View User's Journal

Notes From Gaia

Random thoughts from inside Gaia

Report This Entry Subscribe to this Journal



Development Update 6/22 The Tides of Summer As summer extends its warm embrace of the California coast, spirits rise. Whether some primal human reaction to the blooming life all around, or maybe a very explainable and understandable scientific reaction to a rising pollen count, the new season nonetheless causes a rise in spirits, when the impossible becomes possible and the merely difficult seems like a carefree walk in the park. These are both exciting and dangerous times, a personal embodiment of a Greenspanian "irrational exuberance": doors seem to open in the universe. It's the time where you finally get the guts to ask out that cute girl, when you go to an interview for that dream job that you're sure you're not qualified for, when you decide to brave harsh criticism and go ahead and post your artwork because you finally feel that the thrill of creation is far greater than your fear of reprisals. The old Chinese curse is "May You Live in Interesting Times." Accordingly, whenever I'm feeling on top of the world, like I can accomplish everything, whenever I know that the exuberance of life might get me to do something crazy and different, I go into SF and read the new threads. That restores me to normal in about 30 seconds. Meh. Organization Of The Company I wanted to clear up some misconceptions about the company. This is probably old-hat for anyone that has worked at a medium-sized company already, so skip this if you know it. Once a company gets out of start up mode, it breaks up into a number of departments, and something about this must fundamentally work because it's been this everywhere. Those groups (and, just because it's revealing, what they own on the homepage): Business Development -- works with other companies to close deals that bring in revenue (including advertising). Responsible for revenue. Own "Keeping the Lights On," part of "What's Hot," and the advertisements/banners. Marketing -- tries to get the word out about the company, and is usually responsible for some portion of user communication. They own part of "What's Hot," "Popular Items," and some announcements. Product Management -- the "communication hub." Works with the other groups to try and formulate the feature set and product vision. Creative -- well, a lot of companies outsource this, but Gaia has a really strong bevy of artists that do all our artwork. At Gaia, Creative also includes the UI team. Development -- responsible for implementation and testing of new features. Also maintains the servers and make sure that the site runs day-to-day. Customer Service -- responsible for dealing with user problems. At Gaia there is also a community interaction component to this. They own "Spotlight," "Popular Topics," "Featured Avatar/Aquarium/Rally" on the home page, as well as some community announcements. Who Runs The Company? Well, the CEO does (Fin). But in reality he's answerable to the board of directors, so presumably the board runs it, except the board doesn't care about day-to-day implementation, they just set the major goals. So the CEO really runs the company, right? Well, sure, but the truth is this: a CEO that tries to get involved in every decision will go insane. The CEO is supposed to keep the high level view and let the people reporting to him take care of the details. (Well, every CEO occasionally comes in with some feature out of the blue that he says is a must-have. But it's not a common thing.) So who owns the vision of the company at this point? Lanzer. What does "vision" mean? Basically, the feature selection, and what things get prioritized over what other things... except where revenue considerations come into play, at which point business development gets involved. Given the current finances of Gaia we really need to keep the sponsors happy, so sometimes sponsor considerations play into feature design (i.e., the new homepage design has pretty clearly demarcated areas for sponsors). Clear as mud yet? I guess what I'm trying to convey is there are enough people at Gaia that it came take a while to get the right answer -- because you have to talk to multiple departments to get the right answer. It makes us look like an unfeeling corporate company without a soul, when in fact in the background people are scurrying about and trying to figure out the right answer. If you're keeping track at home: - Feature selection and prioritization: Lanzer - Communication Process and Volume: our Customer Service team. (Simply Simone is an example). The content of the communication would generally be someone else, since for the most part CS is just reporting on what they've been told by other groups, but if you thought that the way it was being communicated was not optimal, then CS would be responsible. - Sponsorships. If it's about which sponsorships or problems with advertising, then it's Business Development (but beggars can't be choosers, pretty much). For example, BD is reading the "Bad Ads." - External and internal advertising about Gaia and zOMG. Marketing. This includes our e-mail campaigns, banners on other sites that advertise Gaia, and a lot of zOMG related stuff. - Site Breaking, Servers Going Down, Bugs, Implementation: Development. So How Do I Give Feedback? Honestly, post in SF. I know it sometimes seems unsatisfying but every thread in SF is read multiple times and often discussed. Dammit, There Must Be A Better Way! Oh hoh, you think we don't want a better way? From development's point of view, it's not easy on the developers to spend blood and sweat on a feature and then go into SF and see the hailstorm of "Why did you work on X instead of Y" (not development's call) or "Why did you change the UI" (again, not our call). OMGaia (I still hate that name, ugh) was an attempt to improve communication, but in truth I don't think it appears to be working; a thread on shops was posted in there since April yet people in SF were saying "Why weren't we given advance notice of this?" Also, based on the PMs that I get, I'm convinced that the "Dev Notices," while a noble experiment, don't seem to be widely read either. One idea that has come up frequently is allowing users a limited number of votes to "vote" for features / bug fixes, which has a substantial amount of allure, but we run into the continual philosophical problem of "how do you have a democracy in a society where people can create mules?" Assuming that we have a system that allows people to put their votes on the bugs that are most important to them, you're just giving users with the most mules the most weight... so then we cycle into other schemes which seem to devolve into "let just paying customers vote" (since we at least have real-world information for them), but honestly I think SF would be 8x worse if our voting scheme only allowed people with money to vote. I would love a good idea for solving this -- if you have any ideas post them in comments. Gambit / Free Offers The basic idea of the Gambit stuff is sound: give people that normally don't have access to credit cards and Gaia Cash Cards (i.e., too young, other countries, whatnot). It also looked good on paper: it was used by a lot of other major companies, so there were all indications that it was trustworthy. Sigh. Gambit is like advertising: it fronts for third parties. This unfortunately gives us the same problem as with ads, because a) it's impossible to test everything due to the volume of offers, and b) you can't test them all anyway because you don't see them all; different geographic regions get different ads. The good thing about Gambit (and the reason that we went only with them) is that they allow you to deselect ads that are questionable -- I deselected a bunch on the first day that Gambit went out -- and this is an ongoing process. They weren't caught because Quality Assurance was told not to try every offer, but just to make sure that the mechanism overall worked -- which they did, under tight time constraints and in a dead rush. It's the same time when QA is asked to test new ad placements -- they just make sure something shows up, but don't refresh thousands of times from different parts of the country to make sure that every single ad is good. At some level, you have to trust the partners you work with, or work with different partners. New Header/Footer Poor gracewar7 posted screen shots about the new header/footer, and instantly became almost as well loved as Sagger-AT3 after the 2% marketplace tax was instituted. So why are we doing this instead of fixing X (where is your favorite feature but different than other people's X)? They're trying to clear up header space for features that I can't talk about (but I think have been mentioned in AtA; use your favorite pet theory here). The header was getting kind of crammed... ... and by moving stuff down to the footer it opens up the possibility of more stuff. The one in particular I want is a better system of dev notifications , but there's also tons of cool stuff we might be able to do once some of the UI elements are there, such as previewing your inbox so you can see if you want to bother to go to your PM page). The footer can also take different "themes" that can help with immersion (I think we're trying to go out with a grass theme for the footer). That said: we are sensitive to it not working well on people's computers, so please try it when it's live and let us know how it performs. If it lags people to hell and back then we'll add some options to allow people to control it. We're experimenting with Twitter feeds, so subscribe if you want to gaia_devs and zOMGDev. It's the worst kind of Web 2.0 trendiness, but if it works, what the heck? New Shops The new shops aren't aimed at you. Not 100%, anyway, especially if you're the sort of hardy soul that reads obscure journals to learn more about Gaia. They are certainly meant to be more immersive -- and it was beautiful work by the creative and dev teams -- but they're really meant for new users. More than anything, they're meant to be easier to use for someone who doesn't know Gaia. In user testing and from site statistics, we're seeing a lot of dropoff; people are scared by the complexity of Gaia, don't know where to go and what to do, and it's something we need to fix. I know, you don't care about some gold-begging peasant-clothes-wearing bump-posting n00b. But an influx of new people, if done right, can help build a community. That next new person might be a total gold beggar, but they might also be a talented artist or skilled writer or your next BFF. So we're trying to find the right balance in the UI between old users and new users. That said: your feedback has been heard on the menu changes and difficulty of getting into trade / marketplace! Stuff I'd Like More Information On Anyone have consistent problems logging into the flash spaces? Want to close down this bug once and for all, but I need someone that can run a small program to diagnose the problem (or is comfortable with the command line and Linux). Bugs Fixed Recently - recommendation engine for cash shop now works for all users - Go to My clan -> moderator panel, click on Clan Home, the message displayed shows guilds - color change for forum assistants - Stop guild aquarium animation if launching booty grab - Guild Category refresh flag set to TRUE - Guild Invite system causing Mysql to throw duplicate key errors - change permission settings in hidden guilds to NOT show member lists Features Rolling Out Soon - Towns improvements -- we're reducing lag and improving a whole host of stuff on the backend - Header/footer - New mobile payment options - Mobile portal -- check Gaia on your phone - Support portal

