[Gaians Against Corporate] - Now with 80% more Dev opinion!

All those unhappy with the corporate style Gaia, please let the CEO know.

Dear CEO and all others at GHQ in power: I am unhappy with the way Gaia has been. Please read on to fully understand.	74.5%	[ 1086 ]
Dear CEO and all others at GHQ in power: I am one of the people who doesn't care either way.	25.5%	[ 372 ]
Total Votes:			[ 1458 ]

[Qiam]

I, as a user, would like to hear from the big wigs, the man upstairs, the head honchos. I want to hear from these people mentioned in foobarbazquux's journal entry. I want an adequate response to this thread. I want Gaia to acknowledge that maybe they DO need to change. They need to take it under consideration, at least. I would be comforted as a user who is, essentially, clueless about who is in charge of what and how what gets produced by whom and all the things that might help us connect with the staff a little bit more.

I want the CEO and all the other bosses to look at this and post something real. Not some bullshit response like "Oh, Gaia is trying but *excuseexcuse*.

[AlexDitto]

amirenes

AlexDitto

Rome didn't start off being a show about airheaded bimbos that obviously isn't an interest of a majority of Gaian users. Rome didn't start off being an attempt to slip corporate branding into Gaia's system, and Rome wasn't a project that took away massive amounts of development time from the main focus of the time, Greece. I don't think the comparison is apt.

Why would ANYONE think it was a good idea to create something like Virtual Hollywood, a completely separate system from Gaia Towns that is going to essentially be useless in the future? If MTV pulls out as a sponsor, what are they going to do with Virtual Hollywood? Nothing. Let it rot, move on to the next thing.

Instead of expanding Gaia Towns, making new areas (like Cities) for us to explore, and inserting MTV stuff THERE, they decided to waste time and effort on a project that did nothing to expand Gaia, and only served to meet the needs of a sponsorship.

THAT is what is taking Gaia down.

The opposite of this would be the Quest System. It was developed as something that could suit the needs of sponsors and users alike. We had ALL been clamoring for the quest system, we were excited about backwings and rare items.

And yet, the user side of that has been shoved aside in favor of sponsorship quests. Poor Fleep has been toiling away on revamping the quest system. I'm guessing constant interruption by having to craft sponsor-specific quests didn't help any. And here we are, nearly a year after the quest system was released, and how many non-sponsor quests have we gotten? Two.

How many sponsor quests have we gotten? I'm not even sure there are numbers big enough.

trying to appeal to other people is whats bringing gaia down?

what they did was create a place outside of gaia for people to still come and hang out
they did that for you guys, to still bring in new people and give them a place to chill

without them coming in and running around your stomping grounds and whatever


your never going to get all the things you want
when will you guys get this, if that happened if it was as easy as you all want it to be

you would get bored of gaia and quit and it would die

THATS THE ONLY WAY ITS REALLY GOING TO HAPPEN

they have to draw the s**t out to keep you around
its not rocket science

No, trying to appeal to other people while destroying the community that is already here is what's bringing Gaia down. I'm all for new members, expanded areas of interest, whatever. It shouldn't undermine what we already have, though.

If Virtual Hollywood is outside Gaia, WHY is it even a part of this website? They're creating a world, a branding, called "Gaia," and mixing it up with other companies is diluting its brand power. If they wanted to create a new area with a different feel, why didn't they just expand Gaia Towns, a feature they ALREADY have implemented? They could have added new areas, but kept the same back-end, taking less coding time and adding to the paltry offering that Gaia Towns has been for the last three years. You realize Gaia Towns hasn't been updated or expanded, save for modest palate swaps, since it was created?

We don't have "stomping grounds." If you go into Towns, you'll see it's mostly filled with newbs, not regular users. That's fine. We know that. It's why we don't go there. But why would they essentially divide their new user base in two? It makes no sense.

