Support NeoGAF

[Yui's Empire]

I use the Discord server for this function.

Good reminder, been meaning to join but I forgot.

 

[Moogle11]

It's very hard to ever go back to that. Era's activity is fading and the moderation fucked up too hard for the site to recover. Gaf is growing, but it's hard to envision a level of activity like in 2017 or earlier. Places like GameFAQs or r/games are far too sparse and have no standards whatsoever, and thus nobody big really stays there. Likewise, it's hard to see a new player enter the fiel. Nowadays, discussion (gaming and otherwise) is spread out between a billion social networks, comment sections and such. Discord is where official communities seem to be moving, but you can't realistically have a well-managed general Discord for all things gaming: you'd need to have thousands of channels for everything to be covered, and things would just get buried hard.

It's too bad. May be an age thing, but to me discussion forums remain the best place to discuss gaming. What I'm getting these days on Gaf is great, but the relative lack of activity is showing. If I put the Gaming channel and sort them by time of thread posted, I see threads from 36 hours ago on page 1. Many of us stayed on Era for that reason: there is activity, and on discussions that didn't involve stuff mods were overly sensitive about, we could have great discussions, especially first year. That is what I'm finding here on Gaf, but aside from the big themes like Cyberpunk, it's hard to get enough activity sometimes for a good discussion. Maybe this will improve over time, as other places seem to deteriorate and this one keeps growing.

I’m with you on that. I’m in my early 40s now, have been on forums since the late 90s and the experience just isn’t what it used to be. Likely a combo of of all the things you note and just changes in myself as I’ve gotten older.

As you note, it’s hard to find good discussions on things outside of the biggest games any more, and things have gotten so jaded and negative. Even ignoring all the SJW vs other side bs, all the political nonsense, and all the fanboy crap (that was always there) it just seems like an incredibly vocal minority on game sites doesn’t like games. So much bitching and complaining, so much attacking people who like games they don’t and vice versa and so on. When games are supposed to be fun and it seemed like years ago there were a lot more positive threads of people casually shooting the shit about games they were enjoying and it wasting so much time and energy bitching about things they dislike.

There was always negativity and tribalism, but GamerGate and the post-2016 politicization of fucking everything further tribalized things and I think many of the positive people just fled to Discord, game-specific subReddits and other smaller, more curated communities where they could avoid more of the negativity.

That said a lot of it is also just changes in myself as I’ve gotten older. I’ve gotten more reclusive and sick of people and their shit, less interested in others’ opinions and more easily annoyed by hot takes, hostility and negativity and have a harder time not letting it all get to me. I simply can’t have that as I’m having some stomach health issues and need to minimize stress, frustration and anger. I barely have a use for people in real life these days, much less to get too involved in online communities or to waste time arguing or debating with randos. Just want a fun place to shoot the shit about things I enjoy, but it’s so hard to do that without leaving in a bad mood from all the other shit.

So I visit many fewer sites than I used to, post way less often and plan on cutting that back even further as I focus on the health issues. Going to change my bookmark for this site to just my watched threads (all OTs) and just check the front page for news a few times a week. Going to make one last effort to curate a decent experience for myself on the few forums and social media I’m still on before just saying fuck it and fully quitting all of it.

 

[fatty]

Luckily the mods now are super chill.

Yeah, and the nice thing is a lot of the mods I see posting I recognize from the turnover so it is good having the consistency here. I’m guessing ResetEra is now at about 10-15% retention rate of their original staff.

 

[TheContact]

Not sure where to ask this exactly, but as someone who used ResetEra a lot, my go-to place has always been Latest Threads, which was the best way to stay up-to-date with announcements, trailers and such. Maybe I'm blind but I don't see such an option on Gaf? Latest activity refers to any activity in any thread, old or new. New posts also includes new content in old threads. Individual categories' pages tend to bury small threads as the big ones get more activity. Found a way to do it for each category by sorting them per "first message", but is there a single page where you can get all the latest threads from all categories?

the homepage has a "top trending threads" but the layout kinda hides it off to the side and the landing page isn't used that often (at least not for me). I think adding a "latest thread" / "trending thread" section somewhere more prominent would benefit the site tho

 

[PooBone]

It'll be hard to recapture the glory days of the pre-exodus. There's certainly more assholes and whining kids in here than I can ever remember.

 

[EviLore]

It'll be hard to recapture the glory days of the pre-exodus. There's certainly more assholes and whining kids in here than I can ever remember.

Be the change you want to see.

