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 Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:18 pm
...*sniff* Is this what its like when you first learn there's no Santa Clause? (I wouldn't know, since my parents were sensible enough not to fill my head with lies about a gift-bearing senior citizen breaking into people's houses at night.) It seems that Gaia has fallen on Hard Times. They had to do a round of layoffs today, and it appears that some of Gaia's favorite faces have been given the ax. The name that keeps coming up is DJ Hellsing. I never met the guy, but he seems to be well-loved. All told, about 13% of Gaia staff was trimmed. Other (possible) names included in the layoff are: CirqueDelFeu Dri ericaphantom excitom goodknightjedi JJ Loie melr3 Shin Kokuu smokeytheb taligator testtoon The HC WilmaFlintstone Your-Fathers-Belt Please keep in mind that this list is entirely unofficial and was only posted by some user in the GCD, but its all I got. Hellsing has in fact been confirmed--his name is no longer colored, fin posted about him, and he showed up in a thread about his firing, *crying*. In addition to the layoffs, Gaia will be doing less con activity, and will have to take a long hard look at the site's priorities to see what they really want to spend time and money on in the coming year. Me, I feel pretty terrible. I keep thinking of my maddeningly successful anti-mtv petition and boycott. Was the Mtv deal--were all the lame deals--made in desperation, rather than ignorance or greed? I find myself thinking--if this is the end result of things AFTER gaia has "sold out," what state would we be in if they hadn't taken on these lame sponsors and started whoring the cash shop? How many sacrifices would the site have made? How many more people would be losing their jobs a scant few days before Christmas? Its a sad business, indeed. I am seriously re-thinking my personal boycott against Gaia, and my attitude towards the site in general. Some useful links: Fin's journal entry about the layoffsLanzer's journal entry about the layoffLanzer posts about the layoffsThread about DJ Hellsing. Fin and DJ both make appearances.
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:37 pm
Don't go all anti-Gaia just yet. The economy is the problem. And if you want to help Gaia. Spend your money. The reason people were laid off is because Gaia can't afford to pay for stuff. The solution? Pay them your money. You like these certain members of the staff? Then help Gaia. I'm sure that once the economy levels out and repairs itself they will get their jobs back. But deciding not to spend money on stuff you like becuase some people left won't solve the problem. It will make it worse. Yes Gaia has issues with ad's and all that. But it's only their way of trying to get money, money that Gaia needs. I am far from Pro -Gaia, But I understand buisness and economics.
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xXSabrina_Alexinia_BerkXx
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 11:10 pm
chouthenekoarmyveteran Don't go all anti-Gaia just yet. The economy is the problem. And if you want to help Gaia. Spend your money. The reason people were laid off is because Gaia can't afford to pay for stuff. The solution? Pay them your money. You like these certain members of the staff? Then help Gaia. I'm sure that once the economy levels out and repairs itself they will get their jobs back. But deciding not to spend money on stuff you like becuase some people left won't solve the problem. It will make it worse. Yes Gaia has issues with ad's and all that. But it's only their way of trying to get money, money that Gaia needs. I am far from Pro -Gaia, But I understand buisness and economics. I'm pretty sure you completely misunderstood my post. Or at least the part about my feelings. I stopped spending money a long time ago. When they introduced the Mtv shop. Now I'm re-thinking my attitude.
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 4:30 am
Tim, if you plan on stopping the boycott on Gaia Cash then the actual best way of giving Gaia ALL the money you spend would be in the mail. Getting a cash card gives them money but the people who make them also get paid the profits. Sending the money for some GCs in the mail, from a credit card, etc. would give them more money and it helps them out more.
But the layoffs could of been from most people buying the GC cards in stores then buying the GC online.
But they still get paid for a few weeks. I think at least. My dad got a layoff a few years ago and he got paid for a few months. It gives them time at least to find another job and to still pay for bills and stuff when they are searching.
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:25 am
Your dad worked for Gaia?
This almost makes me want to start to buy more GC, but I already spent $100+ within the last 30 days.
TIM just don't buy from the MTV Shop, though I am guilty because they have a really nice pair of boots that I use in many of my monochrome avis.
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:38 am
A sad day indeed, but nothing unexpected.
In bad economic times such as these, high-tech and commodity markets tend to be hit the worst. Gaia is both; a technology company offering a free product, which you only need to pay to make a little better. If people can't afford to make it a little better, Gaia doesn't get money.
Now, according to Lanzer, sponsorships are but a tiny bit of Gaia's income. He also has said that Gaia is currently losing money trying to make itself better (an investment on itself). With this in mind, MTV or not, this looks like it was pretty much bound to happen.