Posted by: Panagrammic Sat Jun 27, 2009 @ 10:35pm

Read my journal!

User Comments: [58] Viewing page 0 of 2 · Goto Page: 1 2 » [add]

iamthenextbest
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sat Jun 27, 2009 @ 10:40pm


	I honestly think the free gaia cash offer was a bad idea. So do thousands of other users, because they made a petition. Gaia is slowly losing it's soul because of Gaia and its greed. Everything is all about "buy this BUT ONLY WITH GC!" Sigh Its like showing candy infront of a kids face and saying they can't have it, and even worse they put it on MP for a billion dollars. Its not fair. There should be other free ways (without harming the computer.) to get Gaia Cash.

Commented on: Sat Jun 27, 2009 @ 10:55pm


	I forgot most of what I was going to say seeing as you're post was so long, so excuse me if this is a little backwards. I can't wait for Mobile Gaia, I can never log in currently on Gaia on my mobile, that and I'm getting a better phone soon so it should look awesome. As for the footer, I like the idea of having it changeable, I never really liked the obnoxious purple. However, I do see the benefits of it. The new shops are very nice although I'm going to miss the shops landing page, but I'll get over that. People say the marketplace has changed but I've noticed no difference aside from the trade thing? That doesn't bother me too much though As for the "free" offers. I'll be steering clear of them unless I know they're legit. I've already gotten 300 GC from them. :] Hoe you're having a nice summer and thanks for the update! I want new signature art. Ohai tablet. Talk to you later [/align:73fe3d4732][/size:73fe3d4732]

Captain Arch
Community Member

Offline

Non Toxxic
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sat Jun 27, 2009 @ 10:57pm


	I just have a quick question. You know how in the shops menu there used to be a link to the trade thing? Well not with the new shop fronts it's not up there but on the second menu thing when you click the shops button. Well it's really hard to find. My friends and I was looking for it for about an hour before I finally spotted it. So if there is any way we can have that back in the main shops menu, that would be awesome. I dunno if you deal with this, but thanks. heart EDIT: Or like maybe an announcement as to where it is. xD I know some people aren't as observant as I am. I do like the footer thing in general though.

Commented on: Sat Jun 27, 2009 @ 11:30pm


	Thanks very much for posting -- all this info is very helpful. (Especially the gaia_devs twitter- I'm not on twitter, but I've subscribed via RSS.) OMGaia could be helpful, but it really needs to be tied in with the notice or announcement system to be of use. For example, the Shops feedback thread has grown by almost 150 pages since it was linked in the announcement. Subscribing to threads is good -- I do -- but that's a "pull" thing, I need to go to the subscription page to see if anything has updated, and if I have a lot of updates they're easily overlooked. (My Gaia is "push", but still misses a lot.) Plus, you can't subscribe to threads you don't know exist. I know you guys had plans on linking the "Dev notices" to the notice system... any word on that? Will it be tied into the footer, do you think? (And I hate the forum name too and know a lot of others do as well -- think you might have a re-vote any time soon?) Getgambit is... er... it is. I'm aware you guys picked it because of the ability to remove bad offers... but is there no-one out there with... I don't know... non-sketchy offers? At all? I know monetizing the web is still very very limited, but the idea that there isn't anybody out there who doesn't take an offer signup as an agreement to "please send me lots and lots of spam" is very saddening. I'm glad to hear about the feedback re the menu changes- I hope they switch soon. I understand that simplification for newbies is important, but taking away shortcuts that people are used to, and use everyday, is really not good. I love the new interface! It's gorgeous! I just can't see why world-building has to be a tradeoff with loss of efficiency. (Plus, y'all may have shortened the Shop menu, but now the My Gaia menu is freaking huge. The Account Settings submenu drops way below my bottom bar now.) Anyway, thanks again... and glad to hear that the mobile site is finally getting off the ground soon. smile

Mindset
Community Member

Offline

MeilinII
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sat Jun 27, 2009 @ 11:42pm