We wouldn't get bored of Gaia if they would expand and embellish the things they already have. People are bored of fishing because we haven't had any new fishing items in years. People get bored of towns because the bugs are the same, the flowers the same, and there's no room for new houses. People will undoubtedly get bored of pinball once everyone has a stuffed armadillo, but instead of creating new boards and new items for us to play on, they'll move on to the next crazy project.

And that's fine, if that's what the devs want to do. But to rip away a project someone has been working on for months and months, proclaim it done, and give them a new baby to work on, whether they want that baby or not, is the wrong way to do things.

[DeathIsInLoveWithMe]

Digi Gab

AlexDitto

You know, maybe Gaia IS like Rome.

Rome started off as a small part of prosperous Greece, an offshoot or colony. It quickly grew. Became autocratic. Drew more and more of the culture away from Greece, copying and corrupting it to serve its own purpose. Greece was diminished and eventually destroyed, and Rome grew to control everything, whether the citizens of Greece liked it or not. Sure, their gods were still there. They were just "renamed." Perhaps to appease corporate sponsors. No more philosophers and science and social discourse. No, all that mattered to Rome was collecting taxes and expanding and waging war.

Sounds a heck of a lot like what's happening to Gaia to me.

Hm, thats insightful of you Alex and I see your point o.o

One difference though, the citizens of Rome loved Rome for what it was. We are trying to change Gaia, make it revert back to what it was.

'Cause to me everyday is Halloween
I have given up hiding and started to fight

Oh, I'm sure there were citizens of Rome that didn't love Rome for what it was too ;D

But yes, I do agree with this, in this way, it IS like Rome.

[Arrowchan]

amirenes

gaia wont die, its never been more alive than it has been

and if you want that community spirit or whatever that keeps you here
******** do that, but dont let it interfere with gaias business like...

i dont understand how these deals for them to make more money and bring in more people
are really at the core affecting your time here


other than that, it all goes towards improving the site and the features

if gaia is so great, if that feeling or whatever you have for it is so strong
why are you letting something like this have any change on it?

If Gaia is so alive, why do people who used to be dedicated supporters keep leaving? If Gaia is so alive, why do I hear the same thing again and again from people who have been around for years? If Gaia won't die, why do I see failed internet companies dying all around as the tech bubble bursts? You act like it's not even a possibility that there might be consequences from all these disgruntled users.

Don't belittle 'community spirit'. Community spirit is what keeps people AND keeps people giving money towards this little corner of the internet that could so easily be replaced. I can say this because I work for a company that brings in many millions of dollars more than Gaia every year, and we see keeping 'community spirit' alive as a pretty bloody big priority because of what it means for us and our base. This is not just my personal viewpoint, this is my professional viewpoint. No 'community spirit' equals no ties, no obligation to support, and hence no money. The things that Gaia is losing are not small and unimportant. If I didn't think it was worth making a fuss about, I'd be off vending or chatting with my friends. 'Improving the site' is a pretty subjective thing, but I happen to think that the opinions in this thread are as worthy as any others I've seen.

Of course, I'd have a far more educated viewpoint if I actually had access to the kinds of statistics that Gaia does, but given they aren't giving them to me, I just have to go with what I see around me.

[Crimson_Chaos_Seraph]

Im not entirely sure how we can help. From what I got from that post, Gaia is having management troubles, and its already becoming too cooperate.

The thread tells us to suggest new ideas, but I thought that was something users did everyday in the SF and the Petitions forum.

We could always vote for how we are in favor of a Gaia that doesnt act like a cooperation, but look at it this way.

Gaia is in a tight situation. It's not making profit, its actually loosing a lot of money each year. The fact that its acting more like a business who has a goal to make profit may help keep it from shutting down, though the post said that it can be successful the way Barb and a lot of the other staff would have wanted it.

If this wasn't so complicated, then the problem would of already been solved.

I don't gaia to be about the money, but it still needs it to keep alive..

