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I understand Gaiaonline.com implementing the Gaia Cash system into the network. Aside from advertisement, it is the only other path to profit. And what a profit it is.

Currently, we have around 19,200,000 registered users. Let us say, pessimistically, that one (which is no doubt actually much larger) in every five-thousand purchases Gaia Cash. That's around 4,000 users. Now let us say that each spends ten dollars (which is, again, very pessimistic). That's forty-thousand dollars. Annually, that would be an okay number; but I hope we can all agree on that it's far from an annual sort of thing. I'll give you another pessimistic number: $40,000 a month. That's right. If four thousand users purchase Gaia Cash each month, that's $40k. Let me remind you, again, that I used very pessimistic numbers. It could easily be $100k.

So, yes, I understand why the owners of Gaia did this. Although, honestly, advertisement on a site with nearly twenty million users brings in so much more money than you can imagine. I think this is the second largest forum-based website in the world. (A category to which facebook and myspace do not belong to—as they are much, much larger and focus on social networking, not unlike twitter.)

Furthermore, Gaia Interactive, Inc.—which owns Gaiaonline.com—is a private company. Meaning that they do not have shareholders. All profits head straight to the founder. That's a lot of money.

But, enough about that.

What I do not understand, however, is how people can live with themselves after spending hard-earned (in most cases) money on mere pixels that never redeem themselves for anything worthwhile. You spend dollars (most likely your parents', as most users on here are children), you buy a bundle, you exchange it for Gaia Gold, and then you purchase colorful items for your avatar. If you cut the first three steps, it's perfectly acceptable. But, overall, it is not.

One can make millions without having to spend real money. And I bet it would feel like much more of an accomplishment. Actually, I don't understand what's the big deal about really expensive items if you haven't earned them. It's an empty gesture, really. In most cases, cheap items look just as good, sometimes better than, the more expensive ones.

Additionally, having spent that real money, you spend extraordinary amounts of time on the site itself. So, you or your parents lose money, you lose your time—and you get absolutely nothing to show for it.

Now, I'm not saying that Gaiaonline is useless. On the contrary, some portions are amazing. The Extended Discussion and Writers Forum, for example. Those prompt intelligent discussions—where one can spent one's desire for verbal challenge.

In short, wasting time on Gaia is understandable. Wasting time and money is not. You leeches.

Thank you.

I don't expect any comments. A bit too long for an average user to bother with.