	For starters the voting thing: People with money already run the market. If they run features, There will be BAWWWW. Why not pick a couple thousand accounts that have been active in the past month, and ask THEM to vote in a poll? Kinda like the zETA testers. Make it a random selection of users that have posted or logged in in 31 days. That's totally fair. And probably mule-proof as you can get. As for gambit: I am entirely disappointed that you didn't read the feedback other sites using gambit get. For example: Facebook. Tons of it's apps use Gambit. and at least 90% of those apps are DESPISED by users. I use a pokemon game app on there that you need points for. And you either grind or use those sponsors for points. The app CLOSED because users hated those gambit ads so much. Footer: ******. This. Idea. I hate the facebook footer so much. ANd if GIM is put in the footer, it's gonna annoy me even more. I like the bubbles. I don't want pets and these other ideas on GAIA. GAIA is **** GAIA. If they want pets, they can go to Neopets, psipets, zetapets, OR ANY OF THE OTHER HUNDREDS OF ****** PET SITES. Hell they can get an adoptable in the art forums. Shops: I actually like this. It makes me feel almost a throwback to what old GAIA would've done to make the shops seem like SHOPS on the world map. Speaking of which, DO NOT TAKE AWAY MY WORLD MAP. It's the last part of old gaia I have. OMGaia: If you would tie this into the announcements more, we'd look at it. Personally, I think all that stuff should be announced more often. The only annoncements I see now are shop updates and CASH announcements and sponsors. Lame Also, trade needs to go BACK in the header drop downs please. Even if it's in a different tab, it needs to be up there.

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 12:47am


	I don't often comment, but I do religiously read every staff journal I have been able to find; yours is among my favorites. The overall tone of this entry is somewhat saddening, because it seems you're pretty stressed. I know it means little, but I really appreciate every last moment you -- and every other member of the team -- spend thinking, discussing, and working on the website that has become my home. (Hell, I occasionally jokingly fill out "gaiaonline.com" on those "permanent address" options on forms.) I don't know. I love the Gambit offers, and I can't wait for another free afternoon so I can fill some more of those free surveys out; I made over $25 in GC with only five hours of work, and it was worth it -- I definitely appreciate the opportunity. I REALLY REALLY REALLY wish someone had clearly added "They're trying to clear up header space for features that I can't talk about" when they were talking about the header/footer -- that completely changes my view on it (I was among the silent but very disappointed in the concept.) I guess I made an a** out of myself by assuming it was only for appearance adjustments. Again, thank you for this detailed and informative entry. I know it can be tiring to type up so much information, but I really appreciate it, and each paragraph feels like a gift because it was written on your time for my benefit, about a website I am devoted to and feel deeply for. I hope the rest of your weekend brings sleep and relaxation, you (and all the rest of the staff) deserve it.

Parashta
Community Member

Offline

Spirrow
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 02:15am


	I think the best way to implement a voting system would be to have it weighted based on different variables/qualifications. 1.) Years of Service: For each full year of membership with Gaia, someone's vote can be worth +1 point. If someone has been on Gaia since 2003, they have more of a right to decide what should happen than someone who joined in 2007, right? 2.) Activity: If you have a way of determining how active a particular user is, this would be great! I was thinking like... every 10,000 forum posts someone has, they get +1 point of voting weight. Problem is, not everyone posts in forums... some people have MP transactions... or go fishing... so I know it isn't fool proof, but whatever. 3.) Paying members: Depending on how much money someone used to sponsor the site, or how many years they paid, they should get +1 point. I know there will be crying, but the fact is: People who pay for Gaia help support the site, as much as a smug 03er who got rich off of botted gold would like to think they are the lifeblood of Gaia, it's the newbie shelling out cash so they can quest for ONE item from 2004. -_- So...a non paying member from 2004 with 10,000 forum posts would have a weighted vote of +6... where a paying member from 2006 with 10,000 posts would have a weighted vote of +5... Again, I already mentioned the flaws in the design... but I don't exactly know how well Gaia monitors user activity. Newgrounds has a weighted voting system... that's kind of where I got the idea. I think it's pretty brilliant, but whatever you guys decide... good luck telling the masses. sweatdrop This way, mules are still a factor, especially if someone made 100 mules in 2004... but... not as much?

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 02:15am


	Washington mauno I wish the Organize Inventory (arranger) is being updated and greatly improved. I like the old method of being able to move items to my house or chest when i arrange the inventory by cost, type, and name. But now it seems like i have to have everything in chronicle order to move it and it sucks because I have to first select all the ones i want to move then go to chronicle order to move. Quote: Sorry, sorted items cannot be arranged. Please return items to ascending order by clicking on the # header in the detail view then try again. But not only that I get a bull s*t error message that says Quote: Your inventory has changed. Please reload and try again.* It is impossible to clean out and organize my inventory like this!!! Oh p.s. I would like a new tab that says "Evolving items and Monthly collectable Items" These are unique items that deserve their own tabs.

Doctor Nitrus Brio
Community Member

Offline

dizziedobsession
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 03:04am


	I'm glad someone is mentioning the damn floating footer outside of site feedback. I just don't like it because I don't think it's necessary...and why not add this "new stuff" to the bottom, instead of taking what we like in the top and changing THAT on us? Just a suggestion...And as for the "header being crammed" deal...I thought that's why it was changed a few months ago anyway. You already took like, two things from the navbar off. I don't see any crowding problem there that wouldn't have existed months ago when this was changed, and if that was the case, I don't see why it wasn't changed differently so it wasn't done away with before it became problematic! Anyway, thanks for the update, and letting more people in the loop of what the f is going on on Gaia. It gets annoying when you don't listen to what we actually have to say... EDIT: I know OMGaia is that newly renamed thread, but I have no idea what it is, what it does, what it's good for... I've never found a reason to go there. The shops are an OK change. I'm not thrilled about them, but I'm not uber-upset about them either. DOUBLE EDIT: Yes, I noticed now... the trade link is gone. and I have no idea where to look for it. Can you pleeeeeasseee put it back?

