Gaia is NOT in the red.

[ZNK]

Well if Gaia has a CEO, wouldn't they then have a Board of Trusties of some sort? Probably made up of the Gaia staff departments?

So wouldn't the CEO be hired by the Board?  

[kikirin~sakyomi]

hmmm...is that true? I don't think the Board that hired him was made entirely of Gaia's Devs and founders though, if you ask me. It was either that or Craig Sherman's expertise wooed them over.

Because, I really think that you can't talk about Gaia's "In the red" without also mentioning him and the comments he made

On a side note, I'm taking a more in-depth stab at this issue in the SF Forum, but I don't know how fast it'll get CB or deleted, let alone even acknowledge. I have a bad tendency of making sure I have a detailed, slightly long argument. *sigh*  

[O.T.L.]

Yamato1

ugh... it's bullshit like that what makes my stomach curdle like 3-months-past milk. This guy is a schmuck through and through. How the hell did he get hired, again?

Unfortunately, he was apparently very successful at his previous jobs, which is often all that is necessary in the business world. (Heck, given that CEOs that run their companies right into the ground still have no problem finding high-paying jobs at other companies, being a successful CEO means you're probably pretty much guaranteed to find someone willing to hire you...)  

[kikirin~sakyomi]

hmmm...

but I'm wondering-what about this thread and Fleep's journal? Or are all those inflated figures?  

[Andromeda Phoenix]

I don't really believe any financial information posted on Gaia anymore. I'm pretty sure that they can't give out exact documents and numbers concerning how much they make and how much Gaia costs to run. So, while I can't prove they aren't in the red, anyone who believes Gaia is in the red has yet to prove to me with some for of official documentation proving this. It's all estimated numbers when I see any thread trying to prove they're in the red, and like our parents tell us (or like mine tell me at least), everyone on the internet is probably lying. sweatdrop How am I to know they aren't lying when they say they are in the red? If they really are in the red, for me, they're doing a baaaaadddd job of showing it.  

[O.T.L.]

kikirin~sakyomi

hmmm...

but I'm wondering-what about this thread and Fleep's journal? Or are all those inflated figures?

Well, the thread creator says she has no access to actual figures, so there's no reason to believe the figures she cites. (Plus, she refers to Gaia only making "a few thousand" off sponsorships, whereas Sherman claims Gaia makes a six-figure minimum off a single sponsorship, so that right there kinda shoots down a good portion of her argument...)

(I can't say for sure, but I don't really know of any reason why Gaia technically couldn't release their sales and expense figures. Being a private company, they're not required to (a publicly held corporation usually has to release that information, but not a private company), but that doesn't mean they legally can't. It's possible there's some other contractual reason they can't, but I haven't seen anything stating such.)  

[UPC Betsy]

O.T.L.

kikirin~sakyomi

hmmm...

but I'm wondering-what about this thread and Fleep's journal? Or are all those inflated figures?

Well, the thread creator says she has no access to actual figures, so there's no reason to believe the figures she cites. (Plus, she refers to Gaia only making "a few thousand" off sponsorships, whereas Sherman claims Gaia makes a six-figure minimum off a single sponsorship, so that right there kinda shoots down a good portion of her argument...)

(I can't say for sure, but I don't really know of any reason why Gaia technically couldn't release their sales and expense figures. Being a private company, they're not required to (a publicly held corporation usually has to release that information, but not a private company), but that doesn't mean they legally can't. It's possible there's some other contractual reason they can't, but I haven't seen anything stating such.)

I think people like Fleep have said it is illegal to make official documents like that public. It probably has something to do with privacy between sponsor and client, although I could be completely wrong.  

[O.T.L.]

Possibly, although Fleep says a lot of things that likely aren't true, so I don't know...  

[ZNK]

Just like to point out that dark knight fish are no longer in Booty Grab. So that was obviously a scheme to get people to buy the expensive fish for a while...  

[[ .NK. ]]

kikirin~sakyomi

hmmm...

but I'm wondering-what about this thread and Fleep's journal? Or are all those inflated figures?

Ugh, I'm so sick of contradictory information coming from Fin. Or from any of the staff, on any subject. I just can't keep up with it anymore. One minute one of them says one thing, then someone else says something else. One minute Fin is bragging that they make "well over $1m a month, then it's "a little more than". One minute they're expecting record sales in December, then they're firing staff.

