Welcome to Gaia! ::

Seriously. What happened to this guild? The activity in it has dropped from when it was really hard to keep up with the roleplay's activity, to the point where I check back day after day, to see that maybe one roleplay has been posted in, and it isn't one that I am in.

Is it because people are away doing school stuff? I don't think so. That excuse has run itself dry. I know that people do, however, have a life outside of Gaia, for this is an online community. However, if you're going to up and leave and not come back, it'd be nice to let your roleplay-mates know that you will be disappearing.

I think that the dead-ness is more down to a lack of people caring about this guild any more, or roleplaying in general. It saddens me, for this is the only literate guild that I have been able to find that has had a posting in it since 2008. I'm not up for looking for another website to roleplay in, because most of them are not well put together. And there is no way in hell that I am roleplaying in Barton Town again. I was just searching the threads in that place. Searching, hoping, and longing to find a thread that was literate... only to find utter, putrid illiteracy. Not one literate thread in sight.

Now, let me get one thing straight, I do not hate the people spewing out the illiteracy, rather, I hate illiteracy itself. It makes me lose a little faith in humanity as a whole. I see all the chatspeak all over the place, as well as the widely used acronyms. Not only that, but due to texting, people's spelling, correct word usage, and shortening of words have gotten worse. It seems to me like a form of de-evolution.

This may seem unjustified, but I feel it necessary to get it out in the open and off my chest. I would like your views and opinions on the matter... and if possible referrals to other literate guilds that I have not come across, for I fear that Koiji Romansu, the guild that I have been a part of for a few years now, has run out of steam. I fear that soon it will come to a grinding halt, leaving behind only memories of a bygone time of literate roleplaying.

- Auron

I don't really care if you don't think it's a valid reason anymore, Auron. School will always trump Gaia, no matter what. Koiji is not our life.

College really is keeping me from Gaia a lot of the time. Also, I've been trying to find a job, so that's taking up some time too. Add that to the fact that my computer was attacked by this jerk who then sent me a scam ad to pay him to remove the virus that he sent to me. That's not even counting any of the family/friend drama that's going on.
So, yeah. I'm busy.

Also, when I do have time to post, I can't. No one from my roleplay - that affects my characters, anyway - has replied yet, so neither can I. I'm still waiting on them. And you know what? It doesn't bother me too much, because I know that they have their reasons, too. Things will pick up again.

We go through this nearly every time school comes around, and everyone gets all scared. Think about it, though! We always pick back up. Maybe we're not as busy a guild as we once were, but we don't need 10,000 active members to have fun roleplaying with each other. Just wait it out. People will be back.

l can start going on massive invite-sprees like I used to, where I find people who are actually literate and invite them to join us. Or someone else can step up and do it, too! Like you, maybe, since you seem to have tons of time on your hands. Or maybe someone could actually post in the advertisement thread, because I certainly got sick of being the only one doing it.

It saddens me that activity is dropping, just like it does you. But then I remember that at least some of these people have their reasons for leaving, or for disappearing temporarily, and it bothers me less because I'm that way, too. And it really does bug me that they didn't say anything about it, because they should. It's rude not to. I know that at least I left a note in my thread about how school was really being a hassle, and that I didn't know how much I'd be around for a little while.

We're not all dropping off the face of the earth, Auron. So maybe you should stop complaining and start doing something about it, like I said. Sometimes you've just got to step up and do it yourself.

I apologize for being kind of snippy, but I just really don't like your attitude when it comes to these things. You need to calm down a little bit, Auron.

I pop in, it's just that I haven't posted in so long because of the inactivity issues, as you've said. The only time I've been able to make for Gaia is about five minutes every day where I log in, check Niaknatan to see if anyone's posted in it, check my PMs, and log out.

But I do have proof I've been here recently - I updated the roleplays section by deleting a few more inactive ones, on the 25th of last month. So, roughly five days ago. And since then I've been checking the roleplays.

And it's sad to say this, but... I really do miss how Koiji was originally. It's sad to think that this used to be extremely active, and now it's only a shell of what it once was. I don't know how to fix it or even if we CAN fix it, but I would love to help out anyone that wishes to try.

I like this thread.

And this guild. It's one of three literate roleplaying-based guilds I'm in, and one of six literate guilds. It is, with everything else, a dying breed. Very few newcomers to Gaia have a tendency to be literate; most literates are above the age of eighteen. This being the case, few literates have time to be terribly active due to college schedules, the beginnings of work, making a life, and forgetting about life on the Internet. For me, it was as simple as a bill that could not be paid. I plan to have it entirely recovered by next month.

Now that summer has come, it is more likely that more people will join, be active, have fun, and then quit as school restarts.

All the guilds, threads, and roleplays I am in have more or less "died." But they will bounce back, as everything generally does.

But a fact we all must face is that literacy on Gaia is dying. Gaia is a place for young teenagers. Even in six years, the average age of the people on Gaia is roughly 14-16. We, the older generation, grew up without the cell phone, without the Internet, and without the stupid laws of television cartoons. Hold for a segway: cartoons now are stupid, trying too hard to activate the minds of children and associate them into good morals. Cartoons used to have to idea of: "This is stupid. Watch it. Laugh. And don't do it because you've seen the results."
Back to the point, the newest generation is becoming too fast-paced and get-everything-in-less-than-one-second-when-I-click-go. Information is becoming less profound and more user-friendly. The children now do not learn words for longer phrases; i.e. instead of using onomatopoeia, they say, "a word that sounds like what it means."

The question I'm concerned with is whether humanity will reach down into the pit or bring itself onto the mountain with the new age.