AskED The Admin: Answer Compilation (10/14: Reincarnation)

[M370-D]

Oh, lemme clarify. While making these things for sponsorships is fine and all, as well made it is and as hard as you try to make it look nice, it's like visiting your parents: pleasant but with the vague feeling that you'd rather not be there after a while. I'd like to see something that folks would be able to enjoy without feeling uneasy and having to justify it to themselves by saying that it's all going towards development and that we'll see the results a year later after the dissatisfaction eventually breaks the deal for a lot of people. Some sort of new content that's not linked to an outside deal and is actually a part of Gaia. Like....snowballs, or something. Just something to prove me wrong and instill some sort of faith in Gaia again. Evolving items and returning the orphans was a good start, but there's probably something that could make us forget about all the stuff that's been whined about lately. Easter was supposed to be that thing, but the ball was dropped on that one. What if those eggs turned out to be awesome? It would make a lot of people shut up. People are comparing Gaia to Neopets. This isn't a good sign.

Sure, we've had a lot of nice things from sponsorships, and some of the ads were actually good and it didn't feel like they were trying to change us (MTV was sorta creepy, you probably should have toned down the immersiveness of that one), but when it looks like ALL the new content is coming from sponsorships (totally not true, but at the same time people think it), I think at some point there needs to be a demonstration of where that work is going.

Spork, I'm not blaming you for anything, or expect more out of you than what you're putting out. You do great work and and nobody should be asking anything more than that of you. I find that you keep saying that you have no idea about the questions that people ask, and I think you don't have to tell them that you don't play a part in those decisions aside from the graphical work. Maybe we need to get some devs into the next session. It wouldn't kill the deadlines if they spent half an hour talking to the people without us having to find them and annoy the heck out of them while they're taking a break like hordes of paparazzi.

~ hours later edit

WOW. It's like he either read this or is telepathic. Nice save, Lanzer. Nice save.

[Platonix]

March 24th
Today's thread might better have been titled Yell At The Admin, or Flame The Admin, given how much of those exact activities was going on. One user I won't name, by the name of OMG DAK, eventually crossed the line into trolling and caused much grief (if you don't like strong language, I hope you have your language filter set to an appropriate level.) There were a few diamonds in the rough, however.

Lanzer

Hello everyone! How was your Easter weekend? It's really crazy here with a lot of new projects wrapping up, we couldn't find the time to put together a full blown Easter event this year, but we'll make it up to everyone with the upcoming arcade area, battle system, new storyline, and other fun stuff.

crazy spork i am

OMG DAK

crazy spork i am

OMG DAK

Harmonious Chaos

Hi Lanzer. smile

Could you please tell us what is going on with the event? We've been going insane for the past few days... event, or no event? That is the question.

Also, thank you and the staff for what we did get, even if we have no event heading our way.

Read the first post .... We dont ******** get one cause they are to busy with other crap ; 3;

well yeah, things are always constantly happening over here :3

Then cancel the s**t cause you ******** didn't make a "St. Pats event or a ******** easter... ******** epic failure!!

Ruining our gaia holidays D<

The battle has been in the planning ofr like 3 - 4 years and its still not made = waste of time...

i can't, since it's not really my decision to do so. and there are a lot of other projects that are bigger than holiday events. most of the time resources are invariably stretched out to cover for multitudes of projects happening simultaneously; and it's all about priority. truthfully i kinda see these events as like a 'damned if we do, damned if we don't' kinda deal from some of the responses. that doesn't go to say that we won't do it but patience is always a good thing to have :3

battle has been taking a while because simply because of the large scope. while i get to do stuff in battle i also get to work on other stuff as well. sometimes it means working on events sometimes it means doing concepts for items or evolving pets or MC's or any other areas that are covered by creative. so yeah, there's always a lot on our plates :3

This conversation continued a bit longer, but I'm not going to taint this thread with it. Suffice to say OMG DAK was unreasonably caustic and sporkii was unreasonably patient with him. whee

Lanzer

TakingOverMe...

Hi Lanzer. Easter here was great thanks. How was yours?

A few people have noticed that some spam topics in forums tend to be a bit slow to be moved to where ever it needs to go. Would it be possible to get a few people to work specifically on cleaning up the spam, to make the mods' jobs a bit easier?

(LOL first post again)

We watched Riki-Oh on Good Friday (no, not as Easter celebration biggrin ) and attended a friend's birthday/easter party. I also bought Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and played a couple of games. But the highlight was definitely Riki-Oh. Haven't laughed this hard in 4 years (which was the last time I watched the move)

Lanzer

cardee

Hi Lanzer. First of all, thank you for addressing the erroneous bannings last March 10, and for unbanning some accounts that were caught up in it.

However, there is still a number of accounts that were banned last March 10 and are still banned. The explanation we received is that these accounts were correctly banned for botting. I own one of these accounts. The name of the account is cardi. She is a grombie beta-tester and has been banned for botting in games. I have never botted in games, and I have met several March 10 bannees who are still banned and said that they have never botted, do not know how to bot, and have never considered botting. Notably, a number of these accounts are trophy fishers.

Those of us who have been banned last March 10 and are still banned are very frightened and hurt. Our accounts mean a great deal to us. We have spent a great deal of time, money, and effort into improving our accounts, and we have been anxiously looking out for any developments with respect to the March 10 bannings. We were initially relieved when we heard that innocent accounts that were caught up in the March 10 bannings will be unbanned, so we are devastated when we found that our accounts are still banned.

Here are the questions that we still have about this situation:

1. Are the investigations into the March 10 banned (and still banned) accounts complete?

2. Does this mean that the still-banned accounts will not be unbanned?

3. Many of us are aware that we have never done what we were accused to have done last March 10. Are the people responsible for the investigations 100% certain that your data is flawless and that they did not make any mistakes in interpreting them?

I implore you to revisit this situation. There are far too many of us who have been banned last March 10 and profess that we have never botted. Please. We are very heartbroken at this turn of events.

As with the previous AtA post, here are the meeting places of the March 10 bannees. We are continuing to discuss this situation and are hoping that it will improve.

List of users who are still banned: http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?page=1&t=12216031#147463893
Chatterbox thread: http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/chatterbox/mysterious-march-10th-blockings-meeting-place/t.38794729_4261/
Guild: http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewforum.php?f=479

Hi Cardee,

No the work on the banning from March 10 is not completed yet. In fact, we're just about to post an announcement at Q&A explaining how anyone who still can't access their account can contact us to get their accounts back.

Please note that everything happened because of our strive to keep the cheaters from inflating the economy from what it already is. We wanted to protect the legitimate users and give them a better experience on Gaia. Unfortunately the bugs caused a lot of grief which we felt really sorry for causing. We'll learn from our error and write better code to protect the community moving forward.

crazy spork i am

Timaeus Gandora Daakunesu

crazy spork i am

'lo theres

hello there spork, how are ya this evening?

busy busy :3 but if i can i like to take an hour each monday to participate in these. i find it fun and a way to talk to you guys if i can't make time during the week crying .

crazy spork i am

paige rage

crazy spork i am

paige rage

crazy spork i am

'lo theres

Hello :3

How are you?

i'm doing alright, i had a pretty chill weekend. i'm still recovering from recovering from dental surgery. it's amazing at how much energy it takes out of me; my appetite is slowly coming back :3

Owie D:!

What'd the dental surgons do to your teeth? D: ?

i got all four of my wisdom teeth taken out crying

crazy spork i am

Timaeus Gandora Daakunesu

crazy spork i am

paige rage

crazy spork i am

'lo theres

Hello :3

How are you?

i'm doing alright, i had a pretty chill weekend. i'm still recovering from recovering from dental surgery. it's amazing at how much energy it takes out of me; my appetite is slowly coming back :3

yeah... i remember when i had my wisdom teeth out a year ago... i slept afterwards for like 8 hours >>

yeah i was out for like a week and then last week it was about introducing more solid food into my diet (i got SOOO tired of pudding and mashed potatoes). now it's just about trying to find a happy medium in eating what i want without injuring or damaging the surgery sites.

Lanzer

Miss Scooter

Hey Lanzer :3

Anyhoo, some of my questions will probably be repeats/repeated a lot, but I’ll post them anyway. D;

1. The Easter event. It’s pretty much over isn’t it? 3: (I know Fleep said so, but it’s hard to believe it. ;-; )
2. Are you planning a small mini event for April Fool’s Day? I know you said small event weren’t going to be celebrated, but Gaia has always celebrated it before. I would say April Fool’s was probably my favorite mini-event.
3. Can you give us an estimate, not official of course, of when Gaia Battle is coming out? At the con, it was said that the Easter event was abandoned because they didn’t want to push Battle back a few months, so is this coming soon? 3 months? 6 months? A year?
4. Are the admin going to try to communicate better with us Gaians? I know a lot of us sat around abusing the F5 button, because we were not told that the Easter event was going to be scraped. (My poor F5 button. ;-; )
5. Should we expect any new NPC’s this year? I loved the new ones that were introduced. =D Looouuiiieee. <3
6. I heard somewhere that pinball was coming, is this true? o;?
7. Where are our softball team pics? I wanna see so bad. xD

If you could answer one or a couple of these questions, that would be awesome! Fanx for making Gaia pretty sweet. :3

Yes something will happen on April 1st. 3nodding

I can say that Battle alpha will come soon, but I can't give a date because that will give a even bigger pressure on the battle team to deliver. Right now the team is over-worked and very stressed already, and there had been problems popping out that delayed our original timeline. But testing is just around the corner.

And I'm sorry for the poor communication. We did plan to make a post, but we screwed up. I've slapped myself about it and will definitely do a better job from now on.

Yes, I just saw some new NPC pics. She's awfully cute! biggrin

Yes, pinball is coming soon.

And I'll ask Tae to post some softball pics for you guys. wink

crazy spork i am

K I N G S H O Y

(some questions aimed at Lanzer)

Last comment's for Spork:
Did you do anything special to get where you are today? Like did you go to an art college or something? Or are all your skills (Probably Kirby's too) self-taught? I'm really amazed by all you two have done. I loved looking through your portfolios last weekend. Kirby amazed me with the video about commercial advertising. Only person I know who can make TV into a horror film. o_o

If you answer my questions, thanks in advance! <3

i think i'm just really persistent when it comes to art. we both went to art school and that was where we met up. we found that we worked really well together; my strength complements his weaknesses and vice-versa...and it helps a lot when there's a project because we can split up the work on who gets to do what (i lean more towards creative and he leans more towards technical). while we went to art school we were both self taught in having that kind of motivation to keep pushing ourselves; which is another important factor in what makes our collaborations work so well :3

siskataya

Regarding the March 10th, 2008 botting bans, you should all be aware of the following post has been made in Site Feedback:

Quote:

Hello,

We have received many inquiries about the March 10th bans in which multiple accounts were banned for botting/related activity on the site. Given the feedback we have received regarding this incident, we are allowing users who were banned by the automated botting script on March 10, to appeal certain account bans. We've investigated the majority of these reports, and many of them should stay banned. But we also want to extend the benefit of doubt to those accounts that were not involved in botting activity (yes, our systems can tell).

