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[RiccochetJ]

That name sounds familiar. Was that the person who had a few gun threads or posted in them?

Heh, yea. If I recall, he or she had a small arsenal.

 

[American]

Natalie Portman is one of the most beautiful women in the world. If being attracted to her is a crime then lock me up in Portman Prison, obvs. Also I never actually wanted money from him. He and I can certainly have a conversation about all that silly internet drama ancient history if he's down.

I do like the fact that you are even willing to discuss the possibility of a discussion with him. And you are right, Natalie is pretty stunning.

A few people have mentioned a wholesale un-banning of people, even including those who posted obscenities directed towards you in October. I'd like to give you my 2 cents worth in case you are considering that possibility, which is that you absolutely shouldn't.

My opinion at that time, and right now as well, is that you did nothing wrong whatsoever. Stupid shower incident, horrible misunderstanding, you were probably as drunk as she and you still 100% did the right thing and walked away. The accusation against you was pretty much the least offensive thing I have ever read. People with real-life experience, and not those that live their entire day to day existences on various websites, have been in equally awkward situations. We remember them, we get embarrassed by them, those moments haunt us when we randomly think about them... but we move on quickly because we learn from them.

I, and I am sure other current members, have done things that are infinitely worse and cringeworthy, but we have the benefit of not being public figures like yourself. I for sure have done things that I don't want to even look back on, but am lucky that both myself, and people involved with me, realise that we were both young and misunderstandings can happen because, you know... that's life.

But you didn't deserve to have your forum burned down, minute after minute, hour after hour, and day after day. You provided a home for people. They wilfully and gleefully set fire to it. That's not right and as someone that has both learnt a hell of a lot and discovered a hell of a lot from your members, it was downright depressing. I also miss Astrolad because I love board games.

You know what your real crime was over the past year or so? Bring a negligent landlord. From 2005 to around 2012-13, I'd still see you posting in threads and I had the impression that you had a guiding hand in the direction you wanted your forum to go. The biggest travesty of October 2017 is that people forget how much NeoGAF helped bring a voice to LGBT gamers and the trans community. How tolerant, respectful and loving in general NeoGAF was.

But you started to disappear in the proceeding years, or at least be less visible. Understandable. People, even those who run internet businesses, want to experience and feel the fresh air of the real world. No one in their right mind wants to live on the web. As that happened, though, the shrill voices took over on NeoGAF and became the loudest, and even silenced you, the owner. You housed these tenants in your building, but there were too many of them and they drowned you out as well.

I say... people from past years that you want to unban and extend a hand to... go for it. Let the past be the past. But people that gleefully took part in tearing you down while living in your building for years and years and are unwilling to see how you have changed... quite frankly, fuck them. You don't need them and trust me... these people don't change. Why change for them when they won't change for you and will try their best to create their own echo chamber? Not worth it.

 

[Wheeljack539]

Heh, yea. If I recall, he or she had a small arsenal.

If this is the case then its quite possible that he/she got banned after or during that string of mass shootings and either said something about it or did not want to change their position on guns.

 

[Rentahamster]

The real question is, when is Otrebor Nightmarecoat getting unbanned?

 

[JORMBO]

I do like the fact that you are even willing to discuss the possibility of a discussion with him. And you are right, Natalie is pretty stunning.

A few people have mentioned a wholesale un-banning of people, even including those who posted obscenities directed towards you in October. I'd like to give you my 2 cents worth in case you are considering that possibility, which is that you absolutely shouldn't.

My opinion at that time, and right now as well, is that you did nothing wrong whatsoever. Stupid shower incident, horrible misunderstanding, you were probably as drunk as she and you still 100% did the right thing and walked away. The accusation against you was pretty much the least offensive thing I have ever read. People with real-life experience, and not those that live their entire day to day existences on various websites, have been in equally awkward situations. We remember them, we get embarrassed by them, those moments haunt us when we randomly think about them... but we move on quickly because we learn from them.

I, and I am sure other current members, have done things that are infinitely worse and cringeworthy, but we have the benefit of not being public figures like yourself. I for sure have done things that I don't want to even look back on, but am lucky that both myself, and people involved with me, realise that we were both young and misunderstandings can happen because, you know... that's life.

