Posted in: Games | Tagged: HRL, NeoGAF, Tyler Malka

Gaming Forum NeoGAF Shuts Down As Owner Faces Sexual Assault Allegations

Tyler Malka, AKA "Evilore", owner of gaming forum site NeoGAF, has once again been accused of sexual assault. Site mods are stepping down in the wake of the allegations, and the subsequent flood of traffic has even caused the site to be temporarily shut down (at the time of writing, it's still down for the count).

Malka has a bit of a history, which combined with the mod evacuations has caused a decent deal of concern. Malka has been accused of sexual misconduct several times, even allegedly bragging about instances where he claims to have grabbed women without their consent. And with this latest allegation, it appears enough was finally enough. Malka has taken matters into his own hands by shutting up all conversation about the scandal on the forums, and his fellow moderators are leaving due to internal conflict over Malka's actions.

This most recent situation revolved around a Facebook post that called him out for a specific instance of sexual assault. Malka subsequently deleted a large number of threads on the site — all of this led to its temporary shutdown.

WWG has hosted images of the post, with the name if the abused redacted, but the basic gist of the story is simple. After a night of drinking during a road trip, Malka hopped into the shower with the woman, entirely unsolicited. When she rebuffed Malka, he proceeded to exit the shower, but later alienated her in a city he drove her to, despite their prior friendship. Read the full post below.

The woman was then concerned to find the history of sexual misconduct allegations against Malka, as one would tend to be.

Things blew up at NeoGAF after a user confirmed that the allegations were indeed "real" despite concerns over the original Facebook post being taken down. That user was quickly banned from the site, ostensibly by Malka himself.

Malka continued to police the story on the forums, removing any and all mention of the allegations — which caused a rift in the site's moderation staff. Following this, the site went into shutdown mode, with many moderators jumping ship.

Even with the site locked down, Malka has continued his efforts to control the situation, which only led to his past connections and alleged assault history being dragged back into the light. As WWG points out, "Many continue to bring up his past association with a previous moderator that was later arrested for child pornography." This has only escalated the situation.

Things are still developing on all sides of this story, and while these allegations remain just that, things do not look good for the future of NeoGAF — with or without Malka.

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