RAWR@INFO

So what? Call me Shin, Shinnikins, Es, Esther, whatever.. I originated from the Chatterbox and made my way through the Exchange, General Discussions, Avatar Talk, and Requests and Commissions forum.

I'm the owner and creator of the long-gone "Request-an-Item Shop™" which helped to serve you, rather than me. I lost quite a lot of money through that shop, but it all benefitted people that weren't me so I'm pretty happy with that. Well, on the first day of opening that shop in August 03, a mod-'lo and behold, so rare back then- named 58mm spotted me, became my first customer, and slowly became a good friend of mine. I then joined with Aerion in my shop so that male store items could be brought into, and we became close partners. (And yes, at one point, we became a couple, but we fell apart shortly.) With Aerion by my side, we became well known through the Exchange and I'd give away about 5-10k a day through our shop. Even so, I still managed to buy art at an amazing rate and then discovered the early Request and Commissions forum--a hidden forum where few posts were made daily and the artists cared not for gold, but rather the delight commissioners would get from their works of art.
This was the forum I grew to love. This was the forum in which I was spotted in so often. This was the forum I was assigned to when I became a dedicated moderator. I cannot express how much responsibility I felt as the single mod watching over R&C; I think I became power obsessive too because I felt the need to make my presence in every thread and to know everyone so that if a problem were to occur, I knew who I could contact for help. For over five hours a day (even more on weekends), I'd sit at my computer, constantly pressing F5 to watch for changes or idiotic art thieves, and the other mods knew R&C was my baby so they didn't need to fear that a problem would slip loose and be missed by me (as egotistical as this sounds, sorry).
Well, after I felt everything was under control, I began exploring my old forums again--I was still an active junkie of the Chatterbox, my shop was thriving (to the point that 2 other people had to help me and Aerion), and I discovered the Avatar Talk forum after being requested for help from other mods.

Well, the details become a bit fuzzy here now because I had a mini breakdown after Aerion and I fought, but I was a dedicated moderator for about 7 months before I decided to "quit" Gaia and modding. Needless to say, I never really quit, because as you can see.. This story is a reflection of what happened back in 03-04. Plus, I'm too much of an art whore to really leave Gaia.

Hacked once, though date unknown.
Hacked again on June 18th, 2008. Items returned July 10th, 2008.