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Vicious Brawler

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(Spoiler because a European or Aussie or Canadian is going to call me out: All dollar values are in US dollars, obviously.)

You're right, but for the wrong reasons, I think.

I think a lot of users weren't bled dry monetarily - an extra $2.50 is not much. Gaia, however, DID destroy most of its goodwill (and is apparently nowhere near gaining it back, it seems). Hell, I recall when the offer first went up, there were literally three pages of people posting, "Well, Gaia's just going to take the money and run with it."

In other words, we thought that Gaia was more corrupt than even the Filipino government. (And that wasn't entirely baseless! I still remember the ******** from the Japanese tsunami.)

So it wasn't a question of people not being able to donate - I think it was a question of people not wanting to donate through Gaia.

The other thing? They did sell a lot of halos. At $2.50 a pop, they sold 2,761 halos. (40 halos per $100, 40 * 69 = 2760, and then the one halo that pushed it over to $6,902.50.) However, the 250 GC Halo of Bayanihan was at a significantly lower price point than the Halo of Kannon - their Japan Tsunami drive was a lot larger (although it had the $1 - 100GC - Emblem of Kannon, it had its halo at 500 GC, or $5. And it had a third item - the Coat of Kannon, at 1000 GC, or $10.)

Speaking for myself, I would have bought the halo at a higher price point (500 or 1000 GC), but I felt odd about buying multiples. (I find it gauche to profit off of tragedy. I could have bought some for my friends, but that didn't occur to me.) I'm sure others felt the same way.

tl;dr - no one trusts Gaia anymore olololo, and they sold the Halo of Bayanihan too cheap. So I think they could have done better under different circumstances - if I recall, the tsunami drive eventually made $40,000.

One more thing - while I'm mostly happy with how this ran, I think that for their next drive they should consider matching funds (up to a certain amount). Yes, I'm putting more heat on Gaia, even though I think overall they handled this pretty well. In this case, I'd support a limit on matching because...well, that actually does put heat on Gaia, and I don't want them to go bankrupt due to charity.

Unholy Spark

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Phoenix Goliathane
(Spoiler because a European or Aussie or Canadian is going to call me out: All dollar values are in US dollars, obviously.)

You're right, but for the wrong reasons, I think.

I think a lot of users weren't bled dry monetarily - an extra $2.50 is not much. Gaia, however, DID destroy most of its goodwill (and is apparently nowhere near gaining it back, it seems). Hell, I recall when the offer first went up, there were literally three pages of people posting, "Well, Gaia's just going to take the money and run with it."

In other words, we thought that Gaia was more corrupt than even the Filipino government. (And that wasn't entirely baseless! I still remember the ******** from the Japanese tsunami.)

So it wasn't a question of people not being able to donate - I think it was a question of people not wanting to donate through Gaia.

The other thing? They did sell a lot of halos. At $2.50 a pop, they sold 2,761 halos. (40 halos per $100, 40 * 69 = 2760, and then the one halo that pushed it over to $6,902.50.) However, the 250 GC Halo of Bayanihan was at a significantly lower price point than the Halo of Kannon - their Japan Tsunami drive was a lot larger (although it had the $1 - 100GC - Emblem of Kannon, it had its halo at 500 GC, or $5. And it had a third item - the Coat of Kannon, at 1000 GC, or $10.)

Speaking for myself, I would have bought the halo at a higher price point (500 or 1000 GC), but I felt odd about buying multiples. (I find it gauche to profit off of tragedy. I could have bought some for my friends, but that didn't occur to me.) I'm sure others felt the same way.

tl;dr - no one trusts Gaia anymore olololo, and they sold the Halo of Bayanihan too cheap. So I think they could have done better under different circumstances - if I recall, the tsunami drive eventually made $40,000.

One more thing - while I'm mostly happy with how this ran, I think that for their next drive they should consider matching funds (up to a certain amount). Yes, I'm putting more heat on Gaia, even though I think overall they handled this pretty well. In this case, I'd support a limit on matching because...well, that actually does put heat on Gaia, and I don't want them to go bankrupt due to charity.
Some seemed to not donate because of the GC protest and not wanting to spend any money here out of principle, even if they wanted to support the disaster relief through Gaia. Then some were wondering if it would be ok to break their boycott just for this. I actually saw a lot of that. I think if Gaia hadn't pissed so many people off over the last few months, their relief effort would have been so much more successful because the thoughts above wouldn't even exist.

Vicious Brawler

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Adnama Lavode
Some seemed to not donate because of the GC protest and not wanting to spend any money here out of principle, even if they wanted to support the disaster relief through Gaia. Then some were wondering if it would be ok to break their boycott just for this. I actually saw a lot of that. I think if Gaia hadn't pissed so many people off over the last few months, their relief effort would have been so much more successful because the thoughts above wouldn't even exist.

That's basically what I said above, though. sweatdrop

I think if Gaia hadn't pissed off its userbase (and I feel confident saying this - my friends who aren't GCDers were ticked off, and I do remember seeing quite a bit of that during the Halloween event), they would have been more successful. I should have said that was probably a primary factor - a secondary factor is that the Halo was priced low.

