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[Caipirinha]

So it's obvious this GAF has basically halved in popularity and frankly a lot of what is left is on the right wing end of the spectrum, and by
"right" I mean this new age angsty alt right sort of stuff. "Liberals stop doing X" and "[Insert obviously heinous thing] isn't that bad tbh" "Does Trump deserve a Nobel peace prize" (is this real life?) etc.

I'm aware there was an issue regarding claims of sexual harassment towards the founder of GAF, I know very little about him and almost nothing of the details of those claims however as a liberal and a progressive I did one thing at the time in order to determine whether or not I would stay: I looked for any sign that these claims were being properly investigated and verified by the police. As a liberal and a progressive I don't believe it is moral to conduct trial by the mob and "no smoke without fire" is a concept that has been used to justify pretty much every major far right crime in history.

At the time I couldn't find any evidence of these claims being properly investigated so they meant as much to me as any other unverified claim. I could claim that any one of you reading this has sexually harassed me and it would carry just as much weight.

That's not to say I am denying the events took place, that's the point, I have no clue either way and unless I'm missing something then that goes for every other member of GAF or it's apparent off shoot Resetera.

Furthermore, again as a liberal and progressive I feel that communities belong to the people who occupy them. Even in the event of these accusations being proved true, I would expect the founder to be punished accordingly and ideally GAF would fall to the hands of the community to manage itself. Immediately throwing the baby out the window the moment the claim appeared is pretty starkly in contrast to the history of progressive communities. Perhaps in the event of a prosecution but inability to gain control of the forum I could see the need to create a new one, but it makes me wonder if these claims were used as a pretext if that replacement was made literally within days of an unverified claim.

So please tell me I am missing something and that we don't just live in an era now where "right" and "left" are basically just tribes with no concept of ideology and any excuse to start a tribal conflict is good enough?

 

[way more]

If it went down like the first time Joey met Monica I forgive him.

 

[mrkgoo]

"A lot of what is left is right"?

I'd disagree, but I'd say it's kind of irrelevant to most discussions anyway. I'm not from the US, so the notion of being solely defined by one's political leanings to be somewhat beyond me.

As for the "scandal", I didn't personally investigate anything, and it's largely none of my business to do so, and certainly not on me to judge.

 

[bucyou]

How is it about "right and left"?

Its about a lynchmob that wanted nothing to do with facts, and some other stuff not even related to the "scandal", or at least that is my limited understanding of it.

 

[Corrik]

It definitely is way less than half. Hell, I can't even find a couple of people to discuss college basketball with here at this point. = (

 

[cheststrongwell]

Just chill and play some fun video games with us brah.

 

[bitbydeath]

If you laugh at this GIF you are a clear alt-right supporter.

Lefties are obviously anger filled by seeing such treatment of women.

 

[Vicetrailia]

E

If you laugh at this GIF you are a clear alt-right supporter.

Lefties are obviously anger filled by seeing such treatment of women.

I only laugh because this post is accurate.

 

[Sinfamy]

Criticizing the left isn't just something the right does.
I'm a leftie and I do it all the time, I want to make it better, it's why I'm so hard and critical of the people on "my side".

 

[EviLore]

It never happened, not that it matters. I'm guilty of associating with the wrong people. She was obsessed with me, and then later became obsessed with my gf. The accusation blindsided me during a very difficult personal time, years removed from any association with her, and I admittedly handled the PR aspects very poorly in the moment compared to the typical celebrity. I'm just some guy with a video game message board I care about, though, and during the height of the witch hunt I was trying to protect all the folks being attacked by association with me. Everyone with any association with me got targeted. It was a scary and disgusting time.

The press acted incredibly irresponsibly, and the community acted in ways I never thought I'd see. That part hurt the most. Didn't think I'd ever have it in me to post on here again, but I didn't want to see this place go down and folks were still relying on me, so I stepped back up.

I didn't want to make any more of a public circus out of my life or especially that of anyone involved, so I went the legal route, documented everything with my legal team, etc. They concluded that under state law the accusation had already been legally retracted a day after being posted when the facebook post was removed, though, and that an injunction, while possible to obtain with the evidence I had contradicting her story, wouldn't necessarily accomplish much since under state law 1st amendment protections prevent much being possible against future speech. I didn't want money from her so there wasn't a whole lot to do on that end.

As such, I just tried to move on. Had no intention of dragging friends and exes into this bullshit. Maybe that was the "wrong" move, but after the disgusting witch hunt that took place (even targeting anyone who followed me or I followed on Twitter...), I didn't want to subject anyone I cared about to what I was going through.

She texted me obsessively around the time of the alleged events. The story's contradicted in her own words. My lawyers asked me to gather up any hard evidence I had about a week into the shitstorm, and that's when I realized it was all documented and discredited there, but by then all the damage had been done and the narrative had moved on to "he's an incompetent asshole either way, bomb neogaf into the ground." The subsequent couple months were mostly about preventing that from happening.

So it goes.

 

[technozombie]

I read the Facebook post after it happened and her story sounded more like a misunderstanding than harassment. I definitely believe your side of the story. That being said, anyone who had anything to say that wasn't pollitcaly correct in GAFs eyes would get banned. Hell, I would get banned just for saying what I am now. It's one of the reasons I barely commented even though I've been able to for years.

 

[Papa]

I think that recent public discourse has shifted the goalposts so much that what you now perceive as “far right” (or “alt-right”, whatever that nebulous term actually means) is traditionally moderate-left.