But you didn't deserve to have your forum burned down, minute after minute, hour after hour, and day after day. You provided a home for people. They wilfully and gleefully set fire to it. That's not right and as someone that has both learnt a hell of a lot and discovered a hell of a lot from your members, it was downright depressing. I also miss Astrolad because I love board games.

You know what your real crime was over the past year or so? Bring a negligent landlord. From 2005 to around 2012-13, I'd still see you posting in threads and I had the impression that you had a guiding hand in the direction you wanted your forum to go. The biggest travesty of October 2017 is that people forget how much NeoGAF helped bring a voice to LGBT gamers and the trans community. How tolerant, respectful and loving in general NeoGAF was.

But you started to disappear in the proceeding years, or at least be less visible. Understandable. People, even those who run internet businesses, want to experience and feel the fresh air of the real world. No one in their right mind wants to live on the web. As that happened, though, the shrill voices took over on NeoGAF and became the loudest, and even silenced you, the owner. You housed these tenants in your building, but there were too many of them and they drowned you out as well.

I say... people from past years that you want to unban and extend a hand to... go for it. Let the past be the past. But people that gleefully took part in tearing you down while living in your building for years and years and are unwilling to see how you have changed... quite frankly, fuck them. You don't need them and trust me... these people don't change. Why change for them when they won't change for you and will try their best to create their own echo chamber? Not worth it.

This is a good post I agree with. I’d rather continue to build the fresher community like we have been. I’d rather not see everyone unbanned. A lot of people deserve to remain banned. I’d rather the people that spammed porn images (or whatever) back in October not come back.

 

[davepoobond]

I'd be willing. As soon as he apologizes for that post where he insinuated that Hitokage (RIP) had Down's Syndrome. I had a MAF t-shirt that I wore regularly! MAF was the dude who made me a GAF admin, even though he was trolling haha. But my ex-gfs end up taking all my NeoGAF tees. :| Speaking of, our current awesome moderators have asked me about the status of neogaf tees and I'm working on relaunching those through a better distributor than our old one. I don't care if no one else wants any! I don't have any neogaf tees left anymore and there's one professional design I commissioned that I never even got to publish. Hrmph. Will be relaunched and sold at-cost as before and integrated into our upcoming 2.1 design relaunch.

sweet. the last set of t-shirts i bought all get holes in them in random places, so I was sort of disappointed with the build quality. I did wear them a lot and am still wearing a few of them regularly, so I got my money's worth out of them. would definitely get new ones.

 

[Captain Zyrain]

This is a good post I agree with. I’d rather continue to build the fresher community like we have been. I’d rather not see everyone unbanned. A lot of people deserve to remain banned. I’d rather the people that spammed porn images (or whatever) back in October not come back.

I think as long as there exists an outlet for said people to petition their bans, or have them re-looked at, I think it's fine.

I would guess a lot of them would be removed with an apology or acknowledgement of being stupid (guessing).

 

[Corrik]

A few people have mentioned a wholesale un-banning of people, even including those who posted obscenities directed towards you in October. I'd like to give you my 2 cents worth in case you are considering that possibility, which is that you absolutely shouldn't.

What better way to be the bigger person? And, also, a lot of people probably said things with faulty information, in the heat of the moment, and so on.

People make mistakes. Surely everyone here has made them. Is evilore's skin so thin that he can't understand that and forgive and give another chance if they wish for it?

Sometimes being the better person goes a long way in proving your worth.

You can always reban if they use that gesture of good will wrongly. And then there is no excuse or debate or what ifs in regards to it.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Found it lol

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/ban-age-unwritten-rules-of-neogaf.381926/page-16#post-18876752


The OP of that thread is actually a pretty good snapshot in time of what the "rules" were like back then.

I remember this tread.

Taught me a lot of the "unwritten rules" of GAF.

Stuff like not posting magazine scans, don't talk about using ad-blocker while on GAF. Don't fat shame. Not sure if slut shaming was illegal yet....

Blackace, Shouta, duckroll, Red Scarlet all mods/admins.

Hell, this thread predated Stumpokapow and Mumei!

Also *giggles*

AND THAT'S NOT EVEN THE BEST PART!

That's why forums should have "Like" or "+1" buttons for posts. That way you can achieve the same thing but not take up extra space on the page. It would make reading through threads that much easier.