[Digitized]

amirenes

Digi Gab

I have to say I'm much more prone to quit the new Gaia than the old. When the old Gaia was around the community meant a lot to almost everyone now I barely see anyone who cares about it outside the GCD and certain guilds.

the community can still mean alot to everyone

maybe all you oldbies need to think of it this way


bitching about everything on end all the time
is that the best example of this wonderful community your trying to hold onto?

is that any example to the new members about how to get and keep that community feeling?

its up to us to spread that joy
not gaia or its sponsors

they arent taking anything away from us
its us that are taking away from us

Pffft. Me? An oldbie? As if. I'm just a person who loves the Gaian community. Its not all oldbies that want Gaia to focus on the userbase and the community rather than how much money it grosses.

So many people join Gaia everyday. They see things like The Hills and, though I have nothing against it, the Cash Shop. They don't see the friendly community right through the front door and its hard to reach out to new members when they flock in such large amounts to the site.

Gaia is taking away what made us Gaians for the longest time and they're replacing it with something new, I'm not surprised that many dislike the replacement.

[Digitized]

DeathIsInLoveWithMe

Digi Gab

AlexDitto

You know, maybe Gaia IS like Rome.

Rome started off as a small part of prosperous Greece, an offshoot or colony. It quickly grew. Became autocratic. Drew more and more of the culture away from Greece, copying and corrupting it to serve its own purpose. Greece was diminished and eventually destroyed, and Rome grew to control everything, whether the citizens of Greece liked it or not. Sure, their gods were still there. They were just "renamed." Perhaps to appease corporate sponsors. No more philosophers and science and social discourse. No, all that mattered to Rome was collecting taxes and expanding and waging war.

Sounds a heck of a lot like what's happening to Gaia to me.

Hm, thats insightful of you Alex and I see your point o.o

One difference though, the citizens of Rome loved Rome for what it was. We are trying to change Gaia, make it revert back to what it was.

'Cause to me everyday is Halloween
I have given up hiding and started to fight

Oh, I'm sure there were citizens of Rome that didn't love Rome for what it was too ;D

But yes, I do agree with this, in this way, it IS like Rome.

And there are also people who don't like what the US is right now :3 I was just pointing out that a large portion of Rome liked it for what it is, unlike our current situation.

[Azure Sielhart]

I had always had this lingering feeling in the back of my head that Gaia is slowly being torn away. Maybe not torn away but slowly being tainted by what we know was corporate. It's unavoidable - I know, but there was something telling me that the way people are letting it come here and having it's way with Gaia in order to sustain itself, that it would only get worse...

Then here it is, a developer leaving who had felt it...


I know you all love Gaia. I mean who here doesn't? We care about it a lot right? We love it so much that we even complain, whine, and moan... But that's just how much we care for Gaia. If we didn't care, we would look at this thread and just shrug it off.

Yet, here we all are.

What do we do now? Maybe for once, you can put all of your complaining and whining to use by saving Gaia. I'm pretty sure we can do it. As long as you show how much you are willing and determined to keep this place we can call "home" far from the reaches of corporate hell, then I don't see why we can't. It'll be difficult to undo something that's already taking it's course, but it doesn't mean there are no other choices.

[Lady Nanoha]

Its no surprise, you can see that when the CEO talks with some other websites.
he sees it as purely a teenage hangout, with money to spend, and needing as many ways as possible to make them buy things, the guy doesn't know even a 1/10th of gaia that I do,
whereas lanzer know pretty much everything I do and more from working in the background

I still havn't donated to gaia, at first it was because I simply didn't have money, now why should I.. Its no longer a donation and they flood us with enough sponsors

Going on a whatif...
If before getting the large initial investment, lanzer had pretty much posted, this is how much we get, this is how much gaia cost, we need money to stay alive you can all guess what would have happened

Even i would have donated seeing that, now they have started posting some figures, but its not the same, go get more sponsors, I havn't seen a Rina figure at mcdonalds yet