 

[EviLore]

I read the Facebook post after it happened and her story sounded more like a misunderstanding than harassment. I definitely believe your side of the story. That being said, anyone who had anything to say that wasn't pollitcaly correct in GAFs eyes would get banned. Hell, I would get banned just for saying what I am now. It's one of the reasons I barely commented even though I've been able to for years.

There's plenty I absolutely do take responsibility for, and that includes gaf's slide into groupthink-enforcing authoritarian moderation that would've seen me banned dozens of times if I didn't have immunity. I should've taken stronger measures to course correct (though I did try), but one of the main things I've learned, I suppose, is that I'm trusting and terrible at recognizing when people are lying to my face. :/ A couple bad actors really undermined things here and I should've recognized that and addressed that sooner. Sorry.

 

[Papa]

It never happened, not that it matters. I'm guilty of associating with the wrong people. She was obsessed with me, and then later became obsessed with my gf. The accusation blindsided me during a very difficult personal time, years removed from any association with her, and I admittedly handled the PR aspects very poorly in the moment compared to the typical celebrity. I'm just some guy with a video game message board I care about, though, and during the height of the witch hunt I was trying to protect all the folks being attacked by association with me. Everyone with any association with me got targeted. It was a scary and disgusting time.

The press acted incredibly irresponsibly, and the community acted in ways I never thought I'd see. That part hurt the most. Didn't think I'd ever have it in me to post on here again, but I didn't want to see this place go down and folks were still relying on me, so I stepped back up.

I didn't want to make any more of a public circus out of my life or especially that of anyone involved, so I went the legal route, documented everything with my legal team, etc. They concluded that under state law the accusation had already been legally retracted a day after being posted when the facebook post was removed, though, and that an injunction, while possible to obtain with the evidence I had contradicting her story, wouldn't necessarily accomplish much since under state law 1st amendment protections prevent much being possible against future speech. I didn't want money from her so there wasn't a whole lot to do on that end.

As such, I just tried to move on. Had no intention of dragging friends and exes into this bullshit. Maybe that was the "wrong" move, but after the disgusting witch hunt that took place (even targeting anyone who followed me or I followed on Twitter...), I didn't want to subject anyone I cared about to what I was going through.

She texted me obsessively around the time of the alleged events. The story's contradicted in her own words. My lawyers asked me to gather up any hard evidence I had about a week into the shitstorm, and that's when I realized it was all documented and discredited there, but by then all the damage had been done and the narrative had moved on to "he's an incompetent asshole either way, bomb neogaf into the ground." The subsequent couple months were mostly about preventing that from happening.

So it goes.

If it’s any consolation, there are some of us left who still believe in due process, innocent until proven guilty, and Blackstone’s formulation. I wouldn’t want to associate with anyone who doesn’t.

 

[Vicetrailia]

There's plenty I absolutely do take responsibility for, and that includes gaf's slide into groupthink-enforcing authoritarian moderation that would've seen me banned dozens of times if I didn't have immunity. I should've taken stronger measures to course correct (though I did try), but one of the main things I've learned, I suppose, is that I'm trusting and terrible at recognizing when people are lying to my face. :/ A couple bad actors really undermined things here and I should've recognized that and addressed that sooner. Sorry.

It's always a few bad actors that fuck everything up, just like a few good actors that prop everyone else up.

I could easily see myself in your shoes if the circumstances were mirrored, massive hypocrit or no.

But all in all, you're dealing with more than the catalyst itself. What's important is the rebound and not giving up.

 

[technozombie]

There's plenty I absolutely do take responsibility for, and that includes gaf's slide into groupthink-enforcing authoritarian moderation that would've seen me banned dozens of times if I didn't have immunity. I should've taken stronger measures to course correct (though I did try), but one of the main things I've learned, I suppose, is that I'm trusting and terrible at recognizing when people are lying to my face. :/ A couple bad actors really undermined things here and I should've recognized that and addressed that sooner. Sorry.

Sometimes things we create grow beyond us, like children. We have a responsibility to raise them and guide them, but ultimately once they get big enough we lose control, it's inevitable. I know I would be too trusting of people if I wasn't a hermit who has no friends.

 

[Bryank75]

Honour, integrity and trust have just been left in the dirt along with the idea of someone being 'innocent till proven otherwise' by this extreme left movement. I believe it thrives on narcissistic personalities ... In this case they admire how 'pure, selfless, open, accepting and politically correct' they are and elevate themselves by attacking others and accusing people of misdeeds. In truth they have done nothing admirable but throw a good person to the wolves... alas they value the social kudos more.

It was on graphic display with this incident and when Colin Moriarty had his crew turn on him. I'm no stranger to the occurrence either but luckily it wasn't so public.

 

[gioGAF]

If it’s any consolation, there are some of us left who still believe in due process, innocent until proven guilty, and Blackstone’s formulation. I wouldn’t want to associate with anyone who doesn’t.

This. I think what we are seeing today is appalling. Due process has been thrown out the window and people are losing their livelihood, reputation and peace of mind as a result. Truly an insane time we are in.

Our community is diminished, but if all we lost are those who have no respect for our legal system and are more interested in lynching or taking part in character assassination, then we are better off.

The Colin Moriarty "incident" is another shameful example.

Thanks for stepping back up EviLore, those of us who are left appreciate this community and I am sure we will build it back up over time

 

[RokkanStoned]

On the sexual harassment scandal, that's more a thing for EviLore to comment on, though I'll add that it was a surprisingly small issue with lots of nuances.

