at this time. :/

10/02: A Flash "Sale" Charging Double the Value
That's right folks, despite advertising the item like a deal, it's actually going for double what they initially released it for. The item in question in the Dark Heart 2nd. Gen which was an REI. REIs, as many users already know, are a cheaper, faster version of Evolving items. They cost less because you get less out of them. With fewer poses and less fanfare they simply didn't qualify for a $10 price tag, however now Gaia is bringing them back at double what they're worth (perhaps justifying the increase price by basing the value off the inflated MP prices caused by the release and re-release of Flynn's Booty/Chest?). Buckle your seat belts kids, looks like it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

10/02: The Introduction of Concierge Services
For the outlandish price of $50 Gaia will help you "locate" the item you've been questing. Not sure how they go about acquiring these items yet (I'll update when I know) but apparently it must be a very difficult task as the $50 is just the finders fee, you'll pay more on top of that to actually get the item of your dreams. FUN FACT: They peg the additional fee on based on the MP value, which is currently suffering from massive inflation due to Gaia's release and re-release of Flynn's Chest/Booty.

From a Sticky in Club Verge:

[NPC] P.U.G.

Have you ever missed a sale? Is there one item out there that you’ve been questing through the ages? Then the concierge service might be for you!

For the right price + a small finder’s fee, I will try to sniff out your favorite item for you!

Because of the nature of the offer, the minimum charge for the service is 5000 GC. If you’re interested in seeing how much your dream item costs, shoot an email to [e-mail] with the following form:

Username:
Item Name:
Link to Item in MP:


Happy Hunting,
P.U.G.

*We will do our best to assist you, but reserve the right to refuse to sell any item at any time.*


F.A.Q.

Is 5000 GC the fee?
Nope! 5000 GC is simply the minimum price you'll pay for the service/item. The finder's fee is separate and will be sent to you in a response in your request

5000 GC gets you any item you want?
No! Most certainly not. 5000 GC is only the minimum price. We understand that items can be worth much more. We will generally peg the item’s price at the fair market value for that item and then add a percentage increase that is a convenience fee. Write to [e-mail] and tell us what you are looking for, and we’ll come back to you with the offered price, all in.

Will this mean that the rarest items in Gaia will be sold to anyone who asks?
No, which is why we've put the disclaimer on it: we reserve the right to deny any item request.

Again, this service is meant to be a convenience for members who are seeking or questing a certain item. And for that reason we have included the disclaimer that not all items on Gaia will be available. Again, there will be limitations and while we would like to generally accommodate everyone, not all requests will be honored due to marketplace dynamics. In fact we will specifically pay attention to the throttling of items so that there are not large influxes of rare items into the marketplace.

Thanks to JKDreamer

10/03: Release of Angel/Nightmare Mini Wings as Reward for SmashBlox Tournament
We've moved on from the Halos, and right onto the mini wings. Again Gaia has released a long cherished item as an incentive to try and get people to play their new GC pushing game.

10/03: Release of Recolor of Rosamund for $30
That's right already we have another outrage on our hands. The last recolor of Rosamunds was released in the REI Bundle #6 for $13 as a bonus. You heard correctly, for $13 you got 3 REIs (*compare also to the sale of Dark Heart for $10) and a recolor. Now they expect us to pay triple the price, for 1/4 the value (if that). Not to mention this recolor is, at least in my opinion, inferior to the others. The color is much flatter and the color choice is not great (slightly bluer, and slightly browner?).

10/03: Began Running "Sales" for Runcible Spoon for $10
Another "sale" charging double the original cost. This one was advertised via the new pop-up ads.

10/04: Re-Release of Flynn's Booty for the 3rd time in less than two months
Just..... NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO.
Right as soon as we finally get the roll out of the long awaited gold sink, before it even had time to really start taking affect, you release another one of these things? I am really struggling to keep my composure as I type this. I am beyond furious, beyond outraged, and every user that cares about the future of this site should be as well. This is unacceptable.

10/05: Ciel "Sale" for 6x original price.
This has to be a record, or at least should be. I mean 6x the price, and they have the nerve to call it a sale? Wowzers, even for you Gaia, this is steep. On a side note, this was also an item designed by the loved artist PRISM, and this is the second time in just a few days they've garnered profits off of the artist they decided to give the boot. This may be more of a subjective view, but I feel it's a matter of principle, and I am disgusted with the very idea of the whole thing.

10/06: Re-re-re-release of Flynn's Booty
These are dark times my friends, and I'm not sure what lies ahead for us. Flynn's Booty has reappeared in the Cash Shop, this time with no announcement.

