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The state of NeoGAF

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EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Hi.

An allegation of sexual misconduct has been made against me by an ex. It's not true, the individual making the accusation isn't credible, the story doesn't reconcile logically with the facts, and there's plenty of evidence and witnesses to corroborate that. It'll be a process.

All allegations of this nature are serious, of course. I first got word of it on Wednesday when a screenshot of a Facebook post was handed to Voat. I immediately talked with my mod team about the contents of the screenshot and clarified that it was baseless and explained some of the details concerning my former associations with her, and tried to ensure any concerns from the team were addressed fully and transparently to everyone's satisfaction. On Thursday I heard that she had deleted the accusation from Facebook, and wasn't entirely sure how to proceed from there or how this would all play out in the public space at that point. Then, Friday morning, the screenshot made its way to NeoGAF and chaos ensued.

I was in the process of writing a statement that entire day to address formally address the allegation, but the community had erupted in a flash that morning. While the moderation team was trying to restore the peace, accusations and threats concerning the screenshot started shifting to them as well by association with me, and I was asked by my team to do something to fix things and get the heat off of all of them at least. I was beyond exhausted by that point, though, stretched too thin in the time since the post had first appeared and seeing unprecedented events unfold on NeoGAF. I was slow and weak. I failed to handle it quickly enough and let the team down. Before I could finish a statement and get it out there, understandably some mods hit their emotional limit, expressed concerns about the community coming after them, and decided to leave. A few people resigned, and many more quickly followed for similar reasons, citing stress and harassment. The site started breaking under load spikes leading up to the first resignations, too, and then flatlined altogether, so issuing a statement at that time on NeoGAF itself became impossible for the time being, and my attention shifted toward the moderation team's future.

Since that whole mess, lasting from Friday morning through Saturday, before we formally went offline for maintenance and repair and restructure, we've just been trying to figure out the best course of action for NeoGAF going forward. And as stories began being published by various outlets, I issued some comments to the press, since everything coming out was proving to be sensationalized, opportunist, and unprofessional.


We've all become increasingly stressed and weary this year in ways even I'm not accustomed to by now, and discussions on heated news, political issues, and social issues on the off-topic side of the site have become areas no one has wanted to moderate in the open for fear of backlash or just general exposure to the inevitable toxicity. I've gone in there myself to take the heat, since it's very much my responsibility to do so before anyone else's, but there's been little headway, mostly just more anger and resentment and a lot of bans. I don't think this necessarily reflects on our community; more so the tone of the entire internet this year with regards to heated issues.

That's all going to inform the way forward for NeoGAF as we refocus on what the main goals are supposed to be for the site. The mod team will talk about more specifics on what that will entail below.


One last thing. The NeoGAF mod team is here for this community; all of you. You have no obligations to respect me or believe anything I say about my personal life one way or another, but if you're going to be here and participate on NeoGAF, respect the mod team by following the rules and behaving. The team is diminished at the moment and the folks who stuck around care very much about this community and its future. Be considerate of them. That's non-negotiable.

Thanks.
 

ModBot

Not a mod, just a bot.
The future of NeoGAF will be a return to what many of us have come here for, a place where we can gather together and enjoy our shared hobby of video games. For a short time, Off-Topic Discussion and Off-Topic Community will be closed so that we can rediscover that. We'll be starting with a clean slate when they come back. However, the focus will be on the many other hobbies we may have like TV, movies, anime, writing, music, etc. Political and social discourse will not be allowed in the new Off-Topic. Those types of discussions greatly added to the harsh and unwelcoming atmosphere of Off-Topic, which pushed many users away. For those worried: OT has not been deleted, and important threads will be archived for recovery once it's open again.

Moderation will also see changes. Over the years, moderators changed from simply people who made sure discussion stay civil into personalities. It's because of that, many were targeted for harassment and other things. This shouldn't be happening to them. We've taken action to protect these people by making moderation anonymous. There will be no more red-names that single them out nor will there be a list of who is one.
 

Gromph

This tag is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance...
Staff Member
For any account / site issues please PM me.

I will not follow moderation requests.
 

snap

Banned
We've all become increasingly stressed and weary this year in ways even I'm not accustomed to by now, and discussions on heated news, political issues, and social issues on the off-topic side of the site have become areas no one has wanted to moderate in the open for fear of backlash or just general exposure to the inevitable toxicity

Is this really how you're going to play this? Try to imply that Off-Topic is toxic and that you're beyond reproach despite all of this evidence showing you have a behavior problem towards women? Fuck off dude, OT is the reason we had people like Stinkles in this community. Without it NeoGAF is just like every other garbage gaming discussion on the internet.
 

JordanN

Banned
I appreciate you released a statement.

I wont comment about my true feelings on the matter. I just hope we all take the time to reflect on our actions, and try to do what is good.
 

platina

Member
I appreciate you released a statement.

I wont comment about my true feelings on the matter. I just hope we all take the time to reflect on our actions, and try to do what is good.

I second this. Let's enjoy gaming, I love this community. Neogaf will always have a special place in me.
 

Blam

Member
I guess we will be seeing quite a few account suicides now.

I appreciate you released a statement.

I wont comment about my true feelings on the matter. I just hope we all take the time to reflect on our actions, and try to do what is good.

Same here I'd like to see this place act as a gaming forum through and through. I obviously browsed here way too often.

Also yes could we at least archive off-topic?
 
Thanks. All i really wanted was a forum that even remotely resembles the gaming forum back when it was a part of gaming age.

Political discussion ruined it.

I personally dont give a shit about alt right this left that. There are plenty of other forums to discuss that garbage.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
For a short time, Off-Topic Discussion and Off-Topic Community will be closed so that we can rediscover that. We'll be starting with a clean slate when they come back. .

Will there at least be an archive of the old stuff if we're starting from scratch? There was some good stuff in there.
 

Kaelan

Member
I understand. To be honest I get why Off-Topic needs to be removed for now - While I enjoyed many of the (funny/sad threads) the political topics were a breeding ground for hate and hostility. It sucks it has to be gone for now, but when it comes back we can definitely have it in a better form. I feel for the moderation team and really appreciate the ones who stuck around and understand why some had to leave.

Not sure how I feel about the accusations towards you and the validity of them, but the fact people are still sticking around in terms of the mods speaks volumes.
 
I don’t know what to think about this entire thing, but not talking about politics doesn’t seem like a viable long term solution.
 

Mr. F

Banned
Hey bud? You're a fucking coward, as evidenced by displacing or erasing communities with zero notice. Mental Health thread, trans thread, LGBT threads, other minority threads where people may have only had each other as a support system.

But hey, gotta protect that ego right? Peace.
 

Scotia

Banned
Fuck you Evilore you absolute cunt. Please kill my account, I want nothing to do with you or this site anymore.
 
Not sure closing OT/OT Community is a particularly good way of that, especially for people who came here for the games and stayed for discussion.

And killing social/political discussion is... dumb. Not that I participated all that much in it, but it's a poor solution for the toxicity that you guys are talking around.

And now having mods be like... undercover? That seems nonsensical. Plus, those allegations are still out there and there's no statement, so... there's that.

I dunno, this just seems like poor reactions by everyone all around, exacerbated by you um... not knowing how to handle your shit, man.
 

Joqu

Member
Please, we have heard enough from mods to know they did not leave over stress and harassment. At least try to lie better.
 

Kimawolf

Member
Sounds good to me. Never been one to make snap decisions. The nature of the internet is people always, ALWAYS make quick snap decisions, pile on and the mob mentality kicks in. Hopefully things can calm down until its all sorted out.
 

Jennings

Member
Glad the site is back up. Nothing of value is lost re: off-topic, so let's get to complaining about Destiny 2 and Nintendo.
 

Gattsu25

Banned
I can't post here in good conscience if the ownership doesn't change.

Without knowing who the current mods are, I'll just leave my request for a permanent ban here.



Change ownership.
 
neogaf is back
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no off-topic
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VI VON
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daveo42

Banned
NeoGAF is over and you killed it. It's time for you to move on because the rest of us don't want to be here or associated with you or your site any longer.

You deserve zero respect from me or anyone else here.
 
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