So it's obvious this GAF has basically halved in popularity and frankly a lot of what is left is on the right wing end of the spectrum, and by
"right" I mean this new age angsty alt right sort of stuff. "Liberals stop doing X" and "[Insert obviously heinous thing] isn't that bad tbh" "Does Trump deserve a Nobel peace prize" (is this real life?) etc.

This is wrong. Check out the political compass thread. Most of what's left is still left or center. I've stayed away from the "Liberals, please stop allowing Authoritarians to hijack the Left." thread due to its title, but other than that there's very little I'd see as controversial. Also none of these things are "alt right stuff", there's no "how about 'em jews" or "america is white" kind of topics.
Mostly it's more open for topics that weren't free to be discussed before, or they're approached with more ability for people to discuss it with less hostility. In general there's some great discussions at times and I'd like to point out Discourse as a great contributor in the South Africa land re-appropriation thread, though she/he makes some sweeping judgements at times perhaps due to own emotional investment due to his/her background.

Furthermore, again as a liberal and progressive I feel that communities belong to the people who occupy them. Even in the event of these accusations being proved true, I would expect the founder to be punished accordingly and ideally GAF would fall to the hands of the community to manage itself.

This is neither liberal or progressive I'd say. Private ownership is private ownership.

Immediately throwing the baby out the window the moment the claim appeared is pretty starkly in contrast to the history of progressive communities. Perhaps in the event of a prosecution but inability to gain control of the forum I could see the need to create a new one, but it makes me wonder if these claims were used as a pretext if that replacement was made literally within days of an unverified claim.

From my anecdotal perception of how things happened, there's been members and sub-communities that've been unhappy with EviLore and those who've wanted increased influence. This lead to the uproar that first started amongst some of GAF's more "active" communities, then EviLore stressed out and perhaps underestimating the fervor of parts of the community, spent too much time and awkwardly explained his side of the story internally. Meanwhile people were spreading things in the various threads about revolt, clearly showing a planned intent to overthrow EviLore. It just got worse, with a lot of people making threads calling for EviLore to step down or accusing him of sexual harassment or ad hominems.

At this point it was in a wild west state, with moderators jumping ship, increasing the amount of posts calling out EviLore by a lot and impossible to close all of them. It was brought into threads that had nothing to do with the subject as well. Things were going crazy and a lot of people were confused or they were flustered and hoping for moderation to deal with it. There was also Discords being created and uncertainty on where they would go if GAF was abandoned. In the end EviLore shut down the whole forum for a while. In a way, if EviLore had shut down the forum much earlier with a short message that it'll return, it'd probably still have had a large part of its original community. EviLore trusted the mods and admins a bit too much, preferring to not try to intervene too much into the community, but only when things went haywire. This also lead to no plans for emergencies, like if members conspired towards revolt.

"Progressive community" is also a word I'd like to avoid in regards to a forum, as a community should embrace multiple opinions in open discussion, to avoid just regurgitating one's own viewpoints ad infinitum. It's also a bad description to use of something, as it's either unclear or falsely representing the actual community.

 

[highrider]

The events surrounding the allegations againt Evilore was some of the dumbest, most mean spirited shit I’ve seen in a long time. What made it more disturbing was I liked a lot of the people that left. I have no interest in the other forum, I’ve been here a long time and I’m comfortable here. I’m the type of person that’s happy to see a young person build something cool, and I actually think in the long term the forum will be better off.

 

[It's Jeff]

I remember the other frightening sentiment that kept getting thrown around was this idea of, "I believe the victim," as though this were some lofty ideal that supersedes any further discussion of the topic.

Why? I'm absolutely not sanctioning victim blaming. But in what other circumstance, EVER, would a person just uniformly accept the facts of one side without taking the time to see the entirety of the situation before making a judgment? Is it fun to start an unwarranted witch hunt? Demand livelihoods forfeit without justification?

 

[EviLore]

On the sexual harassment scandal, that's more a thing for EviLore to comment on, though I'll add that it was a surprisingly small issue with lots of nuances.



This is wrong. Check out the political compass thread. Most of what's left is still left or center. I've stayed away from the "Liberals, please stop allowing Authoritarians to hijack the Left." thread due to its title, but other than that there's very little I'd see as controversial. Also none of these things are "alt right stuff", there's no "how about 'em jews" or "america is white" kind of topics.
Mostly it's more open for topics that weren't free to be discussed before, or they're approached with more ability for people to discuss it with less hostility. In general there's some great discussions at times and I'd like to point out Discourse as a great contributor in the South Africa land re-appropriation thread, though she/he makes some sweeping judgements at times perhaps due to own emotional investment due to his/her background.



This is neither liberal or progressive I'd say. Private ownership is private ownership.



From my anecdotal perception of how things happened, there's been members and sub-communities that've been unhappy with EviLore and those who've wanted increased influence. This lead to the uproar that first started amongst some of GAF's more "active" communities, then EviLore stressed out and perhaps underestimating the fervor of parts of the community, spent too much time and awkwardly explained his side of the story internally. Meanwhile people were spreading things in the various threads about revolt, clearly showing a planned intent to overthrow EviLore. It just got worse, with a lot of people making threads calling for EviLore to step down or accusing him of sexual harassment or ad hominems.

