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Whats the Current Status of GAF in general right now?

Meifu

Member
Just curious what the mood is like on these boards lately.

I know a ton of people jumped to resetera after things blew up here quite dramatically last year.

Do people get banned the same way they used to here, is the discourse more open now? Just wanted to get a sense
 

Barnabot

Member
I think the Neogaf's finest just moved to resetera along with some other folks by false advertising. /s
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
You can check yourself by visiting the neogaf.com/bans page.

Mods have been transparent as well as tolerant of some very out-there posts. Seems to me the only thing not tolerated is insults (thought this must be a repeated behavior before resulting in a ban) and refusing to engage with the community (i.e. spewing propaganda and not responding to disagreement or critique).
 

Whitecrow

Banned
I think GAF is up there with the most 'open-est' forums on the net.

The scision with Era did a lot of good for GAF, now GAF is a place when you are first treated like a person and not like a menace to the society.
 

Nymphae

Banned
Do people get banned the same way they used to here, is the discourse more open now? Just wanted to get a sense

Not even remotely comparable. Gaf is great now, the moderation is where it should be I think, even though occasionally I am surprised at the things a person will get banned for (mostly just what I consider to be inconsequential name calling. But you aren't really banned for simply having opinions here.)

I was banned at Era months back for "vilifying games journalism". Fuck that place.
 
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JORMBO

Darkness no more
It’s slower, but more laid back and friendly. You don’t have to worry about being banned unless you attack/insult another poster. I enjoy reading and posting here more now. The moderation is great.
 
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pretty - lots of great changes to the platform - streams, giveaways, UX, cheevos, etc.
good - very open forum with great discussion on major gaming topics
bad - much less immediate gaming news and info provided
ugly - some very dumb loud people/trolls here still though (something i think mods could temper a bit, but may not want to touch with a 10 ft pole)
 
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-MD-

Member
This site improved dramatically after all that went down, now Era is the old Gaf everyone hated.
 
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DKehoe

Gold Member
There are less bans now and the page listing why were banned is a nice addition for transparency. From whenever I’ve looked at the bans list they seem to be justified rather than arbitrary. So that’s good that people are more able to freely express their opinions.

There’s obviously less activity than there used to be. I know some people say they like that but for me it’s a negative as there’s less variety of topics.

I also feel the board is still defined by the split in a way. The top two community threads are consistently the ones with people complaining about ResetEra. I’d have hoped people would have moved on more than they have.
 

888

Member
GAF is so much better. We do need some more activity on the gaming side but there isn't mass banning or clicks of users running around causing trouble anymore.
 

Nymphae

Banned
The lower level of activity is a positive to me. I don't know how people feel part of a community like Era when there are just so many posters and things get buried so quickly.
 

Kadayi

Banned
No complaints. They created a politics subforum which is great as there's where all the non-gamers tend to congregate so OT doesn't get choked up with 'Trump hate' and 'this is racist' style threads. Mods are on point and overall there is a more reasonable nature to the discussions

Certainly, there are still a few bad actors doing the rounds, but its pretty and chill it feels like the forum is getting busier and busier with every passing month. The transparency about bans is great and a welcome edition.

The top two community threads are consistently the ones with people complaining about ResetEra. I’d have hoped people would have moved on more than they have.

I don't disagree, but I'm glad that these threads act as containers for the bulk of the madness, as beforehand threads were consistently derailed by Era comparisons, which I suspect most people don't care about.

It’s nice here now. I’ve made some pretty good threads I’m proud of.

743009.jpg
 

TayTay

Banned
More suffocatingly right wing. Wish it was a little easier to avoid people whining about the “left” and “NPCs” and “SJWs”
 
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Chittagong

Gold Member
I think GAF has transformed massively in the last year. This is an entirely different place than just over a year ago before everything went down, with a much more humble and respectful mentality towards its members. I was just looking at some old GAF threads from H1/2017 where I had been quoted, and things were certainly much more tense than the threads now.

The move onto a new platform brought about several excellent QoL improvements such as alerts, ban/warning labels, ban history disclosure, push refreshes, media embedding and such. And the Politics sub-forum was a fantastic addition that defuse tensions in Gaming and Off-Topic a lot.

