Uncle Kenny
npulse
Uncle Kenny
MistressMinako
I would just like to know where the site goes from here. Do the remaining staff pick up the pieces, do you hire young talent to replace one of the last people who had any idea how zOMG works? Do you take zOMG permanently offline because it is nothing but a drain on the bottom line?
I realize that I'm just someone posting on an internet forum, and despite the fact that I have been an active member of the site for 9 years, Gaia owes me nothing. However, it would be nice to see some kind of reason for such a sudden and brutal round of layoffs, especially when two of them were principal developers of HoC; which purportedly is having a major problem with user retention and the old song and dance of not performing to expectations.
The site itself will continue as it has with most of the same staff that it had before. Obviously I can't go into detail but our overall plans are thus far unaffected by things and development/maintenance on the site and its features has already continued. I'm not the one who makes hiring decisions but I'm not aware of current plans to hire anyone to fill the positions left by those who were let go. We don't have any plans to remove any features, content, or games from the site so no, we won't be taking zOMG! offline.
Unfortunately, we're not really able to elaborate on the reasoning behind it. Only those internal to the company are privy to such information. That's really all I can say about it.
With as limited as the staff was before, and now it's feeling bare boned, how will everyone keep up with everything? There is only so much one person can do and I feel like that everything is being overloaded onto the few people that are left.
No plants to remove but downsize? How can you keep stuff running without the proper amount to run it or at least an amount that doesn't squash one or two people into doing such a massive project by themselves?
I'm a little scared the site is starting to crumble from the inside out with everything that has been happening lately and as much as I want to support this site, I don't want to support the, in my opinion, bad decisions that the new CEO is making.
Those of us who were working on the site before are still here. Myself, codemonkey, Narumi, carbonphyber, edy, and oxydizer are all still here. The plans we had prior to this haven't been affected because those assigned to the various projects are still able to work on them. We've done everything you've seen the last year or two with that group of people and we'll continue to do so since we're a pretty stubborn bunch.
It is scary to see such drastic changes but they wouldn't be made if it wasn't absolutely necessary. I don't know the reasoning behind why specific people were affected by this but I know the overall reason it had to happen and while it sucks for everyone involved, it's a reality that has to occur. Gaia's not down for the count just yet, we still have some very talented and passionate people working
behind the scenes to make things as awesome as we can. We have some very exciting projects slated for the coming months and second half of the year so I hope that what has happened doesn't discourage people from sticking around because I think many will really enjoy what we have planned.
That is the problem, some of the people let go were some of the very talented and passionate people working directly with us and not behind the scenes! We are shocked, surprised, upset, concerned because it is some of those very few remaining talented people that worked with us that were released... so suddenly and without any clue as to why.
Sure, there are still some talented people left (you, sisky, zero, codemonkey, etc) left that still communicate with us, but the number of you talented, passionate people are dwindling down and as you said earlier, there are no plans to hire new people, and the work load has not decreased. That means their work is being pushed onto the remaining staff, which means you guys will have less time to interact with us, which again, goes back to our concerns and frustrations with this situation.
It is like having a huge family and you find out that some of your closest relatives (cousins, brothers, sisters, uncles, etc) the ones you enjoyed seeing at family events and gatherings, were asked to not come to anymore family events and gatherings. Sure, you still have relatives left, but you don't know most of them, other than maybe their name when you see them, and there are still a couple of relatives left you look forwards to seeing and spending time with, but there are not that many left now.
Sure you aren't going to stop going to the events in the immediate future, especially because there are still a couple of relatives left you want to see, but it doesn't bring the same amount of enjoyment thinking and looking forward to the next event or gathering with out them there either.
Plus, it makes you wonder if something like this will happen to any of the remaining relatives you do like in the near future?!?
If we just wanted to be on a social site, there are plenty to chose from. What makes Gaia special is the 'family' atmosphere the users and staff have with each other. We aren't just some user name and # in a database on Gaia, at least many of us do not feel that we are. Because of staff like you, Pan, JK, sisky, etc, etc, we feel connected with the staff and we care about what you guys go through, both at work and outside of work. There are many cheering sisky on with her healthy lifestyle change and others that are benefiting from her journal and changing their life, too! How many other social media sites can say the same thing about the interaction between their staff and users?!?
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