ResetEra Ownership Update

[Deleted member 5865]

A lot of people have started migrating back to Neogaf... If only because Evilore was a lot more transparent in terms of how he dealt with others.

For starters... He didn't sell out his own people.

Looking at the Neogaf thread that talks about the Resetera sale... It seems as if Evilore has been doing his forum thing for "a while"... But Restera couldn't keep it together for even 4 years.

Ultimately... Neogaf has a successful track record.

Click to shrink...

Yall wilding with this line of talk in here, nobody who came here to immerse themselves in leftist talk is going back to that site, especially not to admire the owner's "realness". Whoever did migrated for a completely different reason and you can speculate on what that reasoning was lol

 

[spootime]

That anyone could think this place is "under-moderated" is preposterous. It's something I've wanted to express but consequently (due to the OVER moderation) have been afraid to do. Perhaps more moderators are needed to lighten the load but throwing bans around every time a dissenting opinion is presented ain't it.

Click to shrink...

This place is a community made up of many smaller communities and individual posters of varying post quality/quantity.

Continuously alienating those, banning them for sometimes spurious reasons, and just chasing them away in general — pretending like they're utterly expendable to the greater community — is only going to lead in one growth direction: downward.

With fewer communities, there's less activity. With the loss of crucial posters who maintain communities, they die or go elsewhere. With fewer community safe spaces and fewer posters in general, discussion dwindles and becomes stagnant.

Look at any given thread from a year or more ago and it's a graveyard of bannings. Not all of those people were bigoted or doing things that actually warranted swift and final removal; indeed, most probably weren't, from my observations of how frivolously bans can be handed out despite an ostensible council approach.

The internet in general has become more negative, it's true, in no small part to do massive disinformation campaigns, political upheaval, and rise in hate that have embittered and divided so many. But that started before Era's founding, and for a period of months, Era was actually a rather positive place with thriving communities. Then its policies and staff began shifting for various reasons, and that atmosphere slowly began to change, with easily avoidable fiasco after easily avoidable fiasco toxifying the relationship between community and staff — something that has fault on both ends, but which only one end has the actual power over policy to change, as the other side is a powerless non-monolith who can only adjust their individual behavior.

And now we're still at a place where the community has little trust in the staff because of bad behavior, and the staff is embittered toward the community because of bad behavior — an ouroboros of negativity and a downward spiral, with seemingly little willingness or energy to effect change that might reverse that and rekindle mutual trust. There's really no where to go from here unless those things manifest, but at a certain point with off-shoot forums being created and people being content with their discords, the full community becomes an unsalvageable memory.

Oh well. Don't know why I wrote this except that the whole situation continues to be needless, frustrating, and sad, and I wish this place could be repaired.

Click to shrink...

It's actually hilarious going into a 2017 thread and seeing how many people have been permabanned. And then checking their post histories and seeing 8000+ posts. Huh wonder where everyone went?

 

[qwerty999]

Some might and have, most seem to be going off to smaller communities to do their own thing.

Click to shrink...

Is the membership base large enough to ensure that their forum will be self-sustaining via ads etc?

Unless the members of these forums can organise themselves into paying for the regular upkeep, I don't think a lot of those smaller communities will be able to survive in a few years.

 

[rochellepaws]

It seems a little noteworthy that almost all of this companies sites are in a general decline in terms of traffic and engagement.

Amazon Alexa

www.alexa.com

Amazon Alexa

www.alexa.com

Amazon Alexa

www.alexa.com

Amazon Alexa

www.alexa.com

Amazon Alexa

www.alexa.com

 

[Einherjer]

Is the membership base large enough to ensure that their forum will be self-sustaining via ads etc?

Unless the members of these forums can organise themselves into paying for the regular upkeep, I don't think a lot of those smaller communities will be able to survive in a few years.

Click to shrink...

That makes no sense? Smaller community's obviously need less upkeep and even big forums like this one generated far far more then needed which is why we are in this situation in the first place.

 

[Trouble]

Whelp it was a fun ride while it lasted. Funny to see the whole 'no one person should own the site' was quietly tossed aside.

 

[FeD]

It seems a little noteworthy that almost all of this companies sites are in a general decline in terms of traffic and engagement.

