Gaia Online is an English-language, anime-themed social networking and forums-based website. It was founded as go-gaia on February 18, 2003, and the name was changed to GaiaOnline.com in 2004 by its owner, Gaia Interactive. Gaia originally began as an anime linklist and eventually developed a small community, but, following a statement by founder Derek Liu, the website moved towards social gaming, and eventually became forum-based. In 2007, over a million posts were made daily, and 7 million unique users visited each month[8] (with over 26 million total registered users). Gaia also won the 2007 Webware 100 award in the Community category and was included in Time Magazine's list of 50 best websites in 2008. In January 2011, the company won the Mashable Best User experience Award for 2010.
Avatars
Members of Gaia Online, known as Gaians, receive a customizable avatar when they sign up. Users have the ability to customize their avatar in many ways, including skin tone, eye style and color, hair style and color, gender, race (e.g. human, vampire, elf) and attire. Numerous clothing items and accessories for avatars can be purchased from a range of NPC-run stores using the site currencies, Gaia Gold and Gaia Cash. Avatars appear next to posts in the forums and profile comments (the post itself encapsulated in a "speech bubble"), and in Gaia Towns and other environments the avatar appears as a movable character that can travel from place to place, interacting with the environment (catching bugs, shaking trees, digging for buried treasure, collecting trash and flowers etc.) and other users.
Forums
Forums are the public message boards. There is a large variety of forums in which users can post, such as forums for general discussion, news, topics regarding the Gaia community and NPC story lines, casual conversation and lifestyle discussions, various types of role play, general entertainment, featured games on Gaia, and artist discussions. There are also forums for users to buy and sell items, as well as a forum for user-run businesses, e.g. art commissions and thread-bumping services. Users may make threads in almost every forum, as long as they follow each forum's guidelines. Users also have the option to add polls to their thread. ourdiploma Posting and replying to threads, as well as voting in polls, yields gold.
Economy
Currency
The currency used in Gaia is known as "Gaia Gold", commonly referred to as gold. Gold is regularly distributed to users as they browse around the website, post in the forums, play games, and participate in other various events and contests; the site also rewards users every day with random gold or items from the Daily Chance. In July 2007, Gaia released another virtual currency called Gaia Cash, which can be purchased with real money; $1 USD is equivalent to 100 Gaia cash. Gaia Cash can be bought through cell phone payments, or directly from Gaia itself.
Paying Gaia users generally spend about $30 USD per month to purchase Gaia Cash, which is then used to buy virtual things such as evolving, chance, collectible, and limited edition items.
AutoCash
On September 13, 2010, Gaia announced the introduction of AutoCash. AutoCash is an optional feature where GaiaOnline members can sign up to buy Gaia Cash on a reoccurring monthly schedule. The current cost per month for the feature is $10; users are given a generous amount[clarification needed] of content for the monthly fee. AutoCash can be charged to a credit card or debit card and members may also pay for the feature using a PayPal account. The service can be canceled at any time; staying past three months offers users the bonus of receiving items specifically designed and made for those that continue to use the AutoCash feature. The benefits of using AutoCash include:
