Other Forums Containment Thread

[bork]

There are three massive posts on controversy and the rules for posting in that Cyberpunk thread.

[Taco Bell Tower]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/streamer-valkyrae-faces-backlash-for-new-gamer-skincare-range.503538/#post-75614217

Bet you could pull up 50 bro streamers doing NFT or gambling site scams in 10 minutes, but some lady puts a marketing angle on some moisturizer and gamers pop a blood vessel

[Joe Molotov]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/resetera-ownership-update.499677/post-75609588

I think they were more meaning if the admin team was also wanting to jump ship, like what happened last time.

If I wanted to leave Era for any reason I wouldn't plan my expedition right in public on Era lol, especially with how many creeps stalk me everyday.

That is absolutely 100% what I'm asking. I understand exactly how crazy it is but it might actually work.

Although I would prefer the leadership of it to be handled by somebody who has a more...like respectable reputation. My thread creation portfolio mostly contains joke topics.
Ok, so make a Discord and go for it. No one is stopping you.

We should name it waluigifans.com to ensure only the most premium users are attracted.

Shit, they found us out, even after days of us posting that we were ok with the situation.

I'm not sure if I'm happy or annoyed with my number, honestly. But oh well, being up there is fine I guess.

You're still in the exclusive "Baddies Only" tier.

❤️❤️❤️

Well clearly I am simply driving this site into the ground so it makes sense. Do you want to join my new forum? I think it makes total sense to advertize it here.

Y’all never saw the user id number-thread derail coming, did ya?

Honestly can't say I saw it coming. It was kind of impressive to get off work and see where this thread had gone. But at the same time, I'm not surprised either.

I, for one, welcome our new MOBA Network overlords.

Guess you're stuck here then. Enjoy your stay, I imagine we'll still just be doing what we've been doing.

MOBAHecht

Oh God, let me drown with Era.

We're gonna have discourse, tags, hookers and blow hookers and blow, and you can whine about how your piece of plastic and circuitry is better than everyone else's to your heart's content.

Can we have sigs tho?

fuck no, i have standards

As nature intended

Someone get me some more Tito's

Do you tho? Because you spare kind words for me, and I'm literally trash.

I have given up hope as far as predicting the dumbest things to derail a thread at this point. It could be a thread about how bad Hitler is and we'd have to come in and stop a derail about noodles for some fucking reason

Is that why you've all repeatedly come into this specific thread to encourage and promote derails about irrelevant things?

Not a cellphone in sight, just mods, admins, and protected members living in the moment.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/how%E2%80%99s-cyberpunk-2077-nowadays.503493/#post-75608691

I'm more amazed this thread hasn't been locked yet.

Check the times. Mods were too busy shitposting in the Ownership Update thread to do their jobs properly. Good thing they don't get paid.

Edit.
Beginning:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/how%E2%80%99s-cyberpunk-2077-nowadays.503493/#post-75606087
https://www.resetera.com/threads/resetera-ownership-update.499677/page-144#post-75605976

Ending:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/how%E2%80%99s-cyberpunk-2077-nowadays.503493/#post-75611184
https://www.resetera.com/threads/resetera-ownership-update.499677/page-146#post-75611139

[benjipwns]

A serious question for those of you all here who have probably been following gaming journalism longer than I have:

The general internet perception of Kotaku seems to be "overly woke sjw site", which is to say, a reasonable website that alt right chud gamers hate. But every time I've seen a Kotaku article it always seems to be an incredibly stupid take that I would struggle to consider particularly progressive. Was Kotaku ever the good progressive site gamers hate it for being, has it just gone down hill over the years?

edit: I should have also offered the question. Are there lots of good articles but only the really bad ones get traction online?

This went places:

This is all my personal experiences with the site, so I could be completely wrong about anything and everything.

My first memories of Kotaku were from around 2007, and I heard about it from other people on the internet making fun of the website. People joked that it was "Slowtaku" because they would occasionally have articles about things that everyone (read: internet-obsessed weirdos like me) already knew about for years.

Then, around 2012, I learned about the subreddit "kotakuinaction" which would make fun of the site endlessly. I didn't follow the sub, but checked it occasionally, and I remember there being some genuinely bad articles... but it was also around this time that I started thinking along the lines of "well, the article has a good point, but it's presented in a weird way". Of course, maybe it was only weird to me because I was (somehow) dumber back then as a spry young lad of 29.

In 2017, Chris Kohler joined the site. I had been following his work for 10-15 years by that point, so I started checking Kotaku more often. Around this time I started seeing more people compliment Kotaku and even defend it when people would bring up old insults. Some other great writers joined the site around this time, and I thought it was pretty great! This is also most likely the time period that might be considered "overly woke sjw" by awful people.

Sometime around 2019-2020, I started seeing more and more of my favorite writers leave the site for greener pastures, and noticed a sharp decline in the quality of articles. It's definitely not worth defending anymore, based on what I've seen over the last year or so.