At this point it was in a wild west state, with moderators jumping ship, increasing the amount of posts calling out EviLore by a lot and impossible to close all of them. It was brought into threads that had nothing to do with the subject as well. Things were going crazy and a lot of people were confused or they were flustered and hoping for moderation to deal with it. There was also Discords being created and uncertainty on where they would go if GAF was abandoned. In the end EviLore shut down the whole forum for a while. In a way, if EviLore had shut down the forum much earlier with a short message that it'll return, it'd probably still have had a large part of its original community. EviLore trusted the mods and admins a bit too much, preferring to not try to intervene too much into the community, but only when things went haywire. This also lead to no plans for emergencies, like if members conspired towards revolt.

Just to clarify a little (your synopsis is largely accurate): I was just on the cusp of pulling myself out of one of the worst depressions of my life when it all happened. Dragged myself to ACL a few weeks before the scandal, and went out to see the Eclipse Totality last second that August and those were some of the only things I did in quite a while. GF at the time attempted suicide in front of me and that...changed me, sent me spiraling into darkness all year. I wasn't leaving my apartment and yet my apartment was the location where it happened and a constant reminder, too. I'd wake up and hop on GAF and it was the most negative and hostile it had ever been in its history and my attempts to be a moderating influence all failed, I was finding out about betrayals among the staff that were making things even worse, etc., so my mindset was as toxic and ruinous as it's probably ever been, with the personal stuff combined with everything on the site. Internally with the mod team the bitterness was spreading, too, and a lot of people weren't enjoying being part of the mod team anymore.

I really should've gone into therapy right away after that suicide stuff, but I shut down as a result. The previous year I had done Kilimanjaro and racing schools and all sorts of lively adventurous stuff and was in good spirits, but the aforementioned fucked me up hard, and the scandal hit me out of nowhere when I was down and out in a major way. I was blindsided and more than a little upset about being falsely accused, and whatever leaked from the NDA-breaking internal transcripts going straight to the press before I could prepare anything public-facing reflected how shocked and indignant I was about it I'm sure. I thought I was speaking in confidence (backed by NDA...) among friends, and I wanted everyone on the team to understand the background and be able to retain trust in me etc. So much for trust. :/ (to be clear, that was only a small subset of the ex-mods afaik; most were and are good peeps)

Looking back with a clearer head, boy did I fuck up the PR in a lot of ways (why in the world did I give a phone interview from 1am to 4am after not having slept for days at that point, rambling incoherently about largely tangential events? True story, but Christ, not the most relevant). As much as I wanted to have an open dialogue with the community, though, the community was burning this place to the ground, calling me a rapist, telling me to off myself, and we got DDoSed besides. I was really shaken up by the accusation, by the mass exodus internally, by the leaks, by the attempts to kill the site from within the community, by crazy people trying to ruin the lives of anyone associated with me or neogaf, by the smear campaigns from the games press; all of it.

I know a lot of people have always disliked me, at least on the internet. I'd like to think it's mostly a misunderstanding about where I'm coming from or a natural result of being the face of a big community where a lot of people get banned, since usually here I'm either trying to be on the level or cracking jokes, and when I'm putting on the serious face it's usually for the sake of the site, but I sincerely loved my little community. When I'd go to E3 the haters would be nowhere to be found and there was always an outpouring of appreciation and support, pleas to always stay indie, etc. I took it to heart. I've had the privilege of meeting most of the legends of the gaming industry and most had astonishingly kind words. Same when I'd go to meetups around the world. People showed me around, treated me as they would family, always kept a fresh beer in my hand. Through experiences like that, this place gained special meaning to me.

I'm probably just a fool, though. A lot of those same people (not the industry people, but the regulars here, many of whom I had met...) were among the first to light the torches the moment they thought they saw what they thought was suitable ammunition.

When the dust settled, though, there were still a lot of people who cared about this place, myself included, and I saw an opportunity to take a hard pivot away from the hostility and sensationalism that had been plaguing the dialogue here in recent years. Enough of that for one lifetime, I think. Again, ultimately those emerging problems are mine to take ownership of, but there were a lot of moving parts to the full story of NeoGAF. Could easily fill a book, and you know what my word counts can get up to just with regular gaf posts. ;b

I'm glad I can talk about it some without people breaking out the noose.jpg et al now! Site's not without its problems, but the current mod team is <3, the sysadmins have done a heroic job, and everything's way more chill than it was in '17. Made a lot of changes in recent months and trying to set a positive example with my own participation where I can. Not giving up on gaf any time soon.

Cheers.

 

[d4emon]

There's plenty I absolutely do take responsibility for, and that includes gaf's slide into groupthink-enforcing authoritarian moderation that would've seen me banned dozens of times if I didn't have immunity. I should've taken stronger measures to course correct (though I did try), but one of the main things I've learned, I suppose, is that I'm trusting and terrible at recognizing when people are lying to my face. :/ A couple bad actors really undermined things here and I should've recognized that and addressed that sooner. Sorry.

It's sad that you had to realize how crude and vicious the community your mod team harbored turned out to be, but the signs were there for the span of two years. When I joined GAF, it was because videogames were the pivotal point of the forum, with insiders willing to share and create a strong community. Took almost a year to get approved, and then it all crumbled really fast when they held my bans as a further proof of my criminal record to keep banning on top. I didn't think i'd come back here, but then again I never thought the community would cannibalize you in such a fashion granting the forum such a restart. I'm optimistic about the new path it's taking.