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 03:30am


	awww pan! offers pan a hug...and a helmet you guys really shouldn't go into sf without a helmet. it's dangerous in there. having said that, i DID try some of the gambit offers. i thought they were a really bad idea at first but i tried them anyway. much to my surprise, many of them paid me! i got a lot of cash which i promptly used to buy some new EI's that i had to pass on earlier due to a lack of cash. so they aren't all bad and thanks for that! what i WOULD like to see there is a way to clean up the list. i have a bunch that say 'processing' when all i did was look at the ad and back out of the page. i love the way the shops look, but like other people i'd also like a direct route to the trades page. i used that drop down a lot but i'm not going to get in a twist over it not being there. on the subject of footers however - dude...floating "anything" on my pc is a bad thing. i have a high speed connection but i'm running a slightly older pc and some of the newer stuff lags my system and locks it up. floating stuff is a big offender for me. sad i wish i could just get a new pc but you know how it is... i haven't had any problems getting into towns or homes in a long time and inventory loads nice and fast for me these days. biggrin cool beans. anyway, thanks for all the hard work and updates. some of us do appreciate it...

snufflypoo
Community Member

Offline

Galvatron
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 04:06am


	I think we all always appreciate your frankness, but I'd love to know how you feel about things like the possibility of winning a Halo. It seems like, as was mentioned about the new shop layout, things are geared toward newer users. Lately more and more features are driving the old, faithful users away. ~LJG, CGI

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 04:30am


	I think the problem with OMGaia is that you can only subscribe to threads and not a forum as a whole. This means users currently have to constantly check OMGaia for new posts. While it's not a total pain to do, it's somewhat time consuming and therefore requires sacrificing time that could be spent doing other, more fun things on Gaia. I think if Gaia really wants OMGaia to work in terms of communication, a "Notify Me on New Topic Creation" button needs to be added. That, or some form of RSS feed would likely work as well. It's great to see Gaia is at least trying out Twitter. As far as the Free Gaia Cash Offers program goes, I just took one look, shook my head, and decided I won't be viewing that page very often, if ever again. Sadly, that doesn't mean I'm not very disappointed with the program. Indeed one of those looked better on paper ideas. Moving on the footer, I'll admit I ripped on the idea and ripped on it pretty hard. My main gripe with it is just how unoriginal the idea is. Hell, that doesn't mean I'm not going to use it or anything like that, I just find it sad that Gaia can't come up with a unique idea for displaying notifications. Floating footers just seem to be the new must-have on big sites. Regarding login issues to the flash areas, that used to be a problem for me but now I can get in them fine so sorry I can't be of help there. Lastly, I'm curious to see how the Mobile Gaia will turn out and how many features of Gaia are going to have to be cut out for it to run on mobile devices. I hope it won't be too much wink In closing, thanks for the update, Pan. It's nice to know Gaia has realized OMGaia isn't enough when it comes to communicating with users. I would look into that "Notify me on New Treads" button wink For now, I'll just follow the dev twitters. Captcha: $10 floppies Those are some expensive floppy disks :O Important Update: I just had a new idea for improving the OMGaia communication. What if a mini version of one of those "Forum Pulse" things was placed either on the Home page or MyGaia page but only showed OMGaia? In addition to that, make the box have two tabs, one for new notices and another for new replies to notices. That way, not only can we see what threads have activity going on in them, we can see what the latest threads are too. Throw in a "Mark notice as seen" button for the new notices tab and I think you might have something wink I completely forgot the pulse box existed as I apparently closed it accidentally one day. Oops ^_^;

France Hopper
Community Member

Offline

ffreddd123
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 05:14am


	Every time I read one of your journal entries, it makes me glad that someone at Gaia actually does understand Gaia's users and tries to please us, despite all the road-blocks of a company of that size. @OMGaia - I think it would be a good resource if was actually used for everything of that nature. Someone posted a link to the screenshot of the new navigation bar, and I looked all over OMGaia, through dev journals, and through old announcements, thinking I missed something, and it turned out to be in Site Feedback. I thought the point of the OMGaia forum was for threads like that. gonk @Dev Notices - I think these would also be useful if they were actually updated. I check once every couple of days, and that's the first place I go if I see a problem with something, but I'm thinking about not wasting my time in the future because the last time any of them got updated was almost 2 months ago. @Twitter - I think that would be a great way to communicate developer updates, but once again, only if it actually gets used by the devs. And thanks, I knew about the zOMG one, but not about the Gaia_devs one. :3 @New Header/Footer - I do like the idea of changing the current header, since it takes up a ridiculous amount of space at the top of the screen. On the My Gaia type pages, its approx 300 pixels before the page content even starts. Considering that the website is designed for a 1024x768 screen, that's almost half the height. gonk @New Shops/MP - I could care less about some small changes to make things easier for newer members. The problem that I really have is that they made it harder to navigate. And not only that, they now made it quite impossible to get to "My Store" without having Javascript on. I already had a hissy fit when they changed the selling items in a store thing to require Javascript, but now requiring Javascript just to navigate to your store? gonk That is just pure insanity in my opinion. I love Javascript and know you can do some absolutely amazing things with it, but definitely think that it should not be used as the only means of navigating a website. Although, I don't know how much of a say you have in that aspect, can you please try to pass on to some of the other developers to create alternate methods of navigating sans-Javascript?

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 05:34am


	⟣˳I would love, love, love the option to preview PM's! Then again, I am pro floating footer. The Dev notification are a definate plus! Themes would be sooo cute! Even though we might be able to pick our own, it would be really nice if they would also change along with the header to match. Annnnd does this mean an option to change our header like we did a few years back? x.Cypher, The Cake Pirate☬

Digital Puppetry
Community Member

Offline

ItAllFallsDown
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 06:41am


	I'm glad I stumbled upon this journal entry, as it is one of the few that takes a reasonable, balanced view on several issues that I have felt more than once have been neglected by the moderator/administrative staff in general. I very much like the idea of including users in what should be updated/fixed, as there are definitely some issues that some people feel need to be addressed while others totally dismiss them, while at the same time decisions are made by the various powers-that-be at Gaia to work on things no one really has all that much concern about. I understand the concern about mules if it were to be a matter of voting (hell, the account I'm posting this on is a mule), so I do like the idea of random users being selected to vote/comment as was done with the beta of ZOMG, though the pool of voters should be one that changes over time, so the same group of users does not retain some semblance of control. The OMGaia (really, it is a ridiculous name) thread is great in theory...if any of the information contained therein was presented to the site at large. I only discovered it earlier tonight, in fact, and that was because someone had quoted a post made there in a petition. There is some good information in that forum, some of which should be announced at large via an announcement. Despite my general appreciation of this entry and the issues discussed therein, I do feel the need to make one snarky comment (that I already feel somewhat guilty for posting), but I still feel it needs to be said in regards to "user dropoff": perhaps the reason new accounts are so quickly abandoned is because the new users have been given the impression that the only important things to do on Gaia are to watch 3rd party advertisements and exchange real life money for pixelated items. God knows I would never have stuck around Gaia if all I ever saw when joining the site was Skittles advertisements/items and announcements for cool items I could only ever get if I either A.) spent realworld money on them or B.) dedicated a ton of time and effort to earning gold, which is admittedly somewhat harder for a new member than an older one. Because of this reason--and several others I won't go into as this post is already becoming far longer than I intended--I think it is somewhat naive to think people are leaving simply because they are somehow confused by Gaia...and quite honestly, some of these attempts to retain new users are driving away the older users that have already invested time and money into the site. There is so much more I could write in this post, but I'll stop it here as it would likely degrade into me taking my frustration due to certain Gaia practices out on you, which would be totally uncalled for, especially since I am genuinely happy to have read this post and seen that at least some user concerns are being considered/addressed. So...thanks for posting this. ^.^

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 07:40am


	As always, thank you for keeping us in the loop. It is appreciated. Lol, my Captcha is thread good.

