To all my friends, this is goodbye.
After much thought I have decided that I simply can't remain a member of Gaia any longer. I just want to say it's not because zOMG! got shelved, it's been shelved before and the game has continued to work. This is something much older than even zOMG!, which admittedly was the only thing keeping me from leaving years ago. Though the hullabaloo that's been going on throughout the site for most of this last week certainly is a good example of everything that has been driving me away from Gaia for quite a while.
Gaia is not the site I joined back when I attended the very first anniversary dance, and I wouldn't expect it to be. The site has grown and changed over the years, and I've been so happy to be there and see them. I'll never forget when fishing was added, or my first tentative steps into Towns. I love having the Hangout feature, I understand why it was replaced with GiM, then later Meebo and the Hangouts feature. I remember the excitement every time a new feature was announced, I remember how buggy everything used to be and I'm glad it's less buggy now. But Gaia isn't about the community anymore, more and more it seems that Gaia HQ is making decisions specifically to stir the community up, or at least isn't taking our thoughts and feedback into consideration. Why else would Alchemy be as broken as it is, RiG/CIs so prolific, Facebook so omnipresent? This site has lost its soul, I feel for Lanzer, I feel for the devs and admins who have to be the go betweens, I feel for the artists, and I feel for the rest of the mods and staffers. I sincerely hope this improves, but I won't be around for it.
The community isn't irreproachable either. I'm so embarrassed for how crazed even normally wonderful and intelligent people can get. I also felt strongly about zOMG!, it was the only MMO I'd ever been able to play past the "definitely can't solo anymore" stage and the community is why, I also felt physically ill when I read Swarf's post about Gaia HQ's behavior, but there really should not have been the raging and venom I saw spread around everywhere. I understand not everyone is going to be impossibly polite, but there was no need to be raving beasts everywhere. The community as a whole has become pretty much a senseless hoard, GD is proof enough of that. I shouldn't be embarrassed to admit I'm a member of a site I love to friends I've made elsewhere because it's known by and large for having a terrible userbase. Is it really so hard to type out whole sentences, Gaians? And most browsers now have spell check built in, why can't you just use it?
Lastly, I want to apologize to my many friends. I was the "leaving anon" and I should not have done that. I realized I should have just been a regular anon so you could enjoy my gifts without all that worry. I hope you can forgive me for my thoughtlessness. You have all been absolutely wonderful, without you I certainly would have left in disgust long ago, not this regretful leaving. I hope we'll meet again somewhere else, I certainly don't plan on removing you from my Skype! Keep enjoying zOMG!, I hope Gaia HQ realizes that you're all a force to be reckoned with and gives you back your devs. I love you all!
Gaia is not the site I joined back when I attended the very first anniversary dance, and I wouldn't expect it to be. The site has grown and changed over the years, and I've been so happy to be there and see them. I'll never forget when fishing was added, or my first tentative steps into Towns. I love having the Hangout feature, I understand why it was replaced with GiM, then later Meebo and the Hangouts feature. I remember the excitement every time a new feature was announced, I remember how buggy everything used to be and I'm glad it's less buggy now. But Gaia isn't about the community anymore, more and more it seems that Gaia HQ is making decisions specifically to stir the community up, or at least isn't taking our thoughts and feedback into consideration. Why else would Alchemy be as broken as it is, RiG/CIs so prolific, Facebook so omnipresent? This site has lost its soul, I feel for Lanzer, I feel for the devs and admins who have to be the go betweens, I feel for the artists, and I feel for the rest of the mods and staffers. I sincerely hope this improves, but I won't be around for it.
The community isn't irreproachable either. I'm so embarrassed for how crazed even normally wonderful and intelligent people can get. I also felt strongly about zOMG!, it was the only MMO I'd ever been able to play past the "definitely can't solo anymore" stage and the community is why, I also felt physically ill when I read Swarf's post about Gaia HQ's behavior, but there really should not have been the raging and venom I saw spread around everywhere. I understand not everyone is going to be impossibly polite, but there was no need to be raving beasts everywhere. The community as a whole has become pretty much a senseless hoard, GD is proof enough of that. I shouldn't be embarrassed to admit I'm a member of a site I love to friends I've made elsewhere because it's known by and large for having a terrible userbase. Is it really so hard to type out whole sentences, Gaians? And most browsers now have spell check built in, why can't you just use it?
Lastly, I want to apologize to my many friends. I was the "leaving anon" and I should not have done that. I realized I should have just been a regular anon so you could enjoy my gifts without all that worry. I hope you can forgive me for my thoughtlessness. You have all been absolutely wonderful, without you I certainly would have left in disgust long ago, not this regretful leaving. I hope we'll meet again somewhere else, I certainly don't plan on removing you from my Skype! Keep enjoying zOMG!, I hope Gaia HQ realizes that you're all a force to be reckoned with and gives you back your devs. I love you all!
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I didn't know you felt so strongly about how the community and the site has changed. Now realizing that you've been a member here for a LONG time, I can sincerely say that I can relate to what you're feeling without experiencing the changes this site has had. When you are with a site for so long and has been so great, its hard to compare Then and Now.
In my situatation, I had been with a site since 2006 back when I was a younger kid(15 now). I'll just say it now- I was with Club Penguin for 6 years(I do not play anymore, but I still follow updates with the site because of my curiosity) and it was an amazing experience when I first began. Mostly everybody was nice, knew how to talk....right, and was fairly quiet. I loved the monthly features of the site and it continued to hold my interest. 3 years from the beginning, I started to see signs that a certain company was going to take over, one that I knew was going to make the experience not the same for me. I decided to go on a hiatus for about half a year. When I came back, it was so different. The main areas were bustling, people were chatting away, and there were far more advanced features than what used to be on there. I thought it was a good thing that that happened but it wasn't the same at all! There were rude members there that made fun of those newer to the site! After seeing that, I decided not to come back, with the exception of coming back only to see updates. As I come back every once every month or two, I find that it still hasn't changed and is getting farther and farther away from what I used to know it was. /end rant
This can be said the same for any site.
Anyways, I'd like to say bye, though I'm SO late. Sorry we never got to crew together in DMS. Last time we did, I think you had to go right when we started xD.
It's a shame you've quit, would've love to befriend you, you seem like a nice person and I agree on many things with you about the site.
I would love to personally thank you for the gift. I love it heart
I'm sorry you have to leave though... I agree with everything you've said, so I'm not going to try to convince you to come back.
I'm certain someone with a heart as big as yours will be missed!
Much love,