What I would like to see..
More interaction directly with the community by higher ups (lanzer journal is good... even if he does make mistakes sometimes)
A team of player volunteers, that have sponsors run by them (The beta test is a good start)
Get a rina figure at mcdonalds (I really want one crying )
Get some anime id actually watch in the cinema. (like moonphase smile )
Print out that journal entry and have an hour meeting, talking about it (my work has 400 employees, and i still have full control over the website and it does get a decent amount of traffic)
Grow up Gaia.. ive been on gaia since i was 22 and im 26 now. I am not a teenager, nor ever been one on gaia, Im not saying dont cater to teenagers, but ad some variety
cause no matter which way you put it, I earn more then most teenagers!
Put my name back as one of the fishing trophies winners, I was crushed crying
And hurry up with my backwings quest how many years do i have to wait!
If i took 3 years doing one thing at my work, id be fired in a month!

Okay thats all for now *puffs out of breath*

Cue the Fleep post saying gaia hasn't changed and Craig listens to the community smile
Yes Fleep I do need to know what happens in the background, thankyou for asking, sorry it took so long to respond.

[Isaac Convoice]

There will always be something wrong with Gaia. More and more people that are coming in have nothing to do with manga or anime, and to try to appeal to that goal, Gaia has to divert from it's path.

I'm guessing the problem that I outlined is in the advertising. If Gaia advertises less in common magazines and more on manga/anime websites, more users that are into the original message would come.

As much as I hate to say it, all those Naruto_Sasuke_BBF44356 and Inuyasha_6456873657836 users might be something good for Gaia's original goals.

But, AS a community, we have to adapt to situations. If we are going to be here, we might as well change with the site.

[AlexDitto]

Gallows and Guillotines

I, as a user, would like to hear from the big wigs, the man upstairs, the head honchos. I want to hear from these people mentioned in foobarbazquux's journal entry. I want an adequate response to this thread. I want Gaia to acknowledge that maybe they DO need to change. They need to take it under consideration, at least. I would be comforted as a user who is, essentially, clueless about who is in charge of what and how what gets produced by whom and all the things that might help us connect with the staff a little bit more.

I want the CEO and all the other bosses to look at this and post something real. Not some bullshit response like "Oh, Gaia is trying but *excuseexcuse*.

I can tell you what they'll say.

They'll say they're taking it very seriously.

[cuxty]

Digi Gab

Fuxty

How can we stop it?
Honestly I don't think we can stop Gaia's Demise, by convincing the Ceo or anyone who has the power over Gaia to make Gaia better.

No, but that shouldn't stop us from fighting for our Gaia. I'll keep fighting until Gaia is nothing but a Neopets knockoff, but I won't stop until it is. If you give up now you're pretty much just letting them win.

rolleyes
Who said I was giving up, I love Gaia, but I don't think this is a battle we can win.

.

[Yen Quest]

Sponsers had been mixed in with our Gaia world, and it's already too late (MTV store). I feel things like that can not be stopped and will only continue to grow. My idea is to still have the money plan thing on Gaia, but not have it interfere with and/or mixed in with Gaia. Just remove/relocate:

-MTV npc store
-Gaia Cash Shop link that's underneath the Market tab
-Ads of CS/MC items on the landing pages
-Avatar badge from Dress Up
-Gaia cellphone contact thing in Account settings
-Others that's was meant just to advertis, even things that advertise Gaia

...and place all of those in ONE section/page/site like what we have with irl Gaia Store. They can make all the announcements they want about those things on the list, but please... Leave me a lone when there isn't a new announcement. I don't want to be reminded while I change my avatar, setting up my account, sell items in the MP, buying stuff from NPC store, etc.


I haven't thought of a way to give people more freedom in the office yet, but I don't think I'll be getting any sometime soon. Hope that this idea helps somewhat.

