Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ok, really this was just a hilarious conversation I had with a buddy of mine today, but he raised a point that made me raise an eyebrow, at the very least.
He officially quit Gaia a month ago, feeling so disillusioned and disgusted with Gaia because of the steps they are taking and their general direction. I showed him some of the announcements, posts, and evidence gathered since his departure, and we had quite the interesting conversation.
Anyone remember that little snippit that slipped out about an "adult" sister-site for Gaiaonline?

The theory: I mentioned the timing of all the sales and such, as well as the first rumors circulating about the production of a possible sister-site for Gaia. After hearing much of what I said (he suffers from selective hearing often), this is what he said.

"So, basically, what you're telling me is, rumors come from the fringes about some 18+ Gaia sister site and then we start pushing cash like crazy, start destroying the Gaia economy, and abandon the things the userbase cares about most? That sounds a hell of a lot like killing two birds with one stone. They'll let the addicts pay to the point of poverty for the new website without actually telling anyone, and then hope that they've made the original site so hateable and unenjoyable that people will jump ship to their new business venture, which will probably run a lot like IMVU or Second Life. It'll be a pay-to-play chat client with the limited ability to earn credits for free. Honestly it sounds like they're crucifying Gaia to pay for this new venture, then hoping that everyone will just herd to their new vessel like a shepherd herds his sheep. While that won't work for most people, there has always been and will always be an adult contingent of gaia that has always used it for relationships and sexual fantasy, and these degenerates are going to get a site all to themselves paid for by the poor, foolish Gaians who believe their paid donations will bring the site back around. I won't be surprised if the site doesn't last another two years, and that in that time, there will be an official announcement somewhere, probably not on Gaia, of this second site, and we'll have seen one of the most successful, and legal, online scams of this decade"

Thoughts? Opinions? I lol'd really hard at the conversation, but he brings up some valid points that are somewhat scary.

Yeah, when I first started hearing rumors of Gaia's sister site I thought it was stupid and unfounded, until I started realizing how deep this cash push goes. Why do they need THIS much money? Surely this isn't just some sadistic test to see how hard they can push before people won't accept their tyranny anymore. Sounds more like a way to try to work up a lot of money for something, but for what?

That's truly what I believe is happening with Gaia right now. Save for the part about jumping ship because I know that I will absolutely 100 percent guaranteed NEVER have anything to do with anything associated with Gaia Interactive ever again.

Ever.

All your crazy conspiracy rant has done is put into words what we were all already thinking. emo

To add to the conspiracy: Once the great migration to the adult site is complete, they will mutate this site into a slightly more upgraded version of Neopets to cater to the 13-17 crowd and it will be riddled with all the advertisements and restrictions they know we'd reject but will bring them more money.

Throwing in a bit that I remind people of when I'm out in SF:

18+ implies but doesn't necessarily mean sexual content. 18 is also the age minimum to use most payment processors. There hasn't been much pointing to the inclusion of sexual content, other than a few survey questions that riled up Gaians.

These questions may or may not have been diversions to keep us questioning the actual content rating on the site. While all the Tumblrites were all about 'muh triggering' or 'muh body' in Site Feedback and everyone assumed it'd go toward making some kind of adult content (because of the image's connection to 4chan; it comes from /fit/), nobody is aware that the survey questions could have been just been used to determine what 'range' of body shapes is ideal to make avatar bases and NPC designs with.

As long as there isn't an outright statement that this sister site will include adult content, we should not assume it does, for as all we know it could just end up being a literal NotGaia for a monthly fee.

I know, right? :/ I've been trying not to think of it that way, but...

Exactly what I'm concerned about. Whether or not it's their direct intention, this is what could result of their new 18+ and I don't want to be a part of it.

Even worse, I don't want to be known as someone who used to frequent the site that built up to it!