NeoGAF, the gaming forum that is 4chan light, went offline over the weekend after the founder was accused of sexually assaulting a woman. Tyler Malka (alias "EviLore" on NeoGAF), was ousted by his accuser via a Facebook post. This behavior by Malka is apparently well known, but no one has outted him in such a public way. Users of the forum began posting en masse in response to the allegations, asking to be banned and remove Malka from his position. They didn't want to be affiliated with the forum any longer - the advertisers are sure to follow suit.
But late last night, the forums reemerged with a message from Malka. "An allegation of sexual misconduct has been made against me by an ex. It's not true, the individual making the accusation isn't credible, the story doesn't reconcile logically with the facts, and there's plenty of evidence and witnesses to corroborate that. It'll be a process."
The Off-Topic section, where the bustle of the forum activity takes place, is gone for now. So are a number of moderators and users who directly question Malka's statement have been met with a ban. New threads that conflict with Malka's statement have been deleted and users banned. Needless to say, Malka and the few moderators left are doing everything in their power to control the fallout by covering up the mess. Yes, that last sentence was an opinion. It's difficult to not see it as a cover-up when you have a public forum continually deleting content that isn't in line with the founder's message. When you make a mess, you have to deal with the fallout and that means negative posts. It looks incredibly suspicious when you only leave behind positive content.
So what will happen with NeoGAF? It's difficult to say. For the good of the forum, Malka should step down and the admin team overhaul the system. Get new, fresh moderators. Revamp the rules on harassment and provide better resources for reporting it (yes the event happened outside of the forums, but all forums need to do better with harassment claims in general). But if the current set-up stays in place, NeoGAF will soon be part of gaming's past.
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