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Generosity is a strange word and can be described in many different ways. But the n00bs just take that word for granted and expect anyone to just give them something without a second thought.

I admit it that I'm not an overly generous person here on Gaia in the ways of items and gold, but I do give presents to friends on their birthdays or on their Gaiaversaries or even for Christmas and other holidays. Sometimes I even help out friends who have recently been hacked and have nothing or just need a little extra gold to finish a quest.

Maybe I'm not overly generous because when I started out here on Gaia all I had, as many other older users on Gaia did, were those ghastly Peasant's Clothes. I recall making one thread in the Welcome to Gaia Forum and meeting, oh I don't know, maybe three or four other new users and we added each other to our Friendlists. A year and a half later on this day, I either don't talk to those people or they have left Gaia forever. I can't recal a single other Gaian that donated to me in my early days of Gaia as I was still learning the ropes. So maybe that's why I don't like donating to newbies... just to give them a taste of what it was like for me to become, what I consider myself, a successful Gaian.

There was one day that my life changed as a semi-newbie Gaian. That day was when I got a PM from a kind Gaian asking if I made Avatar Art for people. I had no idea what Avatar Art was, but I had seen other Gaians around with hand-drawn pictures in their signatures of their avatar, so I just figured that was what this kind Gaian meant. Of course, with him being my first customer, I had no set prices or anything because I really had no idea what I was doing! So I completed his Avatar Art on my birthday, PMed him back with it, and he sent me a trade of double what I thought was a fair price! After that, he PMed me back after reading my signature about how it was my birthday and he sent me a gift that I will never give away or sell. I went to check my pending trades and there was an Angelic Headband awaiting my approval. My stomach turned over and my jaw dropped open. I couldn't type out my password and my 'Thank You' PM quick enough. That has to have been one of the greatest gifts that I have ever recieved. After recieving that item as a gift out of pure generosity, I lightened up on how harsh I was about donating.

That's another thing that bothers me about newbies. On the slight chance that I do donate to someone who is new to Gaia, I can never recall recieving a single "Thank You" from them. It's just like, "OMG GOLD!" and they run away and never reply to your PMs anymore nor do they thank you for helping them out from between a rock and a hard place. When I donate gold and items to friends, they always graciously thank me... with plenty of heart emoticons as well.

Today was the day that I got really ticked off though. I decided to sell one of my outfits to help fund toward my Monochrome Quest, so I started putting some items in My Store and of course, as usual, there's a PM waiting in my inbox about someone wanting me to donate one of the times I just put up for sale to them. I'm already in the red in the way of gold, plus I'm questing, so I can't really spare much. I quote My Store's rules and send it back to him, and he sends me back a PM about how the two rules that I quoted were the same thing; donating gold and "giving away an item." So I PMed him back saying that I wrote it twice to get it into n00bs brains that I don't do donations for items that I'm trying to sell. Next thing I know he sends me back a PM with a trade with just "36k for your Guitar. I send trade" WTF. If you had the 36k, then you would have bought the shirt that is sitting in the vend! I cancel the trade and go and check his profile. I was reading through his comments and they're all about how he's a scammer. He sends you the trade with the full amount, but when you confirm and it goes back to him, he changes the amount of gold like for 50000 to 5000. I left a bitchy comment as well just to vent my anger towards him being such a moron. Plus he has been added to my Ignore List.

There's only a select few Gaians that I'll add to my Ignore List. Those who PM me incessantly about signing petitions, chainletters, and other crap like that, those who PM me about donating when I don't know who they are, those who try to sex me or just tick me off in Towns, and those who attempt to scam me. I have a total of four Gaians on my Ignore List. Let's try and keep it that way, Gaia.

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