This has been most of the most bizarre events that I’ve ever seen unfold on the internet. NeoGAF, which is the most popular gaming forum on the web (if not the most popular overall forum) has imploded after 11 admins/moderators left the very heavily moderated forum.
Looks like a total of 11 administrators and moderators have stepped down from the forum after this has come out. https://t.co/J2s2diwmy9
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) October 22, 2017
This was due to the fact that the owner of the forum (who we won’t name) has allegedly sexually harassed a female some months ago (among other incidents in the past). This was brought to light on Facebook, which was then posted by the victim’s brother on NeoGAF early this morning.
The forum owner then said that he would post a statement on the matter but has not yet done so. For a brief period after this incident was brought to light, all threads on the matter were being instantly deleted, until it got too widespread (and the mods left) and forum members went absolutely wild.
The forum has been down for majority of the incident (it’s unclear whether this is intentional or due to load) but whenever it has come back on, members have been posting incredibly wild threads mostly dissing the forum owner and stating that they will not return to the forum. This is quite sensational due to the fact that NeoGAF has very strict regulations on what you can post, so it’s quite incredible to see 100s of these posts go up within a matter of hours.
Post the death of NeoGAF in a gif https://t.co/dShBKfNwUy pic.twitter.com/mY34Oo9G0W
— NEOGAF OT (@NeoGAFOT2) October 22, 2017
Goodbye Gaf https://t.co/t8q3NDdcc6 pic.twitter.com/VBupfHtN4J
— NEOGAF OT (@NeoGAFOT2) October 22, 2017
For my first and probably only thread, just want to say it's been fun guys https://t.co/rLFVgueEEV pic.twitter.com/pWXWPvOWJL
— NEOGAF OT (@NeoGAFOT2) October 22, 2017
If this is it for GAF, then goodbye to all of you who have made this place great https://t.co/CJhz2viOva pic.twitter.com/o4Ba5xOLnT
— NEOGAF OT (@NeoGAFOT2) October 22, 2017
It’s unclear what will happen to the forum going forward, but it’s definitely clear that it’ll never return to its former glory. Whilst NeoGAF has been a solid community for many, many years, it’s also had more than its fair share of scandals and controversies surrounding certain moderators and members.
It’s an odd time in the industry as many people on Twitter mourn the loss of the website and celebrate in the fact that they believe it has got what has been coming to it for a long time.
This is the best NeoGAF abandon ship post I've seen so far. pic.twitter.com/FaL2Hh9cUV
— Liam Robertson (@Doctor_Cupcakes) October 22, 2017
We’ll keep you posted on the incident, but the future of the forum is definitely uncertain. Interesting times.