Last few years one of my fav haunts; while people used to bitch about the moderation as a result it was the only place on the internet to discuss videogames/geek shit that wasn't filled with the most gleefully awful human beings on the web. You can tell by all the dudes with #gamergate tags and anime avatars on twitter celebrating that they were doing something right, lol.

i got stories for days from that site about how fucked up it was.

Then again I was more lurker then poster. Plus my time heres shown me that at any sizable forum there's a whole underground where lord knows what happens there, i don't hold the site responsible.

Seems the biggest detractors were people mad at the inconsistent moderation but considering the hordes of angry white men waiting to storm their doors to post their fucked up opinions under the guise of free speech, they had their job cut out for em.

I was a poster for a short while (shouts to Gaf's Jazzy Hip Hop thread) but I got tired of the post structure and other things, I forget.

Really interesting story about the founder though... had no idea of any of that stuff, although I definitely wasn't active long enough to be aware of it. If you have any random stories off the top, that'd be appreciated

- one of the longtime mods got exposed for at the least, being a CP collector. suspected of being a pedo. site leadership tried to act like this WHOLE INCIDENT never happened or that he was ever a mod there (i suspect because there was a ring and not just 1 dude)

- another longtime mod got unmodded for...i actually dont remember what he ended up getting unmodded for in the end. but at one point he lied to the forum for a kickstarter for his sick mom, then turned around used that money to buy drugs. he also beat his mom over a tv show (he admitted this iirc)

- the head dude that got popped this time also had an incident before harassing a woman to the point where she left the site. he basically used the site as his personal dating service.

man im sure if i thought about this (or logged onto thebore) i could come up with a lot of shit and that's just off what i remember.

the tonal shift over the years at least since i've been on has been something to behold. you could be banned for just having a different opinion because it didn't lineup w/ the hivemind. it totally got taken over by lynch mob culture.

or mods would lobby to have their friends bans excused or permabands undone.

edit: also there was far too much of a rope for little slick racist trolls

I left for different reasons but I wouldn't be able to stomach that sort of culture, let alone all that other shit.

Thanks for sharing.

That became my sole source for video game discussion.

It'll probably be a while before it's up, though.

Had no idea about the child porn shit the one mod got into. Like you said, I always got the impression that it was one of the few places where people weren't a bunch of deplorables.

More pressing, I hope the victim doesn't face any backlash for shining light on the situation after seeing how ugly people can act on the internet.

Community and Discussion.

he's not stepping down.

he released a statement:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1452075

it deflects from the accusations and pivots to talking about how discussions on heated news, political issues, and social issues has made everybody weary. haha

first page is full of people calling him a snowflake (rightfully). it's chaos. it's dead.

i'm not going back unless he leaves. it sucks because it was my main gaming news source.

With the community and off topic forums gone thats years worth of great posts that should have been archived. You can't go back to a simpler time; I don’t think he understood what made the place ‘work’. People came for the community aspect, without that..we might as well be on twitter.


>it deflects from the accusations and pivots to talking about
>how discussions on heated news, political issues, and social
>issues has made everybody weary. haha

And its like while I get his bigger point on em having to work overtime against the trolls now that the behavior is normalized (Hella threads would be banned user graveyards from people trying to pull alt-right shit) it looks like his shitty leadership sunk the ship...his staff felt exposed and when there should have been heavy handed “Fuck noes” he aint do shit. Vice pretty much nailed him here:

https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/qv384d/inside-the-sexual-misconduct-allegations-rocking-neogafs-last-48-hoursd


"Internet drama isn't new to NeoGAF," said one moderator, "but when the allegation is that the site owner sexually harassed someone, and it is allowed to spiral out of control to a point where it's a really bad look, it's hard to justify sticking around without a knowing that there's a clear plan ahead. Not knowing how this would move forward is what sealed the deal for me. It's impossible to moderate the forum in future in good faith when I'm unable to honestly answer valid questions people might have about this matter."

The wait is what prompted this mod, and many others, to quit...

...t remains strange that Malka's first public comments on the allegations came to a reporter, rather than the community itself. More than 48 hours after questions were raised, Malka still hasn't said a word on social media. A pattern begins to emerge: Malka was slow and awkward to respond to the revelation that one of its own moderators, an outspoken progressive, was a pedophile, and Malka was slow and awkward to respond to allegations made about his own conduct.


This is in character with what moderators I spoke to described as Malka's "hands-off" style of management when it came to on site policy—except for in cases where it suited him.

"There was historically a lot of dissatisfaction with cases where he overrided us, made policy on a whim, or did things that we had to answer for," said one moderator.

Ultimately, it may be Malka's own action (or inaction) that leads to NeoGAF's demise.

on one hand it's sad just cause i was part of it for 8years.
on the other hand it's good riddance because once they started booting the reasonable posters and community groups i was apart of i basically started lurking for about the last 2 years.

i still used it for news* and to see what kind of stupid shit people posted on a daily basis so i'll miss that.

*i mean where else would i find out political info and previews of what's going to happen on Dragon Ball Super 2 months from now lol.

so yeah if you enjoyed GAF and want to still interact w/ the good apples from that bunch many of them landed at this site from when GAF fucked off the NBA, Hip-Hop and Soccer communities.
http://www.slaent.com/

https://www.resetera.com/

This is the biggest settlement of GAF refugees right now. 10,000 users, 120k posts already after a couple days. New look, same GAF flavor.

Registration is open now. There will be a waitlist, but that won’t stop you from lurkin.

Hopefully the mod staff is ready. Its also interesting cause ill peep into GAF and they've already walked back the whole 'no off topic shit' so the boards look the same...but deader.

It's like when you hit that road in the relationship and decide to stay together but the love is gone, lol. It's all using thin threads of nostalgia ("Hey, remember we used to do things like this back in those good times?") lol

it said my email address is banned

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

I know they were anti-'free' emails in order to cut down on the riff raff (which I disagree with, not like in a post 'lemmie share this fucked up shit under my real name' world.

"In the morning in the western hemisphere, we will be officially opening up regular registrations. This will require paid email addresses, manual account approval, and a period of junior membership."

Who in the Google pays for email?

$5 a month /shrug.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

fuck 'em if they gonna keep that dumb shit up

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

no one after 2005 had personal email tied to domains that weren't one of the big service providers (i.e. Google, Yahoo, etc). anachronistic, elitist bullshit at its finest. in that regard, I agree with BrooklynWHAT.

but goddamn. this is crazy. all the dominoes are falling. no one is safe. and motherfuckers who have a place at the top always find a way to be corrupt.