[Phoenix Goliathane]

First of all: Even though I don't usually bother with these kinds of threads, I must say that this is a really good one. Especially with Barb's commentary - it drove home the point of how much Gaia has changed over the past couple of years.

Anyway.

Cid High-Wind

Fuxty

Company's do not care what the Members want, they just want the Income and the Member count.
I highly doubt the CEO is going to start caring any time soon. Because he wants money and he is getting it.We need to show Gaia if they want our money they need to prove they deserve it. But it is going to be impossible we can't control what others do with there money. I used to buy sealed letters every month but these pass few months have been quite disappointing.

Yes, but if you do something like stop donating, they'll just shove even more sponsors and ads in our faces.

As I said, it's counterproductive. And it seems that the more ads are thrown at us, the more likely we are to leave. Could this be Gaia's demise?

And your assumption is kind of fallacious, in that it assumes people who dissent heavily enough against Gaia to not want to financially support them should do so anyway to stave off Gaia taking even more actions they do not want.

It's like saying that you should go to Wal-Mart and buy more crap just so they won't build ANOTHER one on the other side of town and drive all the other stores in your town out of business. I get the sense that people (sponsors included) are coming to Gaia because it's successful, and not necessarily the other way around.

Granted, there is some truth - if they lose revenue, they're going to resort to other means to make it up. But on the other hand, a boycott where the motives of the boycotters are made clear can and may very well be effective in getting the point across.

Are we going to go back to not having a cash shop anymore? Not necessarily. Are we never going to have any advertising on Gaia ever again? Likely not, and this may even extend to the quests. But it can't hurt to try and at least change some of the practices.

People note that Gaia is a company, and that their ultimate goal is to make money. Frankly, I think that's bullshit - once you start treating your customers poorly, and using business practices that they find abhorrent enough, they're not going to want to support you. However, they are right in that money is the loudest voice someone like Craig will hear.

[M56667]

Arrowchan

amirenes

gaia wont die, its never been more alive than it has been

and if you want that community spirit or whatever that keeps you here
******** do that, but dont let it interfere with gaias business like...

i dont understand how these deals for them to make more money and bring in more people
are really at the core affecting your time here


other than that, it all goes towards improving the site and the features

if gaia is so great, if that feeling or whatever you have for it is so strong
why are you letting something like this have any change on it?

If Gaia is so alive, why do people who used to be dedicated supporters keep leaving? If Gaia is so alive, why do I hear the same thing again and again from people who have been around for years? If Gaia won't die, why do I see failed internet companies dying all around as the tech bubble bursts? You act like it's not even a possibility that there might be consequences from all these disgruntled users.

Don't belittle 'community spirit'. Community spirit is what keeps people AND keeps people giving money towards this little corner of the internet that could so easily be replaced. I can say this because I work for a company that brings in many millions of dollars more than Gaia every year, and we see keeping 'community spirit' alive as a pretty bloody big priority because of what it means for us and our base. This is not just my personal viewpoint, this is my professional viewpoint. No 'community spirit' equals no ties, no obligation to support, and hence no money. The things that Gaia is losing are not small and unimportant. If I didn't think it was worth making a fuss about, I'd be off vending or chatting with my friends. 'Improving the site' is a pretty subjective thing, but I happen to think that the opinions in this thread are as worthy as any others I've seen.

Of course, I'd have a far more educated viewpoint if I actually had access to the kinds of statistics that Gaia does, but given they aren't giving them to me, I just have to go with what I see around me.

people grow up, people get bored, real life ensues etc
its alot easier to tell people they are quitting because of some s**t on gaia

than tell you there internet is being cut off maybe?
i have no idea


and im not belittling the community spirit one bit
im actually fighting for it

the community spirit is something only the community can have and maintain
its got nothing to do with gaia buisness really.

im sorry but most of this thread just sounds like the typical "lol sellout dribble"
and i just dont see how gaia making more money has to do with us

other than that in the long run, we benefit
domokun