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I tried to make this rant yesterday afternoon, but I was so irate (and yes, offended) that I went off on a tangent about Gaian Economics for some reason (and also why there is inflation. XD)

So I'll try to get to the point this time.

I saw, in someone's sig, a wishlist. The wishlist was not for items in particular; just for general things. The first half of it was "For everyone who joined after October 03 to LEAVE."

This offended me like you wouldn't believe, and not just because I joined in November 03.

For those who don't know, the first (and arguably continual) Gaian population explosion happened in November of that year. I was part of it. A lot of people were.

Gaia before then was what I assume to be a relatively small and close-knit community. Prices were low. Uncommons were worth more. People shelled out 11k for a leather collar with cross. Rares were... well... rare. The donation items were in relatively short supply and thus had a steady price rise. Letters were good investments. The halo was worth a whopping two or three million (And Kamiki was able to afford it only after a lot of hard work and dedication), and, well, things were good.

Then the population exploded. Suddenly, EVERYONE is buying letters, and EVERYONE is sharking events to get items, and EVERYONE is buying, selling, earning gold, and driving the 03 donation item prices UP and the 04 item prices DOWN.

It sucks for investors. It sucks for people who've been questing for 03 items forever. It sucks to have a quest for fairy wings get lost because a thousand other newbies are questing for the same thing.

But it's not the newbies' fault.

So I didn't discover the site in September 03. Does it mean I don't deserve minis? What about a sash? I joined in November; I'm allowed to have an OMG, right? Do I deserve to quest for DJs?

Yes, the site has lag. Yes, the servers get overloaded. Yes, every event the admins plan is a HORRIBLE display of the servers exploding because they're so overloaded.

But it's not the fault of the population explosion. If you recall, every time they set up an event, they FACTOR IN THE EXTRA LOAD ON THE SERVERS.

The ACTUAL ISSUE comes from not only the regular users coming in for items, but also the MULES of regular users. Oldbies and newbies alike have mules, and I'm sure that many an oldbie used them to get extra items. I RPed with mules during the anniversary ball; I was on three accounts in all, and I RPed with all of them. I still contributed to the problem.

Yes, there will be an influx of "noobs" making the events into a chatterbox with topics like "BUMP FOR A TSHIRT" or "SAY EGG TEN TIMES AND YOU'LL FIND ONE" and people running into legitimate RP threads to scream "EGG". The fact that they're idiots has nothing to do with when they've joined. The chatterbox crowd may be relatively new, but people spammed since the site was created. Why do you think the chatterbox was added in the first place?

It's not their fault for being new.

And inflation. Ohhhhhh, inflation. It can be directly attributed to the rise in population (I'll probably rant about it another day), but it's not the newbies' fault. It sucks that the value of the gold is dropping. It sucks that pink link is no longer "OFMGAWESOME." And I hear that one day, the gold will go the way of the neopoint and be nearly worthless unless bundled in obscene amounts.

It's unfortunate, but blaming the newbies won't help anything; especially since the major goldearning power comes from and goes to oldbies.

There are a lot of things wrong with Gaia, and 75% of those bad things point to Gaians. But to arbitrarily declare that anyone who joined after October 2003 should LEAVE... is just inexcusable.

Gaia is what it is because of new members. More people donating equals more support for a truly awesome community.

Turning a public forum into your own little private club won't solve anything; it'll just make the forum stagnant and pointless when EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU buys all the items you want. With no competition from newbies, it should be easy.

I don't know if it was greed or xenophobia that spawned that sig, but it doesn't change the fact that it's horribly rude and disrespectful to Gaia as a whole; not just the Gaians. Gaia is its members. If it doesn't grow, then it's not GAIA.

I'm staying as long as I can. I don't care if I'm not in the elite "club" that includes all the "true oldbies". I'm staying, and there's nothing you can do about it.