What this means to you: If you had an account that was banned on March 10th, 2008 and which was banned for botting as part of the mass account ban, then you may file an appeal to have your account ban re-investigated.

To file an appeal, follow these steps carefully:

1) Using another account, please fill out a hacking report form on behalf of your banned account. The hacking report form is located here: http://www.gaiaonline.com/gaia/report.php?r=1

2) In the "How were you hacked?" section of the hacking report form, please enter the following code into the text field: BAN310 on a separate line, and then describe that you are filing this report as a botting ban appeal for an account that was specifically banned on March 10th, 2008. Only those accounts that were banned on that date are eligible for appeal.

3) All appeals must be filed by next Monday, March 31st, 2008. Any appeals for this set of bans which are filed after March 31st, 2008 cannot be considered.

Please know that most of the accounts banned on March 10th, 2008 were appropriately banned for botting or related activity. Some botters have been complaining about their accounts, stating innocence, so please be patient as we sort through them all. We cannot guarantee any account will be unbanned upon investigation of a ban appeal. We can only handle appeal reports in relation to this particular banning incident: Anyone using the BAN310 code to appeal a ban that did NOT occur on March 10th will be considered to be filing false reports. Use this code very carefully, as all of the related accounts will be scrutinized exposing all of the related accounts/trades/activities.

We hope this helps anyone who should not have been auto-banned on March 10th.

Gaia Admin Team

URL to thread: http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/site-feedback/march-10th-auto-ban-how-to-appeal/t.39148111/

Lanzer

Talon-chan

As can be seen through the "epic fail" of this Easter event as well as past instances of failure (the grunny spamming event, for example), it is naive to deny that the gaia staff/admin/marketing teams (and related others) have, at best, a serious lack of foresight, and at a most likely worst a grievous disconnect from the community.

That is, you don't know your userbase, you don't know what they want, you don't know how to best implement what they want, the people you have hired to do this fail at it, and time and time again through actions big and small you have demonstrated this as truth.

Have you ever considered the creation of a panel of users to act as a focus group for any major event on gaia whereby you actually listen to their suggestions?

A further (snarky) request: Require your marketting team to read site feedback for an hour after the initial release of any of their "great" ideas. This will quickly orient them with what gaians like and dislike.



In relation to those bannings - will you openly admit what a number of us have already speculated: Gaia runs a script to catch "botters" and the threshold on it is low enough to catch legitimate behavior. Will you consider implementing a policy that no ban may occur without human intervention?



i herd u leik mudkips? is it true?

I can only apologize for a lack of focus in putting together the fun events so far. I know that we have mis-managed a lot of our focus, and I've been trying very hard to steer things in the right direction. Gaia is a big boat, and it's really hard to steer. I was personally very upset over not having the resources for Easter, along with the delay on many fun quests and storyline that I wish to have built. Many of the initiatives that we started ended up eating much more resources than we imagined. We're making changes to make sure that things don't get delayed, and I hope that I can proof to you guys that we're not lacking in knowing what's fun and what's right, and we'll continue to strive hard to make things right.

crazy spork i am

AngelicSword

>_> <_<

1st time here!
Q-tions!
Dear Lanzer,

What's the most common plant around the building?

Or do you guys even bother with decorating the place with plants?

i think there are some? i don't remember. i had a bunch of little marimo moss in a vase in my cubicle for awhile until i figured that they need sunlight and my cubicle isn't near a window, heh. they thrive a lot better now :3

crazy spork i am

Harmonious Chaos

crazy spork i am

Harmonious Chaos

Spork, I just wanted to thank you for making the dandiidoodad.

He is really cute. ^-^

I was wondering... what are the steps to make an item for gaia? I know you have to redraw it for each arm pose, animate it for towns... that kind of thing.

Also... I bet you guys got a kick out of all the crackpot theories that sprung up because of the clock egg xD You guys should know by now not to give us something that is ticking... it just drives us crazy. 3nodding

it takes a lot, and sometimes it can get confusing if you're not careful. i know juno can probably tell you in detail what it takes to make an item. but you're right, a lot has to do with redrawing the item for the different poses (if any) and then making sure they fit for both the male and female avies. then there's also drawing the thumbnails for each item/pose and that's something i always easily overlook, heh.

Wow... that is a lot of stuff. :O

I feel sorry for you guys when people complain about the items... especialy after having to do all of that.

Pixeling things is hard... I tried it for months and finaly gave up when I realized I wasn't very good at it.... mine allways end up being 'pillow shaded' anyway... sweatdrop

yeah, rendering pixel items is something that's very intimidating for me. ><

crazy spork i am

bunnybaby301003

have any of the admins/devs ever dreamt a dream they were in gaia and were an avi xd

(i know i have.......several times) redface

anxiety dreams when there's a deadline looming, yeah. ><

crazy spork i am

toxicgould

crazy spork i am

toxicgould

HEY LANZER AND OTHERS!!
I have a couple of questions!

They might already be answered but ill ask them anyway:

- What is with the eggs? is it just an item we'll have and nothing significant baout it?

- Could we get ahint of any plot to come in the future!? PLEASE!!! Just a little one!!

- What are some things like new features and stuff to be coming out in April?

- Do you have a faveourite Ice Cream flavour?

- Do you like Smores??

Thnks for taking the time to red this, and i know i probably won't be read but at least ill try!!
I hope o get seen! smile
Thank you if you answer me!!! smile

i've never had a smore! i was asking kirby about this the other day if it was something to try, hahaha. i dunno, the graham crackers are a little iffy to me...i'm not a big dessert kinda person :3

now to be totally contradictory, my fav ice cream is chocolate chip cookie dough!

i wish i could answer the others for you!

lol, well smores are really gooooood! Trust me on this one! If you can ever muster up the courage to try it i don't htink youll be dissappointed, though people do have different tastes and such smile

YOU LIKE THT KIND OF ICE!!!??? SWEET!!! Me too, i love chocolate ship cookie dough with a passion!

As well, is there like a bounding contract where it is writen in stone youre not allowed to disclose such information? Or if you do will crazy monkeys come and kidnap you? or will the apocalypse occur if you gave hints!? lol

Anyway thank you for responding to me!! i guess ill just have to wait and see then won't i? smile

actually with some areas, yeah >< not the crazy monkey bit but it would be a serious case of breaching NDAs

crazy spork i am

QueenFey

Lanzer do you have a dog? If so what kind and name?

Edit: same question to spork

i don't have a dog. i do own a couple of roborovski hamsters :3

crazy spork i am

Starreh

FINALLY I HAVE CAUGHT YOU! Spork, I miss you and your work so much; I used to see you around so much at ASMR. I've been meaning to catch you at a ATA thread. Sucks about your surgery, hope you're doing better!

hello hello fellow ASMRian~! :3

Lanzer

Tortured Rainbow

Lanzer,

How do you feel when the masses are upset at you?
What are you planning on doing to reassure people that Gaia is going to remain a free website. Alot of people feel like you cant get anywhere on this site without spending money. It startd with the letters, and I was fine with donating 10 dollars a month, but to get all the items in CS and the letters would be ridiculous. I have a family to feed.

Also, can you offer any proof of Gaia costing 25 mill a year to run. I find that hard to believe.

Last,
Do you anticipate a drop in usage after clearly stating there would be an event in last weeks ata? And not coming through on that?

Oh wait one more,
Why are users afraid of banning when posting in ATA?

I felt terrible. It started when I found out that what I've heard as an "event" was actually an item give-away. When we messed up this bad I really have nothing to say than to apologize. sad

It was our intention to give a better variety of items for Gaians to purchase, not with the expectation that one should collect everything. I'm sorry it had given you that message or pressure. I'll relay your message to the team.

No, it doesn't cost 25M a year to run Gaia, but you're not too far off. The million figure sounds like a lot, but for a company our size in San Jose that is actually typical. We also need to compete for engineers with companies like Google, Facebook, and so forth. We are also considering outsourcing, but it's hard to do so without lowering quality.

crazy spork i am

Gatta Fortissima

NOTE: REPOST OF QUESTIONS FROM PAGE 3:

"I’m not going to bombard you with the question you’re going to have a lot of about the eggs, but I do have to ask… are other events in the future going to be this unique, with no set “do this x times and x will happen” format? Also, are there going to be any more OMG Widget items or is the Helmet the last of them? Finally, what’s the news on the Battle System? I’ve seen the ??? Rings and is this a hint that the Battle System is very close at hand?"

Also, I do agree with the post about communication. It saves a lot of time, energy, and repeat threads to just make a few announcements.

And I did think of one more question: A lot of people have expressed that they liked the announcement hints for MCs better than the banners, myself included. Are there any plans for more text-based hints in the future or are we stuck with graphic hints for a while?

ideally i think it would be fun to have unique events. but one of the downsides is how time consuming they are and how much they take up resources for other areas. we did have a meeting last week about some future event and it seemed like the art team got into it. but then it's also dependent on what's possible to do from the developer's end. i mean, sometimes the ideas can get pretty nuts but then it may not be something we can implement so it's a constant collaboration.

Lanzer

Otter Daughter

Hello, Mister Lanzer! It is I, your friendly neighborhood charity mule otter back to tug on your sleeve once again.

I was wondering, wasn't that a snazzy idea I suggested last week, that so as there not be fewer and fewer old MC's and such on the market, those that are assets of banned accounts could be (subsequent to a reasonable period for appeals) distributed to reputable charities?

Is just a idea. =^x^=

The idea is definitely there to be worked on. But first we gotta get our own act together and fix the banning situation and get a hold of the botting issue also.

crazy spork i am

mega sexi warrior

crazy spork i am

|.Valen.|

Lanzer, Spork: Do you like to do anything crazy in your free time? ninja

no, i like to stay at home a lot and go bike riding with kirby at a park near our place. i think i might be joining fulltimefailure to a hip hop dance class later on this week. back when i was living in so.cal kirby and i did ballroom dance for a while. we managed to graduate to bronze II :3

Spork, how long have you done ballroom dancing? surprised

i did it for a little more than six months. i had to leave it behind when i moved up here. before that i was into traditional japanese dance where you wear kimono and stuff...i loved it. i've also done a bit of ballet and gymnastics when i was younger :3

crazy spork i am

Kaenai

crazy spork i am

Kaenai

crazy spork i am

no, i like to stay at home a lot and go bike riding with kirby at a park near our place. i think i might be joining fulltimefailure to a hip hop dance class later on this week. back when i was living in so.cal kirby and i did ballroom dance for a while. we managed to graduate to bronze II :3

That is so cool; I love to dance, too! :3
did you actually do competitive dancing at all, or just with the class?

just the class. maybe if i dedicate time it would be nice to do some competition stuff too

cool! did you ever try Salsa or swing? if so, was it really hard?

i did do latin dancing a little bit but i liked ballroom dancing better. they're not hard once you get the basics down since you can always fall back on the basics if you're trying a difficult step.

crazy spork i am

Luthandros

Repeat question to either crazy spork I am or Lanzer:

Does Gaia plan to show up at Animazement this year? Or are there going to be any Gaia related appearances at all?

if there is, i'd love to go!