UPDATE: Shortly after several threads appeared in the SF complaining about the reappearance of Flynn's Booty, it has dissapeared without even so much as a word from staff.

I hope Flynn's Booty Re-re-re-release was a mistake, but whether it was or wasn't, it honestly doesn't change much-if anything. At least not for me.What's happening here goes so far beyond any one issue, not to mention with an item that has the potential to do so much damage there is no excuse for not being more careful.

10/06: Confirmation of our Suspicions
That's right. We now have proof Gaia's new management is pushing all these ridiculous cash sales, and it's just as insidious as we thought.

Before I go any further, it should be noted that this event occurred on 9/19/13, today is just the day the information was uncovered by Gaia's users. (A huge thank you to Darkend Light for finding, and sharing this with us).

THESE IMAGES ARE NOW CENSORED

Apparently the images show Gaia Interactive's COO giving a presentation for "Manos Accelerator" where he discussed the implementation of "Gamification". The second image even has our very own Flynn used as an example.

The implications of these images are deeply troubling to myself. I am aware that "Gamification" is common business practice and it's not inherently insidious. However, The idea that business tactics involving manipulation and addiction are being used as a business model for site targeted at users as young as 13 is disturbing. Common business practice or not, I've come to expect a lot more moral integrity from this site.

In addition, while I understand the... "interesting" bulletin notes may have been intended as a joke, I do not find them to be humorous or acceptable. The users have already began to feel the deep impacts of these "strategies" and the idea that shamelessly manipulating the marketplace and community that has been built up over years just to turn a quick profit is somehow appropriate material for a joke is appalling.

Your users aren't a joke, they aren't cash cows, they're human beings. The site I came to love since joining in '03 was centered on the community, and it's become blatantly obvious that Gaia's recent actions have not had the best interests of the community at heart.

NOTE: This was not a presentation given to Gaia staff or the Gaia interactive company as clarified by Uncle Kenny in this thread.

Response from AtA 10/07/13:

Narumi Misuhara

Hi frozen_water, I can definitely understand your concerns, however it's important to understand that those images are out of context. They had nothing to do with Gaia.

Regarding managements vision of Gaia, yes, we all want to see Gaia do well and thrive. Gaia has an amazing community and none of us want to see that go away. Not sure why the idea is going around that we don't care about the community. We continue to have mini-events, we've recently had amazing gold only item recolors and we have tons of free contests going on all the time.

I wouldn't expect things like the rates of sales to decrease, but we can definitely find more useful and less intrusive ways to message these things and that is currently something we are working on.

I did reply back to Narumi, however I did not recieve any further responses.

frozen_water

First, thank you for taking the time to respond, I know these things get kinda crazy.

Second, I'm not really sure how out of context it is. While I realize this is not directly driven at Gaia, the person giving the speech does hold a high position in the company of Gaia Interactive, and Flynn's Booty appears to be used as an example, so it's hard to believe that the ideas being pushed here aren't also being pushed at Gaia.

If I had to hazard a guess as to why so much of the community feels at odds with the staff lately it would be the fact that this site is not operating as it used to. There is a seemingly endless string of sales, average GC item price has skyrocketed, and we've been told that items that don't pay for themselves with GC won't be worked on (Things like Guilds, the arenas, and Inventory arrangers have gone ages without a much needed update).

It's really hard to feel like the staff is concerned about the community when on a daily basis decisions are made that upset a lot of users. I mean, 3 releases of Flynn's booty in less than 2 months? The gimmicks being thrown at the users are really getting steep.

10/15: Official Word on Flynn's Booty? It's here to stay.

Quote:

Are you going to re-release Flynn's Booty/Chest again?
Yes we will be. We know that there are some users that do not like this item, but there are actually a lot of users who do like this item.

Despite all the negative impacts it has, despite the apparent use of the item to manipulate the economy and use it to hike up GC items, despite all of the legitamate concerns the users have been expressing, all we get is a "well others like it so.... forget you?"

10/15: Re-re-re-re-release of Flynn's Booty.
What else is there to say? They did it again. They are now clearly going against the wishes of the community. There was a quote from an admin asking for proof that we didn't like it, I guess he didn't pay attention to the polls? That's fine, we'll make our case clearer than ever, please help me collect data for this. There are several other threads doing the same, participate, take part, and report all your information back here. I will keep track and make sure that if they want to keep releasing this hell upon the userbase they won't be able to do it under the guise of fulfilling to desires of the community at large.