 

[AJUMP23]

Overall been a good month, could do with a few less cyberpunk threads.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Overall been a good month, could do with a few less cyberpunk threads.

Most anticipated game of the year + catastrophic launch and mad industry drama = lots of discussion.

 

[PooBone]

Be the change you want to see.

There a point to this screenshot? Disagreeing with haters and racists is now considered hating?
Edit: Also couldn’t help but notice your omissions. Bigly.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

There a point to this screenshot? Disagreeing with haters and racists is now considered hating?
Edit: Also couldn’t help but notice your omissions. Bigly.

I'm guessing it was a joke in reference to your comment about there being more "assholes and whining kids" than the old days.

 

[Shmunter]

There a point to this screenshot? Disagreeing with haters and racists is now considered hating?
Edit: Also couldn’t help but notice your omissions. Bigly.

Holding up a mirror I would suggest. Not seeing it?

 

[PooBone]

I'm guessing it was a joke in reference to your comment about there being more "assholes and whining kids" than the old days.

And a poor one at that. Several of those posts (and the ones omitted) are the exact opposite of the staff-member's intended example, particularly the PD and CB threads. Context is important, y'all.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Staff Member

(And yeah, I agree that context is important. But still, it's just a joke.)

 

[PooBone]

Staff Member

(And yeah, I agree that context is important. But still, it's just a joke.)

It seems I prefer jokes that land.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

It seems I prefer jokes that land.

It made me laugh.

 

[Humdinger]

Not sure where to ask this exactly, but as someone who used ResetEra a lot, my go-to place has always been Latest Threads, which was the best way to stay up-to-date with announcements, trailers and such. Maybe I'm blind but I don't see such an option on Gaf? Latest activity refers to any activity in any thread, old or new. New posts also includes new content in old threads. Individual categories' pages tend to bury small threads as the big ones get more activity. Found a way to do it for each category by sorting them per "first message", but is there a single page where you can get all the latest threads from all categories?

Ask and ye shall receive. It's a part of the new update. You'll see it on the left banner now.

 

[Yui's Empire]

Ask and ye shall receive. It's a part of the new update. You'll see it on the left banner now.

Yep, and I thanked the staff for the quick work in the update thread. Don't want to keep Era up all the time for unrelated matters, but it's crazy how many times I tried to hit up staff there for suggestions, questions, reports or whatnot, and they'd never fucking get back with anything useful. In a few weeks here I managed to interact with staff a couple times, in threads and PMs alike, including an issue I wanted to have fixed that was replied to by EviLore himself literally 1 minute later, plus a single suggestion I've made that was implemented less than 48 hours later in a last second addition to a big upgrade that's been planned for a while I assume.

It's refreshing and makes it feel that my voice, my opinion, my suggestion is worth something here, as opposed to other places (not just Era) where as long as you bring that sweet ad revenue money it's all the same. Cheers!

 

[ManofOne]

I'm getting a special kind of joy out of the fresh meat coming here and being surprised we're not actually Nazis

Prob think we're cunts but not nazi's

 

[Ornlu]

Ask and ye shall receive. It's a part of the new update. You'll see it on the left banner now.

So is 'new posts' gone, then? I always navigated that way; it's interesting to visit relevant threads from days or weeks ago when new info on the topic gets added.

Edit: Disregard my question; It's another click within 'latest threads' to get to 'new posts' now.

 

[regawdless]

So after the election, launch of next gen and Cyberpunk: I'd love to see the current statistics. Should be some nice sexy spikes.

 

[EviLore]

 

[Self]

Prob think we're cunts but not nazi's

It's worse then cunts. Just try to explain that neogaf folks aren't all the same and you'll risk a 2 weeks ban. The mod team is very strict in upholding the narrative.

 

[Buggy Loop]

How come there’s so many guests? Everyone‘s stuck at the door for account approbation? That many lurkers? Just majority of GAF members browsing on the job not logged on?

I mean if that quantity of peoples would participate in the forum, it would drastically change things.

 

[UnNamed]

Good results, even though in my opinion guests online aren't a good measure on how a community is healthy. The goal is to convince all those lurkers to take part to discussions and be part of a community.

In any case, more than double visitors in six months is a unquestionable achievement.

 

[regawdless]

How come there’s so many guests? Everyone‘s stuck at the door for account approbation? That many lurkers? Just majority of GAF members browsing on the job not logged on?

I mean if that quantity of peoples would participate in the forum, it would drastically change things.

It's era stalkers who want to read Cyberpunk threads, too scared to join here because they'll get banned over there.
/s

 

[BadBurger]

Awesome.

