Welcome to Gaia! :: Posts By User Unknown User | Forum

Oh, and if this marketplace thing goes on and stays, I am willing to bet you 1000g, Sir Ichigo, that trades will be next.

I give it 6 months or less.

Um...You don't lose 2% of your profit. You'll lose 2% of the sale price.

That means even if you take a loss on an item, you will still be charged 2% of that sale.

Sorry.

Okay, so it's already clear that a 2% fee in marketplace is unfair, and would, if implemented, mean that the admins are breaking their word.

I have a solution that would get gold out of the market without tampering with the market: a universal residence fee.

All Gaia users must be charged 1 to 2% of their gold balance every month. That is fair because everyone pays it, not just vendors, and everyone suffers or reaps the benefits together.

For some folks, that means losing alot of gold...but at least you wouldn't be alone, and you wouldn't be losing on every sale.

To me, this is a crap idea compared to other things that could be done, but I think it is a good way of seeing who's really committed to this fee thing and who's not.

If you wouldn't be willing to give up 2% of your gold, then don't ask me to give up 2% of mine.

Ah...so when it's you who might be losing gold as well, you're not so keen to just give it up.

Well consider that the vendor doesn't even get an item that they may or may not want. They get nothing at all.

If you wouldn't be willing to give up 2% of yours, don't ask me to give up 2% of mine.

There are other ways to remove gold from the system...How about a universally applied 2% conversion of everybody's current gold balance to some sort of community item.

At least that would be fair and wouldn't require villainizing vendors, specifically donor members who are also vendors. It's something that would be done to everyone every month or every quarter, and wouldn't require breaking their word or hogwash justifications other than simple economics.

Marketplace isn't the cause of the overabundance of gold. Items don't come from out of nowhere, and nor does the gold. It's awarded by the system. People in marketplace are selling items they got from the system for gold that was gotten from the same system. If the system is giving folks too much gold who aren't actually participating or playing to earn it, it has *nothing* to do with the users. Nothing has changed about the users except that they have more gold to spend.

It hasn't changed because of the users. It changed because the admins got the bright idea to keep giving away gold for non participation.

Getting rid of the daily chance and no more gold just for surfing would do alot more against inflation than a 2% fee in marketplace.

...but that would require that the admins admit that this is their fault, and not the fault of the donors (who encouraged the sponsors with their glowing reports and linkage, and who spent actual money over the years to keep Gaia afloat).

How long do you think Gaia would keep their sponsors if nobody will link to them without their paying them to?

So what you're saying is that if they decided out of the blue to put a banner on all the fishing sites that says, "Sir Ichigo is an a**!", you simply wouldn't fish, and wouldn't b***h about it?

This isn't just about the MP. This is about the donor members who sell their MC's (not just to make gold but because we understand that not everybody here has a credit card) being called greedy villains who are to blame for the "inflation problem".

...but that intervention doesn't need to be a 2% fee.

If I pay listing fees on eBay, those fees are tax deductable. I get all of it back in my tax refund, or I get it taken off of what I have to pay the government...so basically I get it all back.

Nobody would be getting back this 2% fee. It will not improve the site in any way, bring about any better service, cooler items, etc.

What *does* bring better service to this site is the real dollars it receives from donor members and sponsors.

Yet, Gaia is willing to screw both in order to control inflation that doesn't exist.

There would be a case for inflation if single flower bouquets cost 150+g or if the Scion Bling necklace had already jumped to an LBP of 500+.

Look up the LBP of any level of flower bouquets, guppy caps, and a hoarde of other common, exchange, and event items that are and always will be dirt cheap or extremely reasonably priced.

If the prices of these were going up astronomically, then it could be said that there is an inflation problem. Hell, the Labu necklace barely stays around 100, and it actually had two modes of wear.

The "problem" is that people who don't understand that this is a game, don't want to play to earn the gold to get the higher end items. Natural increase in market value due to greater rarity or cool factor gets labelled as "inflation".

Inflation is the buzzword to get the sheeple's panties in a bunch. It's something with evil implications that villainizes the very people who spent their actual dollars to help build this site up, and who put links on our websites to raise this site's status, and who brought our kids here because it was a safe but not smothering place to play.

We get slapped in the face and assumptions made about our very real personalities, and told "thanks for the money now go f*ck yourselves" because some people can't see the difference between a freakin' RPG and real life.

This is why we're angry...because it *was* a game until someone insulted us and decided to create a pseudo tax to punish us for crimes that until it was convenient for a witch hunt, weren't crimes at all.

What a very sheep like reaction to people disagreeing with authoritaaah.

Besides, even the president of the U.S. doesn't tax for losses, and doesn't even consider income less than $500 per year taxable at all.

If this 2% fee is imposed, it won't be taking 2% off of people's profits. It'll be taking 2% off the sale price, which may or may not include any profit at all.

For low priced items sold for 1 or 2 gold, how are they going to take 2% off of that?

There are many problems with a 2% fee. So...folks are having a problem with it.

Perhaps your problem is that you don't like to have to think, and it disturbs you that people around you don't have a problem thinking and don't eat b.s. just because they're told to.

You should consider a career as a hall monitor.

Seems like the thing to do, but the deflation they predict may not actually happen. I'm thinking maybe I'll liquidate half of my stock of collectibles and event items now, and then wait to see what happens.

The reason why is because if there's some creepy personality conflict/underconfidence problems going on, then they're sold on the 2% and will hold onto that as the solution. They'll go into denial and refuse other solutions that have come up during this debate simply because they were brought up during this debate. Deflation may not happen, or may not happen in the way they expected.

If on the other hand, the 2% is just the beginning, or if it fails, and other really good gold sink ideas come up, deflation will happen. Numerical prices will go down, but the value of g's will go up.

There is also still the apocalypse scenario to consider.

Gaia just may fall from alienating its old members who will not only stop buying MC,s but stop browing the site as much...you know, traffic killing things that will cause Gaia to lose favor with their sponsors.

Gaia could lose money from this and either go bust or sell the business.

If they go bust then well...that's it. End of the game.

If they sell, then the nature of Gaia could change dramatically.

Nobody really knows what will happen.