NeoGAF is back online with a statement from owner Evilore

Influential gaming forum NeoGAF is once again back online following a messy weekend of allegations and mass mod resignations.

The trouble started when allegations of sexual misconduct were made against NeoGAF owner Tyler "Evilore" Malka over the weekend. When the news generated outrage on the forum shortly after, Evilore took down NeoGAF and promised to return with a statement.

A couple of days later, he has, but the new NeoGAF will look much different from the one we've known in the past few years. For starters, off-topic forums will not be available for a while to "rediscover" their identity. When they do return, "political and social discourse" won't be among the topics allowed in off-topic. "Those types of discussions greatly added to the harsh and unwelcoming atmosphere of Off-Topic, which pushed many users away," read one statement.

Since the gaming section came back only in the early hours of the morning (Europe), the majority of new threads were made just to call out Malka and his behaviour, even as some of them were ostensibly about gaming topics. You can even see a history of them through the ever-helpful NeoGAF New Threads Twitter account.

Naturally, bans were awarded left and right as new mods tried to keep the peace. While this greatly reduced the number of these threads, you'll still find dissenting voices in many other threads. A change to how moderation works is among the few things that'll be different in the forum's future.

"Moderation will also see changes. Over the years, moderators changed from simply people who made sure discussion stay civil into personalities. It's because of that, many were targeted for harassment and other things. This shouldn't be happening to them. We've taken action to protect these people by making moderation anonymous. There will be no more red-names that single them out nor will there be a list of who is one," the statement continued.

For his part, Tyler "Evilore" Malka issued a lengthy statement denying the allegations, saying that the claimant "isn't credible" and that the story "doesn't reconcile logically with the facts."

You can read Malka's full statement through the link.