Eris_Incognito
Community Member

Offline

Kunai Jones
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 08:22am


	No significant new problems that I've seen, but could you weed out some of the eToro ads from the Offers section? There are dozens of them, at least visible to me in my region (Central USA) and they're just cluttery. Nobody else has duplicates, aside from Discover, but those seem to be offered by different middlemen providers. eToro is just one site, but it has dozens of entries. Thank you for fixing the multi-item shuffle issue in the Arranger, it works like a dream now. Is there any way, though, that we could get a Trash Item button in the Arranger itself? It would save the trouble of jumping back and forth between Arranger and Viewer. It would be a big help. Glad to hear that the Trade and Marketplace subcategories might be making their way back to the navbar in the header. I miss them desperately. But I do view the storefront idea as a net positive. I think that's all. Thanks for the updates and hard work, and have a good remainder of your weekend!

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 09:13am


	I don't think that mules will be too much of a problem. In fact, the people who are invested enough in Gaia to own more than one account should have more of a vote. I think that there should be an announced thread with a poll in it asking which feature you want to be updated. The options would be chosen from a pool of features you had already been planning. People will let you know if you're working on the next labelmaker. It kind of ruins the surprise of it all. But hey, I'll take no surprises over unwanted surprises. I just wanted to thank you for making an awesome journal. ^_^

Spirit Crusher
Community Member

Offline

XDmaster4
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 11:09am


	i think the free cash idea is a pretty good idea, but the way it works is just fail. it is all junk all the offers one in the 50 people or so find a 300 cash offer that wouldnt ruin your pc or your cellphonebill but the idea is good. i love the new shops but some doenst look like the shops we once knew at all, i think you should fix that

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 12:04pm


	Thank you for explaining the 'chain of command' situation, it works very much like the company I work for, the higher up you work the more broad the decision you make. About the shop fronts, while the art looks nice - it seems to be superfluous. The announcement showed avatars standing in front of the shops, which you can't do - so I don't see just why they were added to be honest! EDIT: A kind user has explained to me that it'll be added tomorrow, not that it changes my opinion of said feature. More so because there is no opportunity to interact with other users, it won't even identify who the users are. I feel more that this addition is superfluous, and its a shame there isn't an option to opt out of it all. I miss the streamlined feel from before. Maybe it'd be worth adding an extra section to the world drop down menu and adding misc art, like the lost manga pages and the EI art? The new shop fronts have made shopping slower, as there is now an extra screen to go through, and the shop and trade drop down links have been taken away. I hope that it is just a matter of time before perfecting it?

Erebea revius
Community Member

Offline

Carmarthen
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 01:42pm


	Wow, I'm so sorry for all of you whenever I check Site Feedback, there's such a negative attitude and some people seem to devote all of their time to bitching gonk However, you must never forget that there's still many Gaians, like myself, who love you and will defend you through all the bitching ♥ Thanks for sharing all the information, since all companies are a mystery to me it was really enlightening :3 thanks for all your hard work and don't, under any circumstances, let SF get you down scream

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 03:00pm


	Pan, you're my hero. heart It is sad to see all the RAWR I HATE YOU feedback that comes through SF. Y'all work hard and it's impossible to make everybody happy. As for the Gaia Cash offers, I think they were a good idea. People complain so much about having to put out money for the snazztastic items; doing offers would prevent that. So long as users are careful and read the fine print, they should be fine. I mean, it's not fair if there's a 13 y/o who wants a Masquerade who has to work his butt off for about a year to get that 200k gold to buy it off the MP when Joe Schmoe who's 25 and has a credit card can get it in an instant. The offers, when carefully looked at, level the playing field. Three cheers! (Huzzah, huzzah, huzzah! XD) I like the shops feature, or the concept of it, at least. Can't wait to see when it's rolled out! It's funny.... people are upset about missing the buttons on the drop down menus, but when Gaia ADDED the drop down menus, they were also unhappy. XP People these days. One of the comment suggests a tab for EIs/MCs. I'm totally in for this. XP I never know where to put them when I'm organising. As for the other stuff, I'm indifferent. smile We'll see how it goes. And yesh, OMGaia is a stupid name. :-/ heart heart heart

Morteana
Community Member

Offline

Genea
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 03:39pm


	I don't have much to add, except that I really love your journal entries and how informative they are. heart I look forward to all further improvements. wink <3

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 06:38pm


	I have an idea for new gaian's who are having trouble getting used to Gaia. Personally, I had a friend on here who helped me figure out what to do, but not everyone has a buddy already on gaia. However, perhaps after a person signs up they can be given the option to get a "helper" who can help point them in the right direction? Gaian's who have been on for longer than a year would be given the option to help out one's who just signed up. They would just answer questions through PMs and when the new gaian feels helped, they will grade the helper and the helper would be rewarded accordingly. Of course, it has its problems... but its completely optional. Just an idea.

MrBlueberryMuffin
Community Member

Offline

Nynavae
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 06:41pm


	I just wanted to say that the free gaia cash system is bugged. I think that it needs to be removed because people have been scammed. Besides, they're asking for your personal info, and that's never good to give out. D<

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 07:20pm


	My major reservation about the footer is that it will take away our bubble for PMs and friend requests. If it were being taken away from announcements as well I wouldn't be half as upset. It just makes no sense to me that you guys can say 'it's to clear up space' and yet still use that space-eater to make cash shop and sponsor announcements.