Kotaku has always been mocked even before 2014 and the like, either for its poor articles or slow reporting (There's a reason why Slowpoke was often drawn as the lead reporter of Kotaku). Honestly I would say it was never originally associated with "Woke/SJW" material and that it was common to mock Kotaku's poor reporting and games journalism as a whole.. I would put that "SJW" label more on publications like Vice/Waypoint or Polygon.

Kotaku's reputation started to start to make a turnaround between 2017 and 2020, especially with the stellar reporting and actual investigative journalism of Jason Schrier and others at the site. They still had the occasional stupid article that people mocked, but even haters of the site had to admit that some of the work done by Kotaku (especially by Schrier) was accurate. This can be best seen by how people dismissed leaked news about Fallout 4 and No Mans Sky published by the site that was intitially dismissed before being confirmed.

Then 2020 roles around, Jason and other writers leave. They get a new editor in chief, and we start getting a lot more hot takes and "edgy" reporting.

To add to what others have said: Kotaku also got its reputation from gamergate, which attacked all games journalists, women and anyone who didn't actively promote the idea of video games being for boys only. So you certainly didn't need to be remotely progressive to get called a SJW and such by those losers. Nowadays we call them incels & Maga idiots but the core idea behind their hate is the same.

Pretty much what grand said above. I'll add that while they were never that "woke", for a time they did at least try to tackle social issues and tried to give a voice to non white/male writers. Which is enough to earn derision from Gamergate shitheels, basically.

Lately though it's been lots of embarrassing clickbait and forum shitposts being passed as articles. Of course, they have plenty of more "normal", and probably some actually decent articles too, which don't get nearly as much traction. But their reputation has been in the gutter since the animated child porn incident (if you're wondering what that is, lookie here...), and frankly, they've done little to un-earn that reputation IMO... Ian Walker in particular has been really terrible, both on Kotaku and on Twitter.

Kotaku’s “golden age” referred to in this thread resulted in the Nathalie Lawhead incident which is basically the use and abuse of rape for a sensationalised story which resulted in real harm for the victims and they refused to take down even though it wasn’t accurate and was doing harm until this year with new EIC. Cecilia D’Anastatio wrote it (and she apparently had a history of doing this sort thing which was known about) Jason Schreier edited and Stephen Totillo was EIC who kept the article up even after it was brought to his attention. And side note, when the Activision Blizzard sexual abuse story broke I saw devs warn victims not to talk to Jason Schreier because he had a history of burning his sources. And these are constantly lauded in these forums as the good “real” journalist. I’d honestly rather take articles with crappy takes then an article that’s actually harming real people.

Thanks for the replies from everyone regarding the history of Kotaku, especially enlightening was rras1994's post, given the amount of reverence Resetera always shows for Jason Schreier whenever he posts in a thread. I guess people really crave the 'legitimacy' the forum gets by having known industry figures post here occasionally.

Knew about the Cecilia stuff but didn't know about the Schreier involvement. That super disappointing.

In truth I've kind of bounced off a lot of his writing as in recent years he hasn't struck me as the most upright in values and character and there's not a whole lot I get out of his content versus other coverage now. Hope he at least doesn't burn his sources as much anymore given he's at Bloomberg.

As an aside, the new EIC is a WOC and she said this upon taking the position:

I hate that so much of what video game websites consider worthy of coverage is often written for a specific type of presumed reader. It does not matter if a website is considered “progressive.” It says everything that, when writing about certain issues, video game websites often have to take care in explaining basic-ass concepts like “racism is real.”

At some point, having to explain power dynamics over and over again is not a question of informing the readership. It is a tacit acknowledgement that our audience likely has a specific background. And consequently, that reality means that even as we cover more mainstream subjects or marginalized identities, the writing is not truly for that wider audience. This haunts me. The presumed reader looks or sounds nothing like me, and yet here I am, leading a video game site.

It’s not a matter of being “woke.” It is a matter of survival. Video game websites, as they exist now, repeatedly fail to represent the wide swath of people who play games. And every year that passes, this failure becomes more and more evident. “Everyone” plays games now, yet most of these people hardly frequent video game websites unless they need to know how to do something.

And if we do reach this mythical mainstream gamer, it’s likely because Google willed it—not because we’ve cultivated that dedicated readership. Since social media websites throttle who can or cannot see our work, we spend our time worshipping the fickle SEO gods. Your favorite game website is likely quietly bankrolled by guides and service writers who try to predict what people will search next, not news writers, critics, or reviewers. Playing that traffic game and being good at it, of course, is only a temporary salve. Yesterday it was Facebook, today it’s Google, tomorrow, who knows.

Hilariously, gaming websites fail the capital G gamer repeatedly, too. The perpetual focus on what’s coming next is not compatible with the idea that we are here to cut through the hype. Don’t preorder games, we say, while dutifully covering the big event that exists to get you excited about the next big thing. Meanwhile, advances like Xbox Game Pass destroy the release cycle modern gaming websites have relied on for years. What’s new and shiny has no bearing on what will actually take off with the public, as evidenced by Among Us.

