Welcome to Gaia! ::

I fully agree with you. It's sad to say but, I think that Gaia has indeed managed to permanently wreck it's own currency...

Yeah, I know, I pretty much figured it out when the gold gens just kept increasing the amount they gave... it's truly frustrating, but at least there are other avatar sites around, especially since others don't spam their customers with ads that need to be adblocked (I don't use/have adblock though), have all the commons in all the colors, have make-up in the commons shops (one even has it's equivalent of agape's scissors pose in a seasonal commons shop) and let you keep the eyes and hair you buy from the commons store so you can actually buy a lot from those.

The only downside is that since they're not as old and large as Gaia, they don't have as many items (well, one of the ones I'm on, one could argue has a fairly close number of items compared to Gaia's own), games, a marketplace like Gaia's (one of the sites is trying to make one though) and the forums can be dead sometimes.

Omg I love love love your avatar!
Beautiful composure

None of them have a marketplace like Gaia's, but Sapherna is trying to make one like it (Sapherna is also the one that has it's own agape scissors in the commons shop, though the shop is seasonal and will be going away when Summer ends, and will return when Summer does).

Sapherna

It opened up this year so it doesn't have a lot of items, just to give you an idea I'll mention that it only has around.. 5 TYI sets (released on the 1st of each month). It has quite a wide array of colors for it's commons though and beryl is quite a unique color choice in and of itself.

The site seems to also already have something similar to Gaia's Cross Stich as well. So if you're a good enough hobby pixelist you might indeed see your own creation on the site :3. In fact, one person that wasn't on the staff but made some incredible pixel avatar edits was even hired as am official pixelist for the site and has been making some lovely items since :3.

Talking on the forums is a lot more dynamic as well due to the "green bar" feature the site has. this feature means that you needn't refresh in order to see if any new comments have been made, when a new comment is made a bar will appear under the last comment in the thread that you''re seeing, clicking it will show you the new comment. The bar can be a bit buggy sometimes, but, overall it's a fantastic feature :3.

On the down side, you won't be notified when you're quoted or when a thread you've made has new replies. However, there is the chirp feature that, when someone mentions your name (@name) it will notify you and clicking it will take you to the comment in question, you can see the various chirps you've received on the homepage, which also shows you the newest announcement and the last posted in thread, they're updated in real time and you needn't refresh in order for them to update.

The only way to get the site currency there right now is by posting as they currently lack games, but they have one they hope to release in a few weeks smile .

Caedon

It's, I think, newer than Sapherna, TYIs are released on the 15th and both come with 3 color variation/options (yes, within the same TYI/MC), it has more commons compared to Sapherna and 4 TYI sets (the first set is kind of hard to find though when it comes to sellers I think).

They also have a large variety of colors and are planning to add even more as well. The quality of the items is just simply breathtaking and the bases are, in my opinion, simply superb and hands down the most high quality bases around. They also have a lot of skin tones for the bases (no non-human ones [with the exception of grey] yet, though they will be added in a future update from what one of the pixelists told me), right now I've just counted 21 of them.

They don't have a marketplace, and I don't know if they're planning to make one like Gaia's, but they do have a game that they're planning to modify a bit theme-wise so it better suits the site's general theme. They also have the same "green bar" feature that Sapherna has as well. This is due to the fact that both of the sites have risen out of the ashes of a former avatar site know as Crysandrea. Their layout, color-scheme and avatars are very different from each other though. Like-wise, you won't be notified of a thread you subscribed to or made got any new comments, but Caedon also has the chirp feature that does the exact same thing Sapherna's does.

Caedon's staff is very receptive towards user suggestions, and they're currently asking for the users opinion on what to rename the site's common currency, opinions on what colors they'd possibly like to see in the future for items, and even the site's layout and colors! Overall I have the most high-hopes when it comes to Caedon. So if you'd like a site where you can currently influence quite a bit about it then I very much suggest joining Caedon.

Trisphee

The oldest of the sites and has enough items that I feel it can actually compare with Gaia in terms of item variety.

All the TYIs of the site come in 3 color variations, they are released every month on the 1st, the site also has an item RIG that can only be bought for the common currency of the site, it's updated/replaced with a new one every 3 months and is quite a good currency sink.

All of it's commons come in a VERY large variety of colors (let me put it like this, if you think Gaia has a lot of colors and tones, I can assure you that Trisphee has a whole lot more!), all of them with a few exceptions. Also, buying one color when it comes to commons will get you up to 5 tones of said item. Ex: if you buy a common item with the color "basic" you'll get it in 1 gray tone, 2 black and 2 lighter grays/whites, "swamp" will get you 4 kinds of green (and there's even more greens but in differently named colors), "coral", "special" and "faded" all have completely different colors under one "color" name as well.

The event items Trisphee has had in the past and currently are simply breath taking, the artists don't shy away from the transparency tool so every bit of make-up looks good on all the bases.

One of the most unique aspect of Trisphee is the custom layering system, you decided how the items will layer on your avatar, not the site itself. You can even layer background items on it. If you want to layer 4 pairs of eyes on your avatar you can, ditto for hair styles, extensions, fridges, make-up, beards, gloves, dresses, backgrounds etc.

Sadly, it lacks a dream avatar creator, and as it has as many items as it does making one, from what I've been told, is out of the question as it would be too time-consuming, so making an avatar when you have so much to choose from can be hard at first.

Also, it doesn't have a marketplace like Gaia's and the staff doesn't seem to want one either because they fear it might rush in inflation, however, they might, one of these days, actually make one.

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All of these sites have a very nice community and talkative/active in the forums staff as well as 0 inflation. Of them Caedon is the most open to suggestions in my own opinion, all of them keep the user base up-to-date with what's going on as well.

Also, it's perfectly fine to talk about other avatar site on all of them :3.

The downside is that as they're small the forums can go trough brief moments of inactivity.

I'm sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes I may have made.

A good deal of the unicorns are under 1 billion, pretty sweet considering they were some of the rarests until awhile ago.