How did you join Gaia?

[Magically Clueless]

Maybe it's just the areas of the Internet that I hang around now, but I never see any ads for Gaia. That makes me wonder... how have users joined, new or old? Have the ways of Gaia's word spread differently than it did in the past?

Anyways, origin stories are super fun. Let's hear them!

I joined Gaia through an advertisement in another website, I'm pretty sure... I want to say it was Neopets. I'm seriously thinking it was Neopets, since I was really young and Neopets was the first site that I really became 'social' on. I remember getting really involved with Gaia, and I got the ORLY? hat and Omnomnom hat for my birthday, when the store was still a thing. I used to wear the ORLY? hat so much that I would have huge tangles in my hair daily xD The Omnomnom hat was also my favorite one to show off at school. I still have them both... I should really wear them around my college campus c:<

[Thilath]

A long time ago
on a website far away
Neopets was still cool, and Gaia had just started up.

I had some friends on neopets who were into the whole online dressup-doll scene and turned me onto it. I was terrified of joining the site at first, as I was a pansy-a** child and afraid of change. And Gaia was where all the TEENAGERS hung out.
Like the cool kid table or something.

And then I joined, the end. biggrin

e; oh my god I forgot about the irl shop.
I own a watermeat and an ORLY hat.
my ORLY gets to see the light of day once a year, when we have 'wacky hat day' at summer camp, lol.

[.~[Misty.Muffin]~.]

❤

Oh, man. I think I was linked here from some 'dress up doll' website cause I used to do those like NOBODY'S business. Either the website linked me or it was an Ad i clicked on... xd

[iiFAPTASTIC]

My cousins had joined gaia, and one time they came over and showed my sister and i the site. They set us up an account (even though i was under the age at the time). And thats how i started gaia in 2006, then got banned a year later or so and then left till i was 13. Don't ask me why i came back, i just kinda did lol

[Bunnycakie]

December 2003, old friends introduced me to the site.

[Udoli]

I think it might've been because of someone on neopets. I just remember I felt like I was getting too old for neopets and the censoring (especially of links and pictures) was annoying. Someone told me to check it out. And now not only do I regret it I wish I knew who it was so I could yell at them for it

[Nikunya]

Back in 2005....I think it was through the SakuraCon forums. xp

[dakki-dono]

I filled out the registration, made an avatar and clicked on the email confirmation.

[vupie]

Oh gosh, the young Vupie days >.<

Well, I don't honestly remember 100% how I found out about Gaia...my first account was in '08, and I remember talking to some guy online from another site and he suggested that I try out another site. He gave me two or three different ones, but none were Gaia...shortly after failing at one guess I saw an add for Gaia and have been off and on ever since. Today is my 1year anniversary on this account, not clue when I even started before, I just remember it was sometime in '08.

I see adds every so often on other sites for Gaia, but I'm sure most of them are referrals of some sort. I used to be (every so often I still log on) big on Neopets and Marapets, so it's possible I've passed by them there before...maybe IMVU was the site that led me here? I really can't piece it together xD it was only 7 years ago.

[Pumpkinfrost]

I joined in 2006, because one of my friends was really into it and she introduced Gaia to our little group of friends. I don't know how she heard about it.

I believe I have seen ads for Gaia, and I've heard the creators being mentioned (for example, Bryan Lee O'Malley has stated that he used to know Lanzer right around the time Gaia started up), so I think it is in the public internet eye.

[Soreiyu]

In November of 2003 Gaia was holding a Naruto fanart contest in the Art Arena and someone thought it would be a good idea to steal a bunch of artwork to enter. They stole one of mine off of Oekaki Central and someone had informed me of it on there. So I signed up in order to report them. I stuck around for a while because it was fun entering art in the arena. Then they got rid of the top 10 and it became less fun.. sad

[Crystal Mizuka]

After several months of being pestered by a friend into joining, I finally signed up in 2005. I was already an avid role-player by that point, having started out in Yahoo chatrooms all the way back in 2001. I had already joined several free forums created by friends in my role-playing circle, mainly hosted on Yahoo Clubs/Groups or Proboards, so I was acquainted with forum-based RP before I joined Gaia, but I found the prospect of a fully customizable avatar to be a little bit overwhelming and it took some time to get comfortable with the differences in site navigation from what I was previously accustomed to. Eventually we transferred most of our online activities to posting here on Gaia, although most of my friends from back then have largely abandoned the site. I've stuck around this long because I generally like it here and there's usually something to distract myself with somewhere on the site.

But yeah, I was linked here by a friend way back then and had never seen any sort of advertisement for Gaia before they started linking up with Facebook so I'm pretty out of the loop as far as offsite advertisements are concerned. ^_^;

[Ruler of the Werehamsters]

I noticed a button for Gaia in someone's signature on another forum (I don't remember which one) and clicked on it. I'm pretty sure I was lurking in a thread meant for discussing other sites

I think it's funny that even though I was a lurker extraordinaire in those days (on my first account, I only have one post), I've kept coming back.

[h0ujun]

a friend who is not active for a very long time, brought me to here

[YourAzureGoddess]

I had friends who were big into anime in college. They joined Gaia to chat about anime. Sort of a 'one person found it, then invited another and another and another'

Anyways, I'm not big into anime, but in 2k6 Gaia was having one of those "invite a friend, get gold!" promotions and one of my besties from HS invited me. I joined as a way to keep in touch with her.

8 years later everyone who I knew IRL that played here is gone... and me, the only one who didn't like anime is still left. o.O