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Thank you. It's nice to have the support of the mods.

Posted 11-5-04

primarily I started the Care 'N Share Charity Foundation because of donation items I received as a newbie. (brief personal history) It was very disconcerting for me when I asked every charity for help with both instruction and clothing. I received no clothing items and discovered that there are people that actually hate new Gaian members. I was fortunate enough to come across a benevolent users who gave me a hockey mask and a flower crown. This one experience changed the way I felt towards Gaia and it's users and frankly made me feel excepted and part of the community.

Because of this single experience I felt a strong desire to give something back, but not just to the user who initially gave to me. Thus began the beginning of donating gold to guilds that helped cultivate the idea of community within Gaia. I donated to personal quests and gave away items randomly to people in the "Welcome to Gaia" forum (typically to newbie users).

Lately Gaians have been having a hard time earning money because of the gold glitches and the sponcers links being removed. I found a way to still offer the link to Gaians see HISTORY link in 1st post. On a side note I have been having a hard time figuring out who is who and if they have multiple users accounts with Gaia, as most do. I also wanted an outlet for other Gaians to become involved. razz ooph: The Care 'N Share is born. Based on a real world desire I have to someday write grant proposals for government aid for non-profit organizations, either philanthropic or biodiversity/biophilic in nature.

One of the main problems we have had so far is running out of money. Yes, I have spent and given away more than I expected and part of the problem is that I have given to Gaians who could be classified as veteran users. I'm sure you have seen users that are only two-three days old and have mass wealth in the form of rare, uncommon, donation, and event items. Where on Gaia did they get these items from in such a sort time? Overall I feel I have been trusting and a bit overly philanthropic with my donations to whom I should have wavered caution instead. To that I say "oh well" it's just a simulated community with real personalities as well as an outlet for the ego and alternate persona's. It's basically a safe and fun learning environment. Pixel products and the written english language for the most part wink

I can go off on tangents from time to time, and I'm a bit overly verbose.

I'm sure how to remedy the problem except to turn people away at a cretin point by imposing a cut-off or capped availability duration for users like say after 300 posts. My problem with this is that by 300 post I was just starting to learn the "ins and outs" of the Gaian world. I spent too much time in the "Extended Discussion" area and before long I was not considered a "n00b", thus ineligible for aid from almost all the charities. Guidance would have been nice, but at the time a lot of Gaians were frustrated with "n00bs" and opted not to help or would flame/hate or simply ignore.

FYI If you are having a hard time figuring out how my name is pronounced it's Oz-e-ah-dough.

How lovely! heart
I hope everyone has a wonderful time and expierience in this!