While GAF can feel still a bit slow compared to what it was, I think it's upon everyone to create interesting threads and contribute into the discussion with quality posts. I made sure GAF has an OT for From Software's obscure new game!
 
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Some say Nazi’s everywhere. But they don’t actually stay here. Just pop in here to say it and leave. Less account suicides for brownie points compared to 12 months ago.

It’s better now here than anytime in the last few years imo.
 

Cunth

Fingerlickin' Good!
More suffocatingly right wing. Wish it was a little easier to avoid people whining about the “left” and “NPCs” and “SJWs”
Didn’t you say you were only over here because of midterm elections and you wanted to discuss issues with people of opposing opinions? Or am I thinking of someone else
 

Meifu

Member
Its refreshing to hear this.

Reset Era definitely seems to have adopted the super PC, apologist rhetoric that was so prevalent here prior to the blow up.

I hate a forum where if you have a dissenting opinion you are banned. Thats not a forum, thats an echo chamber.
 

lil puff

Member
More suffocatingly right wing. Wish it was a little easier to avoid people whining about the “left” and “NPCs” and “SJWs”
It's not so bad if you choose which threads to participate.

I still think it's a tad bit slow, but I also would not want to read threads where all you have are people just repeating what the last 300 people already said in a thread.
 
Its the best forum. All it needs now is just more users and more effort into high quality thread starting posts. Whoever makes threads should get everyone's support, because it does take some effort.
 

petran79

Banned
More suffocatingly right wing. Wish it was a little easier to avoid people whining about the “left” and “NPCs” and “SJWs”


I think this will calm down eventually. You have to consider how right wing opinions were considered for the last couple of years on GAF and Resetera.
 
Only registered to complain it seems. Weird behaviour in my view.
Something I have noticed in the last 12 months is how when the site has increased it's traffic, there is also a slight uptick of "old" members trying to cause trouble.

I don't think it's a secret that many in Old Gaf still want this place to fail. Luckily that group was always full of people not willing to put much effort into their tasks. Lot of work for them to create new accounts only to be handled by the New Gaf Mods so swiftly.
 
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Redneckerz

Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
Just curious what the mood is like on these boards lately.

I know a ton of people jumped to resetera after things blew up here quite dramatically last year.

Do people get banned the same way they used to here, is the discourse more open now? Just wanted to get a sense
Its better here, only truly problematic racist/homophobic stuff gets axed.

What i do would like to see is more consistency: Far more bans are not connected to a post, which kinda makes that bracket a bit defunct.

Reading the ban list from time to time, Punishment lengths also vary quite heavily, some a few days, other multiple weeks and others permanent. What i am trying to say is that the multiple weeks is kind of erratic: One mod gives a week whilst another gives 3-4 for the same offence. I should turf that better since there might be history here, so this is a point in progress :)

Moderation is often key essential, operating in the limelight behind the curtains - I would say maybe even a tad too much. I do know that some users are repetivitive targets to criticism - Often caused by their own commentary, mind you, but on the occassion there are have been posting references to these users that have little to do with adding to a constructive dialogue. If there is any improvement i would have to denote to the staff, i would say that this kind of behavior should be picked upon quicker (If it isn't picked upon already).

Someone being the bane of constant constructive criticism is one thing, but the consistent side-references are not imo. Talking about people like Nobody_Important, Grimmrobe, TheLastWord and so on.

Lastly, there always remains a group of people that either look for gotcha's (and perhaps are SPIES! lol) or just bring consistent negativity/low quality/biased posting. Reporting is key, but could be picked up upon.

