[NPC] Gaia Staff
Welcome Back! (With extra answered questions since we were out a couple of weeks!) smile
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Features
Like many other Gaians have asked in the past, when are you going to merge all forums into relevant main categories? There is not a lot of activity in the forums right now, mainly because there are way too many categories and sub-categories. There are even very old archived/locked non-accessible forums that only Gaia staff can access. My suggestion is to have maximum 3 relevant main forum categories, where each main category has a maximum of 4 relevant sub-categories at a time. All ancient/inactive and locked forums should be archived or deleted. This will make the forums much easier and faster to navigate, especially for new Gaians:
1. Community and Events
This forum has Heaven, Welcome to Gaia, Guides and Resources, Events, and all the other related sub-forums combined in a single forum. Maximum 4 sub-categories at a time.
2. Support and Feedback
This forum has Bug Report, Technical Support, Site Questions/Assistance, Staff Updates, and all the other related sub-forums combined in a single forum. Maximum 4 sub-categories at a time.
3. Art and Entertainment
This forum has Art, Manga/Anime, Writing, Games/Gaming, and all the other related sub-forums combined in a single forum. Maximum 4 sub-categories at a time.
What do you think about this?
Like many other Gaians have asked in the past, when are you going to merge all forums into relevant main categories? There is not a lot of activity in the forums right now, mainly because there are way too many categories and sub-categories. There are even very old archived/locked non-accessible forums that only Gaia staff can access. My suggestion is to have maximum 3 relevant main forum categories, where each main category has a maximum of 4 relevant sub-categories at a time. All ancient/inactive and locked forums should be archived or deleted. This will make the forums much easier and faster to navigate, especially for new Gaians:
1. Community and Events
This forum has Heaven, Welcome to Gaia, Guides and Resources, Events, and all the other related sub-forums combined in a single forum. Maximum 4 sub-categories at a time.
2. Support and Feedback
This forum has Bug Report, Technical Support, Site Questions/Assistance, Staff Updates, and all the other related sub-forums combined in a single forum. Maximum 4 sub-categories at a time.
3. Art and Entertainment
This forum has Art, Manga/Anime, Writing, Games/Gaming, and all the other related sub-forums combined in a single forum. Maximum 4 sub-categories at a time.
What do you think about this?
Thanks for the suggestion. While we are/have been looking at modifying/combining/changing/deleting some forums such as the changes we made to the Anime/Manga/Cartoon forum and will continue to do so, our userbase's interests are way too varied for so few forums.
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Features
Just wondering why I’m occasionally seeing ads when I visit Gaia via mobile through safari?
I have ads disabled with my cash purchasing.
Usually they appear at the bottom of the page, in one instance a while back it floated above the quick links footer bar.
Just wondering why I’m occasionally seeing ads when I visit Gaia via mobile through safari?
I have ads disabled with my cash purchasing.
Usually they appear at the bottom of the page, in one instance a while back it floated above the quick links footer bar.
We recently added a new ad provider but there was a problem with it staying hidden. The bug should be fixed now.
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General
As Glengrin asked, are you guys able to do much of the server work remotely, since there's a restriction on gatherings? I was under the impression there were way more than 10 people on staff, and a crowded office building seems like a place illness would spread easily.
As Glengrin asked, are you guys able to do much of the server work remotely, since there's a restriction on gatherings? I was under the impression there were way more than 10 people on staff, and a crowded office building seems like a place illness would spread easily.
Yes, we are under the shelter in place for all of California. We are in the Bay Area so actually have been under it for 16 days already. Fortunately, while we all miss being able to chat with each other in person, we can manage everything we need to remotely and have many channels of communication open between the multiple groups so we can keep everything running almost as smoothly as ever. Like with everyone in this situation it's different, and a change, but one that we are up to and will continue to do our best to make Gaia a place you want to log into and have fun with your friends around the world.
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Ads
Recently it seems you guys added ads that circumvent general ad blockers as they seem to be directly in the site's coding. The community is outraged by this change with many threads in SF being angered by this change as it affects their ability to enjoy the site. Can you explain why you felt the need to include this change? If it can't be removed due to contract or agreement between you and a third party can you also clarify that? And also while Angel Subs block these ads the 249+ GC spent option doesn't block it and I feel that it should. If you think 249gc is too low, raising it to something like 500 should be fine but it should also block those ads in my opinion.
Thank you for taking the time to read and respond. This issue is hitting home for a lot of people and while I understand we need to explore all financial options to keep the site afloat--this upsets a large part of the userbase and is something I think you guys need to reconsider.
Recently it seems you guys added ads that circumvent general ad blockers as they seem to be directly in the site's coding. The community is outraged by this change with many threads in SF being angered by this change as it affects their ability to enjoy the site. Can you explain why you felt the need to include this change? If it can't be removed due to contract or agreement between you and a third party can you also clarify that? And also while Angel Subs block these ads the 249+ GC spent option doesn't block it and I feel that it should. If you think 249gc is too low, raising it to something like 500 should be fine but it should also block those ads in my opinion.
Thank you for taking the time to read and respond. This issue is hitting home for a lot of people and while I understand we need to explore all financial options to keep the site afloat--this upsets a large part of the userbase and is something I think you guys need to reconsider.