I've actually been thinking this would be a really cool addition to the forums. Maybe.

Hell no

 

[Liberty4all]

Found it lol

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/ban-age-unwritten-rules-of-neogaf.381926/page-16#post-18876752


The OP of that thread is actually a pretty good snapshot in time of what the "rules" were like back then.

Note that not ONE rule in the OP has anything to do with identity, race, gender, politics or ANY of the myriad of bannable reasons that came to be after around 2011. That in itself is telling of the drastic shift that came down the road.

Most of the rules in that OP amounted to “don’t be a troll”.

Pre 2011, (it seemed to me) that moderation boiled down to banning trolls for the most part. The board culture was such that trolls were spotted out quickly and dealt with in often humourous ways. The social justice crap that later infected the board took over everything, from moderation, to discussion .... it got to the point you couldn’t even ignore OT and OT Communities as they spewed out ideological politics into all aspects of Gaming side. Many a poster who had ignored and never interacted with OT found himself on the end of a ban stick for stepping on one of the MANY SJW landmines.

 

[Shouta]

Found it lol

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/ban-age-unwritten-rules-of-neogaf.381926/page-16#post-18876752


The OP of that thread is actually a pretty good snapshot in time of what the "rules" were like back then.

I didn't remember this thread until I came upon the entire tangent about my avatar. I remember that. I still don't understand how anyone could see crossed arms in it.

 

[Schattenjäger]

Tyler, thanks for reviewing my ban.

I'm gonna speak on this because I've been away for awhile. I'm sure it's been discussed to death, but I'd like to get it off my chest.

ResetERA resembles the absolute worst aspect of GAF's history, magnified, and blown completely out of proportion. You may think that October was the mass exodus of much of GAF's talent and allure, but I assure you, those people had quietly been swept out one at a time over the course of a decade. Interesting posters who created a lot of OC on the forums, as well as prominent game developers of all stripes, all removed slowly over time until it really accelerated around the election (for reasons most are aware of by now and I will refrain from getting into). I could sit here and rattle off names for the next two hours that almost everyone would remember fondly, but were banned or compelled to leave LONG before the election madness pushed this to critical mass.

When I first signed up, many moons ago and after a long period of lurking, GAF was a very different place. People were expected to learn the forum culture, Juniors were put in their place, and no one cried foul if you rustled their jimmies a little. Ideas could flourish and dissent was welcomed. Avatar quotes weren't taboo and usually hilarious. The sense of community was tremendous, and you felt like you were a part of something big. There were no protected classes or identity politics. There were no banned games. There were no topics beyond reproach. Still, somehow, people got along and mostly conducted themselves respectfully. Shocking, I know.

Over the course of my tenure here, a contingent of people slowly rotted GAF from the inside out. They pruned the best of the best posters, one-by-one, under the auspices of faulty morality or sometimes just by being vindictive and power-hungry. Whether they realized it at the time or not, they were killing the forum's culture. They succeeded in forming an echo chamber that would inevitably collapse in on it's self like a dying star, only to then reconstruct an ersatz GAF once they finally sabotaged it. Many who tried to warn of this very thing happening were dogpiled and banned where they stood, the hill they chose to die on so to speak. If you want to know what the outcome of ERA is going to be, look no further than 10/24/17. Purity spirals and thought police will once again weed out the interesting individualistic posters until all that's left is an echo chamber, only this time they don't have to infiltrate a site slowly over time, they get to be there from the very foundation.

The best thing we could do here is extend a hand of forgiveness to each person that gets pruned out of ERA for disagreeing with the mob. I think everyone should get one more chance, regardless of how shitty they went about their account suicide. Plenty of people will come to realize they backed the wrong horse when they are kicked off a gaming forum for not kowtowing to Orwellian group-think.

If authoritarian ban policies are an inevitable disaster, then why don't we institute the exact opposite policy? I would personally just clear out all the bans in the entire history of the site and allow people to come back at their will. I'm sure plenty would use that opportunity to hurl insults and suicide again, but in doing so will expose themselves and at least we will have taken the high road. I'm sure this will be a contentious idea, but here on Neo-NeoGAF I shouldn't worry about contentious ideas getting me permanently banned. Just tell me if you think it's a shit idea or not and we can talk about it.