10/15: A New Low
Apparently it is now against the rules to say the names of Gaia's highest ranking officials. Seriously, don't do it. You could have your posts deleted or thread locked. I don't know why public information would be inappropriate to share, or why threads that were not abusive were closed simply for stating who someone was (again this information was not exactly secret) were closed, but apparently Gaia's super into censoring this sort of thing now. Just when I think you can't throw any more twists my way.

10/16: No more AtA

Quote:

Over the years, Ask the Admin (ATA) has been a forum where staff has fielded questions and concerns from the Gaian community. Because of the volume of questions/posts, we just haven’t been able to answer all questions. In fact, due to the sheer bandwidth of our staff and resources, we haven’t even come close to being able to individually address all the concerns that come our way. So we are re-evaluating the way we manage communications to come up with more effective ways to accomplish this. As a result ATA as it is now will be discontinued and a better solution put in place soon. In the meantime, please send your questions to [e-mail]. And, check this space periodically for updates as we intend to keep an open dialogue and communicate more detailed answers about topics of interest and upcoming site features.

This new feature sounds great, too bad I've had a lot of experience with Gaia's idea of "soon".

10/17: Nitemare Mini Wings Sale
Regardless of your opinion on selling old MCs, this could not have come at a worse time. Gaia clearly doesn't care about pissing off the userbase, and to do this less than 24 hours after the "community announcement" straight from Hell?

10/17: Wings for $100 - $300
Halloween flash sales with appalling prices. Wouldn't be new Gaia without outrageous fees.

10/21: More '03s in the Cash Shop
Despite the MC pages still reading that the items are available for one month only it's apparent Gaia no longer cares about upsetting Gaians. It's all about the money apparently. Regardless of your feelings on re-releasing items, this is just not the time to do it. Gaia has shown such a blatant disregard for it's users feelings and wishes.

10/22: Re-re-re-re-re-release of Flynn's Booty.
It's back. Again. For the 4th time in this month alone Gaia has brought it back. User concerns and pleas be damned, not only is this thing here to stay, apparently there is just no getting Gaia to slow down the releases either.

10/24: Insanely Priced Consumables for H2k13 Event
For ludicrous amounts of money (we're talking hundreds of dollars) Gaia will now allow you to break the Halloween event.

10/24: Changes to Halloween Battle System
While initially these seemed a most welcome adjustment, the new cost/regeneation ratio has really made it near impossible to be active in the halloween event without consuming potions. That wouldn't be so troubling if they hadn't hiked up the price from 1k to 25k for a measly 10% regeneration. I can only imagine this is to better help them push the Cash shop consumables for the event.

10/26: 5th Release of Flynn's in ONE month
We are going at a rate of more than once a week. There is no more debate, Gaia does not care about the community at this point. There is no defending this action, it is pure greed, and it's not even a good business decision.

10/28: Re-release of Halo
Long cherished as the most sacred item on Gaia, it's been offered on a mass scale only once before, and that was for the 10th anniversary of Gaia. Now, for no particular reason Gaia has put it up again for even cheaper. There is no justification, and Gaia's greed at this point appears to have no bounds.

10/29: Panda/Grizzly hat release for $150
More '03 releases. There is no longer any pretense of attempting to make the sales spread out or only on particular occasions.

10/30: More '03s for Sale: OMG Hat and Devil Tail
For our (not) spending pleasure Gaia has now made these '03 MC's available for $150 each during a Halloween Flash Sale.

10/30: New Auto cash Tiers and Rewards:

Now you can have instant Club Verge access (what a great loyalty program Gaia!) an exclusive Achievement for you Cash Spenders, and 2 million bonus gold!

Gee whiz, Thanks a ton Gaia.

10/30: New Ads
GC ads now appear near the top of the screen just below the main banner. Cuz you know, we didn't have enough advertising already with the PMs, Pop-Ups, Announcements, Staff alerts, Advertising Background on the My Gaia Page and ads on the right hand side of the screen. rolleyes

10/30: GC Sale!
While making it increasingly difficult for non-GC users to keep up, Gaia has now given the GC purchasers even more spending power, further tipping the already unbalanced scales.

September's Hot Topics: During This Month Gaia...

Re-Released Flynn's Booty only a month after the last sale.
Inflation is still rampant after the last release, and as many times as I've heard staff (mainly Uncle Kenny) telling us that the inflation is temporary, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the economy has not had enough time to recover. You clearly do not care about the adverse affects this is having on your users.