I also have a feeling a lot of those lurkers will be making accounts soon. There's not really any other forums out there where one can have an honest discussion about video games without being banned for some obtuse reason.

 

[borborygmus]

How come there’s so many guests? Everyone‘s stuck at the door for account approbation? That many lurkers? Just majority of GAF members browsing on the job not logged on?

I mean if that quantity of peoples would participate in the forum, it would drastically change things.

Conversion rates for web based sites/services are almost always low so it's not abnormal for the vast majority of people to be lurkers. I lurked for like 6 years or something before signing up just for the gaming news because most gaming sites became trash.

FWIW the best way to drive conversion imho is to allow controversial topics to happen. I probably signed up so I could comment on something someone said that I thought was ridiculous.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Conversion rates for web based sites/services are almost always low so it's not abnormal for the vast majority of people to be lurkers. I lurked for like 6 years or something before signing up just for the gaming news because most gaming sites became trash.

FWIW the best way to drive conversion imho is to allow controversial topics to happen. I probably signed up so I could comment on something someone said that I thought was ridiculous.

Soooo... we have to trigger guests so that they sign up to correct us? Hmmm

 

[Hosam6xavi]

If you are nintendo fan sign up we need more

 

[Yui's Empire]

Soooo... we have to trigger guests so that they sign up to correct us? Hmmm

Everyone who lurks without signing up is a massive fan of pizza with pineapples.

There, now we'll have a lot of folks signing up.

 

[German Hops]

Why do lurkers lurk, though?

 

[Marcus Aurelius]

Why do lurkers lurk, though?

 

[Coolwhhip]

How many members were usually online during the peak of GAF?

 

[Stiflers Mom]

yeah, this. i lean liberal and even i was blown away by how silly that thread was. so, i guess i’m back as well.

Welcome back, mate.

 

[regawdless]

Soooo... we have to trigger guests so that they sign up to correct us? Hmmm

Agreed.

MIX IT UP!

 

[fatty]

To you guests lurking:

 

[FunkMiller]

Why do lurkers lurk, though?

I think it’s probably a lot of folks who have been led down a garden path about GAF’s reputation, and are lurking about to see if it’s true or not. Hopefully they are seeing that it’s a place where freedom to speak is encouraged (within sane parameters) and that you don’t get banned for holding a contrary opinion... and will join up.

 

[SJRB]

That member/guest ratio is kinda wild

 

[Turnstyle]

I think it’s probably a lot of folks who have been led down a garden path about GAF’s reputation, and are lurking about to see if it’s true or not. Hopefully they are seeing that it’s a place where freedom to speak is encouraged (within sane parameters) and that you don’t get banned for holding a contrary opinion... and will join up.

GAF's reputation is going to take some time to heal, especially when you've got these sort of tweets from industry folk perpetuating the myth:

Seems to me that when the split happened, Era was deemed the right on, left leaning forum, and GAF was perceived as being everything that was left - essentially a right wing love-in.

Now, clearly that isn't true. I sure as hell wouldn't hang around here if that was the case, but it's symptomatic of the binary for-or-against approach that has taken over social media and the internet in the last few years. GAF is somewhat unusual in that anyone who identifies as right leaning isn't instantly banned - so long as they follow the site rules they're free to post. That rubs some people up the wrong way.

With the daily mass bannings on Era, we've seen a lot of old GAF users coming back to the fold, and I think they've been surprised to learn that we're not all wearing swastikas and cradling portraits of Trump. Posters like Black Chamber and Karak got hounded off Era, and their presence back here has seen them painted as 'Nazis' back at Era.

Hopefully GAF can continue to grow at good pace, and people will come round to the fact that it's not a toxic hellscape, just a place where people want to talk video games, and other stuff. Generally I find Evilore, GAF and its users to have an overwhelmingly optimistic outlook, and welcoming to all. A stark contrast to Era and it daily in fighting, witch hunts and spiralling depression.

GAF won't ever be the 'old GAF' again - it'll be better, the result of the seismic events of 2017 proving a valuable course correction.

Basically, any lurkers out there, quit lurking, log in, and get posting.

 

[Bryank75]

Are they people visiting to see how members here are reacting to political events?

Not trying to be negative but it just came to mind...

 

[Mato]

That member/guest ratio is kinda wild

My gaf browsing is probably 95% logged out. I only ever login whenever I want to chime in.

 

[greyshark]

Are they people visiting to see how members here are reacting to political events?

Not trying to be negative but it just came to mind...

The Vatican had a blackout last night, and for a while the thread here was the number one Google search result.