 

[bitbydeath]

I know a lot of people have always disliked me, at least on the internet. I'd like to think it's mostly a misunderstanding about where I'm coming from or a natural result of being the face of a big community where a lot of people get banned

Don’t take it to heart, jealousy is rampant for anyone that gets known for anything, the larger you get the more haters you’ll attract.

 

[RiccochetJ]

When the allegations happened, I saw the most 'woke' amongst GAF hold the equivalent of the Salem Witch Trials. No critical thought nor even the slightest bit of skepticism was allowed else you be judged as a gamergater. In their righteousness, they posted some heinous shit which imo were to:
1. Suicide their account
2. Make it so that GAF was extremely NSFW thus driving down traffic

As for the result of the allegations, as EviLore as implied, he has had lawyers involved. No clue if they still are. When it comes to the law, some of these things take a long time to shake out. I'm not sure if the accuser has followed up or come forward with any more information or if she's now gagged due to possible legal action. If he is in fact innocent, he could go after her hard. There is clear damage to him and NeoGaf as a direct result of her accusations.

So about the supposed infestation of the alt-right you are insinuating is now infesting these boards:
1. Making a thread with the term 'the left' does not automatically make you alt-right.
2. Yes, there are some here that are feeling a bit safer talking about their right leaning views. Again, that does not make them alt-right. I think GAF at the end there was so far left that even a left leaning person was getting destroyed for not conforming.

Here's some thoughts from my perspective:
1. Gamergate by and large was/is a hate group. Specifically against women. If you've ever used the work 'cuck' as a derogatory term instead of describing a sexual fetish and use it in an argument against someone you disagree with, then perhaps you also have other issues than ethics in game journalism. I've seen the thread(s) here about Gamergate, but nothing in there has convinced me that Gamergate by and large wasn't driven by hate. Gamergate is a scarlet letter.
2. Being concerned about ethics in game journalism and disagreeing with Anita Sarkeesian doesn't make you a Gamergater. Totalbiscuit is not a Gamergater. He is very equal opportunity in calling out people on their bullshit.
3. While I'm defending a lot of positions as not being alt-right, in my opinion, I have seen some what I consider borderline since the exodus. So I don't think the OP's assertion is 100% off.
4. While I'm inclined to believe EviLore what a lot of people are using as ammunition for the 'he assaulted her' is the prior butt grabbing incident at the bar that he himself posted. Not saying it has to be addressed or defended, but it is something that WILL be brought up along side the accusation.

So to end, has anything happened? Not really. I mean a lot of people left; but as for the accusation? Not a lot.

Doesn't really matter though. A lot that left, when they were here and new information came out where the person was innocent or was vastly not as bad as initially reported, I saw a lot of mental gymnastics where they would find a way to be righteously angry at the person anyways. Always be 'woke'

 

[d4emon]

...
Doesn't really matter though. A lot that left, when they were here and new information came out where the person was innocent or was vastly not as bad as initially reported, I saw a lot of mental gymnastics where they would find a way to be righteously angry at the person anyways. Always be 'woke'

mob mentality is a hell of a drug

 

[wondermega]

The biggest outstanding issue after all of this to me, is that now under every single post I see a clickable hyperlink that says" Report" - under EVERY SINGLE POST. This is where we are at now. A constant reminder of the state of what it means to express an opinion on the internet. I understand it is reactionary, but I do miss a time when it wasn't so in-your-face - even if this place is so much friendlier to post at, now.
EDIT: Just read a few of the recent posts and didn't mean to sound tone-deaf. Just expressing some thoughts on the changes around here. I am still here for the duration

 

[RokkanStoned]

Just to clarify a little (your synopsis is largely accurate): I was just on the cusp of pulling myself out of one of the worst depressions of my life when it all happened. Dragged myself to ACL a few weeks before the scandal, and went out to see the Eclipse Totality last second that August and those were some of the only things I did in quite a while. GF at the time attempted suicide in front of me and that...changed me, sent me spiraling into darkness all year.

...

I really should've gone into therapy right away after that suicide stuff, but I shut down as a result. The previous year I had done Kilimanjaro and racing schools and all sorts of lively adventurous stuff and was in good spirits, but the aforementioned fucked me up hard, and the scandal hit me out of nowhere when I was down and out in a major way.

Depressions and internal turmoil is scary and hard to deal with. Generally it's the thing where people feel a responsibility to deal with it themselves, trying to either think that time will make it go away or think a distraction is all they'll need. All that must've been pretty hard to deal with, along with the turmoil that happened on GAF. Probably also made it hard to react quickly as well, as it's easy to feel that the obstacles are insurmountable and the chaotic feeling of not knowing where to start easily leads one to being overwhelmed and paralyzed.
Hopefully things are better now and you have people to confide in when you feel that things are not so great or when you get overwhelmed. It's easy for mobs on the internet to dehumanize you and justify mistreatment and discount your personal struggles, and with depression it's also easy for oneself to try to pretend it's nothing and it'll go over.

On a comforting note, I'm pretty sure a large majority of the gafers that left the site, did it mostly out of convenience and fear of losing their communities, rather than anything about you. A lot of people have a deep dependence on their online communities, so the fear of losing that connection lead a lot towards discords and other forums.
In general I'd say you've mostly done well for the community itself, mostly trying to let it manage itself and not trying to capitalize on it, despite fully being able to do so. In that sense one can view it as the community itself underestimating your care for the site, especially as you could've easily earned a lot of money through subscription models and advertisements. So the site has been a passion project of yours and it's a shame that a lot of the community didn't give you the leniency you gave them.