Feral Pumpkin

I was kind of shocked to see $7,000 was raised.
I thought it was going to be a lot less. Either way, I think $7,000 is a lot. =)

Giver

That $7,000 is probably chump change compared to what this site makes. Sad but it's probably true. Where I do believe it's something. And anything counts to give to the tragedy that happened. But I feel GaiaOnline could do better than that.

Besides sucking even more money out of their customers. They could probably use some of their own money to donate to it.

Destructive Detective

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I think they might have raised a lot more if they had more items like they did for the Japanese earthquake relief. Those halos were $10 each, the badges were $1, and the coat $5.

Sparkly Noob

I dont know... 7k doesnt seem to be that much - for a user base as big as gaia...
I remembered back in 2008 with that earthquake in china, my friends and I raised 5k with people in our highschool... and we're no near as big as gaia.. So, 7k.. dunno :/
(though for sure it's good that gaia is doing this - but it's nothing... spectacular)

Magical Girl

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Are people really complaining about this? For real? I'm not stuck in some Twilight Zone am I?

I wonder how much OP donated, oh right I forgot! It's much easier to b***h at Gaia than to look at you're own self.

The reason why the raised 6.9k instead of more is because that's how much the user base gave. So don't get pissed off at Gaia, get pissed of at yourselves.


Actually don't get pissed off, 7k is a lot and it's for Charity. It's too rude to b***h about a donation

Evolved Hunter

Kittinator
That $7,000 is probably chump change compared to what this site makes. Sad but it's probably true. Where I do believe it's something. And anything counts to give to the tragedy that happened. But I feel GaiaOnline could do better than that.

Besides sucking even more money out of their customers. They could probably use some of their own money to donate to it.


Can we not turn this into another "s**t on Gaia" thread?
Last time, I donated through my job, school, and Gaia. This time just through my job. If I want to try and put in some help, it will no longer be through Gaia. I think Gaia could have gotten more if people weren't angry at them.

*Another note, I hope there isn't another time because, disasters hurt my heart.

Unholy Spark

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Phoenix Goliathane
Adnama Lavode
Some seemed to not donate because of the GC protest and not wanting to spend any money here out of principle, even if they wanted to support the disaster relief through Gaia. Then some were wondering if it would be ok to break their boycott just for this. I actually saw a lot of that. I think if Gaia hadn't pissed so many people off over the last few months, their relief effort would have been so much more successful because the thoughts above wouldn't even exist.

That's basically what I said above, though. sweatdrop

I think if Gaia hadn't pissed off its userbase (and I feel confident saying this - my friends who aren't GCDers were ticked off, and I do remember seeing quite a bit of that during the Halloween event), they would have been more successful. I should have said that was probably a primary factor - a secondary factor is that the Halo was priced low.
Well, yes and no. What I got mostly from what you said is that people weren't donating because they don't trust Gaia to actually go through with donating and would keep the money for themselves AND that people didn't have much money/willingness to donate anyway because of all the previous sales. The halo being low price too.

I was saying it's also because of these organized boycotts as well. People feeling as though they need to abstain to remain true to that rebellion. I saw people asking others "You think it will go against the boycott if I buy GC for charity?" and things like that.

Tipsy Exhibitionist

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$7,000 doesn't really seem like that much, especially when you consider the fact that there are people who are dropping hundreds of dollars on items in the cash shops and for black friday. Maybe they could have donated some proceeds from that? I'm sure it's easy for them to sell items that could raise more money, if they bothered. But then they couldn't keep the money (boo hoo). stare

Evolved Hunter

Bambi_Panda
$7,000 doesn't really seem like that much, especially when you consider the fact that there are people who are dropping hundreds of dollars on items in the cash shops and for black friday. Maybe they could have donated some proceeds from that? I'm sure it's easy for them to sell items that could raise more money, if they bothered. But then they couldn't keep the money (boo hoo). stare


Gaia is a business, not a charity. They have no obligation to donate more than what users spend on the donation item.

As much as some of Gaia's decisions have pissed me off, this is not one of them.

Vicious Brawler

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Adnama Lavode
Well, yes and no. What I got mostly from what you said is that people weren't donating because they don't trust Gaia to actually go through with donating and would keep the money for themselves AND that people didn't have much money/willingness to donate anyway because of all the previous sales. The halo being low price too.

I was saying it's also because of these organized boycotts as well. People feeling as though they need to abstain to remain true to that rebellion. I saw people asking others "You think it will go against the boycott if I buy GC for charity?" and things like that.

Okay, now I follow what you're saying. You're right in that what I'd said was slightly different from your point - although to be honest, I think one begets the other. The boycotts (which...I mostly see from GCDers and SFers, but they're the ones most invested in Gaia, so I'm not sure how many people have just decided to quietly stop) are partly because of lost trust, and the fact that people did accuse Gaia of stealing money was partly because most users here are at odds with the site management currently.

That is interesting to hear, though - to be honest, I don't know how I'd handle it if I were a boycott organizer. (Actually, I do - I think that donating through Gaia would break the boycott, since Gaia still looks good by writing the check. It doesn't have to be just monetary profit. I wouldn't hold it against people who have few other ways of donating, but I'd strongly endorse donating directly to a charity such as the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders.)

Wealthy Noob

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I wish a bit more was raised sweatdrop

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