Vying for relevance versus dwindling time is sometimes only the start. Writers, especially those with marginalized identities, often have to grapple with nonstop anger. Anger over suggesting that video games reflect the real world in any way, shape, or form. Anger that we get paid to do something many people would gladly do for free. Anger stoked by influencers who need you to believe game journalists are awful, and they alone have your interests at heart. Anger fueled by four years of constant propaganda that mainstream media is fake news and not to be trusted. Anger that the news we report sometimes doesn’t present video games and its communities in a positive light to the wider public.

I do not think this latent yet ongoing anger comes from the majority of our intended or presumed audience. Really, it’s likely not even statistically significant compared to the millions of readers who read our work daily and love what we do. But harm does not require an army. All it takes is one asshole going out of their way to ensure a writer sees their bigoted screed. There’s always at least one.

I want Kotaku to reflect things that are real. I want to print stories that you’d be able to tell a friend about at a bar, even if they don’t play games. The way that we talk about games on the site should be the same way that we’d talk about it in an actual conversation. I do not care if the language or attitude at Kotaku appears proper and respectable. Fuck that. Games are human, and so are we. Any time there is a discrepancy between what we actually think and what lives on the page is when we betray not only our readers, but ourselves.

I want to move away from treating gaming like a product or industry, instead examining them more as microcosms for the human condition. Games are worlds unto their own, often developing not only customs, traditions, and dedicated languages, but also their own vectors of power and influence.

https://twitter.com/xpatriciah/status/1447639901885902848
https://twitter.com/xpatriciah/status/1450265691907559428
https://twitter.com/xpatriciah/status/1450863277475520515

[10centtacos]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/resetera-ownership-update.499677/post-75609588

I think they were more meaning if the admin team was also wanting to jump ship, like what happened last time.

If I wanted to leave Era for any reason I wouldn't plan my expedition right in public on Era lol, especially with how many creeps stalk me everyday.

That is absolutely 100% what I'm asking. I understand exactly how crazy it is but it might actually work.

Although I would prefer the leadership of it to be handled by somebody who has a more...like respectable reputation. My thread creation portfolio mostly contains joke topics.
Ok, so make a Discord and go for it. No one is stopping you.

We should name it waluigifans.com to ensure only the most premium users are attracted.

Shit, they found us out, even after days of us posting that we were ok with the situation.

I'm not sure if I'm happy or annoyed with my number, honestly. But oh well, being up there is fine I guess.

You're still in the exclusive "Baddies Only" tier.

❤️❤️❤️

Well clearly I am simply driving this site into the ground so it makes sense. Do you want to join my new forum? I think it makes total sense to advertize it here.

Y’all never saw the user id number-thread derail coming, did ya?

Honestly can't say I saw it coming. It was kind of impressive to get off work and see where this thread had gone. But at the same time, I'm not surprised either.

I, for one, welcome our new MOBA Network overlords.

Guess you're stuck here then. Enjoy your stay, I imagine we'll still just be doing what we've been doing.

MOBAHecht

Oh God, let me drown with Era.

We're gonna have discourse, tags, hookers and blow hookers and blow, and you can whine about how your piece of plastic and circuitry is better than everyone else's to your heart's content.

Can we have sigs tho?

fuck no, i have standards

As nature intended

Someone get me some more Tito's

Do you tho? Because you spare kind words for me, and I'm literally trash.

I have given up hope as far as predicting the dumbest things to derail a thread at this point. It could be a thread about how bad Hitler is and we'd have to come in and stop a derail about noodles for some fucking reason

Is that why you've all repeatedly come into this specific thread to encourage and promote derails about irrelevant things?

Era mod bukkake 

Their lack of self-awareness is impressive though. They genuinely think yucking it up will somehow make them endearing to everyone browsing that thread, when in reality it only makes every hate them even more.

News flash Era mods: no one likes a bunch of phony tryhards, ya dorks.

[remy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/how%E2%80%99s-cyberpunk-2077-nowadays.503493/#post-75608691

I'm more amazed this thread hasn't been locked yet.

Check the times. Mods were too busy shitposting in the Ownership Update thread to do their jobs properly. Good thing they don't get paid.

Guys, if you want to embarass them you have to coordinate. Drop a fart in the ownership thread first then start baiting on gaming side. If you give them too much time they realise something is happening.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

When a person gets a series of these unwarranted bans, they can be used as pretext for a permanent, or more severe ban down the road.

Unwarranted is debatable.

Polyh3dron mad.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/resetera-ownership-update.499677/page-143#post-75554847

all Xbox first party games are going to beat their milestone goals and are all going to release early and xbox series x will have an amazing first party lineup by mid 2022 including great games like Destiny 2 The Witch Queen and I have no idea what ban you are talking about because I think there is nothing wrong with the upper management in Xbox Game Studios and they are just the best!

(blinks three times)

https://www.resetera.com/threads/resetera-ownership-update.499677/page-146#post-75613674

Notice when K.Jack did a point-by-point rebuttal to Zips about bans he cited, there was one they mentioned that was omitted.

I’m somehow not permitted to voice my lack of confidence in the way this stable of first party studios is being managed by Microsoft even when there is tons of precedent for it because it appears to offend the people who wear their team jerseys, so to speak. Someone literally responded to my outlook with a list largely composed of multiplatform games and the other participants in the thread didn’t even bat an eyelash at it. But it’s easier to ban me as the console warrior than ban the actual console warriors that outnumber me and have higher post counts, because I had the dissenting opinion. No personal attacks or anything.