 

[EviLore]

The biggest outstanding issue after all of this to me, is that now under every single post I see a clickable hyperlink that says" Report" - under EVERY SINGLE POST. This is where we are at now. A constant reminder of the state of what it means to express an opinion on the internet. I understand it is reactionary, but I do miss a time when it wasn't so in-your-face - even if this place is so much friendlier to post at, now.

REPORTED

Kidding aside, the report system is utilized sparingly, doesn't see much abuse, and usually results in talking things over like adults or a gentle intervention from a mod. Not many bans necessary at this point. It's worked out really well, but likely only because of the overall relaxed tone here now. I was on the fence about implementing it when we were doing the pre-crisis migration prep because of all the frivolous manual reports mods would get via PM every day (I also hate when people respond with REPORTED when they're salty and report someone's post on forums that have the feature haha). A lot of people would "shop around," too, PMing several mods with the same complaint until they found a receptive one, I guess not realizing that it would be discussed between the mods in the group channel and everyone would know what was up. Centralized reporting addresses the shopping around for mods issue and does bring useful concerns to attention. Still some frivolous reporting going on, of course, but it doesn't bog the system down any and doesn't lead to successful backseat modding abuse from what I've seen.

Our current mods are reasonable, Fair and Balanced™, and care about what's best for the community and the individual posters here. They are very considerate; so much so that it's made me less of a cynical bastard too, I think. I get the visceral concern it evokes for you, but it's really no big deal.

 

[RokkanStoned]

Here's some thoughts from my perspective:
1. Gamergate by and large was/is a hate group. Specifically against women. If you've ever used the work 'cuck' as a derogatory term instead of describing a sexual fetish and use it in an argument against someone you disagree with, then perhaps you also have other issues than ethics in game journalism. I've seen the thread(s) here about Gamergate, but nothing in there has convinced me that Gamergate by and large wasn't driven by hate. Gamergate is a scarlet letter.

I have a hard time believing either side on the topic of Gamergate, more so because the term "Gamergate" refers to some amorphous group. Generally groups not formed as formal organizations are hard to get a grasp of, especially when propagating on the internet, and it can easily be split into multiple groups with completely different actions and agendas. Both sides of the political spectrum have trouble grasping this, instead trying to cement movements as something to be dismissed as anathema. Examples include, BLM, which suffered under this as well, despite having people with legitimate concerns and not engaging in hate.
So I'm not ready to dismiss either side of the Gamergate argument until my concerns on this subject are solved and research is done on it. People are too obsessed about being "right" and trying to dismiss the other side, than trying to get a good grasp of where each side is coming from. I've been thinking of perhaps doing a research paper on it, but I've got some historical threads I've been considering making first and I'm also swamped with work as well.

3. While I'm defending a lot of positions as not being alt-right, in my opinion, I have seen some what I consider borderline since the exodus. So I don't think the OP's assertion is 100% off.

Example? I've not seen any, so I'm curious.

 

[GrizzleBoy]

Furthermore, again as a liberal and progressive I feel that communities belong to the people who occupy them. Even in the event of these accusations being proved true, I would expect the founder to be punished accordingly and ideally GAF would fall to the hands of the community to manage itself. Immediately throwing the baby out the window the moment the claim appeared is pretty starkly in contrast to the history of progressive communities. Perhaps in the event of a prosecution but inability to gain control of the forum I could see the need to create a new one, but it makes me wonder if these claims were used as a pretext if that replacement was made literally within days of an unverified claim.

The thing that a lot of people either don't know/fail to remember/ignore, is that when the forum came back online after shutting down for days, was that it was announced that social and political discussion was no longer allowed on NeoGAF, that OT was to be dedicated solely to general hobbies like TV, movies etc and that all the old threads werent coming back.

Which meant people who put real life hours and effort into making OTs, forging strong communities etc were rolling right under the bus and their interests or even themselves were no longer part of GAFs future.

Shitstorms ensued and people managed to gain the ability to ask for certain threads back, but the sour taste had already set in by that part. At least for me.

I was just like you OP and stayed completely silent till more info came to light, but the response of purging people's OTs and their ability to discuss things important to them, compounded with loads of trashy posts and posters either suiciding themselves or celebrating the silencing of "sjws" made for a totally shitty atmosphere.

I probably would never have even thought about making an account on reset if I didn't feel like a scapegoate at the time. There literally was a point in time where if you wanted to even have was GAF is right now, you wouldn't have been able to according to the published plan for OT.

 

[michaelius]

So it's obvious this GAF has basically halved in popularity and frankly a lot of what is left is on the right wing end of the spectrum, and by
"right" I mean this new age angsty alt right sort of stuff. "Liberals stop doing X" and "[Insert obviously heinous thing] isn't that bad tbh" "Does Trump deserve a Nobel peace prize" (is this real life?) etc.

Most of those topics are created by one person. Kinda like mirror image of Lime

 

[Airola]

It feels as if "milkshake ducks" became something people were actively looking for to use for their gain.
It was not enough to just give the impression of being a good person but you had to find someone who is bad and then compare yourself to that.
And when that wasn't enough, it was better to find a more or less famous person you like and then say they are bad and I am not. See, you can show the goodness in you when you can turn away from a person you like when that person has done something bad. The worst example of this has been the threads where people encourage others to leave their families if they continue being "bad." That's the ultimate form of this.