The most important lesson to learn here is that you can co-exist with people who don't agree with you about everything, especially online. You can have disagreements respectfully, without running to a compromised mod to sort things out for you (ban people). It is through dialectic discourse that we can learn truth, but first you have to accept that you don't already know everything.

That's just my 2 doge coins on the matter. I personally never signed up at ERA.

Also, can we get the classic smileys back? :lol

Natalie Portman is one of the most beautiful women in the world. If being attracted to her is a crime then lock me up in Portman Prison, obvs. Also I never actually wanted money from him. He and I can certainly have a conversation about all that silly internet drama ancient history if he's down.

Wow great post !

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Note that not ONE rule in the OP has anything to do with identity, race, gender, politics or ANY of the myriad of bannable reasons that came to be after around 2011. That in itself is telling of the drastic shift that came down the road.

Most of the rules in that OP amounted to “don’t be a troll”.

Pre 2011, (it seemed to me) that moderation boiled down to banning trolls for the most part. The board culture was such that trolls were spotted out quickly and dealt with in often humourous ways. The social justice crap that later infected the board took over everything, from moderation, to discussion .... it got to the point you couldn’t even ignore OT and OT Communities as they spewed out ideological politics into all aspects of Gaming side. Many a poster who had ignored and never interacted with OT found himself on the end of a ban stick for stepping on one of the MANY SJW landmines.

Nah, people were still getting banned in 2010 for so-called "SJW" reasons.

 

[dolabla]

Note that not ONE rule in the OP has anything to do with identity, race, gender, politics or ANY of the myriad of bannable reasons that came to be after around 2011. That in itself is telling of the drastic shift that came down the road.

Most of the rules in that OP amounted to “don’t be a troll”.

Pre 2011, (it seemed to me) that moderation boiled down to banning trolls for the most part. The board culture was such that trolls were spotted out quickly and dealt with in often humourous ways. The social justice crap that later infected the board took over everything, from moderation, to discussion .... it got to the point you couldn’t even ignore OT and OT Communities as they spewed out ideological politics into all aspects of Gaming side. Many a poster who had ignored and never interacted with OT found himself on the end of a ban stick for stepping on one of the MANY SJW landmines.

Yep.

It's weird how this place became a hardcore SJW haven one day some years ago. I'm not sure if we'll ever know exactly how/when it happened, but it built up into a major ticking time bomb. I don't think there was really any way to fix it except to set it off and force an exodus.

 

[Papa]

Natalie Portman is one of the most beautiful women in the world. If being attracted to her is a crime then lock me up in Portman Prison, obvs. Also I never actually wanted money from him. He and I can certainly have a conversation about all that silly internet drama ancient history if he's down.

I will never understand the Portman obsession. Also surprised she hasn’t metooed Luc Besson yet.

 

[I'm new be nice]

Yep.

It's weird how this place became a hardcore SJW haven one day some years ago. I'm not sure if we'll ever know exactly how/when it happened, but it built up into a major ticking time bomb. I don't think there was really any way to fix it except to set it off and force an exodus.

It wasn't just this place, it was society in general.

It is just the nature of things. All things must swing. One era calls for Conservatism and closed borders, another for Liberalism and open arms, neither is right or wrong.

The real question, in my mind, is how much of a hipster are you? Do you ride the tide, trail behind it, or swim ahead?

 

[Dunki]

When I got banned I never ever have gotten a reason for it. The message only said "HAHAHAHAHAH No". and it was to a time in which I argued that there are physical differences between men and women. There was not even a note where i could ask about my ban. But I am glad it opened up a lot

Thanks Evillore

 

[The Elite]

I don't know what got SmokyDave banned but that guy was awesome. I'm not sure if it happened during banfest though.

 

[Andyliini]

I admit I joined pretty late, in Fall of 2015. And even then I posted pretty much exclusively in gaming-side, so I was pretty much pretty much oblivious to what was happening around. Only after October 2017 I have been visiting off-topic too.

This thread has been an interesting read, almost like a history book or something. Glad to see some more users and traffic returning also.

Because I was only reading Gaming, theres not many occasions I saw unjust banning happening. The only time I felt that happened was when Satoru Iwata died, and people were banned for asking a tribute. I don't think it ever happened either.