If they're really doing so badly, you would think they'd realize that they're doing things poorly right now and need to do better. But even that hasn't changed, all they're doing is releasing more and more items and frustrating their users further.

Siiiiiiigh. I give up. All of that research, just for them to completely change all of the information.  

[jaggedbubbles]

[ .NK. ]

kikirin~sakyomi

hmmm...

but I'm wondering-what about this thread and Fleep's journal? Or are all those inflated figures?

Ugh, I'm so sick of contradictory information coming from Fin. Or from any of the staff, on any subject. I just can't keep up with it anymore. One minute one of them says one thing, then someone else says something else. One minute Fin is bragging that they make "well over $1m a month, then it's "a little more than". One minute they're expecting record sales in December, then they're firing staff.

If they're really doing so badly, you would think they'd realize that they're doing things poorly right now and need to do better. But even that hasn't changed, all they're doing is releasing more and more items and frustrating their users further.

Siiiiiiigh. I give up. All of that research, just for them to completely change all of the information.

If only we knew if their chief financial officer had an account! xD

In all seriousness, Gaia has been saying they're in the red since before the recession.  

[Architect Eyes]

jaggedbubbles

In all seriousness, Gaia has been saying they're in the red since before the recession.

But if that's true then... I'm really curious as to how they'd be staying afloat, according to what OTL said - there's no way they'd still be around if they've been in the red that long.

I understand stuff's stressful, but my mom works with handicapped people all day, and she doesn't get to shoot Nerf balls at her coworkers, nor does she get catered lunches, nor does she get a company Wii, nor do they have office space decorating contests. So I can't help but feel like they've put their priorities in the wrong places. It's nice if they want to do that and have the extra money to do so, but if they don't, then obviously things need to get shifted around, you know?

Perhaps I'm just jealous they get to do all that stuff at work.

I've been here long enough, though, that I would appreciate some respect from the staff and have some consistency. If communication amongst staff members is that bad, then something needs to change, and fast, or else their current business model isn't going to keep them afloat long.  

[jaggedbubbles]

Architect Eyes

jaggedbubbles

In all seriousness, Gaia has been saying they're in the red since before the recession.

But if that's true then... I'm really curious as to how they'd be staying afloat, according to what OTL said - there's no way they'd still be around if they've been in the red that long.

I understand stuff's stressful, but my mom works with handicapped people all day, and she doesn't get to shoot Nerf balls at her coworkers, nor does she get catered lunches, nor does she get a company Wii, nor do they have office space decorating contests. So I can't help but feel like they've put their priorities in the wrong places. It's nice if they want to do that and have the extra money to do so, but if they don't, then obviously things need to get shifted around, you know?

Perhaps I'm just jealous they get to do all that stuff at work.

I've been here long enough, though, that I would appreciate some respect from the staff and have some consistency. If communication amongst staff members is that bad, then something needs to change, and fast, or else their current business model isn't going to keep them afloat long.

Nerf gun fights and a Wii aren't very high expenses in the long run (catering is another story unless it's from Subway or an equivalent). Those are short term costs unless you're taking into account the morale boost of the employees.

But I digress, it's true that if they haven't been making a profit for so long that they would most likely have gone under already.  

[kikirin~sakyomi]

I heard form someone who used to run a website that you can operate in the red for a while, but if you do so for too long then you'll get shut down. He didn't tell me how long is too long, but even he said something's a bit fishy if they're still operating this long at a loss.

I'm sure other people would love to play games in the office and such but do most people get to do that? No. It's like what my band teacher says when someone doesn't show up for 1a-"I'm sure everyone else here would have liked to get an extra hour of sleep. If you were in the real world and had a job, you'd be fired"

As far as Fleep is concerned, some of my friends say that he/she is just someone who gets paid well to walk the walk and talk the talk. He mentioned something about some long time employee FFBQ or something who wasn't very happy and was "misguided" in some way from what they were saying about the company and why they left. Dunno, but if anyone knows exactly what this person said, I guess that would be an interesting thing to note.

And yes, supposedly there's these contracts that are like non-disclosure agreements or something that bars Gaia form revealing exactly how much their getting from certain sponsors, but I have yet to see if that still applies.  

[Slytherin Lord]

One thing thought is if gaia wasn't in debt why did the government of California have gaia layoff 15% of it's workforce. They can do that to keep their money coming in to the gov't.