Why did you tag me just to relitigate your ban? I only responded to ONE example the dude posted because I'm not doing this.

Should’ve stopped when I was blinking my eyes three times, understood.

[ShutUp]

“All the questions have been answered”

No, they really have not been answered. Pages upon pages of failed comedy school idiots trying to one up each other with what they think is comedy is not in fact answering questions asked by the community who occasionally comes into the thread and wonders what exactly is going on in that thread.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/resetera-ownership-update.499677/page-146#post-75616272

I will burn this forum down and spearhead a new one if either happen!!!

On the one hand, that would be very terrible.

And the other............................ freedom..........................................

You are an unpaid forum cop, you can quit any time you want.

[benjipwns]

You are an unpaid forum cop, you can quit any time you want.

Now now, let me present three counterpoints to this:

1. Nepenthe's claim earlier that she signed an NDA
2. Nepenthe's previous statements about being "chained" to the position
3. Nepenthe's seven year car loan

Maybe Cerium did get her to agree to something stupid and she doesn't know any better about whether it's legal or not.

[10centtacos]

Yeah it’s bizarre hearing them whine about how tough it is being a forum janitor, while repeatedly talking down to everyone. They’re totally oblivious as to why no one likes them outside of their little clique and why they attract the wrong kind of attention across multiple forums.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/legal-eagle-on-copyright-termination-marvel-possibly-loosing-rights-to-various-characters.503481/#post-75613188

I'd love to different takes on these characters outside of Sony and Marvel.

lol nah


At this point those are the only takes that matter and the only takes that I'm interested in seeing. Anything else just gets in the way of the possible cinematic universe that they can build.

They are not the only takes that matter lol

Depends on who you ask. For someone like me who has loved every single second of the MCU I want every character and property under the big umbrella. The latest stuff on D+ has been AMAZING. I couldn't give a watery fart what any other studio thinks about a marvel character if it's not apart of the larger MCU picture.


There is a reason why I didn't watch Venom until I heard there was a chance that he could appear alongside the MCU Spiderman. Though to be fair that movie was amazing on its own. But it will be better when that Venom is alongside the MCU Spiderman.

[benjipwns]

The funny thing is they apparently had discussed it "days" beforehand but nobody ever came up with the idea that B-Dubs (or someone) should handle responding to people and assuring them nothing would change and that was all they needed to do or say. Instead they all fell over one another to get outraged at the fact that members thought they should get paid and then turned it into a weird obsessive thing where they deliberately tried to derail the thread over and over again with prominent members rather than simply not responding. The latter of which is what they do in every other instance where members want to communicate with them.

[james]

They all went to the evilore school of PR excellence

[benjipwns]

So remember that ban for Sinophobia a few pages back I dug up for the guy they permed for sharing the SalesEra's new forum link. Basically Tencent bought a huge chunk of a game studio and he drew attention to it and a bunch of people flocked in and reported it for Sinophobia.

This is what Tencent does:
https://twitter.com/MsMelChen/status/1451054995026202626

The word "Kanter" has also been banned on Weibo.

It was the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration, that accused Tencent of having ties to the Ministry of State Security.

[Transhuman]

Blaming the state of Kotaku on Patricia Hernandez is misogyny. The site is going to be a sensationalist clickbait rag no matter who is in charge.

[Potato]

Kotaku's problems stem from the old adage: Pay peanuts, get monkeys.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Kotakus problems stem from hiring people whose egos vastly exceed their actual talent, and whose resentment that their life choices and ability has landed them on a videogames blog rather than wherever they believe they should be is only superseded by the contempt for the only audience they can acquire that they believe they are too good for

[Nintex]

Bad faith reading?

What the hell



oh wait, I forgot there is a mental health holocaust

[joeboy101]

Kotakus problems stem from hiring people whose egos vastly exceed their actual talent, and whose resentment that their life choices and ability has landed them on a videogames blog rather than wherever they believe they should be is only superseded by the contempt for the only audience they can acquire that they believe they are too good for

They could mod Era if the writing gig doesn't work out.

Oh Wait, you did say 'hiring', that implies a wage. Nevermind.

[tuna_love]

even fucking jeff bezos paid his slaves more than cerium

[marrec]

So remember that ban for Sinophobia a few pages back I dug up for the guy they permed for sharing the SalesEra's new forum link. Basically Tencent bought a huge chunk of a game studio and he drew attention to it and a bunch of people flocked in and reported it for Sinophobia.

This is what Tencent does:
https://twitter.com/MsMelChen/status/1451054995026202626

The word "Kanter" has also been banned on Weibo.

It was the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration, that accused Tencent of having ties to the Ministry of State Security.

It doesn’t matter if Tencent does or does not have direct ties to the CCP at this point because the new cultural revolution is forcing companies into more subservient roles anyway. Jack Ma wishes he’d of had the same foresight as Tencent 🤷🏻‍♂️

[SmokyDave]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/nsfl-just-stumbled-upon-what-could-be-the-most-misogynistic-fb-post-ive-ever-read.503610/

This thread. All of it. From conception to execution.

Usually I wouldn't post random facebook posts I find on Discord, but this one is so fucking vile and misogynistic, even if supposed to be a "joke", that I couldn't help but share it here.

These people, man.

[Pissy F Benny]

i see reset era have found my facebook page 

[Maiden Voyage]

A few days ago I sent an email to info@wearemoba.com asking for their stance on allowing hateful & harmful content on their websites. No response yet so I sent a follow-up.

For your reading pleasure, here's what I sent:

I understand Moba recently acquired gaming forum Resetera.com (Resetera or more simply, Era). I have a passing interest in the forum as it is fairly notorious online about allowing topics and opinions that deviate qute wildly from the norm.

For example, there is currently a thread celebrating the death of prominent American Colin Powell.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/colin-powell-military-leader-and-first-black-us-secretary-of-state-dies.502098/page-3

What is M.O.B.A. Network's stance on allowing topics like these?
Do the companies who buy ads for websites like Era want to be seen on websites that tolerate such behavior?
Will Moba do anything to curb the 'accepted' behavior on Resetera?

Additionally, Resetera has banned discussion on several games and companies that are well established in the Moba Networks brands. These include banning of all discussion of Riot Games and Blizzard games.

Will Moba be rescinding these discussion bans to better incorporate Resetera into the Moba Network family?

There are quite a number of other examples I can provide as there are other forums online dedicated to following Resetera and the offensive things they post.

I see on the Resetera thread announcing the acquisition that the moderators are telling the users that Moba Network will allow such threads to continue. I would encourage the Moba team to take a look at the thread as a whole, as there are some vile things being said by Era mods.

I would hate to see the Moba Network name tarnished because of the users and mods of Resetera.

If they won't respond, I'll reach out to the companies that buy ads for Moba sites. I'd hate to see the Blizzard or Riot Games name tarnished by associating with websites that dance on the grave of prominent figures.

[HardcoreRetro]

Come on dude. Let them dig their own grave.

[samir]

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Come on dude. Let them dig their own grave.

If putting pressure on advertisers is the only way to make shit happen, then that's what needs to be done.

[remy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/resetera-ownership-update.499677/post-75624996

Someone asked a valid question again, and instantly got talked over by a sycophant (1 minute)

So fucking transparent and tiresome.

[Potato]

Come on dude. Let them dig their own grave.

If putting pressure on advertisers is the only way to make shit happen, then that's what needs to be done.

Let it go dude. Who gives a fuck? If Moba didn't do their own due diligence and spent $4.5m on something they're uncomfortable with, then that's their problem. As far as the Reeeeesetera denizens, they will fuck things up good and proper regardless of your efforts.

[Maiden Voyage]

Come on dude. Let them dig their own grave.

If putting pressure on advertisers is the only way to make shit happen, then that's what needs to be done.

Let it go dude. Who gives a fuck? If Moba didn't do their own due diligence and spent $4.5m on something they're uncomfortable with, then that's their problem. As far as the Reeeeesetera denizens, they will fuck things up good and proper regardless of your efforts.

If they will fuck it up regardless of my efforts then who gives a shit if I complain to Moba?

[Maiden Voyage]

Also

[marrec]

Come on dude. Let them dig their own grave.

If putting pressure on advertisers is the only way to make shit happen, then that's what needs to be done.

y u haff to be mad

Come on dude. Let them dig their own grave.

If putting pressure on advertisers is the only way to make shit happen, then that's what needs to be done.

Let it go dude. Who gives a fuck? If Moba didn't do their own due diligence and spent $4.5m on something they're uncomfortable with, then that's their problem. As far as the Reeeeesetera denizens, they will fuck things up good and proper regardless of your efforts.

If they will fuck it up regardless of my efforts then who gives a shit if I complain to Moba?

Frankly, salty folks writing about their disingenuous concerns to MOBA about ERA is just as entertaining as anything else, but only because it's super cringe.

[SmokyDave]

If dismissing any accusations of sexual assault is now bannable, it might be a good time for me to come forward about the time that Nepenthe groped me whilst growling 'dirty cracker' in my ear.

[Maiden Voyage]

Frankly, salty folks writing about their disingenuous concerns to MOBA about ERA is just as entertaining as anything else, but only because it's super cringe.

What do you think this entire thread is man? And sending an email is a bridge too far?

[maninthemirror]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/netflix-co-ceo-on-dave-chappelle-fallout-i-screwed-up.503508/post-75624312

So, I date a trans woman. When this special came out, I was pretty heated. She was hurt, but stated that the jokes and opinions of a comedian of color, a legit marginalized community in the US and every European nation, still were in no way okay but were different in kind from a JK Rowling. That doesn't mean there is nuance in the jokes that makes them okay, but that she would be infinitely more willing to have a talk with Dave than with JK or Blair White (she has a Masters in divinity, so that could be part of it). To her, there's a reason to be angry but it's a different anger than with most TERFs. I'll be honest, I don't entirely understand, since I'm a cis-het white man, but I can at least get that pain is responded to differently by different people based on a lot of different reasons.

Dumbass you are a homosexual man not heterosexual

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

my concerns about how era is moderated are entirely genuous, I will have you know sirrah

[benjipwns]

There are a lot of distractions in this thread, for better or worse. I think the heart of the matter is that the community needs to, collectively, decide whether or not it is worth it to organize and move to a different domain rather than accept corporate ownership. It seems to me that this should be considered reasonably and neutrally. In the interest of that and hearing what others have to say about that, I will write down what I feel the advantages and disadvantages of each approach are, in good faith.

Option 1. Stay on resetera.com, take MOBA Network at their word on not changing this place too much, come back to the matter if they make changes that cross the line.

Pros:
We're here already. Can kick back, resume posting about video games, snack foods, billiards, etc. This is pretty neat.
They have resources a community-owned forum won't. We don't know what they will spend on this place, but there certainly is some chance that more money will be put into the site that the community could ever produce by itself as it is now. This is, however, mitigated by the fact that resetera is massively profitable on its own. You can make a lot of Website for 700k/year if you put that money back into development and that *doesn't* require MOBA network.
They have access to traffic we don't currently, and some of those users will sincerely be cool, and it'd be cool if those users signed up. While we've all seen the linked examples showing the worst that their forum network has to offer, it'd be overly pessimistic not to acknowledge that some of the people on those "sister sites" would genuinely be welcome contributors to this site. If anyone from one of those sites is here already, welcome!

Cons:
There may never again be as big an "inciting incident" as the sale of the site. Right now, they are watching carefully. They know that the slightest misstep could have users scrambling for another website. Right now, and only right now, they have to be extremely careful. This is where their assurances that they aren't going to make big changes come from - they don't want a revolt. Instead, if individual small changes are made, then some people will be mad, and some people will leave, but it might well never feel big enough to rouse a large portion of the community to move somewhere else. In some sense this is our biggest chance to make any sort of move and not doing so is squandering it. The first change I expect is them cracking down severely on anyone trying to openly organize another site. This period where they watch and wait will end soon enough.
Corporate control is control. They can do whatever they want with the site. They will act with motive towards profit rather than what the community wants. Whole books can be written on the evils that have been wrought through profit-seeking and I trust I don't need to say more than that. They have promised no big changes, but there is nothing at all holding them to that. They didn't buy the site not to make it grow in profit. They are smart enough not to come in hot making a bunch of changes right off the bat, because people will leave en masse in an organized fashion. Instead, slowly they'll make changes over time. Some will be good and some will be bad, but overall, it will not be up to the community what happens.
Potential for data harvesting, even more aggressive advertising, people wandering over from "sister sites" and spouting hate speech. These have been well-discussed throughout the thread and are serious concerns.

Option 2. Organize the community, and form a new site, and do it right this time. No individual is in charge.

Pros:
Community ownership structure. Decisions about the site can be made purely on the basis of what is right for the community, and without any sort of compromising profit motive. It can be run as a non-profit explicitly with a board and bylaws that prevent any one person from taking control. This is what resetera ought to have been from the start and it is a real shame that it was not set up that way. The community has the opportunity to learn this lesson for good if they start their own site. This is just.....how things ought to be. The forums earn money which is used to improve the forums. Rent-seeking external players won't be able to pull cash out of it - all the money can go back to the site.
Control over monetization methods. Even a community-owned site needs money to run, but it doesn't need to be maximally profitable to run, and we don't have to abide by any sort of intrusive advertising if we don't want to.
An organization devoted to acting on the community's behalf will mean that the community will never again be without a strong advocate in any business dealings this place has. There's no owner's interests vs community interests if the owner of the site is an organization that is bound contractually to act in the interests of the community.
Honestly, it's very funny to imagine MOBA Network paying $4.5 million for some web hosting space and a domain name. The idea that a company can "own" a community is ludicrous and dark and I personally find it very satisfying when a community successfully demonstrates otherwise.

Cons
It is work to set up a new site. Lots of decisions to make, organizing to do. I won't pretend this is trivial, it is not at all, but if any community can manage to spread this work out, it's this one. Resetera has the numbers and the resources to make all of this happen.
Like any transition (neogaf -> resetera included), some people won't make the jump. They won't feel like moving. They have inertia in coming to this site but won't bother with a new one. This is a real loss and something to consider. If I were more convinced of MOBA Networks good intentions this would be the basis of an argument for staying, but I am afraid I am not, and so I'm forced to compare them with people who will leave in frustration over a MOBA Network decision.
Lose out on four years of posts or at least, break up the archive. The posts will still be here to read but there is a loss of continuity in long-running threads.

I realize this is all a little out of nowhere, so before I go on to synthesize what I think the correct course of action is, I want to give a bit of my background. I have been posting on traditional community web forums for over twenty years at this point, the majority of my life. I am deeply invested in their success as a medium and want them to thrive. They are so much better than social media services are and I don't want to see the ecosystem get smaller.

Twice in my life, I've had a forum I posted on become "uninhabitable". This was an earlier poster's wording and I thought it was well-put. The first time began much like this. The owner of what was a community site had sold it to a corporation, in this case, an online gaming news site. They made promises to not change anything, and the admins, not wanting to disrupt the owner's deal, encouraged us to wait and see how it turns out. The changes came slowly over time. We were limited in what topics we could discuss, limited in what games we could criticize, etc. It got pretty bad, but there was never any breaking point. Our time to organize was when the sale was announced, not the fifth time they banned a long-time community member for criticizing their corporate decrees. How did this one end? AOL acquired the gaming news site, and promptly deleted the forum without a second thought. They bought it for the articles. Years and years of posts, gone forever, with no backup. Some parts of the community managed to re-organize on another site, but it would have been a lot more successful if we had done so right away instead of waiting for everyone to scatter into the internet wind.

The second time was much like neogaf. In 2020, the owner of a Something Awful proved to be of....dubious moral character. (long story) The site was uninhabitable while he was in charge. Instead of folding and let this happen, I struck back. The community made it very clear that he was unwelcome, and used our leverage to force him to sell at a low price, preserving twenty years of internet history and our community. I am the user who stepped up and made sure that ended without a corporate acquisition or opportunistic cash-grab. I put every dollar the site makes back into it, and I see. So I hope you all can imagine why, as the owner of Something Awful, I am interested in seeing web forums as a medium succeed. I honestly came here to observe one of the few old-style forums that is as large as ours, and I found myself upset reading this thread. It truly is a missed opportunity that this place wasn't started by someone who would truly put the community first, in ownership structure as well as monetization. Surely your community has members who, like me, are able and willing to set up a business that puts the community first and always will. If you believe in your heart of hearts that you are one of those people, who is selfless in that way, now is the time to come forward and show some leadership. Your people need you.

In my most humble opinion, I think the pros of self-ownership outweigh the negatives. Right now, and only right now, the users of this site can organize and make sure this community stays intact and in control of its destiny. If MOBA Network believes they have something to offer, let them come to the community, on a site run by the community, and pitch it to the users. Let the people decide and not just the designated person at the top. This is a position of strength from which the community has grounds to make demands and potentially work out a mutually beneficial arrangement, unlike meagerly asking for concessions on a site they already own. I made this post in hopes that others can look at my list of pros and cons, and decide for themselves. I realize that not everyone is going to draw the same conclusions but my hope is that we can have this conversation, rather than getting sidetracked. It's the most important thing by far and, in my opinion, what ought to be done needs to be done right away.

"No." - Kyuuji/PlanetSmasher/etc.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

god, the absolute last thing era moderatiors and sycophants want is a farm where everyones equal.

they'll even openly admit it, albeit couched in terms of 'protecting minorities'.

[Mediocre Lager]

The funny thing is they apparently had discussed it "days" beforehand but nobody ever came up with the idea that B-Dubs (or someone) should handle responding to people and assuring them nothing would change and that was all they needed to do or say. Instead they all fell over one another to get outraged at the fact that members thought they should get paid and then turned it into a weird obsessive thing where they deliberately tried to derail the thread over and over again with prominent members rather than simply not responding. The latter of which is what they do in every other instance where members want to communicate with them.

Now to be fair, I would believe that the mods were simply that incompetent to not think of it.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/conservative-mp-sir-david-amess-stabbed-multiple-times-in-incident-at-constituency-surgery-up-died-see-threadmarked-staff-post.500670/page-5#post-75284199

User Banned (Pending Review): Rationalizing political assassinations, history of inflammatory infractions with similar behavior.

It seems that for some people, the absence of conflict is more important than actually resolving the conflict.

The guy had a shit voting record and I couldn't give a shit about him.

Yup. I don't go into UK politics threads too much so I'm kind of shocked at the amount of pearl-clutching here over a homophobic conservative. When shitty ass US political figures die we have an absolute blast. Look at the Donald Rumsfeld thread, or Rush Limbaugh's thread.

It's a horrible evil act which no one should condone.

But knowing our news cycle it will get vastly more coverage than this other news which came out today: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/oct/14/austerity-in-england-linked-to-more-than-50000-extra-deaths-in-five-years

Yes but 50,000 dead is a statistic! This was a man with a public name, and a public face, different because (reasons)!

User Banned (Permanent): Rationalizing political assassinations, history of inflammatory infractions with similar behavior.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/conservative-mp-sir-david-amess-stabbed-multiple-times-in-incident-at-constituency-surgery-up-died-see-threadmarked-staff-post.500670/page-5#post-75285216

User Banned (Pending Review): Rationalizing a political assassination.

It just highlights how extremism comes at both ends of the spectrum. Yet everyone is still engaged in this never ending culture war.

What if it's a person who just saw their national credit cut and had their entire life thrown into disarray no longer able to afford rent, food, and heat thanks to people like this Tory and they had nowhere else to turn? Is that a culture war? What was Jo Cox murdered for? A fucking white supremacist loon thought white people were being out bred.

I'm tired of this "both ends" false equivalence horseshit. Tories choose to ruin people's lives every day. Chickens possibly coming home to roost is not the same as murdering someone because of batshit insanity.

User Banned (Permanent): Rationalizing a political assassination.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/conservative-mp-sir-david-amess-stabbed-multiple-times-in-incident-at-constituency-surgery-up-died-see-threadmarked-staff-post.500670/page-6#post-75291468

User Banned (Pending Review): Rationalizing a political assassination over a series of posts.

Unless my man was a serial killer I don’t think he sowed the seed to be killed in public like this is some distopian land where that is ever acceptable…

He worked towards creating a dystopia where this could happen. It’s unfortunate he was murdered but the reality is that if he would have shown a modicum of decency toward other human beings, he probably wouldn’t be laying in the morgue right now.

User Banned (Permanent): Rationalizing a political assassination over a series of posts.

[remy]

mods desperately scrambling to figure out how to not look distinguished mentally-challenged in the light of that post from the SA guy

[Snoopycat_]

A few days ago I sent an email to info@wearemoba.com asking for their stance on allowing hateful & harmful content on their websites. No response yet so I sent a follow-up.

If they won't respond, I'll reach out to the companies that buy ads for Moba sites. I'd hate to see the Blizzard or Riot Games name tarnished by associating with websites that dance on the grave of prominent figures.

You see all them donkeys screeching to Netflix about Dave Chappelle? That's you that is. That's you in a wig.

[marrec]

Frankly, salty folks writing about their disingenuous concerns to MOBA about ERA is just as entertaining as anything else, but only because it's super cringe.

What do you think this entire thread is man? And sending an email is a bridge too far?

I didn't think this thread was an underground resistance movement targeted at a video game forum, but I GUESS I WAS WRONG

We all know Benji has been hyperfixating on GAF/ERA for 40 years, but that doesn't mean we ALL have to, the rest of us can just laugh at the ridiculous stuff cause in the end it ain't that deep.

Don't let me yuck your yum tho, you do what you think you need.

[marrec]

mods desperately scrambling to figure out how to not look distinguished mentally-challenged in the light of that post from the SA guy

BANNED - Uhh... history of... hostility, and... writing things... fuck I dunno just delete this post pls Cerium oops I mean Vaelk oops I mean B-dubs

I just want to mention, Tsar Bombadill is an exquisite handle.

[SmokyDave]

You see all them donkeys screeching to Netflix about Dave Chappelle? That's you that is. That's you in a wig.

Fuck me, a simple 'like' can't express how I feel seeing a History Today reference. Goddamn, good work.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

Frankly, salty folks writing about their disingenuous concerns to MOBA about ERA is just as entertaining as anything else, but only because it's super cringe.

What do you think this entire thread is man? And sending an email is a bridge too far?

I have always thought of this thread as the group of kids sitting around the table in the back corner of the dance. It's more about pointing and laughing than is getting involved in the drama we're laughing at.

[Snoopycat_]

Fuck me, a simple 'like' can't express how I feel seeing a History Today reference. Goddamn, good work.

I know right. That's proper old school insulting

[benjipwns]

Look, don't touch.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

Right now, they are watching carefully.

I have been wondering if some users have been baiting the mods hoping this is true.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

mods desperately scrambling to figure out how to not look distinguished mentally-challenged in the light of that post from the SA guy

:10bux

[Tuckers Law]

I don’t feel that sending emails to MOBA about resetera’s dangerous cult elements is out of order, not for that place.  I still contend that there are people there who directly amplified harassment towards Etika and contributed to his suicide, and would like to see the place those monsters call home as held accountable.

[Transhuman]

If they've shelled out $4.5 mil i'm sure MOBA did due diligence so they know exactly what they're buying. I don't think it will come as a surprise to them that the moderation is erratic.

Also sort of a bitch move to send narc emails, that's the kind of stuff I expect to see on resetera not here

[jorma]

Look, there's nothing wrong or illegal or cancel worthy about resetera and/or their owner. Just leave them be already.
Also, i think it's wrong to just copy paste entire posts here, you should just provide a link to the amusing post you want to share and let everyone read it themselves on restera, the way it was meant to be read. That's the OG experience and the best way to get a proper laugh out of them.

And i say that because i truly feel that way, not because i recently discovered that i have money invested in the site.

 

[james]

Maiden Voyage is giving me some creepy Farms vibes.

Here at the bore, we sit back and watch while eating food. Nothing more, nothing less.

Only Benji, with his special skills is expected to go further by taking a deep dive into public About Us pages.

[team filler]

 

[Taco Bell Tower]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/nsfl-just-stumbled-upon-what-could-be-the-most-misogynistic-fb-post-ive-ever-read.503610/

This thread. All of it. From conception to execution.

Usually I wouldn't post random facebook posts I find on Discord, but this one is so fucking vile and misogynistic, even if supposed to be a "joke", that I couldn't help but share it here.

These people, man.

Well, that went hard, nonetheless.

We don't need a shock thread that's likely to upset female members

[who is ted danson?]

Tsar Bombadil banned for being an alt 

el em eff ayy oh

[BIONIC]

i see reset era have found my facebook page 

#FreeCreamMisogynyThread