There are smart and polite people here on both sides of many issues. People who have gracefully admitted they were wrong, and people who have compelled me to admit that I was wrong. I appreciate that.
Bluntly, while I don't consider myself a Gamergate supporter, the willingness of certain parties to completely stifle discussion on related subjects was utterly appalling. I don't particularly want to migrate to somewhere where "NO! WE'RE NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT IT! END OF DISCUSSION!" comes from on high and is accepted without pause. I recognize there are topics that cannot be broached on The Escapist, but I also feel there are good reasons for most of those rules; there, it was just an ugly kind of fiat imposed to quell a conversation they didn't like. (And it's pretty clear how well that worked out...) I'm glad that The Escapist stood up to that.
Oh, and ZP. The Escapist has had a good eye for attracting talented people in the past; some of the new additions have been far better than I expected (Cinemarter, Good Bad Flicks); others I could mostly do without (Game Theory still makes me want to throw a cream pie through my monitor at the narrator.) I don't know if they'll ever return to the glory days of ZP, LRR, and Jimquisition-level "something worth coming in for nearly every day"-ness, but I'm hopeful.