Catanaition N. D.
Community Member

Offline

diet otaku
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 10:01pm


	there has to be somewhere else that the footer information can appear, especially since it looks like 3/4 of it relates to GIM, which i don't use (although since i can't identify what some of the buttons do, i'm not sure). since the logo is being moved to a kind of "hanging tab" look, could anything be placed underneath that? maybe the quick links button and PM button, at least? i'd really rather ALL notifications stay, from announcements to PMs to journal and profile comment notices. i use them all. and i really wish you would just put the menu back the way it was. i don't see how some handy shortcut links could confuse a newbie any more than the shops already do. and i don't even know how to get to the gaia store anymore (for the RL merch). IMO there is never a good reason to sacrifice convenience in navigation. and i think choosing users at random, a la zETA, is the best way to fairly poll users on what should be worked on.

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 10:26pm


	Ooooo, huge shiny Pan entry! glomps XD heart Quote: Poor gracewar7 posted screen shots about the new header/footer, and instantly became almost as well loved as Sagger-AT3 after the 2% marketplace tax was instituted. rofl rofl rofl Quote: That said: your feedback has been heard on the menu changes and difficulty of getting into trade / marketplace! Then why don't we have the options back in the drop-down menu? I mean, I checked out the new bits, and it is very nice and pretty and shiny, but all I want is the easy navigation back. sweatdrop And as for the footer, I'm willing to give it a shot (like any new feature or whathaveyou), but all I keep hearing is that the ones on other sites (mostly hearing about the Facebook one) is that it lags liek whoa, which is one of the LAST things Gaia needs more of. All people seem to want the option to do is turn it off, like I did long ago and far away with the forum pulses. xp sadfayce I just wish the wishlist would be updated and be worked on (ability to move things to top and the scrolling option on the front page of the MP). And for the love of $%^&, no more RIG's. Dammit, I hate those things. mad

Kai-Shan Valandria
Community Member

Offline

Akabi Yoru
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 10:34pm


	Pana sama, you have no idea how much I love you for these journals... you are informative, friendly, you take users's feelings into consideration and give us information and facts. Thank you! heart

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 10:36pm


	Sooo... when are we getting an SDPlus Panagrammic doll? heart Oh, a couple other things: About OMGaia · The name isn't helping, seriously. "OMG" and variants thereof are way overused on Gaia already; it's confusing and not at all useful as far as actually stating what the forum is. The tiny description text isn't as immediately visible as the forum name. Also a problem is the organization of the forum (and subforums) and how frequently the threads are updated. Why are there are a couple of Dev Notice threads still hanging out in the main forum instead of the "Dev Notice" subforum? They're not highly visible down there. Furthermore, as already pointed out by others, the threads that are in the Dev Notice subforum haven't been updated since early May. That doesn't exactly spark a lot of confidence that the staff is actively trying to communicate with us, you know? My eyes also get lost in the sea of hundred-page threads in the main forum, making it difficult to figure out what's important -- the shop update thread, for example -- and what's just mini-Chatterbox, like the "Summer Solstice" thread, which, even if the OP is Liam, seems a bit out of place for what is described as a "Gaia news & updates" forum. That kind of thread might make me think "well, OMGaia! isn't really worth paying close attention to if it has stuff like this instead of news". About the header/footer · I will admit that I am not sold on this idea. Updating the header so that it can work with future features, that I can understand. Forward thinking can be a very good thing. It's just that... I'm not certain I like how these supposed future features are so important that they're bumping other, core features of the site, down to a floating footer. Pets? Pets? I know that people have asked for this before, but I'm not seeing how pets -- which I will assume to be a completely optional feature that may not be used by everyone, including myself -- are considered more vital to the site than displaying PM notices in the header. It'd be like sticking Aquariums in the header -- are they really a core feature? Are they really that important? The floating footer idea, thus far, rubs me the wrong way. I already have the Windows taskbar and Firefox's status bar -- adding a third bar to the bottom of my screen seems like overkill. It eats into screen real estate, I can foresee it interfering with popups in my taskbar, and I'm really just not sure it's going to be all that intuitive or useful for me. I'll reserve final judgment for seeing it in action, but I sincerely hope that there will be a way to opt out of it if the release doesn't go over well. About the new store fronts · I love these, seriously. They took a bit of getting used to that first day, but I think it's really a wonderful way to put more of that "world feel" back into Gaia. The shop looks are adorable and draw you in; once we get shortcuts back into the menu, I think I will probably switch off between using both. Shortcuts for speed and store fronts for browsing or Gaia-immersion. I haven't seen it confirmed anywhere, but I do hope that the mannequins will be used to display the latest shop updates as they happen? That would also add to the world feel, if they changed periodically to reflect updates. Shop update announcement, link to fancy store front with new items displayed... fun stuff. Hmm. Now that the new store fronts are out, will we be seeing any additional changes to the store pages themselves? The fronts are so cute and detailed that seeing plain colored backgrounds with white squares full of items seem drab and catalog-y in comparison. I'd like to see the insides of the shops more fully match the outsides. Thanks for updating!

Valentine
Community Member

Offline

Catz95
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 11:06pm


	Thanks for all the info Pan, I was wondering what ya'll were up to. I'm glad to hear you don't disregard the community as much as it feels sometimes. You truely are working hard, and I'm sure most users do appreciate it on some level; I know I do. Keep on truckin' <3 3nodding I'll give the new header/footer a chance just for you.

Commented on: Mon Jun 29, 2009 @ 12:10am


	Valentine has many good points: OMGaia!: This name seems very juvenile and hyperactive, so some days I actually forget to click on it to check for my serious site updates. And often when I do check, it's all about some touchy-feely survey about sports or summer plans now that school is out (I graduated a long time ago) or whatnot, which I don't care about at all. sweatdrop I think having a more relevant name would remind people more easily about the purpose of the forum; I proposed the name "Inside Scoop", but that wasn't selected for voting. I thought that most all the names selected for voting sounded stupid and had nothing to do with the forum's contents. stare So we were always gonna have this problem because of the shortlist of options that was selected. New Storefronts: Yay, something beautiful and fun and giving the feeling of an actual world again~! heart I love this change; it reminds me of olden days, traversing the bridge to the new town, Gambino, and then clicking on the little worldmap icons to enter the shops there. whee Kudos for this beautiful change. Header/Footer: It seems hypocritical to say "We are removing the speech bubble to clear up space in the header, but we'll still use it for Announcements" (which, in case you hadn't noticed, have the most characters of anything that uses the bubble and thus take up the most space with it). What users hear is: "Announcements and sponsor content are waaay more important than PM notifications, Trades, Friend Requests, and notifiers of Random Events; community now = you buying stuff from us." I don't think that was the intent, but that is the message that is coming across. Please do not move all the personal, important, community-building notifications into some footer that will most likely not run on my ancient computer. sweatdrop The speech bubble is an integral aspect of the Gaian experience. Please do not trade it away for pets I don't care about. crying Voting: Wasn't there a group of Gaians selected as testers a while ago for the site? Would that group be considered representative enough to create a balanced voting demographic? Just an idea . . .