Amazon Alexa

www.alexa.com

Amazon Alexa

www.alexa.com

Amazon Alexa

www.alexa.com

Amazon Alexa

www.alexa.com

Amazon Alexa

www.alexa.com

Click to shrink...

TBF with COVID restrictions easing up, there might be some engagement dropping because of that as well. It would be interesting to see the data behind the paywall. Because this could just be a correction for the increase of engagement during all the lockdowns across the world.

 

[Dennis8K]

Clearly there is still gold in them here gaming forum hills if ResetEra brought in $700,000 annually.

I would be happy running a forum 5 times smaller than Era, that would still bring in $140,000 annually.

 

[entremet]

Any assurances the mods are getting now from new management means nothing. They have no leverage if the new owners wants to open up registration to maximize engagement and traffic. You don't spend $4.5 million on an investment--make no mistake that is what ResetERA is to MOBA--and not be proactive with it.

Click to shrink...

I agree. I'm not naive there. Just mentioning what was said.

 

[oni-link]

It's obvious to anyone who's taken a passing look at the numbers that changes are going to come, and sooner than later.

Era was bought for 4.55m as a for-profit venture. Era's community, engagement, and profitability are stagnant at best -- downsliding at worst -- but even if they stayed the same as they are right now, it would take them, what, ~9 years to make back their investment, let alone profit, with Era's current earnings?

That's, uh, not something they're going to wait around for. That would not be a sensible investment strategy. Björn Mannerqvist, CEO of M.O.B.A. Network, is literally quoted as saying Era represents "great growth potential" and they have "significant opportunities to develop it."

What the staff says on this literally doesn't matter. The CEO is right there saying in the press release that changes are going to roll in to make this place profitable for them, and soon.

Click to shrink...

At the same time, if we assume they did any research at all, they'd know the one thing this community is good at is leaving when they're not happy. Era is a splinter forum from a splinter forum, and there are 3 more splinter forums already from Era alone

Technically, you're right, in that the mods have no power and any assurances they have been provided with can just be reneged on, but if they do a single thing the community are not happy with, then the site will be dead within weeks. No one is going to stick around and deal with all these nightmare level situations people are predicting, and unless this Bjorn fella is an idiot, he'll be aware of that

I think they'll struggle to make their money back to be honest, they've been mugged paying almost 5m for Era, but If they open registrations and go against the mod team, then mods will walk and so will the core posters from the community. They will all leave to one of the already up and running Era splinter sites, or someone will make NeoEra and we'll go there, or people will just quit forums all together and stick to Reddit/Discord/Twitter

I have over 10k posts here and the soon as alt right shit is posted here, or a billion troll accounts sign up, or I'm met with annoying auto playing ads, I'll be off

If i were the new owners I'd be walking on eggshells. Their best bet is to do very little and hope they can keep that 700k a year rolling in until they make a profit. I think doing anything more invasive has a better chance at tanking the entire venture than it does increasing profit, and ultimately, if their goal was to obtain a dead forum full of shitposters they should have approached Tyler, not Cerium

 

[Min]

Is the membership base large enough to ensure that their forum will be self-sustaining via ads etc?

Unless the members of these forums can organise themselves into paying for the regular upkeep, I don't think a lot of those smaller communities will be able to survive in a few years.

Click to shrink...

I think more people are moving to discord which is easier to organize and more private for smaller communities.

 

[qwerty999]

Yall wilding with this line of talk in here, nobody who came here to immerse themselves in leftist talk is going back to that site, especially not to admire the owner's "realness". Whoever did migrated for a completely different reason and you can speculate on what that reasoning was lol

Click to shrink...

Don't know... According to the sentiment of a lot of people on this forum, the owner of this "leftist forum" sold out his own people for a quick buck, and also didn't divvy any of the "taxes" to ensure that this forum would have better infrastructure and services.

None of the money went to the people who actually did any of the real work.

Users can drown themselves in "leftist talk" all they want, but that still doesn't excuse the fact that the "head of state" literally just stole from his own people.

There was a thread on Resetera that complained about companies using "slave labour". But even if those companies treated their workers like slaves, at least those workers got paid.

Nobody here got paid. Not even the mods.

I wonder how many people will start complaining about Resetera (as a LLC company) using "slave labour"... Because that's what it is.

