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Oops, I did it again. domokun
I keep donationg to random people (I hope I can say this here without having you guys begging for stuff)... sad And sometimes, if they've been on gaia for a while and know just how hard earning money is, because they have to do puzzles and bump and rate avis and all that suff, then they're often like "YAY I just got 400 gold, I love you so much! heart ". But whenever I meet someone who's wearing the blue flame items and a giant eyeball on their head and they tell me "I'm new to gaia" and it turns out they have like 60gold in their account, I can't help it: I just have to donate. And most of them won't even say thanks evil Those people really piss me off.

Okay, why am I telling all this? Because I want to know what you guys think about donating stuff. Do you donate? Do you think I should stop being generous? Am I too generous, maybe? (I donated about 980gold today)
Sometimes I feel like a noob myself, because I don't know if I'm doing the right thing... sweatdrop

Let me explain what I believe with an analogy on how the United Nations (which is mostly funded by the United States of America) funds the world, this will tie in to how I donate gold to users on gaia.

The United Nations gives money to nations in need, nations of starvation and of bleeding economies, nations with the lack of military force to defend themselves and nations with a lot of turmoil. The majority of these nations are African nations.

The problem is the U.N. simply gives the nations cash, a whole lot of it (like 1 billion dollars a year or more), they tell the nation to take that money and spend it on food and clothing and resources for their population, unfortunately what the government does is turn that money around and buy weapons, fund their own desires and pour as little of it into their nation as possible, so in this way for every $1 billion sent to named nation that nation only puts $10 million of it towards their population. One year down the road that nation uses guns bought by the money from the United Nations to take over neighboring nations and to commit mass acts of genocide to their own people and to others, the hostile government repeats this process by pretending to be a friendly democratic government (usually by including such words in their government as "Democratic Nation of" or "The Peoples Republic of", and hold elections in the government (sometimes using no funding to give voting access to their population, causing the elections to flop or for the vote only to be done by the rich and intelligent, in essence a rigged election). They repeat the process, get more money from the U.N. and spend their entire existence hoarding off of the rich nations, never learning to survive as an independent country; meanwhile they use that money and their time in existence spreading chaos and unhappiness.

New gaian users do the same thing, they get a few donations from users and they think its easier to get donations from users for their income instead of working to gain their own gold, they are stunted in a constant state and they spread this state in the forums, making more intelligent users unhappy and spreading incorrect information to new gaians who could become very successful users in this online community. They become spoiled and think it is their birthright that people donate to them, because they have it rough (somehow?) and when you don't donate they whine and complain, and if you do they think your just doing what you have to do and give no thanks or show no appreciation.

On the other hand experienced users who work for their items hard and fight to get the things they want and strive to become more intelligent and to contribute constructively in forum activity think a donation as a rare delight, and when they receive such donations they thank the donator; and sometimes even puts the donator on a list to show further appreciation, and perhaps promises to repay the debt in the future when the donator can use something the donatee has to offer.

Also an experienced user who appreciates donations will rarely directly ask for a donation from another user, they may include a link for donations to them or information that they would appreciate a donation but it is uncommon that one will send you a private message or contact you in the forums to request a donation directly, also an experienced user who is worthy of a donation will look at quests in a realistic manner, and never consider an item unreachable unless everyone on gaia donates to them. These sort of users must usually be found by a donator and will not come to you for donations (unless you hold a charity). There are plenty of users such as these on gaia, and most of us have friends like these who are always in need of gold to complete their quests.

So I suggest you only donate to experienced users who actively quest for their own items, and who do not beg for items. For instance I currently donate gold to a single girl because she is always trying to make creative avatars and submitting them into the avatar arena, and she has been a online friend for more than two years now and helped me keep my old thread and guild alive when I still owned them, these are the sort of people you should donate to them; because it will put a smile on their face, and give them proof that gaia is still worth the time and effort they put into it.

Don't be an enabler to new gaians, donate to them by giving them information that will help them learn how to earn their own gold in their own ways and how to be a better gaian user.


Wow; well, long that was.

In Short: If you are not questing for an item then I suggest you donate, if you want to put smiles on peoples faces then donate. But I do not think you should donate to nooby gaians or generally new gaians, only to experienced users (like 1 or 2 months and they have built up a decent avatar and there is reason to believe they know how to make their own gold and arent going around begging people for gold). I always get to know the person I donate to before I donate so I know they are a good person.

Since I don't have the attention span to read all of Blood's wall of text right now (I'll read it later ) all I'll say is this, I don't donate to noobs or newbs I actually would rather donate to a rich person that I know has worked hard and spent time getting their money, not some new person that just thinks he can join Gaia and expect to get everything donated to them, or some mule made by someone to ask for donations and beg.Since I've been on Gaia the biggest donation I've got is 100g and it was the first and only donation I have gotten.

Some days I see people in the exchange asking and begging for donations and people actually give stuff to them when they really don't need it and I think "WTF this SOB just asks for stuff and people actually give it to him when he could do like other people and work for their money and actually deserve a donation"

Suggestion don't read this because I myself don't know what I just typed.

also Donate to deserving people not undeserving greedy people.

I have yet to truly donate to someone.

I have donated to charities (the ones I am active in to at least try and gain an edge) either as a thank you or if they say they love something.

Look at me I might have got close to 6k in donations myself (and a free item from winning a contest on one such thread). That a real life friend gave me an item which is more like a present (which I keep sending her stuff ect...).

All the rest of what I have I have gotten under my own power and under a month. Think on it, those that work hard are the ones that are going to stick around. Those that think bam I am in the avay arena I have a chance to gain quick money. I say yes you do, just a very slim chance unless you work for it. You must be willing to spend money to gain money.

That and to add onto this. All the charities I have been a part of want to also be a place for people to come and talk and stuff. They want people to at least be social so people will be gaining money even from that. If they cannot even do that, then they will not even get a donation.