It got up to the point of just reacting on a whim to public accusations. It doesn't matter if the current accusation is true because you can dig up dirt from the past and either use that to say this supports the accusations because a person who has done or said this in the past could easily do something like this, or just say "it doesn't matter whether this new thing is true because they've been a shitty person in the past and that's enough to judge them now."

And when any thing gets big enough to be a "movement" of sorts, there will be lots of people who just follow the flock without even thinking about it that much.

People don't always want to check out if accusations are true.
Secondly, when the subject matter is of certain kind, there isn't any room for nuance. In Evilore's case it wasn't acceptable to question whether the things claimed in the accusations were bad enough to deserve judgment of the sort it ended up getting. I'm 100% sure that there are tons of people who'd love to hurl rocks at me for that previous sentence I wrote, for even suggesting anything like that.

I think GAF at the end there was so far left that even a left leaning person was getting destroyed for not conforming.

Yeah, the thread about "the left eating their own" didn't happen for no reason.

 

[Gun Animal]

Buddy, trust me when I tell you that approximately none of the current NeoGAF community is Alt-Right. What's here is mostly common-sense, low-info Liberal centrism.

1. Gamergate by and large was/is a hate group.

Games journalists aren't a protected group and neither are people with blue hair and problem glasses.

 

[O.v.e.rlord]

Fucking lol ^

Do what I did. Don’t care about it. Happened, didn’t happen, doesn’t matter, we where not part of the incident. This is a place to come post some bullshit about how Kid Icarus Uprising has good controls! Yeah I said it and it’s fucking true. Those controls were awesome!

 

[RokkanStoned]

Fucking lol ^
This is a place to come post some bullshit about how Kid Icarus Uprising has good controls! Yeah I said it and it’s fucking true. Those controls were awesome!

 

[O.v.e.rlord]

Not needed! Here’s what you do. Extend your right picky and rest the 3ds on your thigh. Boom stability. Note you have to be sitting to work for long periods of time. If standing the picky finger will give out!

Edit! Fuck meant left pinky. Left. Better stability with the left.

 

[ar0s]

Totalbiscuit is not a Gamergater.

Is that a poster here? Why single them out specifically? *confused*

 

[J Bro]

1. Gamergate by and large was/is a hate group. Specifically against women. If you've ever used the work 'cuck' as a derogatory term instead of describing a sexual fetish and use it in an argument against someone you disagree with, then perhaps you also have other issues than ethics in game journalism. I've seen the thread(s) here about Gamergate, but nothing in there has convinced me that Gamergate by and large wasn't driven by hate. Gamergate is a scarlet letter.

Meanwhile:

Multiple people who parroted the anti-Gamergate narrative have been outed as rapists, abusers, or even pedophiles. - https://twitter.com/i/moments/851713200537993216
Zoe Quinn lied about Wizardchan, a forum of depressed people. - http://imgur.com/a/4VOcx
Wolf Wozniak tried to out Zoe Quinn for sexually harassing him after Eron tried outing her as his abuser. - https://blogs-images.forbes.com/erikkain/files/2014/09/wozniak3.png
There's also the Crash Override leaks. - for lack of a better source : https://lolcow.wiki/wiki/Crash_Override_Network_Log_Leaks#Serious_Chat_.28Short.29



That thing you're saying is a complete lie by a group of close friends who have been outed for various scumbag things, from lying and harassing a mentally ill forum(wizardchan), to rape and abuse. To use the anti-gg logic, that is what you're siding with. These are your people. This is what you're going to bat for when you spread their lies. Yours is the hate group. They've harassed many people over the years, and even in recent weeks. From Daniel Vavra and Tim Soret to Palmer Luckey's girlfriend.

You have no argument anymore. You have been thoroughly debunked. Gamergate did nothing wrong. Never did, never will.

 

[appaws]

So it's obvious this GAF has basically halved in popularity and frankly a lot of what is left is on the right wing end of the spectrum, and by
"right" I mean this new age angsty alt right sort of stuff. "Liberals stop doing X" and "[Insert obviously heinous thing] isn't that bad tbh" "Does Trump deserve a Nobel peace prize" (is this real life?) etc.

I think you are off here by a long ways. I've never seen any "alt-right" stuff here. I think I am one of the farthest right here, and I'm basically like a super-isolationist Rand Paul.

I'm aware there was an issue regarding claims of sexual harassment towards the founder of GAF, I know very little about him and almost nothing of the details of those claims however as a liberal and a progressive I did one thing at the time in order to determine whether or not I would stay: I looked for any sign that these claims were being properly investigated and verified by the police. As a liberal and a progressive I don't believe it is moral to conduct trial by the mob and "no smoke without fire" is a concept that has been used to justify pretty much every major far right crime in history.

I am not sure what you being "a liberal and a progressive" has to do with whether anybody committed a certain crime or not. And rush to judgements are just a symptom of our instant media age. People can never wait for processes to be complete, or investigations to be done....it's all "now,now,now." We have to make a moral judgement NOW!, whether we know the facts or not.

So please tell me I am missing something and that we don't just live in an era now where "right" and "left" are basically just tribes with no concept of ideology and any excuse to start a tribal conflict is good enough?

Yeah, we do live in that age, except I would say they have too strong of concept's of ideology. The narrative of their ideology comes before everything, including truth and justice. (both sides) For example, the feminist narrative is more important than any individual man's factual guilt or innocence. Any excuse to push the narrative is good enough.

