Twelve+ year poster here... figured I'd give my two cents.
As a poster in the 35-40 age range, I've seen a lot in my days of community bulletin boards and forums - both as a poster and a moderator at other locations. I was a member of a thriving online community twenty damn years ago that had its own exodus and things were never the same. I was even part of the moderation team that might have been negatively responsible for that, unfortunately. I was much younger. Fortunately I've learned a thing or two since.
I've seen online communities broken due to buy-outs, administrative egos going out of control, and just straight up closing due to funding issues or sinking irrelevancy. I've seen site owners in actual tears begging for money because they mismanaged things so poorly in the online spectrum that they found themselves not even being able to pay their rent any more. I've seen bitter jealousy turn to sabotage with forum posters joining together to actively burn someone's livelihood down for no other reason than 'revenge' for bannings or differing opinions. All of these places were not nearly as large as NeoGAF.
I've known seemingly good people in power positions that did scummy things. I've known people that had reputations for being scummy grow and change for the better. The internet is a big place, filled with literally every personality type and combination of types a person can probably imagine.
Communities grow, die, but sometimes they rise from the ashes. One of the forums I referenced above? It somehow crawled through its own controversies and still exists today. It's a shell of what it was, but it's still there. People I knew from twenty years ago are still there. They seem happy. It was the ownership and the handful of posters that weathered the storm that kept it alive. Tomorrow will always come on the internet... presumably.I certainly don't think this is 'the end' of NeoGAF... not unless Tyler decides to kill it... but there is certainly a lingering change in the air. That was unavoidable.
I don't know who Tyler Malka is.
Over the years I've put things together based on posts, just like any member big or small around here, but 'good', 'bad'... I don't know. I never presume to know, either. Out of opinions formed based on posts, I can really only be sure of two facts: I do know this is his site. Those in the trenches posting on a regular basis and the hard working mods keeping the trash out might make this place, but his name is above the door. I do know that he is a person with a certain amount of 'internet celebrity' fame/baggage (whichever one might perceive it) which puts him in a position of potential public scrutiny the majority of us could never relate to or understand. It comes with the territory. Oh, that is not an excuse for bad behavior or poor decisions by annnnnny stretch, but it should also be taken into consideration in discussion. I ask myself: "How would I react if a widely spread, nasty story about me came out that I heavily disputed... but the majority of the people didn't want to hear it based on stupid fucking mistakes I made when I was younger?" Sounds like a nightmare of a situation - and it's a harrowing trend I've seen popping up more and more in the realm of social media. The court of public opinion is a powerful thing and despite all of my desperate optimism in this pessimistic world right now, many situations on the internet make it very hard for me not to buy into the reality of 'Guilty Until Proven Innocent'.
For Tyler, that might be determined legally in time. If the situation is being misrepresented, he has the right to defend his reputation, as anyone would. Unfortunately for him, at least for the time being, the swift gavel of internet justice has already shattered the block. It's up to him - and the members of this community that decide to stay - to determine any potential survival of NeoGAF. What form that might take? Time will tell.
Godspeed to those that are leaving. Some of you will be truly missed. Good luck to those that stay. Try to keep this community healthy and just.
Great post.
All the more reason for there to be a proper Step change at GAF.
But again, transparency needs to be at the heart of it. Closing ranks, making moderation opaque and prohibition of certain discussion is the opposite of what needs to happen.
Please, please consider the appointment of an independent moderation panel, rules drawn up in accordance to decent community standards and not one person's views of the world and again Evilore, seperate your ownership of GAF from control of it. If you care about the community you've fostered, you'll step away from trying to be a patriarchal figurehead.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it really does appear that the attention you have previously received from the gaming media, the profiling and coverage has went to your head and affected how you treated this site. If you meant it or not, you've been trying to influence discussion in ways you simply didn't do until recently.
When people think of GAF, they should think of the community, not who runs it.