So TLDR, point to point list for easy navigation:
  • Better/more consistent pick ups of reports: Some get a notification to the user, but more often than not there is no acknowledgement.
  • Recognizing of unwarranted side-references towards users that consistently get criticized upon. Constructive critique, even when consistent, is always good. Side-references that are akin to belitteling are not.
  • At the ban page: Bracket Post should be more featured. More often than not now a ban hardly has a post attached to it. I understand that a lot of bans are for patterns in behavior and not specifically a post perse, but this could be improved.
  • Slightly more integration of staff in the open: Amazing as they are behind the scenes, sometimes they are a little too absent from the stage. Might just be personal taste though.
  • (In progress point) ban lengths more consistent. Sometimes i see a ban for a week on one user and shortly thereafter another gets 4 weeks for the same offence. In progress since i haven't turfed this.
These are small pickings ofcourse. The fact i have to nitpick means that overall ambiance and atmosphere is a-okay and as long as you make constructive posts, members and moderators alike like you for being you. :)
 

Kadayi

Banned
So? What has that to do with you jumping the gun about Taytays knowledge about this forums political spectrum?

Why do you care so much? Low rent newly registered Trash talker comes in gives the usual 'GAF is Alt-right Hivemind' drive by and then fucks off and I pointed out the absurdity of it. Yet somehow you've got to make a derail about it? Who gives a shit about lurkers? The only people who matter are actual posters who contribute to the site.
 

iconmaster

Banned
More suffocatingly right wing. Wish it was a little easier to avoid people whining about the “left” and “NPCs” and “SJWs”

If this is a representative sample then the board still leans left, with a strong libertarian bent. You will have to put up with hearing from people on the right now, though. I know that can be a shock for people who value diversity.

(I will agree with you that we could use less of the knee-jerk resort to labels.)
 

DKehoe

Gold Member
I don't disagree, but I'm glad that these threads act as containers for the bulk of the madness, as beforehand threads were consistently derailed by Era comparisons, which I suspect most people don't care about.

True. If people are going to do it then I'd rather it was focused into specified threads (although I don't get why there's two of them) rather than it spilling over into others. Hopefully as the community continues to grow other community threads will overtake it.
 

greyshark

Member
More of a lurker than a regular poster, but I used to get this general anxiety reading posts leading up to the 'event' last year. Don't get that anymore, and actually feel more motivated to contribute now.
 

Mr Hyde

Member
Why do you care so much? Low rent newly registered Trash talker comes in gives the usual 'GAF is Alt-right Hivemind' drive by and then fucks off and I pointed out the absurdity of it. Yet somehow you've got to make a derail about it? Who gives a shit about lurkers? The only people who matter are actual posters who contribute to the site.

Take it easy. Didn´t mean to put you in a awkward position. Just wanted to point out the fact that Taytay could have been a longtime lurker, hence why he/she made that statement.
 
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Chittagong

Gold Member
As an interesting observation, 23 of the 35 posts in this thread are from accounts created prior to October 2017, with many accounts from the 00s. Which gives validity to the views on the long term evolution of GAF being positive.

Naturally the new accounts might have lurked GAF before too, and obviously there is a self-selection bias in place in that people who don't like GAF don't generally post on GAF.
 
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Mr Hyde

Member
On topic. I like Gaf. It´s the only forum where I´m active and it´s the only one that seems worthy of spending my time. Most of the members are nice (with the occasional oddballs here and there) and it´s a great place for picking up news on video games. I tend to avoid the off topic section and political forum because it´s too much about american politics, news and other such topics, which I rarely give a fuck about considering I´m not american. But overall, Gaf is a good place. I don´t regret registering here.
 

Kadayi

Banned
Take it easy. Didn´t mean to put you in a awkward position. Just wanted to point out the fact that Taytay could have been a longtime lurker, hence why he/she made that statement.

Awkward? What's awkward about it? Dude will probably get himself permed at some point when he goes off the rails tilting at windmills.
 

Mihos

Gold Member
The traffic is a light lower it seems, but over all it is a lot more relaxed. I hops some of the excitement comes back around E3 this year. I want to know if a game is good or not, without having a game called for boycott because of the political leanings of a guy they contracted to do the voice editing.
 

Andyliini

Member
I like it here. It feels like I can say my opinion as long as I"m respectful to others. The gaming side seems to put on more steam by day, the direction is the right one.

If we just had more topic and OT creators, this place would be set. Also it could be a bit more welcoming to us Nintendo fans, but I'll manage.
 

