GAF: freedom of expression OR freedom of oppression?

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TrueBlueHero

pravus my personal hero 2014
Sep 12, 2013
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Why discussing GAF on UVGF?
GAF is considered one of the most influential if not THE most influential videogame-platform/s on the web. Wheter you like it or not GAF plays an important role in the opinion-forming of gamers worldwide. There's an interaction between the media, industry representatives (including MS's Alberto Penello, Major Nelson) and the thousands of forum users.
If you look at all the GAF references in this board alone you can't deny it's importance and I think it's time to give all the (general) GAF discussion a designated thread.

What's your incentive to do such a time-consuming write-up? Desire for revenge? Boredom?
Truth be told I've been a GAF member myself and I've been banned in my Junior time (months ago). Thing is, it's been my first ban EVER and I've been an active forum member in diverse boards for at least a decade. I'm not lamenting however - I should have been more careful as a Junior knowing the board and it's special mentality/rules. Like the guy below I didn't break any conventional rules, never ever insulted someone but I had an unpopular point of view (not anti-MS/Xbox) and a tongue too sharp for my own good.
While I do think (and will prove below) that there is evident injustice at GAF that really bothers me I still enjoy the board for all the great information and great people posting there.
There's a lot of talk about the "biased GAF" the "hatred towards all things Xbox" and the "one-sided mods" - and it's actually easy (and might be appropriate in some cases) to dismiss all that by saying "Fanboys / vengefull banned jerks - just let them talk, there's a reason they're gone!".
Don't get me wrong: There ARE a lot of blind fanboys (including Xbox fanboys) that deserve to be banned.
However I will show you an example of evident injustice fully knowing that's an example, a sample that's not represntative of whole GAF and all the mods nevertheless a pattern I and others have noticed and that I think hurts GAF and thus all enthusiasts.

Enough introductory words - let's get started already!
The starting point for my small investigation has been new UVGF-member OldSchoolNerd's inaugural-post.
After reading through the first pages of the GAF-thread I detected a familiar pattern, a pattern that some GAFers say doesn't exist. As a person that can't stand injustice an investigative urge arose.
But I knew that my own personal bias wouldn't make me the most credible person in some eyes. However as a psychologist I know how to put my expectations/bias aside and approach a task in a more scientific way.
I investigated OldSchoolNerd's and all related posts (there are a lot of posts that don't refer to OldSchoolNerd) from OldSchoolNerd's first post #6372 to post #6550 (end of discussion - OldSchoolNerd banned).
The thread is basically a technical discussion regarding XO's and PS4's power differences incoperating a lot of more or less trustworthy sources (dependening who you ask - Edge, MS, Sony, anonymous developers, forum insiders, digital foundry, beyond3d,...).
To ensure objectivity I will not go into content-related discussion because in my eyes there is no "truth" to be found right now. Performance can be estimated but there are so many factors and so many unknown quantities that it's basically an endless highly subjective discussion (and by that I don't want to say that there are no differences just that these differences can't be accurately quantified yet).
So basically it all comes down to which sources are deemed worthwhile and what the majority thinks is true.
Thus I ignored content (only requirement for posts: evidence-based AND/OR reasoned) and focused on general behavior because this (not the subjective quality of your belief) is considered relevant regarding bans.
So let's check GAF's own terms of service:
Expected Behavior
NeoGAF is a forum for holding civil, evidence-based discussion. Do not post disingenuously, or in an inflammatory manner for the sole purpose of upsetting others. Negative commentary and minority opinions are not frowned upon, but members are expected to be able to substantiate their positions. At the same time, do not derail threads around yourself or attempt to respond to every single reaction among dozens after posting a comment that is reacted to severely en masse
So far so good. So what we learned is that civil, evidence-based discussion is appreciated. That flaming and frowning upon minority opinions (as long as they are substantiated) is not tolerated.
So let's check whether or not the posts in question meet these criteria.
I would really like to encourage everyone to form an opinion themselves and not take my word for fact. Just look at the terms of use and look at the posts as unbiased as you can.
 
The investigation
OldSchoolNerd
Let's start with the user that started the discussion, OldSchoolNerd. He clearly entered the thread with a mission: To put things straight (in his eyes). While there might be a problem with people entering boards with an "agenda" a differentiation must be made: There are those that just want to stir things up and cause trouble and those that are interested in the topic and want to stand up for their belief. The second is probably the reason why most of us joned diverse discussion boards.
So principally there's nothing wrong with OldSchoolNerd's behavior as long as he (in the words of GAF's terms of service) substantiates his positions.
Despite increasing aggression from his oppositon (including threats) there's not one post I could find that includes any form of insult or personal attack. To the contrary OldSchoolNerd keeps it civil over the course of the whole discussion and despite occasional speculation on his part the overwhelming majority of his posts are reasoned (including revealing his references).
For illustration look at posts #6459 and #6497
In the latter post OldSchoolNerd even asks for a more civil discussion:
Thanks for the personal attack, not really necessary in a technical discussion.
However there's one thing he doesn't keep in mind: He gets sucked into the discussion.
Again in the words of GAF's terms of use:
At the same time, do not derail threads around yourself or attempt to respond to every single reaction among dozens after posting a comment that is reacted to severely en masse
"The opposition"
There's a whole group of users that reacts very aggressively to OldSchoolNerd's first post and shows signs of "mob mentality". After a phase of harsh criticism and verbal aggression there are even insults and personal attacks (the user is being systematically prejudged and devalued) until the users openly demand a ban (including threatening OldSchoolNerd). After that a list of successfully banned users is celebrated.
I've registered every offensive post (34 in total). They range from completely off-topic, overly sarcastic or harsh, offending to dehumanising and ban-worthy (some offending posts can only be understood in the context of the discussion):
6374, 6376, 6377, 6378, 6381, 6394, 6409, 6410, 6411, 6415, 6420, 6448, 6455, 6457, 6458, 6461, 6466, 6467, 6474, 6478, 6481, 6493, 6496, 6498, 6505, 6513, 6514, 6518, 6519, 6520, 6522, 6536, 6537, 6540, 6542
Again for illustration:
#6378
#6381
#6394
#6409
#6410
#6411
#6448
#6457
#6461
#6466
#6467
#6474
#6478
#6481
#6496 (my personal favorite)
#6514
#6520
#6522
#6536
#6537
#6540
 
Reading all these posts one might assume that OldSchoolNerd trolled GAF in an extraordinary way and that his idiocy can be easily disproved with stone hard facts (again, I'm neither saying he is right nor wrong).
Surprisingly with all the aggressive posts above there are only few elaborated arguments like this one.
Meanwhile 12 posts attack OldSchoolNerd's sources (example) - namely Microsoft, Digital Foundry and Beyond3D.
There are people saying that things have already been discussed in this thread - however nobody finds it worthwhile to post a relevant link.
Conclusion
It's up to discussion whether or not OldSchoolNerd deserved a ban. I personally think that there is no other board on the web that would have banned a new user just for that.
On the other hand I don't think it's up to discussion that something is very wrong with GAF right now. Yeah it's console war but GAF is not ANY board either - it's considered (at least GAFers think so) THE place for gaming enthusiasts and is (was?) acclaimed for it's hard but fair high standards. Yet I couldn't see "civil, evidence-based discussion". Minority opinions are frowned upon and regular forum members act as if they possess mod-rights. Harsh sarcasm gets overboard, Juniors are sneered at while members get a free-pass for obvious flaming.
This is only a sample but a sample that speaks for itself. However keep in mind: This is a problem with a fraction of GAF - some users, some mods and a certain alarming mentality/culture. There are still lots of great posters there and awesome threads with a lot of insight and profound investigation.
 
You should look into SenjutsuSage's post history there too (and the reactions to his posts). Extremely civil and polite guy (I know him from B3d). He got banned for sticking to his guns about the fact that he had heard there unequivocally was NO DOWNCLOCK of the GPU. He was banned for that.

He was recently banned for saying that he was told that the PS4 was absolutely balanced for graphics rendering at 14CU's and anything above 14 would be very close to worthless for graphics tasks. This was common knowledge amongst those who actually follow the tech leaks/hints/rumors/interviews. The other day of course we get the actual slide from Sony's own dev docs confirming what Sage had said. The guy was 2 for 2 and got banned twice for speaking against the crowd.
 
The thing is you have a hole pack of people on that forum dedicated to getting people banned. They'll bring up what you say on other sites and link it to get you banned. I'm glad I never used the same name from Teamxbox and when I got that account. I also always assumed it was a no-no to talk about banning others but they do it with a regularity.Nothing wrong with that site other then a few of the mods are garbage. If they kept the PS4 trolls out of the xbox threads like they should there wouldn't be a problem but instead it's just one giant trashing every thread.
 
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