NeoGAF is back online, but it's turned into an undead Nazi version of its former self

NeoGAF is back, and site owner Tyler Malka's plan for keeping the party going is... let's just call it "misguided." Even that might be overly generous.

As you may have read already, Malka is currently staring down accusations of sexual harassment that -- as his "We're back!" note makes clear -- he's trying to turn into a game of "he said, she said." I'm not here to let him off the hook for resorting to this exceedingly shitty tactic, but the facts around Malka's misconduct aren't relevant to what I want to talk about here.

Instead, I want to look at the substance of Malka's statement and the path forward as it pertains to NeoGAF. He left the nuts-and-bolts explanation of what's next for the site to a post from the anonymous "ModBot," but make no mistake: Malka owns the website, and he owns that plan as well, even if his name isn't technically on the post laying it out.

The messages were ready and waiting after NeoGAF's gaming-focused discussion forum came back online this week following a couple days of downtime. The "Off-Topic Community" section of the site, where people talk about things other than video games, is still missing. As it turns out, there's a reason for that.

Malka alluded to issues with off-topic discussions in his note, referring to the "inevitable toxicity" that arises to color any forum post of a political nature. The ModBot post makes it clear how Malka and what remains of his moderation team plan to address that so-called inevitability moving forward.

Here's the relevant bit:

The future of NeoGAF will be a return to what many of us have come here for, a place where we can gather together and enjoy our shared hobby of video games. For a short time, Off-Topic Discussion and Off-Topic Community will be closed so that we can rediscover that. We'll be starting with a clean slate when they come back. However, the focus will be on the many other hobbies we may have like TV, movies, anime, writing, music, etc. Political and social discourse will not be allowed in the new Off-Topic. Those types of discussions greatly added to the harsh and unwelcoming atmosphere of Off-Topic, which pushed many users away. For those worried: OT has not been deleted, and important threads will be archived for recovery once it's open again.

There's no getting around it: this is a bad plan. A very bad plan.

Entertainment is, in part, a product of the culture that informs its creation. Sure, it's possible to unpack certain ideas on an academic level in a way that doesn't engage with the social or political elements in the work. But at a certain point, ignoring those bits renders any discussion pointless.

Whether you realize it or not, most examples of conversation-worthy entertainment are inherently political. Further, exploring those facets of one creation or another is often what makes it interesting in the first place.

Really though, that's all beside the point. Because for all the talk in that ModBot post of snuffing out certain lines of conversation in the name of eliminating the toxic aspects of the NeoGAF community... that's also not really what any of this is about.

In truth, this new course correction is motivated by a desire to silence voices that could potentially say things that Malka doesn't like. This has been his M.O. for years and years, as most NeoGAF members know very well and as Kotaku documented in detail on Sunday.

Sure, the hope may be that a biased approach to moderation cuts down on toxic chatter. But that's what the mod team did -- and did effectively -- before Malka became a pariah; NeoGAF was, by and large, a safe space to geek out without worrying about racists and GamerGate trolls.

It may still be that way with the site restored, but don't for one second believe the bullshit line about the returning "to what many of us have come here for, a place where we can gather together and enjoy our shared hobby of video games."

The NeoGAF 2.0 plan isn't about that at all. Really, it's about Malka distancing himself from any blame. Just like he's trying to re-frame the sexual harassment accusations as a "he said, she said" spat, so too is he shoving off responsibility for restoring order on the site in a real, honest way. Instead, he's gone the "silence those who say things I don't like" route.

Don't forget: NeoGAF came crashing down over the weekend not because the community was out of control, but rather because the site's owner landed in controversial hot water. The uproar of NeoGAF's progressive community was a direct response to that, not an object example of a situation that needs to be "fixed."

In other words: We're not here because of a community problem, we're here because of an owner problem.

The only fix that's needed, frankly, is Malka's removal. Looking at the forums now, the community seems torn on this point. But the path that's been laid out for NeoGAF 2.0 is not a road to a healthy community. Rather, it's the embryonic first step of a totalitarian approach to maintaining order.

That's my piece. If I sound angry, it's because I am angry. NeoGAF hasn't ever been purely good or purely bad; like all things in life, it's colored in shades of grey. But in this stunningly terrible 2017, when fascist principles are thrust in our faces on a daily basis, it's important to be mindful of moments like this.

Malka and NeoGAF's apparent new policy of "the only truth is our truth" is a heavy-handed metaphor for the U.S. under Trump, and the concurrent bubbling up of hateful ideologies in our culture. That fact is plainly obvious to anyone who takes the time to look, and it should be marked as the moment this once-beloved virtual community center truly died.