 

[SatansReverence]

I still have no idea why my boy Seance was banned but it was long before election and showergate but was well into echochamber era gaf. Not sure if it's worth looking into.

 

[Uhtred]

Good stuff, appreciate the communication.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

I don't know what got SmokyDave banned but that guy was awesome. I'm not sure if it happened during banfest though.

That was the NBA-GAF purge. Ppl were getting personal with the barber shop sports talk and insults.

He's on Salient now.

 

[pr0cs]

Something I was curious about, was there any actual Sony or anti-Xbox bias in any of these banning sprees during this time? "SonyGAF" was always bandied about as a thing, but I don't know how much it really was.

It was, it's not as bad now thankfully. Bish was very pro Sony. I have been banned here a number of times, by him, for specifically criticizing pro Sony posts. I had updated my info with some of the stupid "reasons" but I think that info was lost in the shuffle

 

[Redneckerz]

You seem like an alright and very friendly, nice guy

Thank you for the (undeserved?) compliment. I want it on the record that i can be quite annoying also with multiple quotes.
I do find it funny that one user already felt like i was TheLastWord - Funny, because in the early days of ERA i was also called like this, to the point that i wrote in my bio on ERA: ''Not TheLastWord.''

It's been heartening to see the uptick in activity and users, and make no mistake old usernames are recognised and respected for previous contributions. Likewise some other posters (@Kadayi, @Claus Grimhildyr , Redneckerz @IbizaPocholo , @GoldenEye98 Corrik and too many others to namedrop), have started out on very good footings and show that there are enough level headed people that do just want to talk about video games and chew the fat over other topics without a huge personal investment or crusader label.

Thanks for the tag Bill. I am glad that the focus is on undo the mishaps of the past, and learning from it. This is how moderators and members should present themselves. And how GAF should present itself: As a nice online cafetaria where we will be served multiple courses of good posts, worthy discussion with an occassional joke or critique as desert (in its own thread, lol)

EviLore on the topic of permbans, i remember a system that could be beneficial for GAF aswell: When one is Permed (for whatever reason, but usually for a severe mishap), there should be an option to have such a user make a unban request, after atleast a year. This should be done by email, and such a user should motivate why they feel can be allowed back on GAF and if they understood why they were banned back then.

This system takes into account that people change over time, and it would also make it so that a perm isnt a indefinite sentence. This moderation idea stems from the techsite tweakers.net (Where sadly i got banned, but thats a different story), where anyone could make such an unban request after a minimum of 1 year since the permban was given.

Perhaps this is an idea for GAF also?

 

[12Goblins]

"No handwaving today." Lmao. I guess now I know who banned me for 0 reason

 

[EviLore]

Thank you for the (undeserved?) compliment. I want it on the record that i can be quite annoying also with multiple quotes.
I do find it funny that one user already felt like i was TheLastWord - Funny, because in the early days of ERA i was also called like this, to the point that i wrote in my bio on ERA: ''Not TheLastWord.''


Thanks for the tag Bill. I am glad that the focus is on undo the mishaps of the past, and learning from it. This is how moderators and members should present themselves. And how GAF should present itself: As a nice online cafetaria where we will be served multiple courses of good posts, worthy discussion with an occassional joke or critique as desert (in its own thread, lol)

EviLore on the topic of permbans, i remember a system that could be beneficial for GAF aswell: When one is Permed (for whatever reason, but usually for a severe mishap), there should be an option to have such a user make a unban request, after atleast a year. This should be done by email, and such a user should motivate why they feel can be allowed back on GAF and if they understood why they were banned back then.

This system takes into account that people change over time, and it would also make it so that a perm isnt a indefinite sentence. This moderation idea stems from the techsite tweakers.net (Where sadly i got banned, but thats a different story), where anyone could make such an unban request after a minimum of 1 year since the permban was given.

Perhaps this is an idea for GAF also?

I think we can probably implement this on a technical level and involve the mod team in some sort of consensus feedback/voting mechanism that I can oversee, potentially. It'll be significant custom work to implement and not something we can get to right away with all the other concurrent projects right now but I will add it to the whiteboard. Good idea and thanks.

 

[Transhuman]

SmokeyDave needs an unban so he can access some of the dickpics in his inbox.

