So I just put in the money to receive my "Halo's Gift".
It was strange because the ad for it was not something I saw on Gaia, but rather, I saw it on Facebook and it kinda lead me back here. The comment-section on Facebook was absolutely brutal...unhappy users, people scoffing at what appeared to be a scam on Gaia's part...and people asking why they should donate to fix the mistakes that staff made.
Most of the comments put simply said: "You made you bed...and now you must lay in it."
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So why did I donate to Gaia?
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I won't lie...a little piece of that was nostalgia. Gaia was my life for so many years. It was a stepping stone in so many directions that my life took as I grew...from my role-playing to discovering who I was (my sexual orientation)- hell, even my first serious relationship came from Gaia.
The things I have experienced here are not uncommon...so many people that commented on how they were still mad at Gaia even said that they had met their husband or wife here. They met their best friends here and this site saved them from so many hurtful things...and was even the reason some people are still around today.
And while a little bit of me wanted to help save a bit of my childhood on the internet...another part of me wanted to help because we all make mistakes in life. Gaia, while a social site, costs money. Like everything else...the servers, the artists, the staff...everything costs money. And in time, Gaia just wasn't able to keep up with the times.
Even now with all that it has included to the site and made, Gaia is very much behind the times. When we have things like VR chat and apps like Amino etc that just scream "convenience" and "the future"...well, Gaia doesn't really hold even the smallest spark to these massive fires. And in trying to keep Gaia alive and in trying to bring it up to speed with the youth and new people coming into the site from a whole different generation; in short, in trying to keep the site semi-modern (as modern as it could be), Gaia did its best in trusting the site to another company...
...unfortunately, we all know what happened. Gaia became a sellout, and the site us original users knew and loved died. Buried beneath ads, inflation, and the new Gcash system...we lost all we loved about GaiaOnline.
But now we have a team that is OG Gaia...and they are trying to take us back to those simpler times. They have come back, they heard the cries of outrage, they saw how devastating the new management's "plans" for Gaia had broken the place, and now they are trying to clean up the mess they knew they created.
Part of me thinks that after spending almost $15 each month...what is it to spend $2.50 after all this time to maybe bring back what Gaia was?
We all mess up...and yes, consequences are needed to learn from those mistakes. But harsh lessons need to come in their own moderation. I don't believe in grudges...I don't believe in turning the cold shoulder to someone who wants to grow and change for the better. I don't believe in chastising and shunning someone who is trying to offer a sincere apology.
And that is why...despite the fact that this is no longer the site I loved...I still want to help Gaia, and I want to see it grow.
ElementGold Community Member 
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