 

[Coolwhhip]

The Vatican had a blackout last night, and for a while the thread here was the number one Google search result.

Oh no, a huge wave of devout christians will join soon.

 

[Bryank75]

The Vatican had a blackout last night, and for a while the thread here was the number one Google search result.

That's crazy and I bet there will be some insane conspiracies now...

 

[FunkMiller]

Prob think we're cunts but not nazi's

Look, if everyone on here isn’t a cunt I’m leaving.

 

[Sander Cohen]

Yea, I noticed in the last few weeks that new threads get flooded with posts very soon and I’m always too late to chime in early

This is most free speech but also decent and respectful forum I’ve seen out there. Really great place as it is right now. Keep it up EviLore.

 

[Bryank75]

Look, if everyone on here isn’t a cunt I’m leaving.

I'm doing my part!

 

[Banjo64]

GAF's reputation is going to take some time to heal, especially when you've got these sort of tweets from industry folk perpetuating the myth:

Seems to me that when the split happened, Era was deemed the right on, left leaning forum, and GAF was perceived as being everything that was left - essentially a right wing love-in.

Now, clearly that isn't true. I sure as hell wouldn't hang around here if that was the case, but it's symptomatic of the binary for-or-against approach that has taken over social media and the internet in the last few years. GAF is somewhat unusual in that anyone who identifies as right leaning isn't instantly banned - so long as they follow the site rules they're free to post. That rubs some people up the wrong way.

With the daily mass bannings on Era, we've seen a lot of old GAF users coming back to the fold, and I think they've been surprised to learn that we're not all wearing swastikas and cradling portraits of Trump. Posters like Black Chamber and Karak got hounded off Era, and their presence back here has seen them painted as 'Nazis' back at Era.

Hopefully GAF can continue to grow at good pace, and people will come round to the fact that it's not a toxic hellscape, just a place where people want to talk video games, and other stuff. Generally I find Evilore, GAF and its users to have an overwhelmingly optimistic outlook, and welcoming to all. A stark contrast to Era and it daily in fighting, witch hunts and spiralling depression.

GAF won't ever be the 'old GAF' again - it'll be better, the result of the seismic events of 2017 proving a valuable course correction.

Basically, any lurkers out there, quit lurking, log in, and get posting.

That tweet is absolutely comical. The only thing I’ve seen here is a willingness to talk about video games and consoles on their merit, rather than politicising everything and asking whether the prisoners in Spider-Man are being misrepresented.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

That tweet is absolutely comical. The only thing I’ve seen here is a willingness to talk about video games and consoles on their merit, rather than politicising everything and asking whether the prisoners in Spider-Man are being misrepresented.

To be fair I've also seen him shit on Resetera. Calling them "performative"

 

[Topher]

GAF's reputation is going to take some time to heal, especially when you've got these sort of tweets from industry folk perpetuating the myth:

Seems to me that when the split happened, Era was deemed the right on, left leaning forum, and GAF was perceived as being everything that was left - essentially a right wing love-in.

Now, clearly that isn't true. I sure as hell wouldn't hang around here if that was the case, but it's symptomatic of the binary for-or-against approach that has taken over social media and the internet in the last few years. GAF is somewhat unusual in that anyone who identifies as right leaning isn't instantly banned - so long as they follow the site rules they're free to post. That rubs some people up the wrong way.

With the daily mass bannings on Era, we've seen a lot of old GAF users coming back to the fold, and I think they've been surprised to learn that we're not all wearing swastikas and cradling portraits of Trump. Posters like Black Chamber and Karak got hounded off Era, and their presence back here has seen them painted as 'Nazis' back at Era.

Hopefully GAF can continue to grow at good pace, and people will come round to the fact that it's not a toxic hellscape, just a place where people want to talk video games, and other stuff. Generally I find Evilore, GAF and its users to have an overwhelmingly optimistic outlook, and welcoming to all. A stark contrast to Era and it daily in fighting, witch hunts and spiralling depression.

GAF won't ever be the 'old GAF' again - it'll be better, the result of the seismic events of 2017 proving a valuable course correction.

Basically, any lurkers out there, quit lurking, log in, and get posting.

Well, that's a cheapshot tweet, but in trying to be clever he is actually promoting GAF. Publicity, good or bad, is still publicity.

GAF may or may not one day be the GAF that was the home of industry professionals like resetera has become, but if that is the trade-off for the basic freedom to express oneself civilly without the constant threat of a ban-hammer then that is a trade-off, personally, I'd take any day.