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and where did I say leave? Nowhere , I said take a break which is different. Sometimes you must step away from a computer if you’re getting too involved. The OP seems to hate everything here ,so I suggested a break in which they can clear their head, come back and see if they feel the same. Yes, they’ve always been for that , and that’s your opinion on what they do. They ‘re designed to take gold out of the system , much like Gold shops do and the MP tax. So yes, in away they fight inflation with the removal of gold > ALthough you may be correct that all they do now is slow things down.




I have to agree with you Tissue, right now they may not be working as well as they want. WHich is most likely why they have a ton of them to make up for that. Or at least, they’re trying to make up for that since they refuse to stop selling. gold generators

Are people in these sites? I've taken to lurking but they seem deserted. However, I am using Gaia's user load as a basis and that may not be fair.

I'm just wondering at this point if Gaia survived having happy members but not having a lot of money. Even happy members can still be non-buying members. I'm curious to see if rainbows can indeed sustain a site this big or maybe they have to downsize.

Seems like they have for 10 years that way, which probably didn't work well for them either. It's a fine balancing act to grow a business and keep customer retention at the same time. Gaia is just failing at it right now. I don't mind Gaia making money, but they are so limited in how they are doing it. I mean they could sell products that don't piss users off like the GGs. Gaians would love to have new fish, new furniture, new fishing poles, new rally cars, and new zOMG! items too. I secretly would love to have a TARDIS to race in rallies. I think Gaia likened itself to a pool with a snack bar. So in a sense, no point of using the pool if it isn't maintained well and dirty. The site provides a service, so if they just provide the snack bar aka the cash shop and don't maintain the pool aka the site as a whole, people will tend to leave and find another pool. Anyway it's possible to make money and keep Gaians happy at the same time. Numerous of larger business than Gaia have done it, Gaia is more than capable to do the same. If Gaia had really played its cards right, it could have been as popular as the Sims franchise by now. Gaia has the potential of being popular and profitable, they just need to get the motivation to do it. Bringing back the ATS is a good start and hopefully it brings more positive changes. I guess Gaia needs to blend a little bit of the old Gaia with the new Gaia to make a really cool site to visit. I wish there were more social features of the site. Non-buying members can turn into buying members. I myself abuse Gaia cash offers to death. I may not spend my own money on items, but Gaia still gets profit from me whenever I make a purchase. I did see a lot of auto-cash subscribers cancel their subscription with that 133T thread. That was a mess.

Anyway on topic I know we can't prevent members from leaving or spending/not spending on the site. But we should be providing a welcoming community for future Gaians to visit at least. Whether Gaia makes money or not is not our responsibility, it is Gaia's. They are a business, not a charity case. I feel sad for Gaians that are so stressed about items, gold, and whether or not the site will survive or not. All they should be worrying about is how silly and fun an experience they can have on the site. I'm just happy I've made quite a lot of long lasting friendships through Gaia. Site and items may stay or go away, but those friendships won't. It's just nice to know there are so many cool and different people on the site.

Yeah I couldn't agree more. It is interesting to see how funding from sponsors has transferred to users now. I guess what I meant is yes Gaia has to make money, but if Gaians aren't spending because of being bored on the site, then it's Gaia's responsibility to give Gaians a reason to spend their money. It's like Gaia can't expect Gaians to spend money and get a poor service in return forever. It only works for so long. I hope things like the ticketing service gets improved. Standard business response is 2 days with most companies and took Gaia 18 days to respond to a ticket I did to test out the response time. Yes free stuff is always wonderful, especially those free grants. I know shareholders are important to Gaia, but the community should be as well. There is a lot of compromise I think both Gaia and users can do to make a better site. I guess we can only hope for the best for the future. smile