Released Flynn's Chest (An Even Larger Gold Generator) at the Same Time
Apparently this one is "twice as nice" as it is guaranteed to make you a millionaire, and has the chance to contain up to 250 million gold! Apparently Flynn's booty just wasn't enough inflation.

Released Back Wings via Cash Shop
Not sure how many oldbies we have out there, but back wings were always the holy grail of this site. Always promised, much anticipated, and sold as the ultimate item. We were told when we finally received them they would not be a cash item, but an item that would be obtainable by all Gaians who were willing to work for them. Enter: Alchemy. Everyone knows how flawed the entire feature was, but some put themselves through the hell of leveling to obtain the Back Wings only to have them released via the Cash Shop as a "fix" for the Alchemy system. Thanks again Gaia HQ.

Introduced A New Game, Only for Gaia Cash
I should note here the game is playable without GC, up to about 6 times a day-that's a it. There is no reward for playing the free version, and it's still a little buggy. Everyone here has access to crappy games all over the internet for free, why Gaia expects it's users to pay for a chanceat being rewarded by something we were always guaranteed a reward from in the past is beyond me. This is a new low, and a sad step for Gaia. I've been here since '03 and have never felt so unappreciated and excluded.

Released even more Halos
To help promote their new game Gaia released 6 more halos, the most coveted item on the site. After the major outrage at selling them you think they might be a bit more considerate during a time where much of their userbase is losing faith in the site.

Gave Us No Gold Shop Update
We received some nice items from the CrossStich competition and.... well that's it actually. Only 3 recolors of the items, and nothing else. No real gold shop update, nothing that wasn't designed for you by your users, thanks for giving back to the community. /sarcasm

Released a HIGHLY Offensive Survey
Gaia released a survey that was unprofessional and body-shaming. After scrolling through several uncredited images of cat woman, users were then treated to a series of images that had real life people shown in swimsuits partnered with insulting titles such as "whale" and "Fat as Fatass".
Sure they apologized, but it also should have never happened, and if they had even cared a bit it wouldn't have. There was zero over site on something that was released to thousands of users, many of whom are young, impressionable, and highly susceptible to self-esteem issues. Several users admitted to being triggered by the survey and Gaia was took several hours to issue an apology.

Re-Released Essentially the Same Survey
Yup that's right. Forget Gaia acting on it's apology and proving to users that it actually does care, and it was an honest mistake. They decided to go the opposite route and release the exact same survey, just with the offensive titles (but not even the watermark on the offensive image) cropped out. I guess they assumed their users had the memories of a goldfish and wouldn't recognize the exact same images, or perhaps they just don't care. Who knows?

Took Down HoC and Monster Galaxy
Monster Galaxy was no suprise, it had been unplayable for a while, but HoC had a kind of cult following and the removal was unexpected. I think most users (after being let down by Gaia's decision to stop updating the game or moving it out of Beta) believed Heralds of Chaos would go the way of zOmg and stay in maintenance mode, but Gaia abruptly pulled the game leading to much disappointment for the fans.

Introduced Pop Up Adds
Everyone's favorite! Oh wait, no it's not. Gaia has now resorted to outright spamming their users with pop up adds. Apparently disabling adds (due to donor status) will not prevent these from appearing either.

Introduced Flash Space Ads
To the dismay of many users Gaia introduced new ads to the flash spaces. This has caused issues for several users who have had the ads adversely affect how flash spaces run on their computer and their experience in general.


Introduced Centered Site
Despite asking the opinion of users and receiving negative feedback on the idea, Gaia decided to push the new change through anyway. Now users are stuck dealing with the bugs and new issues from a site change most did not want.

Officially announced they were delaying the long awaited Guild Update (Again)
On Sept. 3 in a journal update from Narumi Mishuhara, we recieved the sad news that despite having planned the long overdue revamp to Guilds, they would be delayed because it was decided to focus on areas that generated more revenue.Link.

Quote:

Guilds
At the beginning of the year I had hoped to start production on it in Q3, which is around now, unfortunately because of the amount of time production would take (about 3 months) and because it needs to make back it's cost. I can't justify the project. Here is where I could use the communities help. If you have ideas on cool features that guilds could have that you would be willing to pay some gcash to use please post about them in SF, or send me a PM or reply to this journal. Remember these would need to be sustainable ideas so something like a kick-starter would not be an option. Otherwise, feel free to pass your ideas along!

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All the while they continued to shove sales down our throats throughout the user outrage and calls for accountability.

