Uncle Kenny
Just wanted to address this one real quick since it seems to be a rather big jump to make from where things are. I'm not being used by anyone to hide behind, nor have I been told to try and put out the fires so anyone else can avoid doing so. It's pretty much entirely on myself that I'm in here answering/responding to questions because I saw a lot of misinformation and anger and thought that I could try to provide as much clarification and insight as I could to help. The thing about Gaia is we're not like other companies. We don't communicate strictly through one PR person or a pre-written company statement. One of us may make an "official statement" but they also, along with everybody else, hang around and contribute in the Q&A that follows the statement. We're getting any information out to you guys that we can so you can better understand what's going on. Whether that information comes from myself, from Sisky, or from anyone else on the staff, it's still the same information and personally, I'd find it annoying if I wasn't allowed to come in and help in these kinds of situations. Having specific people to yell and scream at may make you feel a little better, but it isn't going to change what has happened and it won't get the confidential details released. The answers really are still the same.
tl;dr version: We're here because we want to be, not because we're being forced to or are trying to shield anyone from your reactions and feedback. We do actually convey your feedback to those making decisions. Whether they hear it firsthand while being cornered in a forum, or from us after we've heard it ourselves, they're still hearing it.
While it's in some ways a good thing that our new,
esteemed CEO isn't actually trying to hide behind you, the fact that he has so far not shown the common decency to at least show the community that he actually cares and that it's sad to see these people go even if it is (in his opinion) necessary - or even just have the decency to
pretend to care - means that it's still you guys taking the brunt and braving the storm to get the news out to us.
I'm not denying it's a good thing that you're willing to do so and willing to help Gaians get the answers they're looking for where and when possible. I'm glad that you're taking the effort, really.
I just feel it would have been proper if our CEO would at least have bothered to leave a message about this, even if it's just a single, short one and the answers would still have to come from you. It was sudden, far too sudden, really. Not surprising that it's worrying to us Gaians as a whole.
I feel that his lack of communication can mean only two things, really. Either he does not care, or he does not understand how Gaia's community, the whole big Gaian
family works. This is not facebook, where the staff are basically names without a face or personality attached in the eyes of most.
Gaians may complain about staff a lot, but it's because we care for the site - and because of all the hard work staff has done for Gaia (even if not always in the directions users would have wished to see) and because it has been so clear that so many of you care for us, care for Gaia, we care for the staff.
Here at Gaia, when people are layed off, it's not just numbers being reduced to us, like it would be at Facebook and I don't know how many other online forums, communities and games. It's not outrage because we go from, say, X artists to X-Y artists. It's not about the numbers for us. We know the staff as people, and they're worth immensely much more to us than just "number of staffmembers".
The fact that so far, our new CEO has not deemed us worthy of even just a minute of his time to just say something along the lines of that he had to lay off people - people who were immensely good at what they were doing, even - and that while necessary, it is still sad to see them go and he understands that...
I cannot take that any other way than that he either does not understand the community, or he does not care to.
Gaia is a company. Not all decisions that are made, or that have to be made, will be pleasant. I understand that. I believe most Gaians understand that. But it's important for the CEO to remember that beyond that, Gaia is also still a family and a home online to us.
I think most Gaians would be able to accept that in many ways Gaia is a company and a business much better if the CEO was also willing to show signs that he knows that beyond that, to us, his customers, Gaia is also a family. Even if it just comes in the shape of a message that takes twenty-five seconds to type and five seconds beyond that to post.
The staff which has been layed-off will be missed dearly, and I'd like to thank them for all the work they did in the years they were staff.
I'd also like to thank current staff, and especially you and Siska, for giving us at least those answers you are able to give. It's more explanation than we would have had otherwise.
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