(It may not seem it at first, but this really is relevant to the Site-Feedback theme of my journal. razz Just bear with me.)
Three years. It's for me to believe, but it's been more than three years since my first account here on gaia. It's been almost four since I first heard of the site, even. I stumbles across it thanks to a nice, small-community oekaki that was run by a moderator on this site. I think it was Dr. Mina. I had an AOL email address at the time (Ugh) so I couldn't sign up. Once I did sign up, I was too busy and left my account, Mihoshi_kawaii, to rot. A few months later, in January '05, I joined again this time under the monacre of Kako_kawaii. What a noob, eh? I had changed email addresses since my first account, and I didn't like my choices in hair/clothing on that account so I just stuck with the new one. Hijinks ensued. There were great times and great friends, in fact I met one of my closest friends through gaia barely a month after I joined. We're still great friends today. :3 Naturally, there were bad times too. Things happened that I regret, people clashed, and there were misunderstandings. That's just how life goes. Suddenly, it was 2006 and I was no longer a newbie. It hit me all in a flash, really. XD I still felt like a new user compared to a lot of the users I saw there, but suddenly there were all of these people who had been there half as long as I had and were timid and confused. I didn't feel like an experienced user, I still don't. razz
I changed my name to [kako], because the kawaii just sounded stupid, and moved to new forums to see what parts of gaia I still hadn't experienced. I quickly met the less... intelligent parts of the gaian population. Not neccessarily noobs, but less intelligent all the same. They annoyed me, but I didn't do much about it because they spent their time in different parts of gaia than I did mine. Along with those people, though, I met many more wonderful people, interesting people.
Mid 2006, gaia had the most drastic layout change up till that point. It looked like, and I won't be shy saying it, a steaming pile of s**t. It looked terrible, far too white. I was outraged, as was a large portion of gaia. It was then that I took my first steps into the Site Feedback forum. Little did I know I was taking steps that would change my identity as a gaian forever.
At first I was outraged. I was loud. I would not listen to reason. Then the shock of the new layout wore off, and suddenly something strange happened. I fell DIRECTLY into the position of designing improvements. It came to me so naturally, it was a little strange. Even more, I quickly found that I wasn't doing it for myself, because I wanted the layout a certain way, but because I wanted to help. I wanted to help gaia make a layout that people could enjoy, I wanted to help others enjoy the site.
Though the fires over that hideous layout did die down, I never left Site Feedback. Some of my time was spent posting in other's threads, some of it lurking. Slowly, I adapted. I came up with ideas, I worked with others and developed them.
Gaia has gone through so many changes, and sometimes I question why I'm still here. What draws me to this site? Why do I spend so much time in Site Feedback? Why is Gaia so important to me?
It's not Gaia that's important, though, it's you. It's all of those wonderful users I've met over the time I've spent here. As long as those users are here, I will be as well: Constantly working to make gaia a better, more enjoyable place for you guys. I may not be a developer or an admin, but I care deeply for the amazing users of Gaia I met.
If you care as I do, post here. Tell me your story, get to know me. smile Then I'll work from the heart for you as well.
[Kako] Community Member 
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