Bill O'Rights

Seldom posts. Always delivers.
Staff Member
Interesting feedback. We do read a lot of threads. Obviously we have trends we look at in the background and the site/community is 'growing' for want of a better expression. In terms of users and activity. You have access to see the 'members online', which is - and has - been trending upwards for some time. We are gathering a bit of momentum with respect to this but we're also wary of just approving everything in the queue in one blast. For better or worse, slow and steady is the path we're treading, mainly because a community evolves over time and any sort of concentrated toxicity or discord has potential to really gut punch it if introduced suddenly.


We do take on board more than you think and we have chatted a lot about issues raised in here already. For instance; Should we - as moderator's - participate more in general gaming threads. But there is a balance to be had and reserve is one trait we ask posters to exercise in certain threads, so need to set the example. There are some great people on here that would actually be kinda cool to share a beer with and chat about anything and nothing. But it goes against one of the primary founding principles we wanted to avoid, even if it's only by perception. Protected posters, vanity moderating and compromised principles. Remaining impartial and independent is important to every mod team member, so we're still struggling with something as a happy medium.


We also are aware of our more 'energetic' posters who even after 'cease and desists' on certain behaviors they persist. Shoutout to our #1 Nintendo fan K Killer751 for example :) That's why you might see a few inconsistencies in the ban lengths. Sometimes we outreach when we delete or edit a post and send a gentle nudge in the notifications. But sometimes the burden of moderating an individual is greater than the benefit they bring. We also have to be adaptive in bans. Someone may post on average once every five days, so they won't really feel a three day ban. Similarly someone may post every day and really feel a three day ban. The posts we try to include on the ban page - at the moment this is manual. For spambots we don't bother. When posting on mobile it's sometimes a headache to copy/paste between two/three windows so we tend to plan to revisit it later. And the other instance is simply 'look at post history'.


For us personally as moderators we're putting in a lot of hard work. We had a little set back with the redesign but people like Avasarala Avasarala and Palliasso Palliasso are busy fixing things behind the scenes. We will be asking the community about their opinions on other small features we may like to introduce in the near future as well. So keep an eye out. The hardest thing we find at the moment is the smear campaign. We're all from very different walks of lives on the team, different locations and experiences but we absolutely want the best for videogames and the site in general. GAF should be the place where your identity is the least important thing about you. We share a common love here. Our commonality is the thing that unites us, not the thing that divides us. As Bart Simpson said 'The little, stupid differences are nothing next to the big, stupid similarities.' However, the slurs across social media and even from the driveby trolls who like to shout alt-right and try to keep up the image they invent is disheartening. Having said that, we feel when people actually come here now, they realise it's actually lies and stay which is why we *are* trending upwards.


The reset threads are a necessary evil at the moment. I did ask about idea's on those. The frustrating thing is that sometimes there are really good in depth discussions taking place in there. Topics like corporal/capital punishment - even the political digressions about republican and democrat have merit and value. But they're stuck in this little vacuum. So we might lock them at some point next week and start one thread for the latest controversy/meltdown (based on current affairs) and one for the meta-discussions that take place around it.


Gaming is picking up and people like IbizaPocholo IbizaPocholo are doing great work keeping things current. It would be nice to see a few others chip in as well. There are a number of posters here who I won't 'name' who we see as the backbone of the community and would love to see them be a bit more visible and contribute more but we all have lives and all play video games so...time is more precious. There used to be an air of dread or judgement on OT's - they had to be these sacred week long projects. Hey, we're all adults - just an image and a barebones paragraph is enough folks. Don't be intimidated :) People just want a place to stick their thoughts.
 
Interesting feedback. We do read a lot of threads. Obviously we have trends we look at in the background and the site/community is 'growing' for want of a better expression. In terms of users and activity. You have access to see the 'members online', which is - and has - been trending upwards for some time. We are gathering a bit of momentum with respect to this but we're also wary of just approving everything in the queue in one blast. For better or worse, slow and steady is the path we're treading, mainly because a community evolves over time and any sort of concentrated toxicity or discord has potential to really gut punch it if introduced suddenly.