Lanzer

Gatta Fortissima

Hello, Lanzer! Easter was great for me, thank you! I’m not going to bombard you with the question you’re going to have a lot of about the eggs, but I do have to ask… are other events in the future going to be this unique, with no set “do this x times and x will happen” format? Also, are there going to be any more OMG Widget items or is the Helmet the last of them? Finally, what’s the news on the Battle System? I’ve seen the ??? Rings and is this a hint that the Battle System is very close at hand?

Also, curses... Just when I think it's safe to go on and do this "work" of mine, I miss the start of ATA. I so wanted to be first post on my first ATA. smile Third page isn't bad, though...

We never wanted to do any "cookie-cutter" events that are exactly alike, so that's why we keep coming up with different themes and ideas. Though if one sums it all up, generally a event is kind of like a quest, you need to do something in order to get something in return. Just that we want to make sure the things that you need to do involve a lot of people, are fun to get involved in, and are unique to Gaia. It's sad for me to say this when we couldn't get the time to work on this year's Easter event, but I hope that we'll be able to make up for it.

crazy spork i am

Le DCB

crazy spork i am

Le DCB

@spork; Where did you first learn how to do art? Were you a natural at it, or did you basically suck at first? Also, do you enjoy drawing people or scenes more?

EDIT; ack. I completely missed that Developer thing below your name. You can forget about the question if you want. redface redface redface

i've always liked drawing, and i enjoy drawing people more than scenery. but then i'm more into coming up and developing ideas too since i like doing concepts. right now it's a blend with all the things i've learned so far and figuring out how to apply them to projects that can push me as an artist :3

Yeah, I'm more of an "idea" person as well. I mean, I can picture this amazing drawing in my head, but my hands can't put it on the paper. Luckily, though, I got the writing gene in my family. If I ever picture something in my head, I can just write about it. XD
So where does your inspiration, mostly, come from?

it comes from a lot of different places. to me it's all about the information and things i see. things that i'm into heavily influences whatever project i'm working on at the moment.

crazy spork i am

Le DCB

That sounds neat. If you don't mind me asking, what project [Gaia-related or not] are you currently working on?

Gah! Headaches suck when you have no aspirin. emo

on my free time kirby and i recently finished up a few freelance projects like some animated music videos. we've also been practicing with photography and some modeling on the side...i eventually would like to try fashion photography/modeling for the kinds of fashion trends i find appealing. so i do freelance to gain funds to get gear i need like studio lights and stuff. long arduous process but it's fun :3

crazy spork i am

Ah Un

Dear Lanzer,

Question: What do you prefer? Chickies or Bunnies?
Just a random Easter Question. =)

bunnies :3

Lanzer

bunnybaby301003

where do you guys see yourselves in 5 years time biggrin xd

The dream is to have a ton of fun things to do, from games to quests, and on the community side to fully have integrated forums and guilds into a system that people won't feel overwhelmed when more users are on the site, plus much more emphasis on the things that Gaians do, from RP, to making their own items, music, drawings, etc.

crazy spork i am

Platonix

Its can be Silly Sporkii Question Tiem Nao!

Let's say somebody calls you Sporky instead of Sporkii...and they're not typing. They're talking.
Can you tell? Is there a certain inflection that turns Sporky into Sporkii? Or is there just something magical about your very presence that transforms Ys into IIs?

maybe the tone? hehehe. kirby can do that, i dunno how i know i just do :3

crazy spork i am

Katerin

I think my question's been skipped. crying

I really wanted to know what the admins/devs/artists put on their pancakes. xp

i put maple syrup...and that's it. i'm boring like that. if i'm having waffles i have to cut up each individual squares to appease my mild ocd with things like that :3

crazy spork i am

Silversan

How do you feel about the communication between you and the co-workers?

How do you schedule projects? Do you have an organizer? How is it handled?

right now we've got a manager for the art team who handles projects and distributes them to us :3

Lanzer

Roy Salamandra

Hey Lanzer!

Just curious here, but will a new town or shop be introduced anytime soon?

There will be new flash areas and stores related to battle. We're thinking of how do we make the Gaia stores work right, because where we're at, we're looking at stores with too much random stuff stored in each one. We might need to do a bit of house cleaning later this year. :O Maybe there will be a few new stores then.

crazy spork i am

Kara Darkholm

Aha! I have a question.

There was a user that made a thread saying that the developers were deliberately feeding Lanzer mis-information so that we would be pissed when things went wrong.

What do you guys think when you see something like this?

i can't see any reason why. i mean, if it did give out mis-information we would have to go back and fix it anyways...so it's like more work ><

crazy spork i am

Rika-san -pear blossom-

Wow, I made an AtA... thank goodness for Spring Break.

Anywho, my quick, fun question for anyone: Do you have some bizarre driving quirks or fears?
(I know I do! Semis scare me! I swear they must have some suction vortex or something, because I always drive closer to them when I pass them. Scarryy!!)

i have a fear of semis too! i got hit on the side by one back when i was in school. i pulled over to the side of the freeway but they just kept going...so it was a hit-and-run. it left me reasonably shaken and i still get nervous when trucks are right next to us on the freeway.

i don't like heights, so i hate driving up narrow twisty roads up in the mountains ><

Lanzer

The AIDS Monster

XD No one thought you'd show up because you were afraid of the heat you'd get due to lack of an easter event. <3

BTW ;

I've gotten a PM from a developer [SERIOUS GUY IS SERIOUS] about a user - survey. What importance will this have on the site? What is the information being used for mainly?

With the fact that half of the Gaia staff members had been with the company for less than a year, I wanted to have more of us talking to Gaians and knowing more about your daily lives. I personally know you all because I spend so much time chatting, but for others, it might be easier to have some questions answered just to make things easier to digest.

Lanzer

K I N G S H O Y

o3o Riki-Oh is an odd movie. The excessive amounts of gore make me laugh.

I do have a question though.
Will we get anything for April Fools Day?
I really enjoyed my first Easter on Gaia, and then the April Fools event made it all the better. I do thank you for the past events, I just wish the current events could live up to those. (Though I do realize you're busy.)

Users were saying earlier that "Gaia shouldn't take millions to run, somewhere in the hundred thousands is enough." Do you have anything you could say to these users, to help put their naive thoughts in perspective? <3

Last comment's for Spork:
Did you do anything special to get where you are today? Like did you go to an art college or something? Or are all your skills (Probably Kirby's too) self-taught? I'm really amazed by all you two have done. I loved looking through your portfolios last weekend. Kirby amazed me with the video about commercial advertising. Only person I know who can make TV into a horror film. o_o

If you answer my questions, thanks in advance! <3

We do have something planned for April fools, not something as big as last year's Easter event though.

It's hard to show all the financial info being where we are. Though the fact that we have over a hundred people in the office is very real, and for those who are curious, the average salary are often posted in job postings from places like Google and what not. We can't pay as well as they can but we do have to keep up with the industry standard. Not even counting standard health benefits, and cost of all the hardware plus bandwidth, you are already looking at an 8 digit figure...

Lanzer

TSP1414

Lanzer, I have just one question.

Will the grombie skin will be ever re-released or re-make again in future, I noticed most of us really want grombie skin but we missed it and we want somegrombie skin for avaible again, please take your time answering this question because I would love to see grombie skin again.

Whichever skin type doesn't interfere with too many items will definitely be brought back. We wanted to have a good variety when other skins are available.

Lanzer

Alexis Pendragon

I read the ATAs every week but am never on to participate in them. You are very brave for coming on here tonight.

Anyways, I am sorry to see that there wasn't more of an event for Easter. I like the events on Gaia and the storyline. What would have been nice was to have an announcement about it instead of just the pm from the bunny. I was very confused yesterday and today about how there wasn't any information, other than what was in the pm, about what was going to happen.

So here are my questions.
When will the next event or plot update happen?
Will it be after the battle system is released?

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.

The next storyline update will happen before battle. We're also trying to do more when it comes to storyline. Hard to say that as the event got cut back, but there's a chance that we can find some outside help. Anyways, please stay tuned for more details.

Again, sorry for the lack of an Easter event. We're still working hard on making cool things for Gaia, and we're not forgetting about events. Until the dust settle, please be patient with the mess ups as of late.

[Platonix]

So, what do you think? AtA Today or no? I'm tempted to call it a toss-up.

[M370-D]

Okay, I think we probably should observe a few basic standards when it comes to question asking. I find that we keep wasting so much space with crazy posts that don't add anything to the conversation. Lanzer tends to adhere to a ten page limit....think of how many more things we could find out each week if we cut out the third of the thread occupied by nonsense.

AtA Ins:
-Simple questions that don't threaten to engulf the screen
-Politeness (thank our Gaia staff members!)
-Letting other people get a word in edgewise once you've finished your question

AtA Outs:
-Posting the same thing over 9000 times in one session
-Pyramid quotes
-Soapbox rants (okay for thinking, not for asking)
-Specific account issues that should be handled by the admin (the artists and devs can't help you here, sorry)
-Asking something that obviously won't be answered (specific details about unreleased plot/items/quests/events/battle system)

These standards generally produced nice results during the Zurg plot, so I think it would work well here too.

[Platonix]

ts13 hcraM

biggrin !tseuQ CPN desimorp-gnol taht ees ll'ew nehw neve ebyam dna ,tey sCPN s'aiaG gnoma sretcarahc naisacuaC-non ynam t'nera ereht yhw ,morf semoc eman s'3TA-reggaS erehw :yadot derewsna erew snoitseuq derednow-gnol emos ,elihwnaeM .yad txen eht aiaG yb deyalp eb ot knarp yaD 'slooF lirpA eht tuoba noitaluceps (deluef-reznaL) htiw dellif saw AtA eht yadoT

Lanzer

BlueAltitude

Hi Lanzer and Friends! Its BlueAltitude, gaia addict here. Happy Early April Fools Day!!!!
Its my first time so I has a few questions 3nodding

1. What are the chances that your undies will be added to the Daily Chance? Also, what are the chances (ex. Is it 1/300 that you will get some type of npc undies) of getting undies :O

2. PLEASE COME TO PENNSYLVANIA I want gaia to come here so I can praise your awesomness. Is this possible o.o;

3. Is anything happening tomorrow -nudge nudge wink wink- you dont have to be definite, maybe is always a good answer biggrin

4. Can you say anything on the chan scares. I dont want to lose my items x.x I am so afraid right now.

I don't know what else to write D:

BlueAltitude <333

Hello BlueAltitude,

I don't think my undies will be very desired by our male audiences biggrin

Is there a con there where we can have a Kiki tour?

Oh I don't know, I can't possibly lie about it you know. smile

We have no intention on causing problems for our members, and we'll address the issue as soon as possible.

Sagger-AT3

Lycanism

Sagger-AT3

cyan ox

Are you going to bring in more staff in this thread so they can answer specific questions?

Yes!

I must ask. WHERE IS FLEEP. HAHAA. I am Iming him. So Haha. HAHAHA. HAHAHA. Okay. Uhh. Tea or Coffee?

Coffee: Venti triple latte. Shaken, not stirred.

Lanzer

Slanzer

Lanzer

Hello everyone!

It's April's fools day tomorrow, guess what's going to happen? biggrin

Hiya Lanzer! My guess is Gaia's gonna pull a prank! xp

1) We've been promised a story update for April for some time now. Will that be tomorrow with the April Fool's mini-event-amabob?

2) People are freaking over Brunosmad getting hacked. Can you give some info so we can calm them? And did the hacker steal Brunos' bape cow?! gonk

3) The "Sponsored Worlds" is a smart idea. Kudos! My question regarding it: could you give us a hint as to what other kinds of sponsored worlds are coming, and/or around when we should expect them?

4) Can we get an ETA on Pinball?

5) Will we ever get to see an episode of "All My Gaians" or a Ron Bruise movie, be it in manga format or any other format?

6) Have you guys decided what you'll do for a summer event? I recommend another Gaia Olympics. I also request the old Art Medals be the prizes. 3nodding

We're trying hard to do something for April, but there might be some delay, meanwhile, we're trying to put up some updates and the NPC quest.

Brunosmad's account is a little rattled, but it's not hacked. Just rumors of it being hacked.

Besides Virtual Hollywood, there might not be much virtual worlds in the horizon. There might be an anime related one later this year though.

Sagger-AT3

Twisted In Twilight

Sagger-AT3

MrsrachaelSnape

Sagger what made you come up with your user name?

Sagger-AT3 is a NATO code name for an old soviet wire- guided anti- tank missile. It sort- of sounds like my real name, and eludes to my shady past (I was pretty wired and manually guided)...
But I'm the resident economist now. I hope nothing blows up in my face anymore.

What is life like, being a Dev on Gaia? What kind of things do you do?

Being a developer on Gaia is an amazing role. Working with everyone here is a lot of fun, and the work itself is quite interesting. I do mainly background things, so there's nothing specific I can point out and say "I did that!". Personally, I don't even write code; I only do analysis, write algorythms and requirements for features other people code, etc.. So my "developer" title might be a bit misleading. But I think most of the "real" developers feel the same way about working here.

Lanzer

LokiLB

palladium halos?

will there be any continuation of the them started with the Blade tunics?
how are the shop art updates for Liam and Ian coming?
can there be a long grass pose for the Drome egg? ninja

I know I've been saying "soon", but we're planning to do more NPC related updates later this month. So stay tuned for more details.

Lanzer

LabTechKatrica

Hey hey, Lanzer! ^_^ How're ya today?

Just one quick question from me this time.

Will we ever be able to hold the vials of unknown liquid? That would be so awesome and alot of other people think so, too.

Thanks and have a good week =D

We've got more avatar types and skins prototyped, but we haven't set a release date on a new system yet.

Lanzer

Kariki Neroli

Happy April's Fools, Lanzer! XD Any Pranks planned for Gaia HQ?

1. So! Event tomorrow? Pretty please?
2. If yes to the Event Question: Will their be a plot update?
3. Are we getting a Shop update soon?
4. Are we ever going to get some Steampunk and/or Victorian updates?
5. Do you like Eddie Izzard? XD

Edit: Woot! First Page!

smile

Plot update is delayed, sorry, but we're planning for a bigger one.

Store update is coming next week I think.

Not in the coming update, sorry!

Yeah, though that was a while ago.

Lanzer

ngaurhoth1

Hey Lazner, admins, devs.
How are youi all. Why did you stop going to Towns D;
Okay some my question is will make a drawing tutorial?
If you could do a sport what would it be?
I guessing an exploding present.

I'm having a tough enough time answering enough questions in the forum, and I feel bad for spending half the time in Towns instead. I should find another time to show up in towns though.

Drawing tutorial? Like one from our staff members? I think many would love to host one. Hope Spork saw your message.

Me? I wanna snowboard!

Lanzer

Gamine

o wow I'm actually here for one of these.

Oh, right, a question.
What happened to Movie Mondays? I know there was a lot of bitching about them, but I actually kinda liked them..if nothing else, the announcements made me giggle sad


Edit: NOOOO page 2. I hate you all.

They kind of slowed down a bit, but there are more planned for the rest of the year.

Sagger-AT3

hubbydirty

Did you watch horror films when you were a kid

Far too many. Luckily, it was sooooooo long ago, the visual effects were so bad it wasn't remotely believable. Still, some scenes from "Nightmare on Elm St." will forever haunt me...

Lanzer

TSP1414

Lanzer, please answer my question again.

You know, about the plan of re-releasing the Stage 1 Grombie? Well, has you decided yet if they will be re-released, and have you gotten any more information about it and will it be re-released soon or later? And also, do you plan to give the grombie skin for free or make a quest or event so people will have to work hard for it? Please answer my question, and I will re-post this every few minutes.

I relayed your question to the rest of the team last week. The answer is that it's not likely, because grombie was hard to get, but for other skins that were meant to be widely available, we'll be re-releasing them.

Lanzer

Ruric

Hi admins how are you doing?
Has any admin seen Negima?
and lanzer are you looking forward to Heroes season 3

I'm doing great! Had a lot of really good planning meetings for features and events last week.

Yes, it's alright...

and yes, hope it's better than season 2

Sagger-AT3

Bunai

@Sagger-AT3

1) so you enjoy numbers?
>_> math honestly gives me a headache

2) you have any time to enjoy Gaia? or are you always working?

I'm always working, both on Gaia and on school stuff (yes, I'm still in school). But I do wander around towns, stroll through the forums and get to enjoy Gaia. Sometimes as me, sometimes on mules (so I attract less attention, having a colored name and all).

And yes, numbers are good frineds of mine. We get a long just fine smile

Lanzer

Metalic_Noodles

Yes, I'm here again.

GGN questions
1. Why have you stolen even Leon from the GGN? WHYYYY??? (Him being used to post announcements with nothing to do with the GGN, and nothing in his post or signature advertising the GGN.)
2. How will the GGN get their summer fall update if not even one Developer is working on the GGN now?
3. Please don't make the GGN into clubs. (To fellow smartasses- Yes, this is a legit concern.)
4. Thank you for fixing the GGN posting/voting error instead of just leaving the revised error that had a link to the thread in it. heart
5. Has the fabled 'to-do- list of the GGN' even been made yet? Or has that list been made and you guys are just waiting until an arbitrary date to set a dev(s) on it?
6. The GGN mostly just needs a few things. As a whole we aren't asking for a rewrite, or even the forums/posting to be updated like the regular forums, just a few things. Guild PMs is a biggy, since friends@gaia was taken out, we can't even use our work-around. Charging per member is what I think would be best, like 5gold or 10g per every member the PM is sent to. I think we want this enough to not care for a long while, that we can't send to just crew, or just members. 10gold per person seems a bit much, I favor 5gold, but if 10g is what you want to discourage over use and spamming, then that will be fine, you may even be able to get away with 20g. If this would take too much, then could you at least please give the GGN more attention in the other parts of Gaia? The spotlight doesn't stand out, nor change much, no formal announcement in years, and our NPC is doing random announcements without even text it it's signature advertising the GGN. It really won't take much to make us happy, we just want proof that you still acknowledge us as part of Gaia.
The GGN could even be used the trial run a new version of friendslist/mailing list PMs. (As suggested by Chibi faery)
7. Why is the GGN such a low priority on your list?
8. If you have the time, please read this Journal entry. It expresses the GGN's feelings extremely well. http://www.gaiaonline.com/journal/?mode=view&u=1311155

/several other questions/

I'll try to answer as many as I can, though I'd like to ask for all to limit the questions to 3 so others would get a chance of getting answers.

Leon is actually stationed all over Barton Town. He's the first NPC that greet you back in 2003 when users join Gaia (anyone has the original "comic" with Leon and Rina?)

GGN will have two updates, first one to make navigation better and have better integration with forums, second is more feature related, to introduce guild houses, messaging systems and more fun features related to that.

GGN isn't low on our priority, it's on par with forums. Many changes are just done on the backend which makes it not crash from site growth. What's upcoming will be more geared towards front-end features.

Lanzer

Erebus Haze

ey Lanzerr!

Something's been bothering me as of late. Diversity on Gaia (as in art and all that) seems to not exist, at least not openly. Now, I've made a 2 threads on this that I hardly upkeep trying to make this a bit known as what I think is a bit of a problem to the Staff.

Questions:
Why is diversity at all lacking in terms of color? I'm not asking for a bunch of black people; just more of the human rainbow, like Asians and Indians and those from the Caribbean and South Asia and EASTERN Europe and....well, you know what I mean, I hope.
Isn't it a bit duplicitous to claim the site will start to move towards being more global and then have 4 white people as soon as you login/make an account (not counting the acceptable anime girl)?
What about diversity in teenage cliques: not to say you guys are making everyone dress their avatars preppy but where's the balance there?


Don't think I'm being rude; I'm just trying to find out why the site I love is just....being so...... I can't even explain properly.

[Question 2 Will be asked shortly, as it has slipped my mind sweatdrop ]

We actually put a lot of emphasis on ethnic diversity on Gaia. Though at the same time, we're trying to be authentic, meaning that we have characters with understanding from what we know about a certain culture, etc. Our diversity is limited to our knowledge.

Today Gaia is a site mainly occupied by US users, and we as staff are mostly US also. Though we actually do plan to make Gaia more accessible to the rest of the world. The plan is to have a few staff members that natively know about other cultures and countries to help us out, as opposed to us pretending that we know, or we'd just end up screwing up.

[Live to Butterfly]

Thank you for compliling all of this for us! I've read through it all a couple times wink
Do you think there will be an ask the admin tonight? Or is it already too late for one to start sad ...the one day I had a question all typed out and ready to ask, wouldn't you know...oh well, I'll just wait for next week.

[Platonix]

April 7th

I blame Mochi for the lateness of this compilation. You heard it here, folks: It's all Mochi's fault. wink
In slightly more srs bzns, today's Ask The Admin had a new visitor in an account named "fin"...for those who didn't know, fin is the account of none other than CEO Craig Sherman! fin took a few questions, mostly after Lanzer had departed. Sagger-AT3 also popped in again; it would seem Sagger is the new sporkii. Make of that statement what you will.

Lanzer

TakingOverMe...

Hiya once more, Lanzer xD.

On behalf of LabTechMK, who can’t be here tonight, him, myself and a few others were wondering what was going to happen in regards to getting medical masks. Any more information about that?

Sorry, no new info just yet, maybe Juno or others in the creative team have some input?

Lanzer

CioccoLatte

Hello to all the Gaia staff! How is everyone?

So....has anyone been playing with the Battle system? domokun
If so, how is it so far? (i know you're not allowed to divulge any information, but i would like to know how it's going, generally speaking...if that's ok...) sweatdrop
Does it still have a lot of bugs or will we expect it sooner than we think? whee

Anyway, if it's still got a long way to go, it's ok...at least we have pinball and the other upcoming games to keep us busy... blaugh

Thank you for all your hard work!

Yes, and it's really cool. Amazing to see something this complete being made in Flash. The multiplayer aspect is also great, but it has a lot of bugs. :O Some changes should be made on the UI side to make sure that the game is easier to pick up also. Though we're mostly feature complete and we're just focused on bug fixing from now on.

Lanzer

pirhan

Hi there Lanzer,

I hope you're doing well tonight. It's nice, sunny and warm where I am :3 (So I'm doing great)

> When was the last time you were on vacation and where did you go?
> I didn't see an answer to my question last week - do you know what the outcome of the Wii The People contest? I saw a posting for the first set of winners, but I didn't see any other following up.

If Fin is here today, I'd like to know if he is a fan of Stargate (SG1!!) or Babylon 5, or if he just tends to stick to the awesomeness that is BSG. (Did you see the season four opener?!)

Yeah it's been a great day here in San Jose.

I was in Japan, enjoying great food and buying Gundam models and other stuff that I shouldn't be spending money on. biggrin That was back in December actually, not too long ago.

DJ Helsing has been handling the contest. I'm pretty sure the rest had been given away already.

Lanzer

Legend

Hey Lanzer! I am certain you are no stranger to the weekend's events.

I wanted to say you are an inspiration Lanzer, a hero. I'm always starstruck when you post. heart redface Gaia Online has made a huge inpact in my life and am glad to be here. Don't give up if FBBQ's words are true.

My question is would fin be willing to join us in an AtA session as well sometime? Can you personally invite him for us?

Thank you for spending time with us!

The truth is that we have differences in opinions, but things are not to the level where we are fighting and with no resolution. If you grab anyone individually, we all try to do the same thing - to make a great site, to not do the mistakes that would lead us to losing support for users like you, while being able to still support the large staff we have here and build cool new stuff.

Being at different parts in the office does give different perspectives. What's been mentioned was a different point of view, but not exactly what's happening across the board.

I'll see if I can grab Fin right now, he's usually in meetings (just like me biggrin ).

Lanzer

BlueAltitude

Hey Lanzer, How was your week?
Did anyone prank you on April 1st?

-cough- Come to king of prussia, pittsburgh, or philidelphia PA.

Are we going to see anything interesting this week?

Are you having good feelings towards this months MC's? Do you think these will be one of the best?

Thanks Lanzer :]
You and the gaia team are awesome.
-BlueAltitude

ps. im good, but the pinball wont work for me server security error D:

No pranks last week! Too bad. :O

This week we're going to start the voting for the casual games that are going to be on Gaia. Hope it'll be able to launch without problems. We'll announce the voting once the system is ready.

This month's MC will be pretty fun since it's got something to do with a current trend. That's all that I can say. XD

Sagger-AT3

Mradu

Can you better explain the reasons for the new market changes?

My main concern is the anti-sniping rule. The announcement said, "This is intended to prevent 'sniping,' giving users on slower connections a more level playing field..", which makes little sense to me. I started sniping when I was on dial-up because it was about the only way I could make gold in the market. Sniping is more about skill and planning than computer speed.

If you have a fast connection, you can load the page, see how many seconds there are till the auction ends, and bid at precisely the right moment (more or less). You also takes you less time to bid again, so you can outbid someone even if you only have 5 seconds to go. If you have a slow connection, timing becomes harder, and re-bidding takes longer, leaving you at a disatvantage. There is both skill AND computer speed in sniping, and different people had different amounts of either. Sniping also gave unfair advantage to the very dedicated users who are always online, see every auction, never forget one and know when they are about to expire (i.e. bots).

Both these issue would have become more severe once canceling auctions was no longer an option, so we decided to deal with them by adding 1 minute to last minute bids.

Lanzer

Slanzer

Hiya Lanzer! I'm great, you?

1) Why did some Gaians -like me! surprised - get a questionnaire about the prom? Do the answers involve the plot, or perhaps a future sponsor somehow? How come only some people got the questionnaire and not all of Gaia?

2) PINBALL ROCKS!!! Wait, that's not a question... So, um, how's Tetris coming along?

3) Will we ever see an episode of "All My Gaians," or a Ron Bruise movie in manga or other format? Kind of like a side-story update?

4) Is a bald sheep plushi named Ofilipe in the works yet? Bape Cow needs a friend. razz

We have site wide feedback while some others just need a handful of replies to get a sense of "would it be cool for us to start a project" or not.

Pinball will rock once we got the server working right. biggrin Tetris is not ready yet but we have other puzzle games on their way.

We have NPC updates coming, but Ron Bruise is following his inter-galactic filming career.

Not yet, we have a lot of other stuff in the works as far as merchandises go.

Lanzer

falulu209

Hiya Lanzer!

Tiz me! The one who hopes to possess your boxers one day! <3

But anywho, how about length and width of post? Page stretching annoys the jebus out of me, and it makes my beloved'd fire fox so very angry. By limiting the size of post, it is sure to make me and some other page stretching gaians very happy! <3

Also about prom, you do realize some of us are passed highschool
I myself am 21 *shakes cane* get off my lawn!
*Bribes with a Amp* XD <3

We need a better way to handle size of posting. Something more like a "read more" button to avoid posts from stretching the screen. :O I'd like to avoid post limitations myself.

How about looking at it as a dance instead of a prom? Well we're not really decided on what exactly to do yet, so things can change by a lot between now and then.

Lanzer

QueenFey

Lanzer

It's April already! Meaning it's the month of pinball and casual games. Hope everyone likes casual games that earn you gold because a lot of them are coming your way. :O So how are everyone doing today?

Just fine thank you, you?

And, will Rina have new flowers in her shop sometime soon?

Sorry it'll be a bit of a wait, mainly because we're working on the casual game side of things, but everything will tie back into the item creation through trash/flower aspects. Stay tuned!

Sagger-AT3

Rya_Twiggy

I would like to know if any other suggestions for the MP are being taken into consideration or if that is it. Why cant an item placed up for bid be cancelled as long as it has no bids on it?

There were several reasons for not allowing the cancelations of listings with no bid on them after the first five minutes:
1. Simplicity. It's simpler to understand, and simple is sometimes important.
2. Even though sniping is no longer a real concern, there is still a lot of strategy to be made in timing your bids, first bid included.
3. Few events are really unpredictable on Gaia. Sealed envelopes come out on the first of every month, letters are open on the 15th, cash shop and evolving items update on Fridays, weekends have more traffic than weekdays and afternoons more then night. The existing uncertainty can be dealt with by timing your auctions correctly. Ther really is no real reason to allow the cancelation of bids.
4. Did I mention simplicity?

That said, we will be following how bids are doing, and we might reconsider at a later date.

Lanzer

Cajsck

Hey Lanzer hope your week was alright.
Onto my question!
Will we see and short live evolving items like the pora bear? Or any one that takes a week that would be interesting.

Not for the time being, I think we want to give at last some play value to evolving items and many of them are just fun to watch them evolve over time.

fin

Timaeus Gandora Daakunesu

fin

Legend

Hey Lanzer! I am certain you are no stranger to the weekend's events.

I wanted to say you are an inspiration Lanzer, a hero. I'm always starstruck when you post. heart redface Gaia Online has made a huge inpact in my life and am glad to be here. Don't give up if FBBQ's words are true.

My question is would fin be willing to join us in an AtA session as well sometime? Can you personally invite him for us?

Thank you for spending time with us!

Hi Legend, Thanks for inviting me biggrin Lanzer is a hero to me, too.

Hello fin,
how are you this fine evening?

I'm great! We have some cool projects we're a-l-m-o-s-t done with including a cool new quest and i'm really pumped that pinball is so well received. We worked 5 months on that one!

Lanzer

Kitana Coldfire

*copies and pastes last weeks question* ninja ninja ninja

*jumps up and down* me me me!!!!!!!!!!! Anyone who's listening, any chance we'll ever get stuff like robes and nightgowns instead of just pajamas? I know I'd love my avi to relax in her pjs and a robe is needed for the ultimate relaxation indoors!!!! xd

That's a great suggestion. We're gonna have the feature that let you choose between different "saved outfit", so being able to swap to a nightgown during the night would be great.

Lanzer

Metalic_Noodles

1. Please don't make the GGN into clubs.
2. Has the fabled 'to-do- list of the GGN' even been made yet? Or has that list been made and you guys are just waiting until an arbitrary date to set a dev(s) on it?
3. Have you guys ever considered rereading the Ask the Admin threads after you close them, like the next day, and answering questions that were skipped over? Either in an announcement or just another post in the thread, since I'm rather certain admin can post after they lock a thread. Or just a list of answers on the first post of the new ask the admin thread?
4. We can't right click and tab the items in the drop-down menus anymore, any chance this will be fixed? Soon? When? Do you have a deal with Microsoft to stop supporting Firefox properly?

We will be adding clubs, though we probably won't just make guilds go away.

The initiative will start after another initiative which has to do with avatar and other features. But some of us are starting to plan for a wish list already.

We can go through the old ATA threads, but fact remains that at other hours of the week I'm super busy. It really came down to "how many question answered means enough?". I don't have the answer today, but soon we'll have more feedback with the help of other staff members too.

That's a problem that happened from the Yahoo library that we updated. We're looking for a fix ourselves. Sorry we don't have a date yet but they're fairly responsive in bug fixes.

Lanzer

Chibi faery

Oh! I'd also like to know if the shopkeeper art is going to be updated any time soon? surprised

Can't spoil things but we are planning for NPC related udpates really soon. This month definitely.

Lanzer

Essence De La Vie

Hi Lanzer! I was just wondering if either Gino or Josie would appear in the next plot update, whatever it might concern, even as background characters? They both deserve more attention of the positive kind. xD If anything, their fans would appreciate it. x3

Oh yeah, the opinion primate is going to ask a question about NPC's. Your answers will help determine where we will focus on for the next wave of storyline updates. For now we're still focusing on some of the main characters.

Lanzer

Platonix

Do you have data on what percentage of Gaia's users are actually teens? I hear a lot of 20's-plus users grumbling whenever Craig or someone else refers to Gaia as a "teen hangout".

It's about 80% teens. WIth millions of users on Gaia, however, we still have a lot of users that are adults. Note that 18 and 19 are still "teens", even though they're adults in many rights. Technically, Gaia is for teens and young adults, but sometimes it's just easier to say a shorter sentence, it doesn't mean that we're omitting what we really are. :O

Lanzer

China Cup

Good evening, Lanzer! I've never done one of these before.

I'd like to ask two questions. ^^

1. When making feedback/AtA stickies, do you really read ALL of the replies? It must take so long!
2. How might old skins be rereleased if they are going to be? Through quests, Cash Shop, or something else?

I read almost everything, but I can only answer most of what's on the first page, then a few from pages 2 through 5 or something like that. Reading through the posts gives me a very detailed idea on what everyone are concerned about, and what I need to focus on, even though I can't answer the questions.

We are trying to make old skins available through the coming event, but at the same time, some are trying to have items available that will do the same. We'll see what end up happening, what makes sense with the upcoming storyline updates.

Have a great week everyone!

Sagger-AT3

Max MouseG

Hey Lanzer those annoying scripters in rallys/MTV hills are sending scam messages and its been like that for quite a long time now... Are you guys still having trouble finding a way to stop this?

I think a fix for most of these went out this morning (or if it hasn't, it should be pushed out sometime later this week).

fin

pirhan

Fin! Thanks for coming out.

I had asked a question for you on the first page, but here it is again - Do you dabble in the art of Stargate or Babylon 5, or do you stick to BSG? Did you see last weeks season opener? I just have to say wow.

I'm so darn busy these days that I missed season opener. I like Stargate but Babylon 5 never worked for me. Do you read an sci-fi?

fin

Losaru Taiyo

Hey Mr. Fin,

Just one question. Are there any manga that you're into?....lol.

Seriously question though. Do you join in on any meetings about discussing ideas proposed by Gaians that were brought to the staff?

Yep. Actually since gaians suggest stuff every day, inevitably we spend time every day talking about suggestions. Sometimes it's formal meetings, but other times it's just spontaneous - you read something in site feedback, it's a super-cool idea, and you run to someone else and say, 'can we build this?!"

You know how we ended up building battle? A poll in the forums. Gaians said it was the #1 thing they wanted us to build next. (#2 was a pet-system). We sat around and debated battle vs pets and then decided on battle and a few people joined the 'battle team.' Now, over 1 year later, it's a much, much bigger team and a much much bigger project than we ever planned for. But its genesis was that poll and individual suggestions in forums.

[Platonix]

Live to Butterfly

Thank you for compliling all of this for us! I've read through it all a couple times wink
Do you think there will be an ask the admin tonight? Or is it already too late for one to start sad ...the one day I had a question all typed out and ready to ask, wouldn't you know...oh well, I'll just wait for next week.

confused Actually, Ask The Admin was in full swing and had been for over half an hour when you posted this. I wonder if you were looking in the right place...? I've just put a News Update in the first post; it's about where Ask The Admin is held, because this isn't the first time I've seen people confused on this topic.

[Kunai Jones]

Hopefully I can get into an AtA in a couple weeks when I'm out of rehearsals. I need to ask if any more GO items are coming from the OMG widget. I loved those things. Thanks as always for compiling this stuff, it's fantastic. Oh, and this...

Lanzer

That's a great suggestion. We're gonna have the feature that let you choose between different "saved outfit", so being able to swap to a nightgown during the night would be great.

...is HUGELY awesome. I hope there are more than two, but that would be so fantastic.

And that isn't even what the user's question was about! Love it!

[Refurbished User]

Kunai Jones

Hopefully I can get into an AtA in a couple weeks when I'm out of rehearsals. I need to ask if any more GO items are coming from the OMG widget. I loved those things. Thanks as always for compiling this stuff, it's fantastic. Oh, and this...

Lanzer

That's a great suggestion. We're gonna have the feature that let you choose between different "saved outfit", so being able to swap to a nightgown during the night would be great.

...is HUGELY awesome. I hope there are more than two, but that would be so fantastic.
And that isn't even what the user's question was about! Love it!

I think there was a petition for this. Someone should forward the quote over there. And by someone I mean I'm going to look for five minutes and give up and hope someone else does it.

[Live to Butterfly]

Platonix

Live to Butterfly

Thank you for compliling all of this for us! I've read through it all a couple times wink
Do you think there will be an ask the admin tonight? Or is it already too late for one to start sad ...the one day I had a question all typed out and ready to ask, wouldn't you know...oh well, I'll just wait for next week.

confused Actually, Ask The Admin was in full swing and had been for over half an hour when you posted this. I wonder if you were looking in the right place...? I've just put a News Update in the first post; it's about where Ask The Admin is held, because this isn't the first time I've seen people confused on this topic.

I just read your first post...I had no idea it was held in GCD. I was sitting there refreshing the ask the admin in site feedback for like 45 minutes crying
Hopefully I'll catch it next week "feels stupid"

[Larzar]

Dios de Television

Kunai Jones

Hopefully I can get into an AtA in a couple weeks when I'm out of rehearsals. I need to ask if any more GO items are coming from the OMG widget. I loved those things. Thanks as always for compiling this stuff, it's fantastic. Oh, and this...

Lanzer

That's a great suggestion. We're gonna have the feature that let you choose between different "saved outfit", so being able to swap to a nightgown during the night would be great.

...is HUGELY awesome. I hope there are more than two, but that would be so fantastic.
And that isn't even what the user's question was about! Love it!

I think there was a petition for this. Someone should forward the quote over there. And by someone I mean I'm going to look for five minutes and give up and hope someone else does it.

I'm SURE they would know by now..

[Platonix]

exclaim Ask The Admin 04142008
exclaim ETA 1 hour
exclaim Please prepare by reviewing contents of preceding documentation
exclaim Enjoy

[Platonix]

April 14th

Last week, Lanzer got chewed out for skipping a Page 1 question that had started out as a placeholder post to secure its place on Page 1. Perhaps he saw the post while it was a placeholder and didn't think to go back later and see the added-in question, because this week he put a disclaimer at the start of his first Answer for the night.

Lanzer

BlueAltitude

Why Hallo Lanzer. Hope you had a nice week.
I was sick D:

Some questions for you:
1. Is Gaia going to be giving the Guild system updates soon? They despretely need them.
2. If yes to number 1. Will it be within the next month?
3. Besides the Battle System, what is Gaia HQ working on right now. If it is a secret can you say event, update, or something?
4. 1, 2, or 3 different items in this months letters?
I am hoping the MC is a rock puppy :3

Thanks Lanzer and also thank you for answering my past two questions on the Ask the Admin threads :] Have a nice night!

-cough- pandy slippers next month for MC's would be nice-end cough-

Note: I noticed that some of you didn't post a question, so I kept moving down the thread.

Yes, the guild system does need a upgrade, the plan is to have it better integrate with forums also. The plan will start within 3 to 4 months time, there are some things that I would like to focus on first, which has a lot to do with the avatar equip page and hopefully the casual games that are coming up.

There will also be more story, and event later on, and for this week there'll be a small quest that most of you will like. wink

I hope so too smile

Lanzer

TakingOverMe...

Lanzer

The weather seemed to have jumped from a nice cool spring weather to a blistering hot Sunday over the weekend. How was your weekend?

Hey Lanzer,

Just one question tonight: ….who was who came up with the idea for the Orindae’s current evolution? It’s certainly different, LOL

xD Glad that someone had decent weather! It's been bloody miserable here D:

Heh heh, it is the artist's own idea, though I'll need to ask for permission before giving out the name. wink

Sagger-AT3

pirhan

- When I search in the Marketplace, and when the search comes back, the “average price” compared to what the actually sell price can be substantially different. For example, the LOLcat has the average buy price of 130k and the best rate is actually 112k. Why is this?

The average price in the marketplace represent the average price in which items were bought yesterday. There may be a difference between the prices right now and the prices yesterday... There is also a difference between the lowest buy now price at any given moment, and the average price that items are bought in.

Lanzer

Anonymous XflYWrXB6

Will we ever get rocket boots as items? And I mean boots with jets on the bottom, kinda like Iron Man, but made like normal boots, if that makes sense.

EDIT;
Had to grab a spot. Glad to see the administrators commune with us on a weekly basis.

EDIT: do you also play Smash Brothers Brawl? If so, who do you like most?

Hmm, that's a good suggestion. Surprised we haven't heard much of that idea before. Can't say yes or no, but we'll definitely consider.

I haven't played Brawl yet... I'm actually not a big fan, when everyone started on the N64 I never owned the system...

Lanzer

x_redbird

Hi Lanzer, my weeked was rainy XD This is my first ever Ask The Admin! Three questions (for Lanzer, and anyone else who may be hanging about). <3

1. What criteria do you use to determine what gets an announcement? For instance, I've noticed that some of the things listed in the "Current Events" on the News landing page get announcements (like the item design contests), and some do not (some trailers, etc.). What makes some things get their own announcement, but not others? I've always wondered about this.

2. Why no more announced MC hints? I miss them. T.T

3. What is your favorite released MC so far?

That's all, thanks for your time!

Right now it's still kind of inconsistent. We try to only post things that are of interest to everyone but not just a sub-set.

We make the clues when we finish the item early and have time left over to stage the clues, which means we've been kind of behind because we were too busy. gonk

My favorite had been the Summoning Tome for a while (hence the owl on my head)

Lanzer

MrsrachaelSnape

Hello Lanzer and others.

Which NPC would you say you are more like and why?

You mean liked? {sadly, no. -Platonix} Moria had been a favorite because she has great style, and Timmy is also another favorite because... he can mind control! What's there not to like about a kid who can mind control? biggrin

Lanzer

MasterChiefrei

Lanzer

The weather seemed to have jumped from a nice cool spring weather to a blistering hot Sunday over the weekend. How was your weekend?

Cold....very cold...unusually cold actually.
Interesting topic I must say. O.o

As for a question, what made you guys think of doing prom? Was it the thriller movie or were ya'll just bored for something different?

Thank you. <3

It was more like "what's something happening around May where many people are talking about?"

START OF LONG CONVO

crazy spork i am

crazy spork i am

Reiss Wind

Anonymous XflYWrXB6

Will we ever get rocket boots as items? And I mean boots with jets on the bottom, kinda like Iron Man, but made like normal boots, if that makes sense.

EDIT;
Had to grab a spot. Glad to see the administrators commune with us on a weekly basis.

EDIT: do you also play Smash Brothers Brawl? If so, who do you like most?

kirby and i have been playing smash brothers lately (finally got a wii!). my favorite would be pikachu :3

Pikachu can be great 3nodding
I usually play Mario or Shiek, recently I've worked with Zelda...

Even more recently Lucas is pretty good (but Cptn. F for boss battles)

Do you ever give your Brawl code to people outside the office? If you know where this may be going... rolleyes

haven't been giving out our brawl code since we've only been playing together during the weekends (when we have free time). otherwise i could always try putting it up sometime if i remember to check what our code is :3

i've been playing as pikachu ever since the n64 one came out, so i've gotten quite attached to that character. i don't mind playing other characters but i dunno, just something about pikachu and the response time...it matches my style pretty well :3

crazy spork i am

Reiss Wind

I can definitely see were you are coming from. The way I play with Sheik, she may be weak, but the moves are connected, so that I failed if someone was able to move xd
Then when the time comes for a 110%, switch to Zelda and smash.
Whoo!
Only on weekends with free time? Waaay to have a work ethic Spork, I thought you were different from them! rolleyes

Since N64 with Pikachu? Aww man everyone's going to get pwned...

hehehe, i totally impressed kirby the first time we played smash bros, since he didn't think he knew that girls played it or something, heh.

yeah, i've been super busy these past few weekends!