Sept. 4, 2013 • Revolution Trilogy! • 5 days • Advertizment • 2000-7500GC
Sept. 10, 2013 • Buy $5 or more worth of Gaia Cash, and you'll receive 25 Flynn's Booties for free! • Duration Unstated • Advertized via PM • 500GC
Sept. 13, 2013 • Friday the 13th Sale! • 3 days • Advertizment • 2000-7500GC
Sept. 16, 2013 • 24 Hour Sale on Soft Lil Leoli • 24 hours • Advertisment • 500GC
Sept. 16, 2013 • Club Verge Update Sale (Herbalist Lavenda) • 4 days • Advertizement (guild-only) • 3500GC
Sept. 17, 2013 • Temporary Discount Price on The Mad Hatter • 24 hours • Advertisment • 7500GC
Sept. 18, 2013 • Kanoko's Dark Reflection Flash Sale • 24 hours • Advertisment • 2500GC
Sept. 18, 2013 • Club Verge Flash Sister Sale! • 24 hours • Advertisment (guild-only) • 4000GC - 7500GC
Sept. 19, 2013 • Alchemy Update Sale • 5 days • Advertisement • 2000GC - 499000GC
Sept. 19, 2013 • Aurora Kitten Amour • 24 hours • Advertisement (guild-only) • 14900GC
Sept. 24, 2013 • La Victore Flash Sale • 12 hours • Advertisement • 3500GC for Ballad Punk to 5000GC for Thea/Oisin
Sept. 26, 2013 • Flynn's Booty & Flynn's Chest • 5 days • Advertisement/Verge (IMG) • 99GC - 5000GC
Sept. 27, 2013 • Cerynitian's Blessing• 5000GC • Majokko Dorobo• 2500GC

- Credit for Cash Sale Frequency list goes to Ky to the rescue

And all of this in such a short span of time... My feedback is for Gaia to seriously reevaluate how they are treating their users, because today was the final straw for me, I will not give any more money to support a site that doesn't care about it's userbase, and I know I'm not the only one taking notice of your decisions.

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[Call Me Nefret]

She's a lady.

You forgot the ads that now play in the beginning of flash games (like Fishing and Slots).

And ladies shouldn't be messed with.

[chrisbbean]

Fantastic thread with lots of information and well structured. I agree that it's been quite the month, never did I think that Gaia would bombard us with so many things so close together. I'm also disheartened by the lack of feedback or response from staff members.

[Fear Resurrected]

THIS omg you have no idea. I've put up with gaia for nine years now but this month has pushed me over the edge. it's not until I saw this one post with all the bullshit that I realize why I'm just so incredibly pissed off at gaia. I couldn't believe their "it was a mistake" excuse(notice I say excuse, not apology, as they never really gave one) for the survey fiasco and yet they continue to act like assholes. it's not a mistake and you're not sorry if you continue to do it regardless of how much backlash you get.

[Fhaerie]

Thank you for putting this together.
It's been hard to remember all the s**t Gaia's doing.

[Call Me Nefret]

frozen_water

Did that start this month? I thought it had been going for a while (I don't frequent the flash spaces so I really wouldn't know).

She's a lady.

I don't remember if it started this month, but I do remember feeling annoyed that there was yet another feature made to make money.

And ladies shouldn't be messed with.

[Starshine]

Gaia - all your drama needs fulfilled emotion_kirakira

Wonder what's next :3

[Ozzy the Dreamer]

Fhaerie

Thank you for putting this together.
It's been hard to remember all the s**t Gaia's doing.

[Zandy]

It doesn't take a genius to run a site like Gaia and satisfy the majority of it's users and learn what works and what doesn't. The fact that Gaia continuously makes these mistakes OVER and OVER again just makes me question the logic behind this site.

[Flux]

Note sure if it happened this month, but they pushed back the Guild and Alchemy updates as well because they ''didn't had the resources to update them'' which to me translates to ''They are not profitable enough as they are currently planned''. This ''alchemy update'' was more of a sale, the update they mentioned before involves a whole new system for leveling up and crafting items.

Also, this month we had the official plug pulling of Monster Galaxy and Heralds of Chaos, although the last one can still be played by having the right link, is not on Gaia anymore.

[Fear Resurrected]

frozen_water

exactly. it's like they've been trying to cover up and distract us from one bullshit move by making another, I swear. it makes it ridiculously difficult to keep up with all of it, so having it all collective like that just really puts it in perspective.
all of this and yet still nothing back from the staff but excuses. stop acting like children and take responsibility for your actions, gaia, and just outright say you value our wallets more than our happiness on this site.