Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hello everyone,

Two weeks feels like a long time here. How was your Labor Day weekend? And for those who are back in school, how's the new year so far? Better yet, how many of you are participating in the back to school event?

Welcome to ATA everyone!

Hello admins how are you guys today ^u^.
Thanks for the cute little monkey in emerald dream.
My question is this......well towns 2 have the option to show as offline on the smart phone?(what if we don't want to be stalked)
http://i1282.photobucket.com/albums/a521/Brianmycerelistellingmesomething/fdgfder_zps56504ac0.png

When is Narumi Misuhara posting his next journal entry?
Is muumuupie still working at Gaia? :O

I like Gaia Online. I really do. Actually, I love this website. I've been apart of this website for approximately 10 years, and I was fifteen when I joined. I heard about it on Neopets, and although I wasn't very active the first year and a half, when my brother was suddenly robbed and murdered, I used Gaia every day to take my mind off everything that went on in the coming weeks, and months, and to help curb the loneliness I felt. My mother pretty much stayed in bed, stopped going to work, and there would be times where I wouldn't see her for days. My father, a lawyer, would spend hours working, most of the time at his office, but on the weekends, holed himself up in his office at home. He didn't realize my seventeenth birthday had come or past until almost a week and a half later. Gaia (and another forum website designed for girls; but that's now gone and we call keep in touch via Facebook) became my solace, my place to take my mind off everything. And as years passed and things got better in my family, I still continued to come on Gaia. I graduated high school, went to college, moved in with my long time boyfriend (now husband), had a child, and the one thing that's always been there is Gaia. I talked my husband into joining years ago as well, and we both would nerd it out, playing zOMG, more recently Heralds of Chaos. He was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago, and he and I both used zOMG as an imaging tool that was suggested to us by the psych at the hospital - imagine something fighting and beating something. We would imagine our avi's fighting all the bad guys in zomg, killing them, and there ya go. It's nerdy, but hey. It worked for us! I know this is long and kinda silly, but it's a way to point out that Gaia is a big part of our lives.

Which is why everything that has been going on with this website recently is really disheartening and upsetting. I feel like I can't sign into this website I love without a new, "Hey there Gaians, spend your monies on these shiny new pixels, let us show you the newest sale!" Well, $25, $50, $75 isn't a sale, nor can we afford to buy pixels when we have bills to pay. There are a lot of adults on Gaia, and I know that you know this with the recent inquiries about making a 18+ portion of the website. We're on a ramen noodle for every meal kind of budget, especially in the winter (luckily, I grew up living on a working farm, so I can't imagine not growing veggies every summer and making amazing stirfry's and summer stew) and I recently read in a journal entry by an admin that said, "This does not mean you won't be able to do anything without gcash, it does mean that you should expect most projects to have some gcash element to them." So, I guess this means I need to get used to this, right? I might be able to get used to that. I might even be able to swing $25 or $50 every six months or so. There is no way I can do that with every sale, because it seems like there is one at least once a week, possibly more, and I just simply cannot do that. I have no idea that the item won't be taken away randomly either. That's how I feel it is about Heralds of Chaos. Against my better judgment, I shelled out some money on cards for HOC and now the game is being shelved, taken completely down. I just recently bought a couch that is gold. What happens if tomorrow the universe decided that the color gold is taking up too much space and money and it's life, and gets rid of everything gold? Goodbye brand new couch. Sorry about your luck and the money you spent on it, we can't do anything about it. Say you rereleased, oh a random item, like, Kottan Bell. Lots of people buy it. "Oh, sorry. We've decided that is taking too much of our money. We're completely removing the item. Sorry about your luck. Sorry about your money." I know that a game doesn't equal an item, but I'm using a comparison to explain my feelings. I wouldn't give a stranger on the street $25, but I would give Gaia $25 every once in a while. I just feel like I can no longer donate/buy anything because no matter what, it just seems that I regret it down the road. I spent money after seeing that there were no plans to take down HOC six or so weeks ago, and now here I am, kicking myself. I bought something a few weeks ago, and I'm kicking myself for spending my cash, because something new came out and I would have liked that better. I get that's not your fault of course, but it's just getting to the point where Gaia feels like a chore. It's not fun for me anymore. Most of the new features will have some cash element, as said by an admin. All the games, I feel like I can't really enjoy because you never know if they're going to be taken down. I feel like there isn't much security, and that sucks, because Gaia is a major part of my life. I'm just annoyed with all the changed. The centering of the site, removing HOC, many new projects will involve Gaia Cash. It just doesn't feel like Gaia to me.

I just wanted share my feelings.