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[oagboghi2]

It's fairly balanced but theres definitely some fringe conservatives, especially in OT. I can't count the number of threads Dev1 created that linked directly to conspiracy websites over and over again in relation to the Russia investigation.

A thread about a conspiracy theory may contain links to conspiracy websites. What a shock

 

[oagboghi2]

I didn't say Africans don't use money, I said the majority don't focus on wealth collection in comparison to the US. For many these opportunities don't exist in the same way they do in the US because the US has shit tons of systems designed for wealth accrual, ie property ownership, stock markets, bonds/CDs/etc, inflation controls, interest controls, retirement plans. Many of these things just don't exist in most parts of Africa in any meaningful way, and in some countries the violence gets so bad one has to focus upon survival rather than your interest portfolio. Apart from that there is still a small population of hunter-gatherers but many in rural areas still use bartering systems. And those who don't often end up working in occupations where wealth accrual simply isn't possible due to low wages. Let's not pretend all, or even half, of Africa is just like the USA. (Last post on this swear to God)

This is complete bullshit. Wealth accumulation is just as prevalent in african culture as any other. There might not be a wall St. but their is still tons of bushiness, tons of investment, and property ownership is hugely important there. That is one of the few ways people gain any money.

Have you ever actually been to Africa?

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

Its all over the place with a bunch of weird people yet they can still post what is on their mind. Mostly unrestricted posting, its way fucking better.

 

[Apdiddy]

When did you last post here?

Back in May, even with E3, gaming threads haven't really changed that much since then.

 

[cryptoadam]

This is complete bullshit. Wealth accumulation is just as prevalent in african culture as any other. There might not be a wall St. but their is still tons of bushiness, tons of investment, and property ownership is hugely important there. That is one of the few ways people gain any money.

Have you ever actually been to Africa?

If 80% of Sub Saharan Africa is somewhat unbanked I think that the poster was on to something.

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/counting-the-worlds-unbanked

Africa/Mideast/Asia account for 1.2 billion people who are unbanked.

Its an issue I think many are trying to tackle, its also a reason why crypto/BTC looks towards Africa as well as a good market.

I won't say who is rich/poor but I think its fair to say infrastructure and instituion need a lot of improvment to get more people banked in Africa, thus taking advantage of more financial products that we in the west have easier access too.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

Wait hol up. How did you guys even get to talking about fucking crypto lol.

 

[Redneckerz]

The OP of this thread, the one always up in arms over "Looking at women as a piece of meat"..

Well, shes an obese A-sexual woman. Willing to bet also unemployed with a number of mental health issues (which is common for the usual Era Pro-User)

Now, would anyone in their right mind take her opinion to be valid? I myself see this as a deep seated inner hate for 'normal' women. Shes projecting.

It's like, the user Kev2grizzy or some shit that post over their.
Always quick to jump to be a 'male feminist'
Kev is an 'Incel' but not 'part of the movement' type. He uses his real pic as a profile pic and clear... Kev isnt knocking the ladies dead with his looks.
He started a thread about Logan Paul dating Chole Bennet and was laughed at.
He displayed classic Incel traits in his posting as a bitter nerd angry that a Chad got his Nerd Stacy.


These people arent normal. But they are great to laugh at and dissect like a science project.

Yeah, this is the kind of post i would very much not appear unless it is with some tact applied to it. Assumptions and commenting on looks.. not a good look. Yikes. Woof. Bark Bark Bark. Is that really the hill you would want to die on? History of similar. And all that more. (I am being half-satrical/half-serious here.)

Ah, the Era discords. I got removed from multiple discords after my permaban. They can't be seen breaking bread with an enemy I guess. Blacklisted.

What i completely didn't get is getting kicked out of the ERA Discord on as little as a fluke (Well, alright..).... only to be banned from the Sony/Nintendo ERA almost 1.5 weeks later.. with no explanation whatsoever and having done nothing to trigger that in any way. I know The Names are present there aswell, but i didn't think that cross-Discord bans were a thing. First time that has ever happened.

By doing so they make it appear that one is completely unreasonable to converse with and thus needs to be banned everywhere they can. That such an assumption typically only leads to more and more people growing wary of the reputation of that place, is, i reckon, something they didn't really think through. Or so i hope.

Better than ResetERA. At least I don't have to worry about getting banned if I post something that may offend someone.

I find this post offensive. /s

Hola. Got a ban at the other place. It's gotten pretty strange there. There's almost zero room for actual discussion or differing opinions. I could literally post that there and I'm fairly certain I would be banned for that as well. It's...an interesting way to run a "forum".

Anyway I'll be posting here more for awhile at least.

Welcome back Hoho. Recently the place really has turned on its Dark Mode, yes. Little Helpers get (very obvious) protection by The Names, its almost like they aren't hiding it anymore. Its gotten so bad lately that Little Helpers aren't even actually addressing posts anymore, but are just purely fishing to get other people banned. Is that really what one wants, just so you can say that atleast this place respects all groups in your mind? Such a damn shame that so much negativity, condescend and toxicity comes out of that place, and there are various users geniunely thinking that policy should be reinforced even more. Its some kind of gender diverse kind of Utopia.

 

[Lightsbane]

I didn't say Africans don't use money, I said the majority don't focus on wealth collection in comparison to the US.

I find it a bit funny reading this, when it's a whole bunch of Africans (mostly from Angola) who come to Portugal and buy essentially all the stuff we can't afford.

Everything from luxury cars to vintage wines. Designer clothes, watches, jewelry... you name it. We have an entire avenue that essentially survives by feeding off of them.

 

[James T. Kirk]

Yeah, this is the kind of post i would very much not appear unless it is with some tact applied to it. Assumptions and commenting on looks.. not a good look. Yikes. Woof. Bark Bark Bark. Is that really the hill you would want to die on? History of similar. And all that more. (I am being half-satrical/half-serious here.)


What i completely didn't get is getting kicked out of the ERA Discord on as little as a fluke (Well, alright..).... only to be banned from the Sony/Nintendo ERA almost 1.5 weeks later.. with no explanation whatsoever and having done nothing to trigger that in any way. I know The Names are present there aswell, but i didn't think that cross-Discord bans were a thing. First time that has ever happened.

By doing so they make it appear that one is completely unreasonable to converse with and thus needs to be banned everywhere they can. That such an assumption typically only leads to more and more people growing wary of the reputation of that place, is, i reckon, something they didn't really think through. Or so i hope.


I find this post offensive. /s


Welcome back Hoho. Recently the place really has turned on its Dark Mode, yes. Little Helpers get (very obvious) protection by The Names, its almost like they aren't hiding it anymore. Its gotten so bad lately that Little Helpers aren't even actually addressing posts anymore, but are just purely fishing to get other people banned. Is that really what one wants, just so you can say that atleast this place respects all groups in your mind? Such a damn shame that so much negativity, condescend and toxicity comes out of that place, and there are various users geniunely thinking that policy should be reinforced even more. Its some kind of gender diverse kind of Utopia.

Is there a NeoGAF Discord?

 

[Do Make Say Think]

I'll settle. Most users here are still either users that stayed here after the schism or (as me) came back after ERA dropped of the cliff. So naturally there is still a lot of political talk and discussions over ERA and stuff. But I'm confident that this will disappear slowly when new users start to outweigh those oldies.

One thing we lost in the great schism was the devs. I hope we can get more serious design talk, that is what I loved about GAF and, IMO, that hasn't come back yet.

 

[Redneckerz]

Is there a NeoGAF Discord?

The crew is looking into various things, that much i do know, amongst other ventures.

 

[Deleted member 752119]

One thing we lost in the great schism was the devs. I hope we can get more serious design talk, that is what I loved about GAF and, IMO, that hasn't come back yet.

I think that's unlikely to ever come back to forums in a big way. Even on Era as active as it is most of the Devs (other than some small indies) rarely post.

Too much has gone poorly for devs in interactions with fans, getting backlash etc. for them to communicate too directly with fans these days. It's safer to just use their company twitter account for PR, post blog features on their own sites, or with the gaming sites that do a lot of puff pieces etc.

 

[GrizzleBoy]

Genuinely feel this place is a disgrace in its current form. Literally an alt right fake news propaganda forum. Just take a look at this thread

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/3-arrested-over-acid-attack-on-three-year-old-boy.1464003/

Hah, that thread was quite the embarrassment. Mostly for how it, and many of its posts just existed like part of the furniture.

Lots of casual "identity politics" in an echo chamber like fashion.

At least it was finally locked. Although if you ask around, I don't know if many of the worst posters in that thread will be able to tell you why.

Apparently it was all just common sense and unfair to call out any of the interesting "ideas" posted.

 

[mustardman]

Hard to say if it's absolutely better or worse but it's definitely a completely new set of problems now. I've been lurking since 2007,reading GAF at least a few times a week and posted on another account I lost account access too in ~2013.

While it's good that there is less of the authoritarian left shutting down conversation, there is definitely a strong radical and irrational right flavor to almost every new topic, and a large number of posts on the topics that should have people concerned about the health of the forum. I've been visiting this forum less and less lately because of this. There is diminishing number of rational voices calling them these alt-right trolls out, and I'm guessing this is because they are experiencing the same burnout of arguing with irrational ideologues that I am.

Many posters are peddling conspiracy theories at an Alex Jones level of lunacy and the amount of poster agreement is terrifyingly high. The radical left are bad sure, but the answer isn't the radical right; its rationalism. Nuanced looks at actual facts and making decisions on a case by case basis. Some of these posters tend to resort to personal attacks and calls for general violence that is worrying, and mods aren't at least warning obvious violations of the forum rules. This isn't conducive to good conversation.

I worry that this forum has become a right wing echo chamber and is becoming less and less the forum I loved with thoughtful discussion on the topics of the day. If we could go back to GAF circa 2010 that would be good.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

I will say this about the Great Schism: I am glad I witnessed it as an observer.

I popped in one day and the forum wouldn't load. When it finally did it took me a good little bit to understand what was going on (I only care about gaming stuff, I have other avenues for my political stuff plus I couldn't sign up with my Gmail account until very recently) and it really felt like a momentous occasion. I live the life of a recluse so all the social issues boiling over like that was just fascinating to observe.

Jordan Peterson would have LOVED it hahaha.

 

[James T. Kirk]

I will say this about the Great Schism: I am glad I witnessed it as an observer.

I popped in one day and the forum wouldn't load. When it finally did it took me a good little bit to understand what was going on (I only care about gaming stuff, I have other avenues for my political stuff plus I couldn't sign up with my Gmail account until very recently) and it really felt like a momentous occasion. I live the life of a recluse so all the social issues boiling over like that was just fascinating to observe.

Jordan Peterson would have LOVED it hahaha.

I thought I'd never be able to join here because of that stupid "only ISP emails" policy.

 

[Deleted member 12837]

Yes, but how many of those posts/posters had any sort of contribution to the threads? The vast majority of them mimicked the most popular opinion such as the ever popular example: "fuck trump".

You realize that there are a plethora of threads that have nothing to do with politics over there, and where the replies aren't just parroting, right?

I would rather have a slower site that focuses on better discussion than one that is fast and has little to no discussion value..

The problem is, without something approaching the userbase size of old GAF or Era, you're only going to ever see that happen in big/popular topics. With limited traffic, you'll never get a good discussion going about niche topics, or in all but the largest community threads.

Very much this. I wasted so much energy getting in heated arguments over politics back on the "Vs." forum on Cheapassgamer back in my 20s and even early 30s.

My politics haven't changed at all, if anything I'm even further left than then. I just realized that's moot, there's going to be people with views I find abhorrent and they just aren't worth wasting time engaging with. That energy is better spent on real life activism, donating to causes I care about, writing my representatives, voting and helping get out the vote on my side and so on. That can make a real difference in getting laws and policies I support enacted. Being a keyboard warrior on a fucking gaming forum is a just a time waster for no lifers (and I was pretty much a no lifer back then).

This is very good advice.

 

[Plague Doctor]

It feels saner here than I last remembered it as in the amount of hot takes and over the top responses are down considerably. (Bear in mind I only do the gaming side of things)

Less stealth corporate weasels too. I like that.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I worry that this forum has become a right wing echo chamber and is becoming less and less the forum I loved with thoughtful discussion on the topics of the day. If we could go back to GAF circa 2010 that would be good.

These fears are brought up constantly on GAF yet I don't see it occurring anywhere on the site.

An echo chamber implies that one flavor of unfounded opinions bounces around without anyone disagreeing or being allowed to disagree. That is demonstrably not the case. Folks disagree with one another all the time, to the point where it leads to heated arguments, accusations, and mods stepping in. Any political thread gets a healthy assortment of very passionate opinions from "both sides" of the discussion, without exception.

Even on the gaming side, I see much more tolerance toward Microsoft and Nintendo. It was commonplace to see Sony and PC gamers pissing all over the other gamers with no consequences a few years ago.

When I see folks "concerned" about NeoGAF "becoming more alt-right" or it becoming "an echo chamber", I consider that a pristine example of "searching for a Devil beneath every rock".

 

[Ke0]

Thread was closed. Welp....

There have been worse threads, way more blatant ones. Which is sad honestly.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

I think people would do well to understand that a few people spewing off does not make the forum.

The whole point of the Great Schism was that NeoGAF was going to allow people to speak their minds. This means that some crack pots will get their time on stage.

 

[Deleted member 752119]

I think people would do well to understand that a few people spewing off does not make the forum.

The whole point of the Great Schism was that NeoGAF was going to allow people to speak their minds. This means that some crack pots will get their time on stage.

Yep. And I tend to find that crackpots are mostly trolls wanting attention. Put the blatant ones on ignore, don't engage with them and they'll go back to fishing for upvote karma on Reddit echo chambers. Things will balance out in time between that and the true trolls showing their asses and getting deserved bans and over time we should see more reasonable/rational posters engaging more.

 

[Dr. Claus]

Hard to say if it's absolutely better or worse but it's definitely a completely new set of problems now. I've been lurking since 2007,reading GAF at least a few times a week and posted on another account I lost account access too in ~2013.

While it's good that there is less of the authoritarian left shutting down conversation, there is definitely a strong radical and irrational right flavor to almost every new topic, and a large number of posts on the topics that should have people concerned about the health of the forum. I've been visiting this forum less and less lately because of this. There is diminishing number of rational voices calling them these alt-right trolls out, and I'm guessing this is because they are experiencing the same burnout of arguing with irrational ideologues that I am.

Many posters are peddling conspiracy theories at an Alex Jones level of lunacy and the amount of poster agreement is terrifyingly high. The radical left are bad sure, but the answer isn't the radical right; its rationalism. Nuanced looks at actual facts and making decisions on a case by case basis. Some of these posters tend to resort to personal attacks and calls for general violence that is worrying, and mods aren't at least warning obvious violations of the forum rules. This isn't conducive to good conversation.

I worry that this forum has become a right wing echo chamber and is becoming less and less the forum I loved with thoughtful discussion on the topics of the day. If we could go back to GAF circa 2010 that would be good.

Given the increasingly absurd amount of posts in regards to this particular topic in the last few days (mostly from posters on the other side), it is becoming clear that people do not understand what "right" means... or they are using "right" in such a disingenuous way to pose that anyone right of them is right-wing/alt-right trolls.

 

[Dr. Claus]

You realize that there are a plethora of threads that have nothing to do with politics over there, and where the replies aren't just parroting, right?

I suggest you re-read what I said. I simply used the "fuck trump" as an example as was highly commonly seen both here before the schism, and there.

The problem is, without something approaching the userbase size of old GAF or Era, you're only going to ever see that happen in big/popular topics. With limited traffic, you'll never get a good discussion going about niche topics, or in all but the largest community threads.

You do not need a large userbase the size of OldGaf or the bleeding-Era to have good discussions on niche topics. You just need to have a handful of people who want to talk about it and/or are interested in discussing it.

 

[petran79]

I applaud the mods of Resetera for putting up with that pressure. I'd do the same if I were in their shoes. They were right to ban me too. Unfortunately as a sociologist I tend to be too argumentative and analytic, without passion or adherence for social theories and movements. This makes forum discussions very difficult on my part and easy to be misunderstood as being disrespectful. Also I am not so well informed about American internet culture and what I should or should not post, so this makes things worse. Text cant be erased and is tone deaf, unlike speech On regular speech I am far milder and less tense than forum speech.To me the most important thing are the invididuals instead of their beliefs or religious views. I held no personal grudges at all.Non-academic forums unfortunately are rarely tolerant for such discussions. Especially Resetera that in many cases is right to be so defensive and sensitive, since a lot of members have witnessed or experienced abuse and discrimination both in games and real life. But it is difficult to adjust there if you come from other forums. But I felt thaf after a while I had nothing to offer or gain to from the forum. Even my posts were not as motivated. I'd have asked for a perma-ban myself probably.

From the moment I saw GAF account suicides with wide ripped open asses pictures moving to Era, I really questioned the motives of some users and had my reservations . I foremost value quality over quantity in gaming forums. I prefer a good thread with 50 post instead of a chaotic thread of 5000 posts where even good answers are buried under driveby posts. I will return to the older international and regional forums, before joining GAF. Users there are closer to my age and way of discussions. Resetera has members where their blood boils. I like it but it is not for me anymore. Lost enough hair already...

 

[James T. Kirk]

I applaud the mods of Resetera for putting up with that pressure. I'd do the same if I were in their shoes. They were right to ban me too. Unfortunately as a sociologist I tend to be too argumentative and analytic, without passion or adherence for social theories and movements. This makes forum discussions very difficult on my part and easy to be misunderstood as being disrespectful. Also I am not so well informed about American internet culture and what I should or should not post, so this makes things worse. Text cant be erased and is tone deaf, unlike speech On regular speech I am far milder and less tense than forum speech.To me the most important thing are the invididuals instead of their beliefs or religious views. I held no personal grudges at all.Non-academic forums unfortunately are rarely tolerant for such discussions. Especially Resetera that in many cases is right to be so defensive and sensitive, since a lot of members have witnessed or experienced abuse and discrimination both in games and real life. But it is difficult to adjust there if you come from other forums. But I felt thaf after a while I had nothing to offer or gain to from the forum. Even my posts were not as motivated. I'd have asked for a perma-ban myself probably.

From the moment I saw GAF account suicides with wide ripped open asses pictures moving to Era, I really questioned the motives of some users and had my reservations . I foremost value quality over quantity in gaming forums. I prefer a good thread with 50 post instead of a chaotic thread of 5000 posts where even good answers are buried under driveby posts. I will return to the older international and regional forums, before joining GAF. Users there are closer to my age and way of discussions. Resetera has members where their blood boils. I like it but it is not for me anymore. Lost enough hair already...

Thanks for that mental image...

 

[Deleted member 752119]

You do not need a large userbase the size of OldGaf or the bleeding-Era to have good discussions on niche topics. You just need to have a handful of people who want to talk about it and/or are interested in discussing it.

Yeah, it doesn't need to be that big, but much bigger than what we have currently. Look at the state of Cheapassgamer.com (outside the deals forum) or the gaming forum areas on Bluray.com as a couple examples of ghost towns with low traffic and even the major games not getting much discussion after a couple of weeks. Or the gaming side here having hardly any game OTs lately period.

That's going to have to pick up--I'd advise EviLore to think about making some himself or having some staff do it for a while--at least for some bigger games no one has stepped up to do--at least for bigger releases. I think they'd generate discussion--it's just that there's too much expectation for having a great OP in a game OT with a lot of info and images etc. The other possible solution is just get get away from that high standard for OTs and be fine with just having OT threads include the basics like price and release date, some review links etc. and not all the images and design that was the norm before. Those may just not take off here since most of those content creator types jumped over to Era.

 

[cryptoadam]

The question is what is this sites identity?

Originally it started as a gaming forum, and was known as a great place to get gaming info. You had press referring to GAF and lots of gamers/developers/industry types would lurk/post/members on GAF.

For now it seems more like the OT is where the action is and OT is generally political. There isn't much talk about non politcial stuff in OT. I use political as a catch all so that would include Trump threads, Sasha Cohen thread, threads about black people getting cops called on them, Israel/Palestine, refugees in Europe threads etc...

And if you are going to be a political thread then its going to lean either left or right because its really hard to attract both sides since generally IMO most people want to be in an echo chamber where their thoughts and beliefs are reinforced.

I appreciate that GAF isn't so quick with the ban hammer and you can have a different POV on here. I have never received any warnings but did get a PM asking me to cool down in a thread. So I can't say if others get that type of warnings over a big advertisement and strike against your name.

 

[Arkage]

Given the increasingly absurd amount of posts in regards to this particular topic in the last few days (mostly from posters on the other side), it is becoming clear that people do not understand what "right" means... or they are using "right" in such a disingenuous way to pose that anyone right of them is right-wing/alt-right trolls.

The political mapping you endorsed says Gary Johnson is the most right, followed by Hillary, followed by Trump, so it's really not clear how you're defining those words to begin with. Your method has no correlation to how contemporary American politics uses the words "right" or "left" nor how the vast majority of people would use those terms in relation to those candidates.

 

[prag16]

I applaud the mods of Resetera for putting up with that pressure.

You do you, but I'm not going to bend over backward praising their staff in any way shape or form. They are, collectively (I say collectively because I'm assuming they may not be 100% assholes and there could maybe be a few exceptions) garbage.

 

[Dr. Claus]

The political mapping you endorsed says Gary Johnson is the most right, followed by Hillary, followed by Trump, so it's really not clear how you're defining those words to begin with. Your method has no correlation to how contemporary American politics uses the words "right" or "left" nor how the vast majority of people would use those terms in relation to those candidates.

What I endorsed? My method? Please do not put words in my mouth, Arkage. Political Compass is not 'my method' nor have I endorsed it as a quality test to gauge the exact political leanings of a person. I treat it like I treat the Meyer-Briggs test or any other of its kind - fun little distractions that can give a very vague/general idea of the person utilizing simple questions.

I have used it as a tongue-in-cheek way to point out to the far-left folk that like to return who claim that everyone are neo-nazi/alt-right folk - but that is not an endorsement as a proper method of analyzing political leanings. Instead, I focus more on what people say in threads, their posts, and how they act when certain information/debate points are brought up. Y'know - treating them like individuals.

However, given that you are someone who claims that Coates and Kasparian as "rational leftists" - I am not surprised you would make such a disingenuous claim as you have. ;D

 

[off duty ninja]

Once a gamer always a gamer......my kids are avid gamers as well...just got to get them to realise there are other games apart from fortnite and roblox

Fucking Roblox!! My daughter spends so much time on that game. lol

Still too much politics on the gaming side but it's more respectful than before.

I would love to see a shift where political gaming threads move to off topic so that the gaming side stays more "fun" oriented. Like if its about a game or studio it should be in gaming but if its about kotaku/polygon articles or Anita Sarkesian it would go in off topic.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

I would love to see a shift where political gaming threads move to off topic so that the gaming side stays more "fun" oriented. Like if its about a game or studio it should be in gaming but if its about kotaku/polygon articles or Anita Sarkesian it would go in off topic.

100% agreed. I was thinking the same thing myself.

Anything meta shouldn't be in the gaming section. That seems rather fair and reasonable.

 

[Arkage]

What I endorsed? My method? Please do not put words in my mouth, Arkage. Political Compass is not 'my method' nor have I endorsed it as a quality test to gauge the exact political leanings of a person. I treat it like I treat the Meyer-Briggs test or any other of its kind - fun little distractions that can give a very vague/general idea of the person utilizing simple questions.

I have used it as a tongue-in-cheek way to point out to the far-left folk that like to return who claim that everyone are neo-nazi/alt-right folk - but that is not an endorsement as a proper method of analyzing political leanings. Instead, I focus more on what people say in threads, their posts, and how they act when certain information/debate points are brought up. Y'know - treating them like individuals.

However, given that you are someone who claims that Coates and Kasparian as "rational leftists" - I am not surprised you would make such a disingenuous claim as you have. ;D

Lol, tongue-in-cheek, of course.

 

[Deleted member 12837]

I suggest you re-read what I said. I simply used the "fuck trump" as an example as was highly commonly seen both here before the schism, and there.

I suggest you re-read what I said. It doesn't change my main point at all: there are a large number of threads that don't exhibit the behavior you described. If you spend all of your time hanging out on the 1st page of OT, though, you might not find them as easily.

You do not need a large userbase the size of OldGaf or the bleeding-Era to have good discussions on niche topics. You just need to have a handful of people who want to talk about it and/or are interested in discussing it.

This is perhaps a personal preference (although I don't think an unreasonable nor a unique one), but I don't find nearly as much enjoyment in a "handful" of people discussing the same topic ad nauseam vs. a slightly core group along with some fresh faces and perspectives that pop in and out. If I wanted a tiny group to chat with, I'd just call up my friends IRL.

Maybe my language of "never" was too strong. I'll amend "you'll never get a good discussion going" to "you're considerably less likely to get a good discussion going".

You're welcome to disagree.

 

[Deleted member 752119]

I would love to see a shift where political gaming threads move to off topic so that the gaming side stays more "fun" oriented. Like if its about a game or studio it should be in gaming but if its about kotaku/polygon articles or Anita Sarkesian it would go in off topic.

100% agreed. I was thinking the same thing myself.

Anything meta shouldn't be in the gaming section. That seems rather fair and reasonable.

Thirded.

Gaming communities is slow as hell too. Merge those threads in with Gaming and put the gaming politics stuff over here (or in a new politics subarea).

 

[Phoenix RISING]

I applaud the mods of Resetera for putting up with that pressure. I'd do the same if I were in their shoes. They were right to ban me too. Unfortunately as a sociologist I tend to be too argumentative and analytic, without passion or adherence for social theories and movements. This makes forum discussions very difficult on my part and easy to be misunderstood as being disrespectful. Also I am not so well informed about American internet culture and what I should or should not post, so this makes things worse. Text cant be erased and is tone deaf, unlike speech On regular speech I am far milder and less tense than forum speech.To me the most important thing are the invididuals instead of their beliefs or religious views. I held no personal grudges at all.Non-academic forums unfortunately are rarely tolerant for such discussions. Especially Resetera that in many cases is right to be so defensive and sensitive, since a lot of members have witnessed or experienced abuse and discrimination both in games and real life. But it is difficult to adjust there if you come from other forums. But I felt thaf after a while I had nothing to offer or gain to from the forum. Even my posts were not as motivated. I'd have asked for a perma-ban myself probably.

From the moment I saw GAF account suicides with wide ripped open asses pictures moving to Era, I really questioned the motives of some users and had my reservations . I foremost value quality over quantity in gaming forums. I prefer a good thread with 50 post instead of a chaotic thread of 5000 posts where even good answers are buried under driveby posts. I will return to the older international and regional forums, before joining GAF. Users there are closer to my age and way of discussions. Resetera has members where their blood boils. I like it but it is not for me anymore. Lost enough hair already...

What is your specialization?

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

"Post over in Gaming more. Either start some topics or add to existing ones" is what I'm reading a lot in this thread.

Yep, please do that. I'll listen to what makes you folks enjoy the hobby. Lemme hear it. Maybe then we can bounce back into Offtopic and debate more reasonably on political topics where we disagree. I have it on good authority that we'll probably be fairer to one another and get into some genuinely good conversation.

 

[TheIronPrice]

Let me translate that for you poeple out there:

• Has a seething hatred and obsession with Feminism - seriously just check the number of threads started about it.

"Feminism should never be criticized even if most people are in strong support of gender equality but don't identify themselves as feminist for the very same reasons that I don't want to hear about."

• Never shuts up the fuck about Resetera.

"I'm a Resetera user and only come here to take a dump on these forums. That's why I don't like you criticizing that other place."

• Skews to the right but pretends it doesn't.

"I'm suddenly confronted with arguments that make me rethink my views critically and are hard to counter. Please make it stop!"

• Has an influx of new posters that say the dumbest shit imaginable with no repercussions

"Only I am allowed to say the dumbest sh*t imaginable with no repercussions!"

Stuff like the above is quite annoying about Neogaf but I guess is also true of many forums. You could have easily argued your case of why you disagreed (i.e. 'Actually I disagree, it is not a seething hatred of Feminism but a concern about what the modern incarnation of it represents etc. etc.') but instead gave this condescending reply. This sets a very low standard for a debate that's boring and tiresome.

There are not enough posters here who tackle the best interpretation of their opponents arguments but instead just attack straw men.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Stuff like the above is quite annoying about Neogaf but I guess is also true of many forums. You could have easily argued your case of why you disagreed (i.e. 'Actually I disagree, it is not a seething hatred of Feminism but a concern about what the modern incarnation of it represents etc. etc.') but instead gave this condescending reply. This sets a very low standard for a debate that's boring and tiresome.

There are not enough posters here who tackle the best interpretation of their opponents arguments but instead just attack straw men.

The strawmanning (hey wait, 'man'ning? As a male I find that offensive) is definitely a problem, I agree with you. However, it is a natural byproduct of a forum where the mods punish people based on their opinions. You don't have to debate anything. Just mischaracterize them long enough to get them banned. Easy!