 

[Dennis8K]

At least now we know that the whole "get woke, go broke" meme isn't true.

ResetEra is the most progressive of the big gaming forums and Cerium is now a multimillionaire 1%'er !!!

 

[vhoanox]

The thing is on that day, neogaf died literally. The site was off for days, for a few second i got though, there were nothing but suicide accounts.
There is no change that could happen to resetera, the site will stay up even it is a wasteland.

It was just awesome, big and small communities sticked together helping everyone make one of the smoothiest transition ever. Oh well, we trusted on others back then.

 

[Disclaimer]

Is the membership base large enough to ensure that their forum will be self-sustaining via ads etc?

Unless the members of these forums can organise themselves into paying for the regular upkeep, I don't think a lot of those smaller communities will be able to survive in a few years.

Click to shrink...

It would not be difficult. Countless smaller forums are perfectly capable of staying afloat. Such server upkeep is actually not super expensive if you're efficient about it.

To say nothing of the fact that Era's community -- and, thus, its splinter communities -- are passionate and eager to help if it means a place they can feel they belong. I guarantee that if Era hadn't been a Cerium-run profit venture, it could have made considerable self-sustaining bank off of community donation drives or something of the like. I mean, that's clearly what people thought Era Clear was, and look at how much it "helped keep (Cerium's accountant's) lights on."

 

[srtrestre]

Super Grift Bro
The Grift of Us
Griftloop
Final Grift 4.5 Remake
Griftboy: A Big Scam-venture

 

[Dennis8K]

NeoGAF has spawned countless other forums, the biggest and most successful of which is ResetEra.

But even most of the other smaller forum that has spun out of NeoGAF (and now ResetEra) seems to be doing OK even if they aren't huge money makers just yet.

I believe money can still be made in the gaming forum space.

 

[Faenix1]

Don't know... According to the sentiment of a lot of people on this forum, the owner of this "leftist forum" sold out his own people for a quick buck, and also didn't divvy any of the "taxes" to ensure that this forum would have better infrastructure and services.

None of the money went to the people who actually did any of the real work.

Users can drown themselves in "leftist talk" all they want, but that still doesn't excuse the fact that the "head of state" literally just stole from his own people.

There was a thread on Resetera that complained about companies using "slave labour". But even if those companies treated their workers like slaves, at least those workers got paid.

Nobody here got paid. Not even the mods.

I wonder how many people will start complaining about Resetera (as a LLC company) using "slave labour"... Because that's what it is.

Click to shrink...

Except everyone knew what they signed up for. They knew it was a volunteer position and are/were fine with that. No one seemingly fought for actual shares in the overall site, and if they did just ended up selling them to Cerium anyway. He answered he was the sole owner in 2019 but seems no one but a few paid attention.

 

[Claude Augario]

A lot of people have started migrating back to Neogaf... If only because Evilore was a lot more transparent in terms of how he dealt with others.

For starters... He didn't sell out his own people.

Looking at the Neogaf thread that talks about the Resetera sale... It seems as if Evilore has been doing his forum thing for "a while"... But Restera couldn't keep it together for even 4 years.

Ultimately... Neogaf has a successful track record.

Click to shrink...

Evilore was a performative clown and sex pest that was willing to shut down half the forum to stop people from talking about what he did. No one that left NeoGAF because it was run by a sex pest is going back to a site that's still run by a sex pest that tried to fill the gap left by having no community with Nazi's and second-chancers he unbanned and begged to come back. He "didn't sell his people out" because he has no people to sell out and goes whichever way the wind blows.

His obsession with this place has always boiled down to the the delusion that "All those people that left the site are going to wake up one morning and realize their huge mistake and come crawling back." Not really surprised an account with less than 100 posts started peddling his personal narrative here.

 

[qwerty999]

It would not be difficult. Countless smaller forums are perfectly capable of staying afloat. Such server upkeep is actually not super expensive if you're efficient about it.

To say nothing of the fact that Era's community -- and, thus, its splinter communities -- are passionate and eager to help if it means a place they can feel they belong. I guarantee that if Era hadn't been a Cerium-run profit venture, it could have made considerable self-sustaining bank off of community donation drives or something of the like. I mean, that's clearly what people thought Era Clear was, and look at how much it "helped keep (Cerium's accountant's) lights on."

Click to shrink...

Just even considering that $50k annual profit...

This site only costs about $3000 to set up on a bad day. But if someone (like Cerium) was to even invest $10k into the site's architecture, and ensure that it had better services... This site would have been a lot harder to leave.

That's why people found it so easy to leave Neogaf in droves. Because it wasn't that hard to set up a competing forum. One that had an even better infrastructure from the get go.

 

[Deleted member 5865]

Don't know... According to the sentiment of a lot of people on this forum, the owner of this "leftist forum" sold out his own people for a quick buck, and also didn't divvy any of the "taxes" to ensure that this forum would have better infrastructure and services.

None of the money went to the people who actually did any of the real work.

Users can drown themselves in "leftist talk" all they want, but that still doesn't excuse the fact that the "head of state" literally just stole from his own people.

Click to shrink...

...and the reaction wouldn't be "The owner of a left leaning fourm did something I didn't like, time to go back to alt-right circlejerks helmed by conservative-loving sex pests". Them folk going to splinter fourms and discords where they can get moderation tuned to their liking, like they've apparently been doing. Unless your political leaning is fair-weather as I-dont-know-what I'm not sure why this controversy would lead you back to the old place, unless politics was never the issue

 

[PintSizedSlasher]

Some of these takes…… now the mods are slaves?

 

[Deleted member 29249]

The thing is on that day, neogaf died literally. The site was off for days, for a few second i got though, there were nothing but suicide accounts.
There is no change that could happen to resetera, the site will stay up even it is a wasteland.

It was just awesome, big and small communities sticked together helping everyone make one of the smoothiest transition ever. Oh well, we trusted on others back then.

Click to shrink...

give it a few days, takes time to set up another grift.

 

[dark_prinny]

Some of these takes…… now the mods are slaves?

Click to shrink...

Yeah this is something else lol

 

[Tygre]

Which specific concerns do you want him to answer?

Click to shrink...

Hi, yes, these that I posted a few pages ago please:

Why were MOBA Network the "best fit", given the state of their other message boards and their close ties to a number of online casinos?
Especially concerning is "Any post regarding sexuality, gender identity, ethnicity or women's rights to bodily autonomy is regardless of context considered a "forbidden topic" on an equal level with posting graphic violence gore images and is encouraged to be reported immediately for moderation." being policy for another of their boards.
Additionally, with their stated plans to expand advertising and direct sales, what about this company specifically was in any way appealing?

Why indeed was a sale the "best way to secure the future of the site"? The financials in MOBA Network's press release suggest no ongoing financial investment was needed, or will be made, given the massive profitability of the existing model. Couldn't the ownership have been transferred in a way that took the "pressure" off of Cerium without placing the forum in the hands of a for-profit business? Were alternative arrangements in terms of community ownership even considered?

Then we come to GDPR compliance, and whether the handling of user's data has met the standards required when a sale like this occurs? I mean I'm sure all the due diligence required was done, but it would be nice to have that stated unequivocally.

Finally I genuinely want to know if Cerium thinks he did right by the tech team / those in paid positions when it came to this transfer of ownership, because that really stands out to me as a shitty thing to do, but maybe I'm missing some context or something.


I'd be happy to get thoughts on the above from B-Dubs , Hecht , Transistor or any of the other staff who have been popping in, especially their thoughts on the past behaviour of the new owners and the sort of sites this place is now legally associated with.

Y'all just okay with "sexuality, gender identity, ethnicity or women's rights to bodily autonomy" being equated with "graphic violence gore images" in terms of how they are moderated? I sure haven't seen any condemnation of that, but maybe I missed it, it's a big thread.

But Cerium is, without hesitation, one of the kindest, nicest people I've met on these internets. A mainstay in my DMs. One of the handful of people checking in on me when nobody else was.

I have his personal phone number. I know his name.

Click to shrink...

I'm sure Cerium has been lovely to you, personally.

Please understand that most of us don't know him at all, because he's barely interacted with the community he's been making $500k a year off of and just sold for $4.5 million.

 

[RedMercury]

Thanks to the staff for remaining active in here and weathering the storm

 

[vhoanox]

give it a few days, takes time to set up another grift.

Click to shrink...

Let say someone sets up another site, you expect thousand people mirage again just like last time. The talks about rules and ownership alone would go on forever and funny thinking people just rolls over and agree on anything now.
Thing happened 4 years ago bc the entire forum completely trusted whatever the "resetter" group prepare for us.

 

[less]

Finally I genuinely want to know if @Cerium thinks he did right by the tech team / those in paid positions when it came to this transfer of ownership, because that really stands out to me as a shitty thing to do, but maybe I'm missing some context or something.

Click to shrink...

I won't speak for DUC but you absolutely don't have to worry about me.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

Where is he? It has been 55 hours now.

Click to shrink...

Why would he come back? He made out like a bandit selling Era up the river.

 

[Dennis8K]

Let say someone sets up another site, you expect thousand people mirage again just like last time. The talks about rules and ownership alone would go on forever and funny thinking people just rolls over and agree on anything now.
Thing happened 4 years ago bc the entire forum completely trusted whatever the "resetter" group prepare for us.

Click to shrink...

I think a ResetEra-like forum that actually made good on the promises ResetEra was initially set up with (more inclusive, less banhammer, letting go of past grievances) would have a good chance of succeeding.

 

[Disclaimer]

At the same time, if we assume they did any research at all, they'd know the one thing this community is good at is leaving when they're not happy. Era is a splinter forum from a splinter forum, and there are 3 more splinter forums already from Era alone

Technically, you're right, in that the mods have no power and any assurances they have been provided with can just be reneged on, but if they do a single thing the community are not happy with, then the site will be dead within weeks. No one is going to stick around and deal with all these nightmare level situations people are predicting, and unless this Bjorn fella is an idiot, he'll be aware of that

I think they'll struggle to make their money back to be honest, they've been mugged paying almost 5m for Era, but If they open registrations and go against the mod team, then mods will walk and so will the core posters from the community. They will all leave to one of the already up and running Era splinter sites, or someone will make NeoEra and we'll go there, or people will just quit forums all together and stick to Reddit/Discord/Twitter

I have over 10k posts here and the soon as alt right shit is posted here, or a billion troll accounts sign up, or I'm met with annoying auto playing ads, I'll be off

If i were the new owners I'd be walking on eggshells. Their best bet is to do very little and hope they can keep that 700k a year rolling in until they make a profit. I think doing anything more invasive has a better chance at tanking the entire venture than it does increasing profit, and ultimately, if their goal was to obtain a dead forum full of shitposters they should have approached Tyler, not Cerium

Click to shrink...

Era is unstable and hemorrhaging communities after less than 5 years. It would take a decade for them to break even if they "walked on eggshells" and kept the status quo... while the status quo of profit is already slipping. They are going to ramp up profitability drastically, one way or another. It is inevitable.

I don't think this CEO is likely to be highly attuned into the history of Era. And I also think the founding of Era isn't really demonstrative of an easily replicable feat. People are wary of changes, but a mass migration is probably not going to happen again; the smaller splinters are sort of the exceptions that prove that rule. Era was founded on a lot of good will, and that good will is out the window. The communities are just going to take what they can get in their insularity rather than taking the jump to coalesce again. If this MOBA Group did do their due diligence and is aware of Era's history, they're probably banking on people clinging to the idea of a last big forum bastion that won't be able to be replicated -- and will milk that sentiment while they can, ramping up ads and profit, while maybe avoiding the outright alt right sensibilities of their every other forum.

But I agree that they've probably essentially been hoodwinked by Cerium, and this was an unsafe investment. There's a reason Cerium was -- as the analyst in the tweet up-thread said -- desperate to sell, rather than shopping around for Era's full valuation. Era literally lost two big communities in just the past month. He made steady bank while he could, then robbed the bank when that prospect went into decline. To think otherwise at this point would just be shockingly naive.

 

[alr1ght]

Hi, yes, these that I posted a few pages ago please:

Click to shrink...

The answers to all your questions is that the MOBA people gave him the most money. He'll never show his face here again. It might as well be a deleted account.

 

[Deleted member 29249]

Let say someone sets up another site, you expect thousand people mirage again just like last time. The talks about rules and ownership alone would go on forever and funny thinking people just rolls over and agree on anything now.
Thing happened 4 years ago bc the entire forum completely trusted whatever the "resetter" group prepare for us.

Click to shrink...

not really, other things have replaced forums at this point. That said, there will be mass account deletion request as seen from this thread already. Don't think the "community" will be had for a 3rd time.

 

[Trafalgar Law]

A lot of people have started migrating back to Neogaf... If only because Evilore was a lot more transparent in terms of how he dealt with others.

For starters... He didn't sell out his own people.

Looking at the Neogaf thread that talks about the Resetera sale... It seems as if Evilore has been doing his forum thing for "a while"... But Restera couldn't keep it together for even 4 years.

Ultimately... Neogaf has a successful track record.

Click to shrink...

Look I hear this but resetera getting bought for that much shows it's a big success
Also also , ain't no ducking way we giving evilore prop , era has its failures but evilore has his too

 

[vhoanox]

I think a ResetEra-like forum that actually made good on the promises ResetEra was initially set up with (more inclusive, less banhammer, letting go of past grievances) would have a good chance of succeeding.

Click to shrink...

I can only hope someone working on that forum if and when this place falls in the gutter.

 

[chaostrophy]

The mods' intentions seem to be in the right place but as the policy stands shit has become unhospitable. We all have blindspots or misspeak. Everyone. But to be characterized as the choice -phobic of the week or accused of "dismissing concerns of [insert] in a sensitive topic" anytime you post something that misaligns with certain views is insane. It seems like people weaponize the 'report' function, and I don't know why the mods capitulate. If you're overwhelmed bring MORE mods on to help? It didn't always used to be like this and it's maddening.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I've noticed this a lot lately. For a while, Era and the old place were honestly one of the best places to get diverse perspectives about these sensitive topics and learn about them. But more recently after seeing one thread after another become a graveyard of bans, to me that value is gone. I've never been banned myself because I'm totally ok with shutting up and listening. But I have to decide who to shut up and listen to, and discussion here is so heavily skewed by the moderation I find myself thinking it's just not worth it and there are better uses of my listening time than echo chambers.

 

[oni-link]

But I agree that they've probably essentially been hoodwinked by Cerium, and this was an unsafe investment. There's a reason Cerium was -- as the analyst in the tweet up-thread said -- desperate to sell, rather than shopping around for Era's full valuation. Era literally lost two big communities in just the past month. He made steady bank while he could, then robbed the bank when that prospect went into decline. To think otherwise at this point would just be shockingly naive.

Click to shrink...

Yeah 700k a year is great but you need the site to be in a good place for that to occur every year. I think there is scope for improvement but I think that would need to come from the community and mods working together for a better site for everyone. I don't think an external company pumping in ads is going to do anything but speed up a decline in activity/tension

I'm still planing to stick around and see what happens though, so we shall see

If only Era could have been what it was supposed to be, owned and run for the community, with no sole owner

 

[srtrestre]

That locked 4 post thread where Cerium admits to be the sole owner of the site reminds me of this exchange:


But the plans were on display…"
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That's the display department."
"With a flashlight."
"Ah, well, the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice, didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.

 

[Gareth]

Why were MOBA Network the "best fit", given the state of their other message boards and their close ties to a number of online casinos?

Click to shrink...

There are 4.5 million reasons why they were the best fit ;)

Why indeed was a sale the "best way to secure the future of the site"?

Click to shrink...

The financials in MOBA Network's press release suggest no ongoing financial investment was needed, or will be made, given the massive profitability of the existing model. Couldn't the ownership have been transferred in a way that took the "pressure" off of Cerium without placing the forum in the hands of a for-profit business? Were alternative arrangements in terms of community ownership even considered?

Click to shrink...

I wonder if he expected the new owner to reveal Era's previous year's earnings in their press release when he wrote that?

I'm sure Cerium has been lovely to you, personally.

Please understand that most of us don't know him at all, because he's barely interacted with the community he's been making $500k a year off of and just sold for $4.5 million.

Click to shrink...

It's such a shame that what was once a big community effort to get this place going ended up being a big pay day for one man - well played to him though. It's crazy that we ended up with a sole owner here when there were many people willing to help cover costs back when this place was starting, it could've stayed in community hands.

 

[PJV3]

I think a ResetEra-like forum that actually made good on the promises ResetEra was initially set up with (more inclusive, less banhammer, letting go of past grievances) would have a good chance of succeeding.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, it would need a let your hair down sub-forum or something, it's way too tense on Resetera, but i get the higher standard for shared areas like Etcetera and also protecting hangouts. It's frustrating as someone who agrees 95% of the time with the outlook of the site to see the explosions and fracturing.

 

[Sadsic]

I don't think it's inherently bad that this forum was run like a business, or that mods were working voluntarily, I can't think of many or any websites really where moderators are a paid employee. I run a Telegram with 7000 people in it and generally the mods there are voluntary people who just really enjoy the community and they come and go as they please, I think its a straightforward model that most forums or online communities use regardless of if the owner generates money from it or not

Personally I think most of the problems this site has is from trying to enforce a series of ethics that are too difficult for just a random internet dweller to easily follow, particularly with the wide variety of intersectional communities that each require different specific knowledge to navigate properly. It's not something this website is at fault for, it's just kind of a miserable task trying to uphold leftist ideals, it requires a lot more energy and education than a lot of people are willing to give

Also minor grievance but this website seems to literally hate cryptocurrencies and nfts which is what I work in lol

 

[Deleted member 3010]

I believe that, while the announcement that ERA was bought is clearly indicated up here, most people may only have read the headline and/or Cerium's post without being aware of the deeper stuff found about our new partner's questionable guidelines and content in their other forums.

I think there is a broader conversation to be had in either EtcetEra and/or the Gaming Forum about these ties, which essentially makes us affiliated with alt-right content. Awareness and transparency is important and I don't think this would fly for everyone.

 

[icexxascended]

The more I think about it, the more scummy this whole thing is. Should've been redflags when OP didn't mention the selling price and tried to create a sob story. This site was such a group effort it's disgusting to see one person literally make off with millions. The whole purpose of Resetera was a forum made by and for the community, or that is what I assumed. Clearly that isn't the case

 

[Powerofthecloud]

I'm not sure why anyone should be surprised. When the shit went down on GAF we saw people scrambling to get the transition sites up. People had to realize the reasoning behind this no? We already knew GAF was income producing why would the new site be any different? This is the site that won the selection lottery and the owner cashed out. It's as simple as that.

So people may want to feel like they have been used. But up to this point not really. Ownership had to weather the storm to get the site where it is now. Where it goes from here I guess we will see.

 

[Deleted member 15311]

Evilore was a performative clown and sex pest that was willing to shut down half the forum to stop people from talking about what he did. No one that left NeoGAF because it was run by a sex pest is going back to a site that's still run by a sex pest that tried to fill the gap left by having no community with Nazi's and second-chancers he unbanned and begged to come back. He "didn't sell his people out" because he has no people to sell out and goes whichever way the wind blows.

His obsession with this place has always boiled down to the the delusion that "All those people that left the site are going to wake up one morning and realize their huge mistake and come crawling back." Not really surprised an account with less than 100 posts started peddling his personal narrative here.

Click to shrink...

You got him!

 

[Gyro Zeppeli]

It's pitiful that mods are presenting this as Cerium being a impossible-to-reach celebrity figure. We should contact his agent to set up an interview.

 

[PJV3]

It's pitiful that mods are presenting this as Cerium being a impossible-to-reach celebrity figure. We should contact his agent to set up an interview.

Click to shrink...

If he's not answering his phone on his new Yacht in the Bahamas there isn't a lot they can do, Bjorn is the new boss.

 

[Deleted member 3010]

It's pitiful that mods are presenting this as Cerium being a impossible-to-reach celebrity figure. We should contact his agent to set up an interview.

Click to shrink...

To be honest, now that the deed is done, Cerium could either come back with a lenghty explanation and answers to every single questions or tell us to collectively take the high road and go fuck ourselves wouldn't make much of a difference now would it?

 

[Cats]

To be honest, now that the deed is done, Cerium could either come back with a lenghty explanation and answers to every single questions or tell us to collectively take the high road and go fuck ourselves wouldn't make much of a difference now would it?

Click to shrink...

Hard to say what the buyout contract entails. It might have some sort of clause in terms of destruction of the asset over a certain amount of time. I don't think you could sell your company, then the moment you sign the papers, tell everyone to quit because of reasons. I can't see legal action not happening from the buyers at that point.

 

[Zombine]

You know, Ellie. This really was a ResetEra.