 

[strange headache]

I find it pretty f*cking ironic how people keep raising the specter of the alt-right, considering how this once striving community has imploded under the weight of its far-left ideology. As if we needed more proof that the unchecked radical left 'progressivism' leads down the same authoritarian path of pain and suffering as the radical right. What's even worse is that there are still people clinging to the mindset of oldGAF by seemingly refusing to take lesson from the atrocities that happened to this place and its owner.

I simply refuse to subscribe to the sort of political tribalism that's currently being pushed to insane degrees within the American society. Not only is it slowly eroding its people of critical independent thought, but through the magic of social-media it's slowly seeping into other countries and cultures as well. Radicalism, no matter which side of the political spectrum, should be everybody's concern, because as soon as we lose the ability to effectively communicate with each other, bad things will happen. Unfortunately, for some this doesn't seem much of a concern, as long as they can feel morally vindicated by uncritically perpetuating whatever tribalistic belief structure they chose to define as being 'on the right side of history'.

I don't subscribe to many conservative ideals, especially not of the American variety, but conservatism and progressivism are dependent on each other insofar as they oftentimes balance each other out. I don't see conservatives as inherently evil and while I may not agree with them, I oftentimes see them as complementary to my own views. Until now that aspect has always been a central part of the political game, until people suddenly decided to radicalize themselves under their respective political umbrellas. An for those who disagree, let me propose the totally radical and outlandish notion that people can vote for the opposition and still be decent human beings in everyday life. Yeah, it's weird right? So I'm sorry for not immediately jumping on the hate train, I know better than to dehumanize others.

 

[Darren870]

It was a much needed purge. This place had gone so far off the spectrum I couldn't even lurk and read topics without getting frustrated.

Everything was a dog pile and there were little to no discussions. While it might be a little slow it's picking up and topics actually have discussions and debates. That's what I originally signed up for. I've never been here for the games, only the OT.

Only thing I miss is the hilarious threads where someone gets them selves in some sort of rediculous situation. Real or not they were always hilarious. I'm sure someone will do something stupid soon enough.

Never left, never planned on leaving, will stay till the end.

 

[Musky_Cheese]

It was a much needed purge. This place had gone so far off the spectrum I couldn't even lurk and read topics without getting frustrated.

Everything was a dog pile and there were little to no discussions. While it might be a little slow it's picking up and topics actually have discussions and debates. That's what I originally signed up for. I've never been here for the games, only the OT.

Only thing I miss is the hilarious threads where someone gets them selves in some sort of rediculous situation. Real or not they were always hilarious. I'm sure someone will do something stupid soon enough.

Never left, never planned on leaving, will stay till the end.

I felt that way as soon as it happened. Needed a rebuild.

I don't game much anymore. I only play Siege and The Show. I spend my time doing family activities, playing Guitar, and watching Baseball.

I first started lurking because I was very big into gaming. Gaf was the place where you could interact with Devs and people in the industry. I read but didn't create an account for many years.

But Devs left sometime ago, way before October. Because the community became toxic. And the people who made it toxic left. And now rebuild.

 

[witchedwiz]

So it's obvious this GAF has basically halved in popularity and frankly a lot of what is left is on the right wing end of the spectrum, and by
"right" I mean this new age angsty alt right sort of stuff. "Liberals stop doing X" and "[Insert obviously heinous thing] isn't that bad tbh" "Does Trump deserve a Nobel peace prize" (is this real life?) etc.

you're clearly going a biiit too far..
I sit on the right, and I've found moderation on past gaf clearly biased, as much as it is now moderation on resetera political topics..
Now gaf moderation might be a bit too lenient, but i'll say it quite honestly.. old gaf was a hivemind where if you had any "right"-like ideas, you risked a ban at every corner..
but to each his own.. I admit quite freely that I've more than halved my forum time after all this debacle, but i spend it equally between era and gaf give or take a bit..

as for the scandal per se, I'll admit again that some of the stuff related to it made me think "uh?" when considering some actions from both side..

 

[cryptoadam]

IMO it was a bunch of people who wanted to get a head of the #metoo movement which was just starting out. They wanted to lead the way on a new "progressive" movement so they threw GAF to the wolves regardless of innocent till proven guilty or the circumstances of the situation.

If it happened today I don't think GAF would of went down. Go on the other board and you will see many of those who jumped ship defending guys like Farrakhan and Fraken. It came time to timeing and the situation being one of the big events that kicked everything off. After GAF went down then you really started to see the movement pick up and others being called out.

BTW I am not taking a stand on innocence or guilt of anyone accused of harasment but the way its handled now compared to a few months ago is very different.

 

[Corronchilejano]

It was a much needed purge.

You may call it a purge, but people decided to leave.

 

[J Bro]

You may call it a purge, but people decided to leave.

That's true. It was more purge-like when they were here getting everyone else banned.

 

[Musky_Cheese]

You may call it a purge, but people decided to leave.

Some decided to leave. Others decided to act like cunts and try and burn the place down and destroy the site.

 

[J Bro]

Some decided to leave. Others decided to act like cunts and try and burn the place down and destroy the site.

"Gamergaters are taking over!"

*posts porn and vile shit*

 

[TrainedRage]

Some decided to leave. Others decided to act like cunts and try and burn the place down and destroy the site.

That irony is pretty funny considering how they would crucify anyone who supports Trump just to watch it all burn. That time was very telling of how these people act when the magnifying lens in on them.