Do it for love <3

 

[Redneckerz]

I think we can probably implement this on a technical level and involve the mod team in some sort of consensus feedback/voting mechanism that I can oversee, potentially. It'll be significant custom work to implement and not something we can get to right away with all the other concurrent projects right now but I will add it to the whiteboard. Good idea and thanks.

The way it worked on Tweakers, was through a seperate mail account (translated it was called Negoiator at Tweakers). Ofcourse, this will require that a moderator handles this request and then passes it along the staff and vote in a democratic matter. Its why the message i recieved earlier this week made mention that ''it may take some time.''

I think such a system will help clarify for all this that are permbanned and its an additional layer of transparency. The setback is, obviously, what you have mentioned - It requires some setting up to do.

Also, i should note: How the system works is that whenever you make a request and it is denied, the permban is extended with atleast a year. So its a bit like a US Parole system or so, but ofcourse you can limit how often someone can make a re-appeal. On that bit i don't know how often Tweakers allows this, but i think you can do this quite often. It makes sense since each denied reappeal extends a permban with atleast a year, so its not like you can make appeals on a weekly basis - All that does is extend your ban with a week on top of default 1 year extension.

Thanks for the addition by the way Mr Malka.

PS: I have more ideas, but i am not sure where i should drop these. If there is a dedicated thread or a seperate email for these, ill gladly send a message there

 

[American]

Oooh, so this is interesting. dolabla posted this in the other ResetERA thread in Off Topic Community, which in turn was originally posted on Kiwifarms. It's from the guy who created the ResetERA ban bot on GitHUB. The exact post is this one. They originally filed a copyright notice against him, saying his ban aggregator infringes on their copyright(!) and his bot removed. He's rehosted it though and it's back up on GitHub again. He was able to compile a bunch of statistics on Ree.

The main things of note here are (and I quote):

"While they've maintained some pretty steady userbasing and traffic, this is a mere shred of the traffic they had when ResetERA got started. At current, the site's traffic and income is about one quarter what it was in October 2017. The actual consistent traffic fluctuates, but generally is about 20-40% of that number. As of July 4th, 2018, they have fewer hits per page than they ever have."

"Critically, Alexa's date shows that they bleed about 1500 users a month, presumably divided between banhammer recipients, dead accounts getting removed from the calculations, and so on. The account fluctuation seems to be coming from how well they're able to offset the bleed or not at the end of a given month"

"Fittingly, the site's reach is in a free-fall plummet and is currently in the midst of an all-time low"

"This is despite a significant increase in ranking in search results due to them being piped by friendly sites (Siliconera, Destructoid, Kotaku, etc). Over 70% of the traffic to ResetEra is via such piping (direct links on other sites), with Social Media accounting for less than 7% of its traffic and affiliate links barely over 2%. Somehow this has resulted in there being substantially more pageviews, but less pageviews per user. Predictably the time range for users on the site is also fucking awful."

Looks like the revolution has somewhat failed miserably.

 

[EviLore]

SmokeyDave needs an unban so he can access some of the dickpics in his inbox.

Do it for love <3

I <3 smokydave tbh. Some folks had this intense hate boner for him in the mod team for some reason. I kinda wanted to make him a mod lol.

He's been visiting recently. It'd be great to have him back.

...oh, of course __________ permed him. This guy is turning out to be some weirdo pathological liar/bullshitter with all his bans. Further investigation required but everything has been consistent with that. Internet crazies. :| "It seems that &quot;Slave Tetris&quot; will be your Waterloo. (European history, lol!)" Okay....


S SmokyDave freed. Sorry dude. Let's hit the peace pipe sometime.

 

[Days like these...]

One of the reasons why I wasn't more vocal in poli gaf was cause being a Bernie supporter could likely get you banned. Seems like all the hardcore Bernie haters migrated good riddance.

 

[EviLore]

One of the reasons why I wasn't more vocal in poli gaf was cause being a Bernie supporter could likely get you banned. Seems like all the hardcore Bernie haters migrated good riddance.

Sorry dude. That was not cool at all. I was literally a Bernie supporter in the primaries vs Hillary but I wasn't paying enough attention to what was going on with a handful of moderators who had agendas, since a lot of it was centered around the PoliGAF subcommunity thread. Their bans shaped the discourse here to tragicaly unhealthy degrees.