Lanzer

Simica

hello lanzer.

Can you please explain to me, why the TOS state that 13 years old are not allowed on the site. but there are many. and if I report them. I get in trouble.

What is the point of having this TOS?



Guilds? when are we going to get an update for them? they are in bad need up updating.


Will you comment or even read this thread

http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/gaia-community-discussion/on-transparency-in-communication-in-the-context-of-gaia/t.39249217/

its by a dev and our thoughts about how to better Gaia

A good resource for understanding why would be to look up "COPPA" under Google. It's basically rules made to protect young minors from getting harmed from predators, among other things. We try our best to respect this rule and protect the safety of our users, it's not an intent to punish anyone at all. Hope this helps!

Lanzer

demon_of_paranoia

Might there be anew skin associated with the 'timmysingh'
issue?
alos; what are your views on the recent criticism gaia has been getting by
the community [gcd] about us 'selling out'?

There are some new skins that are really different, no Timmy skin planned yet though.

crazy spork i am

Simica

crazy spork i am

'lo theres :3

OMG SPORK *stalks*

Its me Puroki!

Sorry I havent gotten back to our email sweatdrop sweatdrop sweatdrop

OMG I LOVE YOUR ART WORk

*goes back to normal Simica*

hello hello! heart thanks so much for that lovely email biggrin i still have it; keeps my spirits high~!

crazy spork i am

MrsrachaelSnape

crazy spork i am

Gamine

crazy spork i am

'lo theres :3

You're looking quite nefarious today, spork surprised
Oh, I just noticed the Spore hasn't evolved in a while...any teasers for what it's gonna do next?

i guess be green? hehehe >:3

Crazy spork I missed you posting in ATA threads glad to see you. heart

yeah, timing has been off for these AtA threads for me. either too busy or too tired or too anything but i'm glad that my schedule is back to semi-normalcy :3

Lanzer

Reiss Wind

Ok, so how are you? Excited about softball?

From what I've heard, there may be a re-release of Grombies?
This sounds good and bad to me... I'm thinking make it as hard as it was then. But some people didn't get the opportunity to get online then, either, so...

What are your opinions on this? Also, what would your opinion be on missing the '05 Halloween event?
3nodding

Yes for new skin, and probably there will be a zombie skin, but not likely for Grombies since it was kind of a prize to own that skin as it was hard to obtain.

Hope all the other new stuff will outshine Grombie, that's what I'm hoping for. wink

Sagger-AT3

Live to Butterfly

Dear Lanzer,
First of all I would like to say that I love Gaia and appreciate all the work you guys put into running the site for us. I’d also like to thank you for taking the time to answer our questions…even the stupid or n00by ones…lol!
With that said, I have a question to ask you as well.
Many of us Gains are concerned about the safety of our items. Every time I go in the forums I see people who have been hacked or scammed out of items. I personally feel scared it might happen to me someday, even though I take every precaution I can.
Hackers and scammers must be stopped. However, Gaia simply doesn't have enough mods to handle all the reports and catch the instigators before they do any more harm. We need more protection in our accounts.
So what about this idea? In order to keep an item safe, you could "padlock" it. Putting a padlock on an item would temporarily change its status to a non-tradable, unsellable, non-giftable item. You could still equip and unequip the item, but you could not sell it, trade it, or give it away. The padlock status would last for a short period of time, say a month, and then you would be given the option to renew it again. If you now wanted to sell the item, you would just not renew it and the item would go back to normal. Padlocks would be free, and you could use as many as you like.
I have made a petition for this feature, and have gotten over 150 signatures. Due to this have been threatened by hackers, and there are several threads on a hacking website dedicated to my demise. The hackers are taking notice that this would be a HUGE threat to them. So will you take notice, Gaia? Will you implement this feature or one like it to keep us safe?
Sincerely, Live to Butterfly
Link to my petition: http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/petitions/gaia-padlocks-protect-your-items-from-hackers-and-scammers/t.39234787/

Hackers and scammers must be stopped indeed, and our moderating team is doing a great job at catching up on the hacking queues.

The first line of defense, when it comes to your account's safety, is you. Keep the redirection page enabled, make sure you don't give anyone your password and you don't enter your password to websites who look like Gaia but aren't Gaia, and you'll be safe. Having a strong (hard to guess) password is also important.

Padlocking items is something we'll have to think about more, but my personal belief is that it is not neccessary. One (hard to guess) password is enough to keep you safe. ninja

crazy spork i am

JakeMCRmy

Anyone of you admins played Portal?

yeppers~! i did for a little bit but i chickened out at the end and had to have someone else beat the game for me, hahaha. i play a lot of team fortress 2 though!

Sagger-AT3

Utakan

Do you think there's a chance you could set up a system that requires an e-mail confirmation for password and e-mail changing? With the former being you need confirmation from your old e-mail to change to the new? I know it'd be hard for those who lose their old e-mail accounts, but it might cut down the chance of hacking accounts.

Interesting idea!
I know it has been tossed around the office a couple of times. I'll poke around to see if it's in the pipes somewhere, and if not - why.

crazy spork i am

Malomy

Tidus Guado

Cube B

Um... do you think it would be cool if the Gaia Offices had a Ball Pit?

Nothing would get done if there was a ball pit.

True that. xd

we could have a battle with nerf guns in the ball pit, that would make for an interesting challenge.

Lanzer

pirhan

Hi there, I had a GREAT weekend! (New BSG episode.) And it's snowed, poured rain, been overcast AND sunny all today.

Okay, so here are my questions:
- What sort of screening process do the sponsors go through? I ask as there was concern about the Skittles quest with regards to Mars Inc. testing procedures.

- When I search in the Marketplace, and when the search comes back, the “average price” compared to what the actually sell price can be substantially different. For example, the LOLcat has the average buy price of 130k and the best rate is actually 112k. Why is this?

- Who has the coolest cubicle? And why?

BSG is pretty good so far!

We make sure the sponsor match affinity with most of our users that most users will like them, while anything behind the scene might be out of our grasp.

I believe the average price is just the mean of the highs and lows, while the best rate is kind of like the best deal, which is the lowest price. Darknrgy can answer this much better than I can though.

Darknrgy's cube has a couch in it, but mine has an assortment of airsoft guns and Gundam models biggrin

Lanzer

AerisEsper

What's taking Gaia Tetris so long?

Tons of Tetris games were made, so we're planning to pick one and make it grant gold. :O

crazy spork i am

pirhan

Hi there, I had a GREAT weekend! (New BSG episode.) And it's snowed, poured rain, been overcast AND sunny all today.

Okay, so here are my questions:

{some stuff sporkii didn't answer}

- Who has the coolest cubicle? And why?

mine has an electronic piano/keyboard so people can come by and jam on it biggrin

Lanzer

Bob Dobbs

Lanzer, WIll we ever get more steampunk type items?

I completely adore my time piece's

Also, the cash shop evolve items are soo addicting.

Whoops, might not be anytime soon, since we'll be focusing on some other areas, such as weapons, in the near future. But we'll circle back soon enough.

Thank all the artists for pitching in their ideas for fun items!

Lanzer

Grey Raine Cloud

Hey Lanzer and Others.This is my first AtA.

1.Umm.At the New York Comic Con,will the Gaia Gathering be on the first or second floor?
2.Are you guys getting excited on how the Battle System is looking so far?

I didn't even know that there are two floors! XD I'll need to find out myself once I get there

The Battle game looks really great. If you don't pay attention you wouldn't think it's a flash game.

Sagger-AT3

ASA Bar

Hello to all of the admins! Thank you for taking the time to talk to the community through this thread. biggrin

I have a question about protecting ourselves from botted gold and botted items, and being mistaken for a bot. How can we detect which items on the marketplace or the exchange forum are actually botted items? Will there ever be a designated person in the future who will be willing to check our items to make sure that they are legitamate?

Also, I have heard that people who use mules to transfer money around are being mistaken for bots and banned. Is there truth to this? And again, how can we protect ourselves from being mistaken for a bot?

Thanks in advance if you get to my question!

As far as I know, if you buy or sell stuff for reasonable values, you'll be ok. There are so many items being bought and sold in the marketplace, that asking moderators to check every one of them is an impossible task.

crazy spork i am

Tidus Guado

Anonymous XflYWrXB6

This just in;

What if you admins and devs had your genders swapped for a day? Would it be chaotic in the buildings, or would you guys just drearily go about your day as normal?

NO!!!
The mental images!!!

But it would be funny as hell if that happened.

well, fulltimefailure and your-father's-belt have been prone to wear my coats and jackets from time to time here at work. i got to put little bows on their hair one time too during lunch, hehehe.

crazy spork i am

Reels

It was warm till Sunday, and then it got rather windy over here. The highest it got today with 54. D:>
My weekend was rather uneventful. I finally got to see Sweeney Todd, though. biggrin

How do you guys feel about musicals?

i like musicals although i'm not too familiar with a lot of them. :3

Lanzer

Gatta Forte

My weekend was great, thanks, Lanzer! A bit boring and cooler than usual, but great.

Anyway, I can see a prom theme going on here. Will we both see NPCs in an actual plot and a chance to be formal? Also, what's your favorite soda? And, considering my cat is right next to me, I must ask... do you like cats (either the virtual kind or the real and fuzzy kind)?

Also, on a personal note, thanks for the unban of this account after a hacking. Please thank all admins involved for me, thanks! Also, thanks for the unisex question, it's what we've been waiting for! biggrin

This really should be stickied, it's a regular old thread right now...

There will be NPC, and some funny things happening, and probably nice dresses... eek

I've been drinking Orangina daily now, it's addicting!

I'm a dog person myself, though I love cats too.

eek

crazy spork i am

Lissianthus

crazy spork i am

LabTech David

3- You Play Nintendo Ds? if So what's your Favorite Game?

i was into animal crossing for a while. i like open ended games that i can easily pick up/put down that doesn't have a goal. that way i can just immerse myself in the environment :3

OMG...I love Animal Crossing! Wild World not as much, but I have great hopes for the Wii edition. I hope we don't have to wait forever. Is there ever a game that you get really excited about but the creator won't even confirm when it's coming out?

maybe me not so much but i know kirby has been looking forward to fallout 3. i like to watch games rather than play so i don't really keep track of releases of games. kirby does that for the two of us biggrin

crazy spork i am

Ruriku

crazy spork i am

Ruriku

crazy spork i am

i was into animal crossing for a while. i like open ended games that i can easily pick up/put down that doesn't have a goal. that way i can just immerse myself in the environment :3

I wanted to get that game D:

Only problem is, xD I don't own a DS (but my sister does >3> )

I'm more of a PSP person. And speaking of PSP, Did you guys saw the trailer/got that new game Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core.

o3o super-belated Prequel of FF7 ftw~

hehehe kirby is already playing that one, it's so much fun to watch! i own a ds but not a psp, hehehe. but since we share anyways it's almost like owning both :3

:0 Save for a PSP. It has internets xD (Yes, I use it to e-mail and check my pm's when I don't have a laptop razz ) Plus that new PSP game (got released a couple of weeks ago) is just teh pwn.

...

I need to get a darn Wii Dx Everyone has teh new Super Smash Bros game but me~ Y_Y

i guess if i really wanted it i would get one, but in the meantime kirby and i have no problems sharing biggrin i get into like bursts of playing games and then a big drought of doing other things while he's a better gamer than i am. i like watching so in the end it works out nicely biggrin

i have been bugging him to get me a pink psp one!

crazy spork i am

x_redbird

crazy spork i am

x_redbird

It sounds like you and kirby do things a lot like me an' my fiance. XD

We're currently working on the PS2 port of Silent Hill Origins. Ever played any silent Hill?

we love the silent hill series. my favorite will always be silent hill 2! i'd never play it but i make an excellent back seat player, hahaha.

Yeah--I'm sure my fiance gets tired of my back seat playing sometimes, but he's too nice to say anything. "Did you check that door?" "Yes." "What about that one?"

SH2 was fantastic! Definitely one of the best of the series. Have you seen the movie?

i own the movie and i'll occasionally watch it here at while i work. i really like the soundtrack and i'm glad they kept that in the movie.

i'm a lot better at navigating than him so it works out nicely when he's stuck. otherwise he's the brute force and i'm just there to tell him what to do >:3

Lanzer

tehrin

Whoo! I actually made it for one of these. And not on some obscure page burried in the middle. biggrin

My weekend was... busy with work and then homework.

Question Time~

- A lot of our advertisement here seems to be aimed specifically for teenagers. For example, on the Battle site it states (or stated? I haven't looked lately) "Millions of Teens". As well as a lot of other quotes that can be found here and there. While I do realize that it's important to advertise to your target audience, is there or will there be any considerations made at all, for the userbase who is over their teenage years? There's quite a large number of us who are adults and enjoy this website as much, if not more, than some teenagers. Sometimes I feel like I'm very piegeon-holed into being a teenybopper because I'm a Gaian. I think we'd all like to see less quotes of "Millions of Teens" and more of "Millions of Users" or "Members".

And...

- Any possibility of putting more Gaia avatar items into the real shops? I would love to wear some real winged anklets. :3

Gaia is a site for teens and young adults. 80% of Gaians are teens, while 40% of us are 18+ (adults), so if one is forced to over generalized, one might end up saying "teens", but the longer version is teens and young adults. :O

Merchandise wise, we're coming up with a few more items, no anklets though, sorry. Though we'll be brainstorming some more later.

This answer was followed by a few people pointing out that 80% + 40% > 100%, followed by a few other people explaining that there's overlap because 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds fit in both groups.

Lanzer

Reiss Wind

Well I was about to go hop in the shower then crawl in bed for the night...
But Ask the Admin!! :'D

I forgot to add:
Some people (meeee) like things you can do with different skins. For example... with the vampire skin + superior form, it deletes eyes (yay), so equipping a tattoo lets you be a little more creative. Hence my current avatar.

But at the same time, I don't like the things you can do with this skin. So my thing is: as long as you were a user then, can it be a switch picking what skin you want? Even if you have to do the work all over again...

I actually don't have too much to share about how we plan to handle new skin since that's still being planned. There should be something released by around summer time.

Sagger-AT3

Hyperdryve

I seem to have been skipped over. In simple terms, I am wondering about this statement, "We have carefully researched your account and have found that it was indeed banned for botting."

I am afraid if the only careful research was researching what the computer said I did. Please calm my fears and tell me more is done than that.

I am not familiar with your specific case, but usually more is done then just verifying that some field in some database is like

nonbot [ ] bot [x]

Lanzer

Alexie dennison Jnr

Lanzer, sweetie, One qwestion....

I'm an anatomist at heart (I love anatomy)

I just realised, MY KNEE CAPS ARE TOO HIGH!
They are arround my Bajingo....can you explain why my femers are short on my avatar?
and not long? The way they are supposed to be?

It's because we need to wear big boots! biggrin

crazy spork i am

|jessie|

What candy/snack in Snacktopia runs out the most or fastest?

snickers maybe. like people are always looking for those and one day we were poking around in the cabinets and found this secret stash of them O_o

Lanzer

Utakan

Hiya Lanzer!

My weekend was busy. I got to go to the opera and see Don Giovanni. Anyone at the office like opera?

My questions:

Do you think there's a chance you could set up a system that requires an e-mail confirmation for password and e-mail changing? With the former being you need confirmation from your old e-mail to change to the new? I know it'd be hard for those who lose their old e-mail accounts, but it might cut down the chance of hacking accounts.

Also:
Can we have the system back that, when you put someone on ignore, they can't post in topics you've posted in? I've gotten harassers and I can't ignore them because they still can post where I am to harass me, and I want to be able to report them.

Hope everyone at Gaia HQ is doing well. Give the nearest admin a hug for me!

We're actually looking into something like that I think. Let me confirm with the team. I did remember we can't do that for email change since many times users change email because they've lost access to their old email system.

Thank you for the suggestion

Lanzer

Ben Tigre

I'll shoot a question towards ya, Lanzer.

Can we expect more celebrities to make appearances like John Cena and the Cary Brothers?

We can't tell how popular one celebrity is over another, so we've been really careful. Rather we're looking at having more book authors instead.

Lanzer

ASA Bar

Hello to all of the admins! Thank you for taking the time to talk to the community through this thread. biggrin

I have a question about protecting ourselves from botted gold and botted items, and being mistaken for a bot. How can we detect which items on the marketplace or the exchange forum are actually botted items? Will there ever be a designated person in the future who will be willing to check our items to make sure that they are legitamate?

Also, I have heard that people who use mules to transfer money around are being mistaken for bots and banned. Is there truth to this? And again, how can we protect ourselves from being mistaken for a bot?

Thanks in advance if you get to my question!

Users who paid a legit amount of gold for an item will never be punished in any ways. Transactions might be reversed if the item was hacked, but that's pretty much it.

The banning process starts with locating botting activities, not the activity of funneling items and gold, so that can't really happen...

crazy spork i am

Zweizi Galon

Oh! eek

Good evening crazy spork i am! biggrin

I was wondering, one of my favorite series, both anime and video game wise, is the .hack series. I'm currently wrapping up the .hack//ROOTS anime and volume 3 of G.U.!

My question is, are there any fans of the .hack series among the Gaia staff?

Right now in Japan they are starting serialization of a new .hack series, the .hack//LINk manga. Any chance Gaia might pick up on this and do a promotional sponsorship? biggrin

i played a little bit back when it first came out but i couldn't get into it. i guess it was too expansive and it was too overwhelming for me, hahhah. i either like really open ended games or really linear games...heh. i'm too picky!

Lanzer

RyuRecon

Question time....
1.What do you expect for the future of Gaia, Lanzer?
2.How was the weekend?
3.Are you going to do anything about the scam problem? Probably remove the Tiny Url stuff? Hopefully
4.Are you going to be more active on Gaia?
5.SoftBall team, how are they?
6.[Question will be ignored NO DUH!]In the future, is there a possable chance I can be your friend?

I'll try to answer that in my upcoming journal entry

Hot!

Yeah we're working on that too. Security fixes.

I'm planning to spend more time in Towns also along with other devs, but first there are a few projects I wish to follow through.

We're getting more practice, but we're still a very new team. So every game is very tense. biggrin

I might change my setting pretty soon. wink

I'm being summoned again... Have a great week everyone!

crazy spork i am

Timmy-Kun

Also, do any of you play DDR, like Heavy or Standard? biggrin

i used to play it a lot back during my high school days. my girl friends and i would dress to the nines and then hit up all the arcades around the area to play DDR. i got to learn to play in heels >:3

[crazy spork i am]

oddguy

Oh, lemme clarify. While making these things for sponsorships is fine and all, as well made it is and as hard as you try to make it look nice, it's like visiting your parents: pleasant but with the vague feeling that you'd rather not be there after a while. I'd like to see something that folks would be able to enjoy without feeling uneasy and having to justify it to themselves by saying that it's all going towards development and that we'll see the results a year later after the dissatisfaction eventually breaks the deal for a lot of people. Some sort of new content that's not linked to an outside deal and is actually a part of Gaia. Like....snowballs, or something. Just something to prove me wrong and instill some sort of faith in Gaia again. Evolving items and returning the orphans was a good start, but there's probably something that could make us forget about all the stuff that's been whined about lately. Easter was supposed to be that thing, but the ball was dropped on that one. What if those eggs turned out to be awesome? It would make a lot of people shut up. People are comparing Gaia to Neopets. This isn't a good sign.

Sure, we've had a lot of nice things from sponsorships, and some of the ads were actually good and it didn't feel like they were trying to change us (MTV was sorta creepy, you probably should have toned down the immersiveness of that one), but when it looks like ALL the new content is coming from sponsorships (totally not true, but at the same time people think it), I think at some point there needs to be a demonstration of where that work is going.

Spork, I'm not blaming you for anything, or expect more out of you than what you're putting out. You do great work and and nobody should be asking anything more than that of you. I find that you keep saying that you have no idea about the questions that people ask, and I think you don't have to tell them that you don't play a part in those decisions aside from the graphical work. Maybe we need to get some devs into the next session. It wouldn't kill the deadlines if they spent half an hour talking to the people without us having to find them and annoy the heck out of them while they're taking a break like hordes of paparazzi.

~ hours later edit

WOW. It's like he either read this or is telepathic. Nice save, Lanzer. Nice save.

it's difficult for me to see sponsorships as like visiting parents...to me it's about finding the middle ground on having space (and funds, i guess) to do the things we're able to do. to me sponsorships (or the ones i get to participate in every now and then) are kinda like the commercial spots and/or ad campaigns that you can see during the super bowl. a lot of time and effort are expended for those spots and people like to see them because of the creative merit that goes into them; the ad themselves are almost secondary. it feels similar to me in that respect when we get to do a 'game' of sorts like rally with scion (i actually didn't do the MTV one). i'm not too sure about items because other artists handle those areas. but with bigger sponsorships (especially ones that we build in flash) i always try to add some incentive for users to want to come and check out.

the reason why i don't answer the questions i'm not familiar with is because a lot of it has to do on the dev end; like why this doesn't work or why that doesn't work. i don't want to step on the toes of the people i work with and i also don't want to give out misleading information that will come back and haunt me (as i've seen it happen often). unfortunately the position i'm in also prevents me from saying much about the projects i do work in as well. more devs would certainly be fun and engaging but in the end a lot of people are really busy. and more often than not a few of them don't want to participate because of the negativity and bad speculation; it's hard to be engaging when you're forced to constantly be on the defensive. so in a way it can kill the deadline or at least motivation on working on a project, heh.

i also like answering questions that aren't always gaia-centric. to me i like having time to spend talking with users about a lot of things, both gaia and not.

i do like the idea of more events and more things that aren't sponsorship related. right now with how gaia is expanding inevitably there's going to be a lot of growing pains involved.