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 11:33 am
Clone Yami Tim, if you plan on stopping the boycott on Gaia Cash then the actual best way of giving Gaia ALL the money you spend would be in the mail. Getting a cash card gives them money but the people who make them also get paid the profits. Sending the money for some GCs in the mail, from a credit card, etc. would give them more money and it helps them out more. But the layoffs could of been from most people buying the GC cards in stores then buying the GC online. But they still get paid for a few weeks. I think at least. My dad got a layoff a few years ago and he got paid for a few months. It gives them time at least to find another job and to still pay for bills and stuff when they are searching. I've never gotten Gaia Cash or MCs any way but through my credit card. That aside, I highly doubt that people are getting laid off because of the cash cards. No matter how you slice it, they are bringing in MORE revenue to Gaia online by making GC available to those who can't purchase it online or through the mail. @Ryu: I'm pretty sure he meant his dad got laid off by some other company. redface
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 2:28 pm
Yeah my dad worked for Rockwell when he got laid off.
And I am just saying they would rather have people pay without paying the cards. They still get more money then from people on Gaia but it is less then what they would like.
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 2:32 pm
DJ Helsing is being fired? He's one of the nicest guys in Gaia! He's the guy who goes to all the Gaia events outside the forum and actually cares what we think. He answered more questions for me than Lanzer ever did. ;_;
Aw, this bites.
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 2:41 pm
As big of a sellout Gaia is becoming AND they had to lay people off?
It just isn't right. mad
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:01 pm
Oh. Oh my. I think I'm asking for Gaia Cash for Christmas. I don't want Gaia to stop being able to do and make amazing things. But... I mean, I hadn't really thought about it, but it makes sense. I just.. I don't think of Gaia as a company, y'know? Because there was nothing really sponsored when I first started, or at least nothing I remember clearly.
The whole Cash thing only felt like a betrayal to me because I remember when they promised, anyone else remember this? when they promised upon endorsing The Last Mimzy that they would only endorse stuff that they really liked. Because of that, the whole Celebrity Snare and MTV stuff feels really wrong. But I agree, maybe they're just making a desperate bid to be able to afford to do all this stuff. It's not something I like to think about, sheltered as I am at my boarding school, but it's probably true and I'm feeling kind of guilty now for having resented the Gaia admins for breaking that promise.
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:11 pm
It's the economy. Sadly, I was thinking about how the site was affected by the economy, and now the results are surfacing. All we can do is hope for this recession to not devolve into a depression, and hope that everything levels off. The best solution I can think of is not to just cut the staff, but cut the unnecessary site features as well. Think of all of the upkeep on features we don't even use and think of the amount of money saved on not developing anything new for a while.
But in a real-life perspective, please be mindful of how bad this recession is. Don't go splurging on Gaia when we've got out own wallets to worry about.
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:16 pm
Aznburninator It's the economy. Sadly, I was thinking about how the site was affected by the economy, and now the results are surfacing. All we can do is hope for this recession to not devolve into a depression, and hope that everything levels off. The best solution I can think of is not to just cut the staff, but cut the unnecessary site features as well. Think of all of the upkeep on features we don't even use and think of the amount of money saved on not developing anything new for a while. But in a real-life perspective, please be mindful of how bad this recession is. Don't go splurging on Gaia when we've got out own wallets to worry about.
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:23 pm
The Iron Magus chouthenekoarmyveteran Don't go all anti-Gaia just yet. The economy is the problem. And if you want to help Gaia. Spend your money. The reason people were laid off is because Gaia can't afford to pay for stuff. The solution? Pay them your money. You like these certain members of the staff? Then help Gaia. I'm sure that once the economy levels out and repairs itself they will get their jobs back. But deciding not to spend money on stuff you like becuase some people left won't solve the problem. It will make it worse. Yes Gaia has issues with ad's and all that. But it's only their way of trying to get money, money that Gaia needs. I am far from Pro -Gaia, But I understand buisness and economics. I'm pretty sure you completely misunderstood my post. Or at least the part about my feelings. I stopped spending money a long time ago. When they introduced the Mtv shop. Now I'm re-thinking my attitude. No, I understood that you were thinking about starting to spend money again. I was just trying to put my little push towards it. Cause really the only thing we can do to help is spend money. I'm sorry I didn't make that clearer. sweatdrop *needs to work on expressing self better* I also tried to invoke others to do the same. (Changing their anti-gaian opinons that is.)
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xXSabrina_Alexinia_BerkXx
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 12:21 am
NikiPound
The whole Cash thing only felt like a betrayal to me because I remember when they promised, anyone else remember this? when they promised upon endorsing The Last Mimzy that they would only endorse stuff that they really liked. Because of that, the whole Celebrity Snare and MTV stuff feels really wrong. But I agree, maybe they're just making a desperate bid to be able to afford to do all this stuff. It's not something I like to think about, sheltered as I am at my boarding school, but it's probably true and I'm feeling kind of guilty now for having resented the Gaia admins for breaking that promise. Yeah... I've had a negative image of Gaia for so long now. Fin being the soulless, corrupt CEO, Fleep being his fast-talking con man, and Lanzer being a powerless figurehead... I'm having to re-think everything. It was very strange, seeing fin post openly in his journals and the forum about the layoffs and the problems Gaia is going through, interacting with users, answering questions... acting like he really cares. And on multiple occasions, he cautioned people to worry about themselves and those close to them in these times, rather than Gaia. Practically telling people not to send money. xp Does not compute!
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