Bernie's policies may not be actionable on a federal level realistically but he cares about working class people (of all backgrounds and skin colors; #jewish), which is a lot more than what can be said about Hillary and her daily $10k/plate fundraising galas. Anyway that's for another discussion, but our current mods are level-headed folks without that kind of political agenda.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Wow. SmokeyDave is back in town? Interest meter is at a critical.

 

[Liberty4all]

I don't know what got SmokyDave banned but that guy was awesome. I'm not sure if it happened during banfest though.

I was super bummed out when smokeydave got banned. It was like really? The guy was a GAF staple and permad? I never did find out why but assumed it was more stupid wrong think purging of the members that made the site great.

 

[SmokyDave]

Man, the buttons all moved. I’m going to need a handbook or something.

I appreciate the unbanning, although at the time being banned was the best outcome for me. I was just bare cranky and I couldn’t be arsed to channel it constructively any more. I’d have got got sooner or later because I wasn’t about to cheer up with how things were going here.

Still, that was then. As for now, I don’t really ‘forum’ much, so I guess I’ll poke around here and see if there are any low-hanging tit jokes for me to grab, and then see how things go. I’m kinda baffled that people still remember me, much less want to willingly read more of my words!

Now, where’s the fucking handbook?...

 

[EviLore]

Man, the buttons all moved. I’m going to need a handbook or something.

I appreciate the unbanning, although at the time being banned was the best outcome for me. I was just bare cranky and I couldn’t be arsed to channel it constructively any more. I’d have got got sooner or later because I wasn’t about to cheer up with how things were going here.

Still, that was then. As for now, I don’t really ‘forum’ much, so I guess I’ll poke around here and see if there are any low-hanging tit jokes for me to grab, and then see how things go. I’m kinda baffled that people still remember me, much less want to willingly read more of my words!

Now, where’s the fucking handbook?...

You made the right move tbh to step away from foruming at the time. I was doing this shit as a profession and the only thing keeping me here around the time you got permed was personal responsibility to the overall community. Everything was so hostile and reductive and "us vs them." That's not how I view the world.

Poke around, do your thing. You'd be surprised. Everyone on GAF thought you were cool except for a few anal retentives. As far as the handbook, hah, PM me if you're not sure what will fly or not. By the end of the month there should be some user-friendly stuff in place to help figure out how everything works. I just ran everything by our current mod team and they're like "SMOKYDAVE!!!!" Welcome back, bud.

 

[The Elite]

Smoky definitely would do some tongue-in-cheek trolling to get a rise out of people but nothing I would expect him to ever get permed for.

Edit: And he's back now.

 

[Tornado Condor]

ghtmarecoat getting unba

When I got banned I never ever have gotten a reason for it. The message only said "HAHAHAHAHAH No". and it was to a time in which I argued that there are physical differences between men and women. There was not even a note where i could ask about my ban. But I am glad it opened up a lot

Thanks Evillore

That's your fault for thinking men and women are biologically different. Serves you right. /s

 

[Mochilador]

SmokyDave is back!

 

[SmokyDave]

You made the right move tbh to step away from foruming at the time. I was doing this shit as a profession and the only thing keeping me here around the time you got permed was personal responsibility to the overall community. Everything was so hostile and reductive and "us vs them." That's not how I view the world.

Poke around, do your thing. You'd be surprised. Everyone on GAF thought you were cool except for a few anal retentives. As far as the handbook, hah, PM me if you're not sure what will fly or not. By the end of the month there should be some user-friendly stuff in place to help figure out how everything works. I just ran everything by our current mod team and they're like "SMOKYDAVE!!!!" Welcome back, bud.

Heh, no worries man.

I’m not worried about how to comport myself, it’s all this crazy multi-quoting-dragging-rearranging-notifying functionality that has appeared. I’m sure it’s all good stuff, I just got phased trying to choose which reply button to hit.

I just got a load of achievements. I’d better be able to trade the points for a gamer pic.

SmokyDave is back!

In a haggered and shambling form, yeah

Edit: well look at that shit, the little smiley dude is back! Now THAT is news.

 

[American]

Evilore, there's this twat called nudemacusers who keeps begging to be unbanned.