Chocobo Princess
Global Moderator

Offline

Chocobo Princess
Global Moderator

Offline

Commented on: Mon Jun 29, 2009 @ 12:14am


	Sorry about the double post; I got an error message, so I thought it ate the first one. sweatdrop

Commented on: Mon Jun 29, 2009 @ 01:14am


	Pah, I'd just like to say, on the subject of the floating footer...NO!!!!! Or at least give us the option to turn it off and get the regular way. I use a netbook, which means I have limited space on my screen and I cannot see the point in sacrificing space on my screen just for that footer. Trust me, its already hard enough for me to do the RIGs on Firefox because of the fact I have three toolbars and three rows of visible tabs. I don't need a footer eating up more space. But like I said after seeing the original concept, if I was using my laptop, it wouldn't be a problem since the screen of that is already huge. But please Pan, nudge those in charge of feature development and remind them that people use tiny screens. I don't even want to imagine how badly the footer would lag an iPhone or iPod.

Shrimp_Man
Community Member

Offline

rainbow_in_the_dark
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Mon Jun 29, 2009 @ 01:56am


	Like many others I would like to start off by thanking you for the update. I liked that it was clear and to the point which seems to be a problem you can sometimes run into when folks are tryin to communicate. First off I would like to comment on the floater. Like some of the other comments I am not sold on the footer but I will give it a chance once it goes live to see what it does. I hope the feedback that yall get when it goes live is honest and unbiased. On the gambit free offers I'm still not sold either. I am sure it seemed like a stroke of pure genius on paper (and it still has the potential) it just seemed that the execution was flubbed in some manner. Which happens from time to time. I would seriously recommend reconsidering the name for "OMGaia". I like yalls sense of humor most of the time, can't win em all but a forum name shouldn't be silly (in my opinion of course). It should be clear, concise, and describes what the forum is for. Unfortunately I am not sure what you could use that would sound good and achieve this goal. Either way OMGaia wasn't a very good choice to have up for vote. By the way my suggestion for votings and the like is to have a system in place that shows what accounts belong to who (provided it is a mule) and lock those accounts out of the vote when it comes to an official poll for something. When folks are registering you can have a little question "Is this for a mule account" and maybe have a little bubble explaining what a mule is if it is a true blue new person, and have a yes or no option. If they have yes you can have a field where they can enter in the name of their main account. Obviously also have something in place for folks that are not making new accounts. I'm not sure how well that would work out but it makes the most sense to me. Hopefully yall can figure something out because when it comes to polls to get a feel for the community it's better if you cancel out the mules. Sorry for makin this so long. I hope it was equally informative (in its own way) as yours was. And have a good one. P.S. Apparently sulu is for sale. Captcha = "$200 sulu"

Commented on: Mon Jun 29, 2009 @ 02:06am


	The OMGaia forum has been a failure. I subscribed to all of the Dev Notices when the forum was rolling out and most of those threads haven't had any updates. The zOMG forum has had about a dozen announcements on updates and problems while the Dev Notice for zOMG has never been updated.

Hybrid
Community Member

Offline

Dref Dur
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Mon Jun 29, 2009 @ 02:28am


	No news on the Summer Event? =0

Commented on: Mon Jun 29, 2009 @ 06:12am


	I am now stalking you on Twitter! I find Twitter quite useful to find out what my favorite people are doing/thinking/sharing (/drinking), and my parents haven't figured it out yet, so they can't harrass me like they do on Facebook. Thanks Mom and Dad! shudder Bullet Tymez: Organization Of The Company/Who Runs the Company? I'm SO glad you have this post about which people do what at Gaia, because now I can link it whenever I see people crying about how much they "hate Craig Sherman" or the fact that "Gaia is so money-hungry". I get physically ill when I see threads like these and I just want to shake the ignorant bastards. As soon as there is an invention where I can punch people via the internet my life will be complete. scream Gambit/Free Offers I did the PosterPass offer for about 4000GC and it paid off well, they just seem to have charged me six extra times. They also sent me six extra shipments so it wasn't for nothing, but we're working on getting my money back now. ><; But I definitely got the GC, so that part worked fine! sweatdrop New Header/Footer Haven't looked at the header/footer stuff yet, but it seems to be extremely controversial, just like every other new thing on Gaia ever, so I'll look into it and get back to you. New Shops I love love love the new shops but I wish the drop down menu was still there. Shops designs are super cute and I can't understand why people hate them so much. It's so immersive and like others have said, really reminds me of "olde timey" go-gaia. Stuff You'd Like More Information On Haven't had problems connecting to the flash environments in a long time, but I'm more than willing to help out in any way I can. =) Features Rolling Out Soon Support Portal? That sounds interesting. More info please! As always, thanks so much for the (long) and informative post, I know it's gotta be rough on you guys when you try really hard to make something awesome and then everyone is angry about it. We love you! heart heart

Elliandra McTiernen
Community Member

Offline

Estefania Jericho
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Mon Jun 29, 2009 @ 08:25am


	My POV getgambit: As I said to Craig, dissmissing the gangsters and dealing with the Mafia because they were smokings is NEVER a good idea. As you try to deselect every bad offer, everyday comes another scammer there, it's a never end. Getgambit doesn't care about users security, just cares about his dirty money, that they are paying you, and each time a smartass come to the site with bots he is getting more gaia cash without doing nothing but sacrifice a bunch of public computers to generate it. This put on disvantage to us, donators who give LEGIT money, maybe I should start drug dealing to get you more money than gambit could give you so you can get rid of him, and I'm sure than fin will accept my deal if I do a lot of money drug dealing. Footer: I'll give it a chance because our bubbles are still on. But if i hate it I will complain on the SF forum. Incoming updates: I don't want pets I have fishes. Do you think i can get 24/7 to care about an stupid virtual animal? no way. And maybe most of this stupid pets will be bought only with gaia cash making fishes feel bad. As a mother says "no dogs, you already have fishes, take care of them" Shops: I love them, they get the site alive and also avoid newbies to step on some stores that will see no use until they advance (Flowershop, Fishin Ole, phing phang, Sam's and so on) leaving them just with the avatar shops. excelent. OMGaia: first of all, I hate that name too. Secondly, we have already AtA and SF, Why don't use them instead? Do you hate facebook? take a look at this

Commented on: Mon Jun 29, 2009 @ 03:56pm


	Quote: OMGaia (I still hate that name, ugh) was an attempt to improve communication, but in truth I don't think it appears to be working; a thread on shops was posted in there since April yet people in SF were saying "Why weren't we given advance notice of this?" Also, based on the PMs that I get, I'm convinced that the "Dev Notices," while a noble experiment, don't seem to be widely read either. I post more in GCD and most people know what's going on because of that forum alone.If people can't take the time to check there that's their own problem .People like to complain just to complain .

MrsrachaelSnape
Community Member

Offline

Llorelei
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Tue Jun 30, 2009 @ 01:12am


	Thank you Pan, for this great entry. I just want to say you are doing a great job, and keep up the awesome work. I love the insight into the behind-the-scenes at Gaia, it helps me understand a little better that the devs and artists really do share the vision of the users, and that you are listening to our feedback. With the whole "Fremere's Guard" Drama, I honestly felt like any feedback I gave to the site was simply being mocked. I think I kind of understand a bit better now that it was more of a "You gotta laugh, or you're gonna cry" type things. wink Anyway, you guys still rock in my book. Edit: And yes, OMGaia is a HORRIBLE name. xp

Commented on: Tue Jun 30, 2009 @ 01:17am


	heart Thanks for the explanations; I've worked for a Secretary/treasurer of a Corporation, so I understand the basics. Gaia has been my hobby for more than five years, and that's a long time for me! You keep updating us on what's going on, hon. purrrrs As for Twitter - I love the feeds. It keeps me up-to-date on what's going on over here, so as soon as I get news, I usually try to get to the computer as fast as I possibly can! Keep up the good work, Pana! heart

Ketira
Community Member

Offline

le artista
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Tue Jun 30, 2009 @ 04:15am


	Mobile portal -- check Gaia on your phone YES!! i have an i-phone and have been waiting for a better way to surf gaia on it. this will be an awesome addition!

Commented on: Tue Jun 30, 2009 @ 05:27am


	I personally love how the staff just can't see how gaia is not gaia anymore. Hell, i've only been here fro two years and in that short time this site has gone to the shitter. i just can't afford cash cards anymore and since all the good items seem to be only available through wallet raping, guess i'm s**t out of luck. i guess california hasn't been hit with the shitastic economy syndrome.

vix diesel
Community Member

Offline

pirhan
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Thu Jul 02, 2009 @ 05:45pm


	lol, I don't like the name OMGaia either. Anyways, I think the reason it's not read is because there's no discussion on the members end. It's hard to read something and not be able to put your two cents in. As well, because it's limited to who posts, it's not constantly being updated like every other forum. Sure, we have the Feeds, but I'm not constantly refreshing MyGaia. What'd I'd really like to see is the ability to add it to my RSS feeds. That would get me in there, reading it. How comfortable are the other employees about posting? I know anything site related is very touchy with a very vocal audience. (I always imagine it must be very difficult for Gaia compared other companies. WalMart, Monsanto, Canadian Tire don't have an official gathering for their customers to express concerns to the company and to each other.) What about narrowing it down? OMGaia is new, and I would of thought it would start with one or two threads and grow from there. It started with multiple threads and subforums - I think that's too much too soon. Did GaiaOnline have it's 300+ forums late February 2003? No, it had a few key forums and grew more depending on needs. Overall, I think OMGaia, name aside, has vast potential and I really hope you don't give up on it.

Commented on: Sat Jul 04, 2009 @ 08:36am


	check this: A MUST DO

Estefania Jericho
Community Member

Offline

Mangacide
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Sun Jul 05, 2009 @ 08:59am


	Wow I'm so late.... Anyroad, I really enjoyed reading this. It was both entertaining and enlightening. Also...it both Fascinates and Terrifies me to know that the staff has read my SF posts, however few they may be. ^.^\|\|\| Click the banner to read my Webcomic! PM me, I do Sketches for 10k!

Commented on: Fri Jul 10, 2009 @ 03:35am


	1)I do miss the Trade tab, a lot 2)I'm semi-familiar with the linux CLI, and can figure most anything I don't already know out. Don't run windows so I like learning. willing to help with that 3)and voting.. Use the User Agent String. Force people to use the same browser if it is the same OS and same version of that OS and what not. I use different browsers for my mules. A small minority might add a little extra weight by changing their user agent string, but I don't see them as having enough strength to really do anything.So if it's the same IP, Same OS and version, then they have to have the Same Browser too. be sure to explain it in an error message as a preventative for mule spamming of votes, lest the people who use different browsers on the same network be pissed for all the wrong reasons.

Zechs Marquis of Exeon
Community Member

Offline

Sabin le Rose
Community Member

Offline

Commented on: Fri Jul 10, 2009 @ 03:45am


	Are you purposely trying to make Tryna Lia kill you? rofl She was the one who came up with the OMGaia name. xDD Anyways. Thank you. This was really informative. A must read. <33

Commented on: Sun Jul 12, 2009 @ 05:48am


	Hey Pan, please dont hold back when you want to do something just because of the SF. It's better to do something than regret not doing it at all! Most of us will still love you, and you'll learn from it anyway~ I think you guys should release limited offers, even if it sounds impossible, to test them before releasing them, and keep releasing them as they're proven sound. It might be better to make sure there's no viruses instead of letting the users get the viruses and then complain about them. If you tested it and got a virus, you'd prevent the populace as a whole from getting them. Kill one to save a thousand? (I hated that movie.) For voting on features: I think it would be alright to allow everyone to vote. Most people don't have more than one or two mules. The people who have more than 20 mules would be a VERY small amount of the vote (less than .01%) compared to the populace as a whole. So even if 100 people with 100 mules voted, that would be 1000 out of the 100,000+ active members who would vote once or twice. I havent run into any trouble with the flash environments. My "My Gaia" feeds arn't really producing as much as they used to have. I wasn't ever noticed of this journal until I looked at my journal subscription page today, when I used to get them almost right after you'd post them. Also new replies to threads I've subscribed to have stopped appearing altogether. I liked the My Gaia page because it was a place where I could get updated about threads and journals all in one click. If you could look into it, I'd appreciate it. This year at Anime Expo, a couple artists, Lanzer and DJ Helsing went to the Gaia panel. Do you think its possible if next year you could go (as a dev representative)? Is it possible for them to release you from your cell in the HQ for a few hours? CAPCHA: with reactors They're telling you to use more reactors next time.

dreamsk
Community Member

Offline

User Comments: [58] Viewing page 0 of 2 · Goto Page: 1 2 » [add]

Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

View User's Journal

More Information