Welcome to Gaia! ::

As a member of the "I will hurt people if the admins let Gaia become Neopets" group, I can state that most of the "Gaia will become neopets!" exclamations are based on selling-out and the userbase.

Gaia isn't selling ad space in their mini-games (yet), but 'donation' items are a farce disguising a sale. Gaia has a userbase that - while being just as dumb - is mostly in the 10-16 range compared to Neopets 8-14 range.




However, Neopets allows users to have customized webpages. Neopets is also geared to the portion of the populace that's still trying to learn to *not* chew on the keyboard let alone type, while Gaia is geared to the portion which is supposed to be learning how to type English but *isn't*.



*Points above her head" over 35mil pure at last count, IF you can convince somebody to sell in the first place.

Most of Gaia's income isn't from ad sales, it's from people buying donation items so they can sell them for gold. Neopet's economy is fueled by getting rare items you want for their usefulness, Gaia's economy is fueled by greed, ego, and a bastardized take on the stock market.



Virtue? People buy them to sell them. Period. They stand for speculative buying and appreciating value over time. They're not supposed to stand for anything, they aren't supposed to be hard to get, they were SUPPOSED to be a thank-you from the admins that people got because they looked cool and they could wear them.

Any meaning donation items once had has long since been lost, and I've yet to see anybody disagree who *isn't* sitting on a pile of '03 and/or '04 letters.




Indeed, Neopets has a far smaller focus on socializing. However:



... which is vastly similar to neopets; a horde of users who do nothing but play the mini-games and amass items for trading, and only venture into the forums to abuse people.

Worse than neopets is the obvious: With an RP section and a large n00n segment of the userbase, there will be an endless supply of idiots to ruin any hope of decent RP.



Which is similar to Gaia, where many users are warned or banned by the mods for asinine reasons.

I had a friend who got banned 'cause she was sharing passwords with somebody who was sharing passwords with somebody who was sharing passwords with somebody who got pissed at their now-ex friend and cried "hacker"; if it weren't for my having a couple of mod friends, she would still be banned. The mods refused to even consider unbanning the rest of the people in that chain.

Back when he first became a mod, Danjel had a bad rep for deleting threads when he started to lose an argument. I don't know if he still does, because I left when ED was too neutered to fulfill it's purpose; a free forum for serious debate where you could leave the kid gloves at home.

Gaia needs more mods to handle the workload that the horde of stupid kids produces, but it needs less modding. It also needs a way to appeal the arbitrary decisions.

I can't imagine that Neopets' ToS could be nearly as bad as Gaia's.



No, there isn't. It's actually *easier* to be less restrictive as it takes less effort to maintain 'lower' standards.



That's because the Gaia admins know that if they implemented a filter, people would start showing up at Lanzer's place with nailbats and crowbars, and not for subduing the requisite zombie-like creature.



What Gaia *NEEDS* is an adults-only section that requires a credit card to enter. As everybody there would be legally-in-a-court-of-law confirmed to be over the age of 18, there would be little need for mods. It would be a place of thread-owner moderation, flamewars, *true* free speech, and porn. I doubt the admins will do so, however.



The last time I had faith in Gaia, I was let down. Now I'm watchdogging to keep the admins from screwing-up. If you honestly believe Gaia won't become like Neopets, then let the doomsayers say doom. Otherwise you sound like the only person you're trying to convince is yourself.


You obviously weren't on neopets when it was as young as Gaia is now.

The 'economy' is a sham of abuse and greed.

The flash games will keep the n00bs attention, and they will proceed to use the forums to release their pre-teen angst through abuse.


Oh? We really have free speech?

We can't post ANYTHING from the anarchist's cookbook.
We are not allowed to discuss sexual perversions such as BDSM, except for ones with a large enough userbase to turn Q&F into a sea of hellfire, like the furries.
We are not allowed to post anything "objectionable", which means anything that a user complains about.

Heck, post this in a thread in chatterbox and see how long it goes before getting deleted:
Subjectline: Question: How do you make a baby cry twice?
Message body: Answer: Wipe your bloody d**k on it's teddy bear.


Long story short, I've been here since the early days, and Gaia has been heading in the direction of Neopets for a LONG time.