As a company Gaia had been working with different ad providers throughout the years. The advertising business is a strange one where different providers come and go, as their offers and amount of payout changes over time, making it hard to just stick with one provider forever. Yes we usually shop around for the provider which provides competitive rates, though anything to do with ad blocking was not an objective, but more of how the industry is moving towards as a whole. Unfortunately we are not in a position to ignore additional revenue streams, especially with the condition of the economy at this point in time. We will continue to look at different providers to hopefully find another provider with good rates and less impact of user experience.
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Features
Is there any progress on fixing the password reset links ? Password reset emails still aren’t being sent to email addresses.
Is there any progress on fixing the password reset links ? Password reset emails still aren’t being sent to email addresses.
We are in the process of setting up a new email server. Hope to have it ready soon. Sorry for the wait.
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Items (?)
For those of us that submitted an Exclamation Ticket, if our request gets rejected or declined, do we risk our ticket getting converted into a Perfect Pick after the 31st?
For those of us that submitted an Exclamation Ticket, if our request gets rejected or declined, do we risk our ticket getting converted into a Perfect Pick after the 31st?
As long as the ticket is submitted before the expiration date, you're good! If there's a problem with your order, we will work with you to fix it.
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Features:
Can we have the option to sell those Raffle Time Tickets from Loyal's back to the Gold Shops? Because if someone bought say 500 of those tickets and didn't win the prize - being able to sell back those tickets for half the price would be perfect.
Especially since the item (if ever sold in the MP) from those tickets would probably cost way more than the tickets being sold back to the Gold Shops.
Can we have the option to sell those Raffle Time Tickets from Loyal's back to the Gold Shops? Because if someone bought say 500 of those tickets and didn't win the prize - being able to sell back those tickets for half the price would be perfect.
Especially since the item (if ever sold in the MP) from those tickets would probably cost way more than the tickets being sold back to the Gold Shops.
Adding a sellback to the tickets would defeat the purpose of the gold sink. If someone doesn't want the tickets in their inventory, they can trash them!
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Features - Workshop
I'm going to ask this here in case I don't make it to the actual ATS. If it doesn't get answered here I'll try there as well.
So far we've seen two crowdfunded requests get done. My problem is - can we get some sort of Staff Notifications when things actually get done? If it wasn't for me checking the workshop, I wouldn't have known that anything is being done. Or if Staff Notifications are too much, can we get a different system of alerts? Maybe a simple "!" on the workshop hammer icon (and next to the categories in the workshop) if there's something new that users can check out? It would really help and make users check out the workshop more, cause they would know that things are moving. Right now the workshop kind of died out because people don't bother to check it out all the time and the votes are stagnant. We need a system of alerts for the workshop.
I'm going to ask this here in case I don't make it to the actual ATS. If it doesn't get answered here I'll try there as well.
So far we've seen two crowdfunded requests get done. My problem is - can we get some sort of Staff Notifications when things actually get done? If it wasn't for me checking the workshop, I wouldn't have known that anything is being done. Or if Staff Notifications are too much, can we get a different system of alerts? Maybe a simple "!" on the workshop hammer icon (and next to the categories in the workshop) if there's something new that users can check out? It would really help and make users check out the workshop more, cause they would know that things are moving. Right now the workshop kind of died out because people don't bother to check it out all the time and the votes are stagnant. We need a system of alerts for the workshop.
While we can't promise it will be done, we can look into this.
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Features
I'd like to thank the staff for addressing the questions on the granting system from last week. Voting in the Avatar arena now gives more then 1 platinum. However, it sill only gives between 8 to 26 platinum when before it would give roughly 150 to 200 platinum per vote, just like when you post in a thread. Is this intentional, or is the granting system still being worked on?
I'd like to thank the staff for addressing the questions on the granting system from last week. Voting in the Avatar arena now gives more then 1 platinum. However, it sill only gives between 8 to 26 platinum when before it would give roughly 150 to 200 platinum per vote, just like when you post in a thread. Is this intentional, or is the granting system still being worked on?
We had moved the voting system back to the older code, but looks like there might have been some issues still. We will revisit and make sure it is granting the amount it used to.
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COVID19:
What precautions has Gaia done to ensure the safety of their staff members? Is the Gaia office in California closed for now and everyone is working from home? Do the staff members have enough health insurance to get tested properly if they get symptoms?
What precautions has Gaia done to ensure the safety of their staff members? Is the Gaia office in California closed for now and everyone is working from home? Do the staff members have enough health insurance to get tested properly if they get symptoms?
Gaia has been great insuring our safety! We have all been working from home since the shuttering in place. It's caused a few issues (sorry last week's ATS!) but we have worked them out and hopefully should be able to keep going strong until this is over. We all are being safe and careful and hopefully you all will be too!
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Features
Is there a reason you guys stopped doing the company updates since September? It really feels like you guys just don't care anymore.
Is there a reason you guys stopped doing the company updates since September? It really feels like you guys just don't care anymore.
Company Updates have not stopped; there has been one every month since they started.
Thanks to the user Gene Wilder for providing links to the updates!
The confusion seems to be that while the updates have still been occurring on the 15th of each month [rarely delayed] the posts have been in the Items/Sales Announcements forum rather than the Announcements forum Here's the ones that have occurred since September to help get you up to date!
October 2019 Update
November 2019 Update
December 2019 Update
January 2020 Update
February 2020 Update
March 2020 Update
