ManofOne
Plus Member
I used a hyperbolic time chamber.
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I used a hyperbolic time chamber.
*Nightwing
Banned
I also am concerned.... Did I just click on the ban page honeypot link? If so I’m sorry?
haxan7
Banned
I too felt robbed when I didn't get to see it
Grand Theft Scratchy
Banned
It's sad, but I think what's worse was seeing the users who decided to leave on their own because they were too invested in Politics to be able to detach from it. I honestly thought some of these users would continue posting in Gaming and Off-Topic but maybe I just don't really know anything about NeoGAF's past to see why some are unable to tolerate a perfectly reasonable rule change? I know some users decided to leave because the users they liked posting with were no longer around but those users who decided to leave weren't thinking of the entire community, only themselves and others who thought the same. Now if they decide to come back, that's great, but I hope they realize NeoGAF is more than just their political and cultural beliefs, that it's always been more about discussing video games and making each other laugh.
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Papa
Banned
ThatGamingDude
I am a virgin
It seems like this forum has an emphasis on not having politics in games, and to separate the two. However, when a politics sub section on a gaming forum gets a change to defuse the polarizing content, they leave for not being able to discuss politics more freely?
That's the confusing thing to me about all of this
I'll try to be more "Empathetic," with those who are leaving or whatever their position may be
Just ABSOLUTELY baffling to me, but hey, I'll try I guess
It's like the 60s-80s totally fucked up people thinking politics is something that should be talked about behind closed doors and with adults Or in private with your gaming buddies, not in public
That's the confusing thing to me about all of this
I'll try to be more "Empathetic," with those who are leaving or whatever their position may be
Just ABSOLUTELY baffling to me, but hey, I'll try I guess
Not kidding when I say it; I've joined more and more gaming and other hobby communities that have just out right banned political banter in public spaces, and I suggest it heavily when the topic is brought up
It's like the 60s-80s totally fucked up people thinking politics is something that should be talked about behind closed doors and with adults Or in private with your gaming buddies, not in public
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
The sad thing is that unless you are lucky enough for a new political party taking over to affect your life with new laws, most people's lives wont change one bit.
People got to remember that the 5 cherry picked big topics every Pres or PM promotes during election time is a small piece of what they do and laws they try to pass. If someone out there analyzed every Bush, Clinton, Bush again, Obama and Trump policy signed into law, 99% of them you'd never heard of before, and 99% of them probably have no effect in the grand scheme of every day life. And I bet a shit load of them actually went against the overarching left or right image. But they'll never tell you that in order to pass law A, they had to wheel and deal and give back on law B to the other side.
My entire family tree isn't political anyway. I cant remember at any time as a kid or older visiting parents we talked politics. Not even Trudeau or Stephen Harper. It's more about what's going on in life, how the kids are doing, talking sports and stocks with my siblings and shit like that.
You got to be a real hardcore nut to be wasting time at family dinner talking about Bad Trump or Lazy Lefties.
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Richard Packer
Member
Falcs
Banned
Where'd he go?
Richard Packer
Member
It's really none of your business.
Grand Theft Scratchy
Banned
Same here. I don't really see a reason to get so worked up over politics unless it affects me personally. For example, when the U.S. went into lockdown last year, we didn't really know when things would reopen and this was worrying. It made me anxious for the future, more so than usual.
I think the Politics section should resemble something a little more level-headed with both national and global news. I appreciate the staff not wanting it to look like something you might find on Above Top Secret or Info Wars. To my understanding, people can believe what they want to believe, as long as they aren't being crazy.
Moogle11
Banned
From the little I’ve seen most of the people who flipped out about the new rules in politics were people who rarely or never posted in gaming. Positive of having a politics sub is it keeps that crap from stinking up Off Topic and Gaming so much. Negative is that it’s going to attract and/or keep around people who don’t really care about gaming (or at least discussing gaming) on a gaming site. Especially in the 2017-18 early days of Era forming it makes since a lot of people on the conservative side of things, conspiracy theorists etc. would have came (or been more vocal if already here) as that was the side who was being banned left and right on Era and most other major gaming forums.
So I think the acccount suicides are mostly just those types who were here for that first (or solely) and not that active on the gaming side. Though I’m sure some were as I don’t keep that close of tabs on the ban page and I’m not that great at recognizing user names outside of the most active posters on the Gaming side. Mostly I just pursue it from time to time to see to see if there’s any uptick in console warriors catching bans as the gaming side can get insufferable at times with all the warring nonsense.
So true. I wasted way too much time arguing politics on line back in my 20s into early 30s before I realized 1) it’s a waste of time as people don’t change their minds due to arguments on hobby forums and 2) as you note, very little of this shit directly effects my life. Yeah, I’m a lot more supportive of policies supported by democratic presidents and congresses than republican ones given my beliefs, but none of it really impacts me as a straight, white man in a house in our income range. We’re in a bracket that doesn’t benefit much if at all from the types of tax cuts pushed by republicans nor get hit by the types of tax increases supported by democrats.
I’m not saying it’s not important to be informed, vote, be involved in the real world if that’s one’s inclination. It’s just not worth wasting time on friggin’ hobby forums arguing over, much less driving oneself into mental illness over like many do. We saw the TDS from the left the past 4 years, now we’re seeing the same crazy obsession and ranting from the other side. All I can do is shake my head and be happy I got out of talking politics on hobby forums before things got anywhere near this crazy (didn’t do much of it post 2008 or so).
Why people want to go to hobby forums and argue endlessly has always struck me as pathetic. Whether it’s off topic stuff like politics, or on topic crap like console warring or getting upset when people like a game they don’t or vice versa. Hobbies are supposed to be fun escapes from the stresses and mundane nature of work and life in general. Seems super counterproductive to spend so much time on hobby forums complaining about things that are supposed to be fun escapes and arguing with people with different opinions on games, movies or whatever.
Just is what it is I suppose and a simple fact is you’re going to have a lot of anti-social people who aren’t well adjusted and have a lot of issues in any online community as most people who have their shit together have busy lives and less time to post on forums, Twitter etc. The most active probably have the most issues as well which skews things. I just keep that in mind, try to not engage with negative people and try to only post positive, or at least neutral things on the gaming side or random, non-political/social issue threads in off topic. Maybe if enough of us do that over time the negative/hostile tone here will skew more positive. It’s been slowly heading that way from what I’ve seen over my time here (including lurking before getting back into posting).
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Falcs
Banned
Did I pinch a nerve?
Richard Packer
Member
Yes.
Stouffers
Banned
ThatGamingDude
I am a virgin
That's what confuses me
What about NeoGAF even attracted them to coming here mainly for politics if nothing is geared or really innovated for politics as a product?
It's not like they were dropping features to help donate to PACs
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
The things with forums is it really shows how stubborn someone is. Any topic can be brought up and people can be pigeon holed into a handful of posters:
1. Don't care. Either doesn't even read the thread topic or reads and it and doesn't give a shit to respond
2. Participates, doesn't get heated, and at the end of the day moves on. At some point doesn't even bother clicking the thread again
3 Warrior. Will battle tooth and nail to win
Aside from out of the blue and once in a lifetime BLM and Antifa mobbing where people show their emotional side in person, internet forums/social media are the biggest places of interaction and heated discussion...... cancel culture, Twitter, forums etc... BLM/Antifa people roaming down the street aren't even interacting with people in two way discussion anyway. Those are one-sided riots in large numbers.
People can go wild to the bitter end in forums because it's keyboard arguing, anonymous, and easy to ring off heated replies every 10 seconds. If this was real life, most people would shut their mouths being a warrior to people's faces. Since this is a game board, the most heated discussions are console warrioring and politics warrioring. Put every user in a giant stadium and hardly anyone would go to the bone arguing. Most people will chill the fuck out. Only the most hardcore stubborn dude will try to keep on arguing against 1,000s of people in their face.
But on the net, it's easy for any stubborn guy to take on all comers. And for some people, it doesn't even matter if they are winner or losing the fight. They just burn out and break down from internet battles.
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OmegaSupreme
advanced basic bitch
We have certain users who only post in politics. Which baffles me to no end. This is the best place to discuss politics? A gaming board?
ManofOne
Plus Member
OmegaSupreme
advanced basic bitch
Moogle11
Banned
Politics had gradually gotten festered into everything Cheapassgamer.com had a politics forum ages ago, GAF had gotten more and more politics heavy in Off Topic prior to the 2017 split. It was in motion before Gamergate, but really ramped up after that as that directly brought the SJWs vs. the other side divide to the forefront and really tribalized gaming even more.
So a lot of them were probably just already here and posting in off topic, or not posting as they had views that led to dog poling by the extremists before they bolted for Era. That split was also pretty high profile on gaming sites, forums and reddit so I’m sure that attracted some to this site to flee the SJWs on other sites etc. Things were pretty crazy and ranty here in the early months after the split from the little I lurked to see what happened to the community.
In some ways, the gaming community is just ripe for the crazy behavior around politics, be it the TDS from the left the past 4+ years or all this conspiracy theory nonsense now. There’s just lots of not well adjusted people in the hard core gamer community, along with just anyone (including myself) who makes a ton of posts on anonymous online forums likely not being the most normal and socially well adjusted folks in general. Arguing to death over stupid shit that doesn’t affect you has also long been the norm with all the fanboy, console warring nonsense that’s gone on since Nintendo vs. Sega arguments at recess and really amplified with the rise of the internet and IRC chats and then forums.
It’s just a community that loves to argue so it’s easy to see how it was ripe for politics to come into that more and more after Gamergate directly infused social issues into gaming discourse and then the rise of Trump and others further the infusion of politics into nearly every real of life for many folks. It’s just frustrating as gaming is meant to be fun and there’s so few threads on forums, posts on reddit, etc. that aren’t full of negativity and hostility anymore.
Even when it doesn’t involve politics or console warring, it’s bickering between people who like a game and those who don’t, full of hyperbole fueling those debates as things are called called garbage or the best thing ever as people post opinions as facts in extreme terms designed to troll and get a rise out of someone as people get their rocks off knowing they pissed someone off. Misery loves company I suppose.
It just is what it is. The internet attracts people who like to argue and the most frequent and vocal posters tend to be not well adjusted folks who like to share their misery or just assholes that get a kick out of putting others in bad moods. All we can do is try to be positive ourselves with what we post, not engage the trolls and assholes and juse step away and spend less time in online communities if it’s becoming a negative impact on our mood or enjoyment of our hobbies. I’ve spent to much time online the past week while recovering from hernia surgery and need to step back again and just stick to threads about games I’m playing and looking forward to playing. I really only posted in those and random topics like this, but spend too much time reading other random shit threads full of console warring etc.
JORMBO
Darkness no more
Some of the people banned are the ones who have stuck around for a long time. Not that they deserve anything over any other poster, but it does stink to see them get banned (what seems like) pretty quickly. When the board was slow a few years ago staff seemed more willing to work with individual posters and now the bans roll out quicker. Some posters are also not taking the rule change very well so I wouldn't blame everything on staff. Maybe we can all work together a little better?
Starlight Lotice
Member
The only Gaming Politics GAF should accept is the "Fun Factor" and "Experiences".
Nintendo and SEGA being far "Fun Factor" with Arcade and replayable family games and Microsoft and Sony being "Experiences" with their Cinematics and Hollywood Stories. (of course making a joke about how Games should have a different Politics to the real life stuff)
You are probably right though, the ones who decided to leave probably didn't care much about the Gaming Community in the first place. (Which is what GAF stands for)
Why leave if the new Generation is coming out with new games?
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TheContact
Member
i'm pretty sure they did aside from the few that strictly posted in politics. a lot of them stuck around after the schism because they didn't care for the radical left moderation on the other site, but while the moderation there is radical, a lot of moderates, progressives, and also liberals went there instead while the rest stayed here. that left only some moderates and progressives, but mostly conservatives and this became a gaming haven for them (at least from the perspective that politics trickles down into gaming). the same people that complained about abbys appearance are sometimes in the same mindset as the people who get banned for not following the new politics guidelines. i think they saw the writing on the wall with what happened to the clown world thread, which really turned into a regressive thread because people couldn't just talk about the wacky shit that happens in the world without manifesting hatred on other people, and whatever happened to the GB thread, yet they still stuck around. Once the capital riot happened and some of them had to reconcile ("are we (also) the baddies"?)) their rhetoric, i think the massive cognitive dissonance required to justify their actions just broke some people and they couldn't take it. Others left just because they didn't agree with the policy which i respect more than people account suicideing because they feel like their 1a is being taken away
Moogle11
Banned
Yeah, I've never gotten those types. I get having a catch all hobbyist forum that's ALSO your outlet for talking news, politics and random shit besides the hobby in the off topic sections. I still do some of that (no politics really though) and spent too much time on the politics forum on another game forum a decade plus ago. But definitely weird to go to a hobbyist forum and ONLY participate in a politics sub, or even only the offtopic sub. There's generally better and more active forums, Reddits etc. for that kind of thing. To each their own though. Nothing wrong with it, just odd to come to/stick around on a hobby forum if you have no interest in discussing the hobby.
Starlight Lotice
Member
I saw it all come down to that Capitol Riots Thread and whether they agreed to the new rules or not, but from what I recall from before I took a break, some were trying to push their Political Agenda down others throats in other threads months before and using Post History leverage to question those who have a different opinion (since it did actually happen to me).
The Clown Thread I felt sometimes did go too far with posting uncomfortable stuff (nothing to laugh at stuff) but I wouldn't personally have banned that thread myself, but can understand why it may have had to be quelled by the mods. (I just decided to stay away from that thread myself)
Some members obviously felt that was taking away their liberties and left quietly, which should be respected...although leaving because of some of those changes is weird given GAF is a gaming forum and most people join to talk about games.
The Account Suicides are very strange though.
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ThatGamingDude
I am a virgin
And would go into your post history and give you shit for not posting in /gaf/pol/
It was just strange that people would goad you for not talking about or being interested in a topic
I just feel a lot of people that left were just looking for a fight because [insert reason here]
EDIT: That and this idea of a "Class of member," kinda shit; that for some specific reason another member is better than another. You're always gonna have new members and older members, and people who put in more effort and less effort, so I just don't get the connection other than them trying to sort the data of their social structure and for some reason place themselves as "Superior."
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Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
I don't like to do internet mind reading, but this is probably a decent portion of it. It follows the same psychological playbook of meltdowns as previous reee types, but for different reasons.
It's always jarring when one thinks one's own shit don't stink, and then realizing that yes, it does stink too.
Moogle11
Banned
Well said. Honestly, the amount of people on forums, social media etc. that are just looking for a fight has been a big issue with online discourse since the IRC and newsgroups days. It's just an arena that attracts people who love to argue and belittle people with different views and opinions, trolls who get a kick out of pissing others off etc.
Definitely a lot of gatekeeping (or attempted gate keeping since that shit doesn't fly here and Evilore and mods thankfully run the show and not the lunatics running the asylum like some other places). A lot of the most actively hostile people on forums probably don't have much going on socially in the real world (given they seem to be miserable all the time) so one can see the appeal in trying to feel superior in the virtual space I suppose.
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Halo is Back
Member
ManofOne
Plus Member
Starlight Lotice
Member
Oh it wasn't entirely like that, it was more because I must have touched a nerve on something but it was certainly strange. I only posted in Pol about between 5 to 8 times in my entire GAF history and usually is a personal opinion about stuff (I never attack anyone for their opinion as we are all different!) Either way, I banned myself from Politics as I don't like seeing the Hate usually. Here for Games anyway.
I certainly felt like certain ones wanted to back Mod but at least we got some great Mods here to do that job efficiently to not need that. The ones that stay and talk about Games mostly matter.
Oh, you mean Elitism of Membership? That's an old age problem that I doubt we can eradicate. It's always nice to help new members where possible. Members come and go too, which is where you can sometimes have others forget others because they don't post enough.
DeafTourette
Perpetually Offended
Me too. I hope some of them can come back after some self-reflection. Not everything is a culture war.
Komatsu
Member
That's not necessarily true. Like you, I've been posting on message boards for about two decades and met some of these people IRL and many were perfectly well adjusted adults. One particular UNHINGED troll in an old Total War forum I used to frequent in the 2000s later revealed himself to be a director in one of the oil supermajors, while some of the more serious, reflective types often end up being 17 yo kids. You can't really tell.
There's just something great about talking video games on the internet with people who share your tastes. I always liked message boards for this reason - facebook and the other major social networks are unbearable. My co-workers only play shit like The Division 2 and Ghost Recon. If I want to talk JRPGs or old Saturn exclusives, I gotta come here. Same applies to many others, I'm sure.
S
Sidney Prescott
Unconfirmed Member
Redneckerz
Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
A lot of people attempting to be the next MHK, i suppose.
Too bad you can't replace that what isn't there.
Besides, there are already worthy replacements.
(Also folks don't offer up your account to the altars of NeoGAFia because of politics. Its not like your opinion is going to change the flow of the rivers!)
Too bad you can't replace that what isn't there.
Besides, there are already worthy replacements.
(Also folks don't offer up your account to the altars of NeoGAFia because of politics. Its not like your opinion is going to change the flow of the rivers!)
MeatSafeMurderer
Member
Hey baby, don't be like that.
Halo is Back
Member
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S
Sidney Prescott
Unconfirmed Member
For sure. Melon came across as one of the most thoughtful and kind posters, even going as far as making a Mental Health thread for people to support eachother. Sad to see her go. Hopefully they return when they feel better.
A lot of names that have resonated with me during my short stay requesting bans.
teezzy
Banned
For sure. Melon came across as one of the most thoughtful and kind posters, even going as far as making a Mental Health thread for people to support eachother. Sad to see her go. Hopefully they return when they feel better.
A lot of names that have resonated with me during my short stay requesting bans.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
May they acquire the peace they seek, or achieve singularity nirvana.
Redneckerz
Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
Fuck, seeing Melon leave actually sucks. Are people really so polarized against the new policies that they deem it needed to request a perm over?
Unpopular opinion warning:
Are such people actually scared that their little private room of fun and games (and terror!) wouldn't survive that?
Because if so, then you basically are telling the community that you only were here for the goods, but aren't willing to play ball when the syrup goes sour. Or something.
Basically TLDR: stop leaving over petty things as it means your e-friendships you have made here mean very little in lieu of your own choices.
Unpopular opinion warning:
Are such people actually scared that their little private room of fun and games (and terror!) wouldn't survive that?
Because if so, then you basically are telling the community that you only were here for the goods, but aren't willing to play ball when the syrup goes sour. Or something.
Basically TLDR: stop leaving over petty things as it means your e-friendships you have made here mean very little in lieu of your own choices.
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