We do take on board more than you think and we have chatted a lot about issues raised in here already. For instance; Should we - as moderator's - participate more in general gaming threads. But there is a balance to be had and reserve is one trait we ask posters to exercise in certain threads, so need to set the example. There are some great people on here that would actually be kinda cool to share a beer with and chat about anything and nothing. But it goes against one of the primary founding principles we wanted to avoid, even if it's only by perception. Protected posters, vanity moderating and compromised principles. Remaining impartial and independent is important to every mod team member, so we're still struggling with something as a happy medium.


We also are aware of our more 'energetic' posters who even after 'cease and desists' on certain behaviors they persist. Shoutout to our #1 Nintendo fan K Killer751 for example :) That's why you might see a few inconsistencies in the ban lengths. Sometimes we outreach when we delete or edit a post and send a gentle nudge in the notifications. But sometimes the burden of moderating an individual is greater than the benefit they bring. We also have to be adaptive in bans. Someone may post on average once every five days, so they won't really feel a three day ban. Similarly someone may post every day and really feel a three day ban. The posts we try to include on the ban page - at the moment this is manual. For spambots we don't bother. When posting on mobile it's sometimes a headache to copy/paste between two/three windows so we tend to plan to revisit it later. And the other instance is simply 'look at post history'.


For us personally as moderators we're putting in a lot of hard work. We had a little set back with the redesign but people like Avasarala Avasarala and Palliasso Palliasso are busy fixing things behind the scenes. We will be asking the community about their opinions on other small features we may like to introduce in the near future as well. So keep an eye out. The hardest thing we find at the moment is the smear campaign. We're all from very different walks of lives on the team, different locations and experiences but we absolutely want the best for videogames and the site in general. GAF should be the place where your identity is the least important thing about you. We share a common love here. Our commonality is the thing that unites us, not the thing that divides us. As Bart Simpson said 'The little, stupid differences are nothing next to the big, stupid similarities.' However, the slurs across social media and even from the driveby trolls who like to shout alt-right and try to keep up the image they invent is disheartening. Having said that, we feel when people actually come here now, they realise it's actually lies and stay which is why we *are* trending upwards.


The reset threads are a necessary evil at the moment. I did ask about idea's on those. The frustrating thing is that sometimes there are really good in depth discussions taking place in there. Topics like corporal/capital punishment - even the political digressions about republican and democrat have merit and value. But they're stuck in this little vacuum. So we might lock them at some point next week and start one thread for the latest controversy/meltdown (based on current affairs) and one for the meta-discussions that take place around it.


Gaming is picking up and people like IbizaPocholo IbizaPocholo are doing great work keeping things current. It would be nice to see a few others chip in as well. There are a number of posters here who I won't 'name' who we see as the backbone of the community and would love to see them be a bit more visible and contribute more but we all have lives and all play video games so...time is more precious. There used to be an air of dread or judgement on OT's - they had to be these sacred week long projects. Hey, we're all adults - just an image and a barebones paragraph is enough folks. Don't be intimidated :) People just want a place to stick their thoughts.
When I read posts like this, I feel energized to not be a shit head. I will try harder.

Thanks to everyone on Gaf for making it lovely again.
 

Fbh

Member
On the moderation side things are MUCH better. People are actually allowed to have different opinions now and all of the bans I've seen have felt justified.

The gaming side is tad slow but still enjoyable. I do however think that a sub section of users have adopted this weird mentality where they complain about gaming media being too political and they say they wish gaming discussion focused more on the games themselves (gameplay, design, etc)... yet all they seem to want to talk about is the same 3-4 sites being political. If all of them actually made threads about the stuff they claim to care about instead of every other thing Jason Shreier tweets the gaming section would be much nicer.

Offtopic has become pretty enjoyable since it was split from politics.
 
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We are missing just a bit more activity on reporting news and OT and it would be really solid. Through I kinda miss times where you could be lazy and just see all the news posted.

Only registered to complain it seems. Weird behaviour in my view.

Not that weird - people are more vocal about negative experiences than positive one. And being unhappy/disappointed is much stronger motivator to action.
 

Skyn3t

Banned
Fuckin A place to be on the internet, if you ask me. Just let it grow and reclaim the numbers to speed up gaming and OT sections. The only drawback is that both are quite slow, but yet easier to follow.
 
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