We can't help your newbies if you won't help them.

[Tea Elf]

Ebania

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

@ Beers and Weirs: Actually, yes! I'll send you a PM with more information about donating, if you'd like. I don't want to broadcast it here. But yes, you're right. As of right now, newbies have very few options in earning gold.

Okay thank you! Feel free to pm me. heart

[Ebania]

Legal bump. Will be sending out those PMs soon! Thanks, all.

[Ebania]

Legal bump!

[Errol Havok]

I was worried about committing thread necromancy, until I saw the last post was made today.

This thread. All of this thread. Everything about this thread. It has put into words what I was unable to adequately express.

(Previously, I resorted to a mix of growling and loud swearing, intermingled with the phrase "My gods, what are they thinking?" to communicate my disappointment, frustration and disgust with what is happening in the marketplace.)

But this...! It is impossible to better describe the situation.

I lament for the state of the site, and for the state of it's gold based economy. I've been here off and on since about 2005. My screen names and accounts have changed, but I've been here for quite some time. I've seen it grow, watched things evolve and change and get better, and looked on as other things devolved and got worse, or disappeared entirely. I've spent years playing games, farming gold in Towns and the MMO, participating in forums and RP's, helping to create some of the best fantasy based writing I've ever written (and reading some of the best I've ever laid eyes on.)

There feels like there is an active effort to devalue the gold unit. And I refuse to pay money for something I can't actually own. Maybe that, in itself, is the reason why there is this hard push for people to buy-buy-buy, and to send money in to the site. But I simply can't justify spending money on what essentially amounts to nothing. :d

[Darius Runan]

Not bashing the AURB but....

It sure speaks volumes when they help a group that didn't even ask for help from the staff instead of helping a group dedicated to helping newbies and make a survey saying they need feedback without reading SF.

Some staff we've got here.

[Raining_Nights]

Darius Runan

Not bashing the AURB but....

It sure speaks volumes when they help a group that didn't even ask for help from the staff instead of helping a group dedicated to helping newbies and make a survey saying they need feedback without reading SF.

Some staff we've got here.

This comment is partly just to bump up the thread, but maybe it's because an event (that Gaia themselves don't even have to create) is easier to get people excited for, and to monetize and promote their gold generators?

[Darius Runan]

Raining_Nights

Darius Runan

Not bashing the AURB but....

It sure speaks volumes when they help a group that didn't even ask for help from the staff instead of helping a group dedicated to helping newbies and make a survey saying they need feedback without reading SF.

Some staff we've got here.

This comment is partly just to bump up the thread, but maybe it's because an event (that Gaia themselves don't even have to create) is easier to get people excited for, and to monetize and promote their gold generators?

In other words, exploit.

I see them giving off a noble appearance to make themselves look like they care about the community in order to get sales, personally.

[Hat-tori]

I heavily advise you to go and help out the anti-cash thread with as much of your guild that is willing. Gaia needs to learn, and you folks are probably the best to lead the charge, as it were.

[Raining_Nights]

Darius Runan

In other words, exploit.

I see them giving off a noble appearance to make themselves look like they care about the community in order to get sales, personally.

Kinda like what they did with that recent feedback survey, and even that appeared to be cash-oriented. The little text box for their open-ended question about what we'd like to see more will probably be easily ignored. After all, they can't even double-check spelling in their announcements, or whether they've even put the correct date for some of their many sales. And if they can't see the most common complaints in Site Feedback, they're not gonna see it in the surveys either. sad That one hurts more. That gave a little spark of hope, which I'm sure will dwindle as time passes and we're disappointed once again.

[Ebania]

When we seek spotlights on the homepage, we do so via email; I'm sure that they probably do something similar, or having a working agreement with the Administration.

I'm actually kind of happy that they're helping user-run events that focus on improving site morale and our Gaian experience without a price tag attached. Tying it to a goldsink? A little sketchy to me, I agree.

Darius Runan

Not bashing the AURB but....

It sure speaks volumes when they help a group that didn't even ask for help from the staff instead of helping a group dedicated to helping newbies and make a survey saying they need feedback without reading SF.

Some staff we've got here.

[Ebania]

As much as I resent the Gaia Cash pushes as of late, I'm actually not against Gaia Cash; I'm against gold generators, and thankfully, we have started a campaign in our guild in order to educate members about the realities of gold generators and how they affect the entire site. I strongly agree with you, however: if long-term change should occur, it will start with us, the users, and choosing where (and when) to spend our hard-earned money.

Hat-tori

I heavily advise you to go and help out the anti-cash thread with as much of your guild that is willing. Gaia needs to learn, and you folks are probably the best to lead the charge, as it were.

[Errol Havok]

On the topic of gold sinks, I'd like to say this.

Gold sinks are a band-aid on a bloodied stump. At this point, I don't think that any sort of (voluntary) gold sink can or will repair the damage done.

I think if there is ever to be a return to normalcy, shutting the marketplace and peer-to-peer trading systems down and actually going into people's accounts and removing gold currency from circulation would be the simplest fix. And of course, they would have to stop releasing gold generators.

With less gold in circulation, and the inability for users to manipulate it's value, we might see it actually gain strength rather than continue to lose value.

But, I'm basically 115% certain that something so radical, no matter how necessary, will (probably) never happen. Of course, it would require those powers-at-be to care enough about their imaginary economy and their user's experience on the site to change anything. And the removal and discontinuation of items like Flynn's (insert sexual innuendo here) would at least marginally cut into their profits. So... yeah. :p

[Ebania]

Though we might never return to pre-Flynn levels, I think that we can at least reach some level of stability with gold generators gone; that much is true, for sure. The fact that expensive items are in the billions now is ridiculous in itself, but what's worse is that they climb so quickly that it's extraordinarily hard to keep up, unless you are extremely wealthy on this site or have a lot of disposable income.

Errol Havok

On the topic of gold sinks, I'd like to say this.

Gold sinks are a band-aid on a bloodied stump. At this point, I don't think that any sort of (voluntary) gold sink can or will repair the damage done.

I think if there is ever to be a return to normalcy, shutting the marketplace and peer-to-peer trading systems down and actually going into people's accounts and removing gold currency from circulation would be the simplest fix. And of course, they would have to stop releasing gold generators.

With less gold in circulation, and the inability for users to manipulate it's value, we might see it actually gain strength rather than continue to lose value.

But, I'm basically 115% certain that something so radical, no matter how necessary, will (probably) never happen. Of course, it would require those powers-at-be to care enough about their imaginary economy and their user's experience on the site to change anything. And the removal and discontinuation of items like Flynn's (insert sexual innuendo here) would at least marginally cut into their profits. So... yeah. :p

[Ebania]

Legal bump!

[Errol Havok]

I've essentially resigned myself to being at the bottom rung once again. My account as it stands, pre-flynn, is worth a few million. But with how inflation has taken off, it might as well be worth nothing. Even if I sold all my items on the market tomorrow, I would be no further ahead by the day after.

I have pretty much everything I want at this rate anyway, so I have no real need to keep up, but it pains me to know that should that ever change there would be essentially nothing I could do about it. There simply aren't enough hours in the day.