If you haven't seen it move that way, I'd say it's probably because you haven't been around long enough to tell.

That will not work. Parents freely allow their children to use their credit cards, children will use their parents credit cards without permission ... etc.

And even then ... I know people who are my age and older who are amazingly immature and insensitive to the desires of those around them. Not to mention the opposite, there are 14 year olds with more maturity than some I know who are twice my age. xp


I understand that your intention is to make a point, however inviting other members to post unacceptable material is just as warnable as actually posting it yourself.



And I for one am someone who does not share that view. Yes, there are ignorant people on the site. Many people are not skilled in teaching themselves how to do new things, such as navigate a website lik Gaia alone. Unfortunately at this time, there is very little provided by Gaia that's around to instruct new members on what to do, where to go and how to behave. Many new members are acting how they want to an d mimicing the behaviours of others on the site. Honestly, it is on the shoulders of the experienced members to teach what they know to newcomers and be polite about it.

Gaia should get their own merchandise(Unless they do I don't know about this eek ) then they would make millions of money selling OMG Plush hats. whee

The PG-13 limit is a restriction on speech.
Question: How could restricted speech possibly be free?



I would like to read that.

By way of anecdotal evidence, I can tell you that when "Freedom of the press" was put pen to paper, the "press" was more along the lines of "Savage Nation" than BBC or CNN, or even Fox!



Not quite, *here* I'm using it as an example of disallowed speech - much like Sex Ed is an appropriate place to discuss topics that would get your mouth that soapy fresh feeling any other time.

Had I posted that as actual *speech* it would have been deleted.



I can't tell you what to think, but I *can* tell you that "do not" and "are not" are present tense, and even if you think something is the likely future that doesn't mean you should sit on your laurels and let come what may. Be proactive. 3nodding



It really doesn't matter; it's legal proof-of-age as far as the US government is concerned, and as long as donating by credit card does not grant verified-adult status - it must be requested seperately - then the consequences are entirely the fault of the parents, who obviously don't love their children.

There's quite a lot of precedent to establish that porn sites are not responsible if a child makes a purchase on their parent's card, although they must refund the money on request in that case.



No reasonable person would consider that "unobjectionable", and policy stands against posting "objectionable" or "dangerous" content. Ergo, speech on Gaia is not free.



I would agree, however there's trait that defines the difference between a "Newbie" and a "n00b", and that is the willingness to learn. "n00bs"actually *do* come in here and think they own the place, and expect their elders - both age and time on Gaia - to bend to their whims.

This is why I support the idea of an AO-section of Gaia - people who get uppity get smacked down, and people can say anything that wouldn't result in an criminal investigation.

I haven't yet read the entire thread, so I don't know if anyone else has said this, as a regular Neopian (go ahead, flame me if you want, that's not the point of this thread) and a regular gaian.
Yes, there are well known artists on Neopets, they do comic entries nearly every week and have a cult-like following, they are Neopian celebraties

The point the person who posted about 'freedom of speech' made was, I believe, that 'freedom of speech' according to the constitution refers specifically to the freedom to speak out against the government. It does not grant the freedom to say 'anything and everything', and even in the real world, there are some things that can get your butt hauled into jail for saying them.

And if you re-read what I said, Tanasha, I said that you were able to post it here "in an entirely different context". I wasn't disagreeing that it would have been deleted if you'd actually tried to make a joke out of it. I'm sure it would have been if you had, and as I said before.. if you think it shouldn't be on a PG-13 site, you've got a rather warped view of what PG-13 means.

MY point is that in a place like Neopets, your post would have been deleted, regardless of context, as soon as you said that. HERE in Gaia, since it was used in the way it was, your post is still sitting there for everyone to read.

I agree with you 100% I have been on Neopets since 2002. And back then, Neopets was great. Loads of fun etc etc now they are so godamned commercial it makes me sick. They aim for friggin 3yr olds and they are admin snobs. They think they rule the world. And have banned so many thnigs over the years, it makes me sick. I left Neopets for many reasons. First they banned CSS in the shops, then they banned outside links. Then they ban this and that. Its like GODAMN dude we cant even say "wtf" or "a**" Hell, I got reported once for saying VODKA! stare Gaia is MUCH better then Neopets, and always will be.