The fact that you see "posters here who tackle the best interpretation of their opponents' arguments" should be an encouraging thing. That's rare to see at all. Try to keep adding to the discussion while calling out b.s. with logic. Eventually people will stop wasting their time on obviously-contrived strawmen because it'll simply get them ignored.

 

[12Goblins]

I came back after I got banned from resetera for making a post in the scarlet Johansen thread about her playing a trans - I was banned for 2 weeks for being transphobic because I asked how this was different than Hillary swanks boys don't cry which was critically acclaimed across the board.

I'm very much pro trans gender so this made me realize resetera will inevitably implode.

Yesterday there was a huge thread on Era about how the forum isn't progressive enough because it doesn't permaban on first offense. It's madness. Lots of good, smart folks on that board though, and I imagine they will eventually trickle back here as the board becomes more extremist.

 

[bitbydeath]

I would love to see a shift where political gaming threads move to off topic so that the gaming side stays more "fun" oriented. Like if its about a game or studio it should be in gaming but if its about kotaku/polygon articles or Anita Sarkesian it would go in off topic.

That would just stink up OT more than it already is. They need to go elsewhere.

 

[Discusguy]

Been great here lately. Seems more balanced in a good way. Xbots and moderates no longer feel like they are walking on eggshells.

 

[JimmyJones]

It's awesome, apart from the Resetera posters who keep crawling out of the woodwork.

Particularly concerning is as you have said: there is a notable absence of women on this forum.

Was there ever any women in the first place? Not counting all the transexuals who fled to the aformentioned site.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Hard to say if it's absolutely better or worse but it's definitely a completely new set of problems now. I've been lurking since 2007,reading GAF at least a few times a week and posted on another account I lost account access too in ~2013.

While it's good that there is less of the authoritarian left shutting down conversation, there is definitely a strong radical and irrational right flavor to almost every new topic, and a large number of posts on the topics that should have people concerned about the health of the forum. I've been visiting this forum less and less lately because of this. There is diminishing number of rational voices calling them these alt-right trolls out, and I'm guessing this is because they are experiencing the same burnout of arguing with irrational ideologues that I am.

Many posters are peddling conspiracy theories at an Alex Jones level of lunacy and the amount of poster agreement is terrifyingly high. The radical left are bad sure, but the answer isn't the radical right; its rationalism. Nuanced looks at actual facts and making decisions on a case by case basis. Some of these posters tend to resort to personal attacks and calls for general violence that is worrying, and mods aren't at least warning obvious violations of the forum rules. This isn't conducive to good conversation.

I worry that this forum has become a right wing echo chamber and is becoming less and less the forum I loved with thoughtful discussion on the topics of the day. If we could go back to GAF circa 2010 that would be good.

It's ****ing exhausting, but it's the #1 reason why I stayed even when other people said it was a lost cause..

 

[Barsinister]

Thank you to all of you who stayed behind to correct us of our wrong think. I still have not heard a good argument for equality of outcome and will continue to believe that it is the wrong path for society.

As an aside, I think the forum needs to re implement the no cursing policy.

 

[mustardman]

Given the increasingly absurd amount of posts in regards to this particular topic in the last few days (mostly from posters on the other side), it is becoming clear that people do not understand what "right" means... or they are using "right" in such a disingenuous way to pose that anyone right of them is right-wing/alt-right trolls.

I fully understand what "right" (leaning politically) means. The point is the trump crowd are the ones calling themselves the right wing these days. In most of the western world I'm probably a centrist. Of course in the USA that means I'm basically a Leninist.

Theres nothing disingenuous about calling about the group of 20ish posters who create or post on every pro-trump conspiracy theory thread who then choose to obviously disregard facts and play cognitive dissonance games alt right trolls. That's the echo chamber I'm talking about. The most active posters especially on political issues are radical right (re: pro trump to the point of disregarding reality) and that skews the debate.

 

[138]

As an aside, I think the forum needs to re implement the no cursing policy.

Fuck, no. We're all adults, let's not police speech.

 

[Barsinister]

Fuck, no. We're all adults, let's not police speech.

Your ideas on freedom of speech are interesting. I just think that asking people to show some decorum can enhance their thought.

 

[138]

Your ideas on freedom of speech are interesting. I just think that asking people to show some decorum can enhance their thought.

Profanity is just a randomly selected set of words. Who cares? Sometimes an F- bomb is needed to drive one's point home.