Who is he and why was he banned? And is he gonna stay banned?

 

[Papa]

Oooh, so this is interesting. dolabla posted this in the other ResetERA thread in Off Topic Community, which in turn was originally posted on Kiwifarms. It's from the guy who created the ResetERA ban bot on GitHUB. The exact post is this one. They originally filed a copyright notice against him, saying his ban aggregator infringes on their copyright(!) and his bot removed. He's rehosted it though and it's back up on GitHub again. He was able to compile a bunch of statistics on Ree.

The main things of note here are (and I quote):

"While they've maintained some pretty steady userbasing and traffic, this is a mere shred of the traffic they had when ResetERA got started. At current, the site's traffic and income is about one quarter what it was in October 2017. The actual consistent traffic fluctuates, but generally is about 20-40% of that number. As of July 4th, 2018, they have fewer hits per page than they ever have."

"Critically, Alexa's date shows that they bleed about 1500 users a month, presumably divided between banhammer recipients, dead accounts getting removed from the calculations, and so on. The account fluctuation seems to be coming from how well they're able to offset the bleed or not at the end of a given month"

"Fittingly, the site's reach is in a free-fall plummet and is currently in the midst of an all-time low"

"This is despite a significant increase in ranking in search results due to them being piped by friendly sites (Siliconera, Destructoid, Kotaku, etc). Over 70% of the traffic to ResetEra is via such piping (direct links on other sites), with Social Media accounting for less than 7% of its traffic and affiliate links barely over 2%. Somehow this has resulted in there being substantially more pageviews, but less pageviews per user. Predictably the time range for users on the site is also fucking awful."

Looks like the revolution has somewhat failed miserably.

We predicted it would go the way of Animal Farm so no big surprise here.

 

[AquaticSquirrel]

S SmokyDave welcome back man! Good to have you back!

I was always more of a lurker but generally always enjoyed your posts and honesty. I especially liked that you weren't afraid to stand up to the hivemind and Devolutions of the world.

Fantastic to have you back, you'd be surprised but you were more popular than you thought!

I can also understand stepping away from forums to concentrate on real life so I get you completely.

Hopefully you will have time to post when you can and join in on discussions.

 

[Jesus Carbomb]

Let me know when Denis Duckfat makes his return.

 

[American]

We predicted it would go the way of Animal Farm so no big surprise here.

Hahaha, perfect comparison

 

[Liberty4all]

Heh, no worries man.

I’m not worried about how to comport myself, it’s all this crazy multi-quoting-dragging-rearranging-notifying functionality that has appeared. I’m sure it’s all good stuff, I just got phased trying to choose which reply button to hit.

I just got a load of achievements. I’d better be able to trade the points for a gamer pic.


In a haggered and shambling form, yeah

Edit: well look at that shit, the little smiley dude is back! Now THAT is news.

Glad u are back smokey. I was Bamelin before my ban.

 

[riskVSreward]

Found it lol

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/ban-age-unwritten-rules-of-neogaf.381926/page-16#post-18876752


The OP of that thread is actually a pretty good snapshot in time of what the "rules" were like back then.

Ok so I found a post I made in this thread if you scroll up a bit and it triggered a memory that is now having me laughing.

I was poking fun at all the people account suiciding in real time (immature, sure, it was a weird night) and I may have revealed a bit about my subconscious mind...

I think I subconsciously referenced this post from 8 years ago.

EDIT: Welcome back to SmokyDave!

 

[Liberty4all]

Ok so I found a post I made in this thread if you scroll up a bit and it triggered a memory that is now having me laughing.

I was poking fun at all the people account suiciding in real time (immature, sure, it was a weird night) and I may have revealed a bit about my subconscious mind...

I think I subconsciously referenced this post from 8 years ago.

EDIT: Welcome back to SmokyDave!

You should make a thread about that. Been awhile since we had an epic thread. Lol

 

[EviLore]

Battersea Power Station was among the people inadvertently permed during the vb3-->xf2 migration (as per what was mentioned earlier in this thread). Battersea was serving a self-requested tempban too. Sorry for the trouble and I'll get in contact with the other users affected by that glitch as well. Welcome back!

 

[The Elite]

I keep seeing this when I read the thread title: