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(The entry below is a copy of the OP from my thread here.)

Hey everyone! Today I attended the Gaia Online panel at WonderCon and I wanted to tell you all about it!

INTRO
I want to tell you a little about me, so you understand the perspective this is all coming from. Feel free to skip this bit (but I'd love it if you humored me by reading it!).

I'm Rachael, I'm 29, and I've been on Gaia since 2006 (and this particular account since 2007). I was deeply unhappy with the direction the now-former management took Gaia. While they were at the helm, I went on a semi-hiatus. I logged in every day, but mostly because I was fully expecting to see an announcement saying, "Goodbye, we're shutting down," and I wanted to be there when it happened. As you can imagine, I was elated to see Lanzer and co. return, and I'm extremely excited to see what's in store for all of us!

Before today, I'd never been to a convention. I grew up in Michigan, where, I don't need to tell you, conventions don't happen like they do in California. I moved out here four years ago, and when I heard Gaia was doing a panel and it was an hour away from where I live, I knew that if I were still in Michigan I'd be wishing I could go, and now nothing was stopping me from doing exactly that! More importantly, I wanted to show support to the team that was bringing the site I love back to life.

Incidentally, the entirety of today--Gaia panel included--was totally awesome!

WHAT YOU CAME HERE FOR
I took notes on what happened at the panel, just in case you're like me from four years ago, which is to say: living too far away to attend the party. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer them!

DJ Helsing hosted the panel and he was joined by Zero Omega and Sweet Daes. They were absolutely wonderful!

To give you an idea of what the environment was like, briefly, I believe there were about 30 people in attendance, and all the content we saw was via PowerPoint, displayed on a big viewing screen. As is typical at convention panels, the Gaia staff members were seated at a long table on a raised platform at the front of the room.

They started things off by playing a video that Lanzer had recorded with Narumi Misuhara (which you caught a glimpse of in the update video Narumi posted today!). It was really nice; he thanked us for our support, mentioned some of the work they've been doing since he came back, told us that there are some exciting things in store, and wished us all a good time at the rest of the con!

There were some items at the start of the panel that were more or less a recap of announcements of recent events: the new management (which is really a return of the old management), the resurrection of zOMG!, and the current NuGen/Committee storyline.

Regarding zOMG!, they stated that they don't have any major updates planned for the game, but they are closely monitoring use of the game to gauge the interest we have in it. So... you guys should play the game if you aren't already, and if you are... play it more! Haha. (Interesting (to me) note: Lanzer pronounced it "zoh-my-god" in his video, but the other staff members pronounced it "zee-oh-em-gee." I say "zoh my god," myself. How do you guys say it? =] )

They are looking to release more new Gaia merchandise soon. Sweet Daes mentioned that it is important to them that the merchandise they release is quality. So if it's taking a little while for new goods to hit the shelves, I think it's probably because they have standards, and that's great! (I went to the con with the intention of buying a wing pin and I did, and it really is a beautiful piece!)

They are looking to attend more conventions in the near future, but as of yet it sounded like very little was set in stone. I saw dates ranging from April - August. Keep your eyes on the announcements for more news on this!

They talked about the NuGen/Committee storyline, and gave us some teaser art of a mysterious building... :O

Moving on to more news, they told us, officially and in no uncertain terms, there won't be anymore gold generators released. Ever. E V E R. "At least not as long as I'm around," Sweet Daes said. She told us that mild-mannered Lanzer, on his first day back, had an outburst that could be heard across the office, when he examined the state of the economy!

They gave us a sneak peak of items that will be released soon--various images of avatars showing the different item poses. We also saw some really great sketches and rough drafts of artwork. Most of the images were Chance Item characters. I personally think it's always cool to see a content-creation process so this was a nice tidbit!

They told us that they are planning a summer event, which may involve mini games, and are developing concepts for a Halloween event. I believe they also said that Lanzer is interested in trying to make a zOMG! Easter egg hunt happen?

One of the things I was most excited to learn of was the fact that they are developing something "big." I asked them if we had seen anything on this scale before, and they definitively and unhesitatingly told me, "No." And that's all they'd say. zOMG! is about the biggest thing we've seen that I can think of, and this is apparently definitely bigger than that. Wow! I can't wait to see what it'll be!

UPDATE: Zero Omega has commented with some elaboration as to the "big thing." Apparently it has to do with site events!

They covered news on bug fixes they've worked on and updates they've implemented:

- On Lanzer's first day back, he busted out the favorites system.

- The inventory arranger used to have some real issues and it is now much improved.

- They've released the Deals page so we aren't getting spammed with announcements anymore.

- They have increased the number of outfit slots you can have. I believe Sweet Daes mentioned that they do cost Cash up to a certain point, but after that you can pay Gold to buy more. The reason for this was because when this feature was initially released it cost Cash, and they didn't want to change the system after people had already paid Cash for it, because that would be unfair to them.

All in all, they have tackled 450+ bugs in the three and half months since Lanzer's return!

At this point in the panel Sweet Daes stressed that they want to know what we think about things, and the way we can tell them is through the Site Feedback forum--they DO read it! Give them your feedback! And as a note from me: please take the time to leave positive feedback as well! If I learned one thing from this panel, it's that Gaia's staff is stretched thin and they are working very hard on a lot of things. They deserve to hear good things from us!

They went on to talk about near-future plans:

- The Gaia mobile app has a complete revamp in progress!

- Fighting inflation is a top priority, as well as examining the universal gold-granting system. This is a Big Deal. And it's a very complicated issue, which is why they tackled bringing back zOMG! first--they knew it was going to take much less time to do that, than to take on the inflation issue. But they are working on it!

- They are looking to do more site-wide events and mini games!

- They are looking to improve the item tagging and search system; they are aware it doesn't function terribly well at the moment (especially with how many items we have nowadays!).

- They want to update server security to make for a better, safer experience for all of us.

They talked about user-run events. While they cannot guarantee that they will be able to assist with a user-run event, they are always happy to take a look to see what they might be able to do! The sort of assistance they may be able to provide includes things like NPC interaction, item grants, gold sinks, and announcements for visibility. Email userevents@gaiaonline.com to ask! They mentioned the user event that's currently running, Diedrich's Birthday.

They said that they are always accepting applications for moderators! They are very short on moderators at the moment, so they would love to hear from interested people!

At this point in the panel they did some rounds of trivia, and audience members were given merchandise prizes. Some of the questions they came up with were pretty tough!

After the trivia, they reminded us to keep an eye on their social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat! (I didn't know Gaia had a Snapchat! I'll see if I can track down their Snapchat username, as I didn't note it at the time!)

To wrap up the information they had for us, they mentioned that they are looking to move from Flash to HTML5 for security reasons, so that users can be reassured that they're secure when on Gaia. (I recall in a recent Ask the Staff, though, that many Astra items have particle effects that cannot be replicated in HTML5, so I'm not sure how that will work going forward; maybe Astra items will continue to utilize Flash while we move into HTML5?)

And once again, they stressed that they are kind of running a skeleton crew and are starting from scratch, in a way, with Lanzer's return. They've got a lot going on, and not many people to assist! Sweet Daes stated that if you have a ticket awaiting attention in the system, they have NOT forgotten about you! They are simply handling the volume of tickets they have pending as best they can with the number of people they have available.

To finish the panel, they had a Q&A session. I didn't note all the questions audience members asked but I do recall a few pieces of information:

- Someone asked about how artists name items, and Zero Omega told us that the artists have a lot of autonomy in the item creation process, from start to finish. So in a sense, there isn't necessarily a directive on what items are called, it sounds like artists get to decide that for themselves.

- Another person asked about Lake Kindred and if they have any further/future plans for it, and they gave a very mysterious "maybe, maybe not" answer. We will see!

- Someone asked about releasing more Gold items that are of Cash Shop quality, and they said we should keep an eye on Flynn's Plunder, because that is an avenue where people can access Cash items for Gold.

- Another audience member asked about whether or not deleting threads would ever be a possibility. Apparently this is asked about often. They stated that for one thing, it's not possible based on how the forums operate, but they also don't want users to be able to delete a thread because often, conversations pop up between other users on a thread. Deleting the whole thread would then create a negative experience for other thread participants. (They gave a specific example of roleplaying; if a thread gets deleted, there goes the whole RP!) As it is, you can go into your thread and remove your own content, but they have no intention of enabling thread deletion.

At the moment, that's all I can recall of the Q&A session; we wrapped up after that!

Before we left, they insisted that everyone who attended the panel grab either a sticker or a badge, because they didn't want anyone to leave empty-handed! I grabbed a Diedrich pin; I love that little guy. It looks like he isn't available yet from Genkimix so I think he was one of the new items they were debuting at the con!

After the panel I visited them at their booth to buy my wing pin, and I was told I would be getting my Conventioneer achievement shortly, which I'm pretty excited about, especially because I never thought I'd be able to make it to a con!

MY THOUGHTS
It was made very clear to us Gaians today at WonderCon that the Gaia staff value us, want to do right by us, and want to hear from us as we all move forward under the new management. They are working very hard and are doing the best they can while short-staffed.

From my point of view, it's more important than ever that we show them our support by:

- Giving them positive feedback. It makes you feel good when someone compliments or thanks you--Gaia staff are no different!
- Giving them constructive feedback. Calm, respectful, thought-out comments with specific details are what's helpful!
- Giving them our financial support. If you can't afford it, that's okay! But if you can, and you believe in this team and what they're trying to do for us, one of the best ways you can help them in their mission is to give them the finances to do what they need to do.

Thank you for reading this--I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope if you have the opportunity to go to a convention that you are able to! As a first time con-goer it was an incredibly fun and positive experience for me overall and I can't tell you how glad I am that I did it. Being able to attend a Gaia event and show my support made it that much better of an experience.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask!