It’s quite sad to see everything happen there. Been a member for years and lurked longer before that. The kicker about this is that if a poster had acted and had a history like EL he would have been banned and gotten a banned notification long ago. This is the sort of thing that GAF really did not like, it was progressive in most areas and for that it was hated by some especially in the current climate. That and because of the heavy moderation which could go too far at times. But it did help keep the place moving forward, growing and a juggernaut that people knew and heard of if nothing else. There were wonderful mini communities and some that needed a good rap on their knuckles when they acted up. Yet in the end the discussions and people made it all worthwhile, never once did I ever imagine this could or would happen. It’s a reminder that anything can change on a dime and there are always details you don’t know of.
I play games and I don’t really feel like I’m in that circle ^^
Yeah, it’s pretty sad how quick something good can go so rotten with just a few missteps for ones with the power.
The whole ‘no political talk’ is what really got me. Tyler’s awful response and that new rule, plus getting rid of off-topic for the time being, has resulted in the community turning upside down. I always appreciated gaf as a large source of information and discussion without the often thinly veiled alt-right rhetoric that is so prevalent in gaming forums.
I suicided my account by parodying an average alt-right dude who wanted to keep politics out of gaming. I got what I wanted, proved my point, but looking at the forum right now, it’s disheartening to see my parody becoming a reality.
It has always meant “let’s not talk about this social issue that makes me uncomfortable because I’m directly or indirectly responsible of it, or benefit out of it due to my privilege and I don’t want to lose my unfair advantage”.
It’s really amusing because alt-righters do love mocking other people’s “safe spaces”
This reminds me a lot with what happened to the Something Awful forums. The sites owner was active in its early days, but at some point in the late 2000’s he seemed to be more hands off and the forum started to steadily get heavier moderation and started weeding out racist and other unsavory users as well as requiring pretty strict posting etiquette. Some people whined about it, but I kind of appreciated the structure and I think it made the overall content of the forum a lot better.
However, sometime around 2013 the site owner came back and decided to be much more hands on. He completely restructured the main discussion board so that it was completely free form and had almost no moderation, leading to many threads being made with racist, homophobic, and transphobic posts, and he seemed to not mind it. He also started personally attacking people on the forum who spoke out against what he was doing and sent hate mobs after them on social media after banning them. It was really distasteful and made me leave that place for good.
I think most forums benefit from strict moderation not being helmed by a lone, egotistical owner. The situation on NeoGAF right now is really making me feel some deja vu.
As Arcia said it was crazy to see Something Awful go to what it has become in the last few years, it always had some nutty things on the site and in some games the populace could be utter dicks which was very known for. That went so much worse when the main forums got scrambled and the main general forum went from discussion to very trollish post and threads that didn’t do much at all.
Re: “don’t politicize” I agree entirely. It means ‘I’m fine with the prevailing political position and how dare you rock the boat.’ It does indeed seem to be mainly used by people who want to maintain a regressive position. As to NeoGaf, it’s absolutely pathetic that the owner wants to remove all ‘political’ discussion in response to the allegations, and at the very least a sign of moral cowardice.
Being apolitical is a privilege reserved for those whose civil rights have no chance of being stripped by political action
Even the SA games forum started turning into a mess, they went from probating/banning shitposters or gimmickposter to nearly glorifying them.
Just logged on to GAF. The caliber of posters that remained and are posting is pretty telling.
Good podcast on the topic.
Last 10 minutes veered really abruptly to horror movies and further on to Blade. Had me asking myself, how did we get here.
Oh man, there are some other lapsed goons here too, huh? Same deal as @Arcia, stopped visiting SA around 2012-2013. Was a regular for 6-odd years before that, met some lifelong friends who really started to teach me what feminism and progressivism are all about, had some excellent times… And then it all went to shit. None of the friends I made have used SA since the whole shake-up. I don’t think any of us would even understand the culture of shitposting, “ironic” racism & homophobia, and inside jokes anymore to be honest.
Didn’t expect GAF to follow that trend in the space of a day 
I just logged on, mainly to see Evilore’s statement. I was unimpressed, seems like the banning, the statement, it was all just to protect his ego. Pretty sure I’m done with that site. It kind of saddens me. I guess I will jump between here and anything new some of the ex gaffers put together.
Evilore has handled this in the worst way possible. I’m never going back to that place now.
I got my account banned. Continuing to post there, not just because of the allegations, but the way Evilore handled them and the way some people were so quick to defend or make out it isn’t a big deal just didn’t sit right with me.
It’s like I said, if anyone else had done this they would have gotten the banhammer. It’s strange to see this as normally he was very good at writing post that handled matters but in this he has totally did everything in a poor manner. He’s trying to save his meal ticket and his reputation but with how he’s tackled this neither appear in good shape.
Already, not a good idea…
Why is that not a good idea?
