History of Hongkongggag

This is the history of Hongkongggag from its creation in 2018 to the present day. It covers everything from the page to 852 Resurgence.

Please note that this is a work in progress at all times.

Pre-Community Era (July 2018-June 2019)

For a long time, Card0 had been disappointed at how few Hong Kong meme pages there were, many of them had resulted to simply posting advertisments instead of actually posting memes.

Sometime during July 2018, Card0 posted an Instagram poll on his personal account out of boredom, asking friends whether he should make a Hong Kong-themed meme page out of boredom. After significant support, he made the page "hongkonggag" (with 2 gs) on July 18th, 2018, however he would only post funny images of Hong Kong, rather than actual memes. Though from September onwards, he began posting actual memes wich started garnering a small following. During this period, hongkonggag received advocacy from other content creators, most notably memes.hk. They gave hongkonggag several shoutouts, each boosting the page by 50 to 100 followers. In early 2019, the page hit the 1000 follower milestone.

At some point, flutters, a follower of the page for some time, was promoted to Admin after asking Card0.

Resurgence Era (June 2019-March 2021)

The Beginnings of The Resurgence

Card0 and flutters feared that the extradition law would put the page in danger. As a result, procedures were enacted to delete the Instagram page and move the follower base underground into a WhatsApp group chat.

Initially named Hongkongggag Resurgence, the group chat was created on June 11, 2019. Members who joined on the first day include Crosby, Drea,HikikomoriGod, Salmonand Vista. During this time, 30 to 40 people had joined the group chat, with most joining on the first few days. There was a lot of concern for the future of Hong Kong during this time, as there were rumours spreading around on what the government would do, and whether the PLA would intervene in Hong Kong with a real fear that there would be a Tiananmen-style crackdown in the city. Christie was also promoted in this period after asking Card0. However, she and flutters had constant disagreements which led Card0 to have to mediate frequently.

Impact of the Protests

The 2019-20 protests had a profound impact on the community and page, especially during the Summer. Activity in the group chat was strong, with most discussion topics being related to the 2019 Hong Kong Protests. After the 721 incident, many members also provided news and updates for Card0 to post on hongkonggag, as the page began posting news. Some people would also ask Card0 if they could be Admin, however Card0 declined their offers, mostly due to the fact that he didn't think they were capable enough. Naturally, the community was very pan-democracy and were full of yellow ribbons (pan-democracy supporters). Due to the emphasis of unity throughout the movement as well as the size of The Resurgence, there was little drama in the early stages of the community.

Christie Incident

Main Article: Christie Incident

On the night of September 14, 2019, Christie revealed that she was a blue ribbon and took over the page. Despite constant demands to confess her actions and give back the page, she refused. Some members such as Vista tried to help Card0, with some reporting the page in the process. In the aftermath, hongkonggag was taken down and deleted from Instagram the following afternoon, forcing Card0 to restart over. Card0 was stressed by the incident and took it seriously.

Hongkonggag to Hongkongggag

After the Christie incident, Card0 attempted to rebuild the page despite his reluctance. One of the first decisions he made during this era was promoting Salmon to Admin for assistance in reconstruction. The page was then renamed to "hongkonggagrebirth", which was later changed to "hongkongggag".

In Early October, Deni, Drea, Nissay and Vista were promoted to Admin in an impromptu administrative action when Card0 noticed that the protests were about to escalate to a new level. Throughout this time, Deni Justin and Vista were the admins aside from Card0 making the news updates on the page's story. As the protests continued, some feared for Card0's safety, and even he himself was scared that he would get arrested. Nevertheless, no harm came to him personally although according to him, at least one member of the group chat was detained during the protests.

The community remained primarily protest-focused, though non-political topics were a regular occurence, this lasted until the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Early Community Issues

Around Early January, multiple members of The Resurgence, including Salmon, got heavily engaged in an argument over Kobe Bryant's death as well as his past as a supposed rapist. As such, the admins talked to every member involved to get a clearer idea of the situation. Punishments were issued as a result in order to warn people not to engage in this type of behavior. This was one of, if nto the first major argument in the community.

Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic

With the Covid-19 Pandemic beginning, Card0 decided to start doing Covid-19 updates about Hong Kong on his Instagram story on Hongkongggag. This also led to increased activity in the group chat.

U13 Crisis

From January to February of 2020, two members: DepressedSteggy and Pumpkin misbehaved, often getting into trouble with the Staff Team. As they were under 13 years old (U13), many members were concerned whether The Resurgence was appropriate for them. Calls for a solution were heard, leading to the creation of a chat for U13 members. However, this chat disbanded a couple of months after its inception due to low activity.

Kaden Crisis

In February of 2020, Ky3653, who had a history of inappropriate behaviour and punishments, was banned by the Admins after several unsuccessful attempts at reasoning with him. Ky3653, also known as Kaden, was restricted from participating in The Resurgence, although he was allowed to follow the Instagram page and interact with Admins.

Kaden remained as a conversation topic for several months, drawing criticism from some.

Varteshian Incursion

Between April and May of 2020, a member known as Vartesh joined, getting along with most people at first. Vartesh invited his friends to join a trivia session one night who behaved badly, Staff were concerned but did not take further action.

A couple of minutes into trivia, Vartesh's friends began spamming explicit stickers repeatedly, leading Card0, Vista and Justin to shut the chat down multiple times. They were soon banned with Vartesh denying any involvement.

This led to the creation of Moderators, then called Chat Mods. Tolmo, Aaronforce1 and Anidiot were promoted to this position soon after.

Head Admin Demotion

In early June, due to posting a controversial opinion on Black Lives Matter, Card0 received criticism and requests for him to step down from the Head Admin position, effectively making his permissions equal as other Admins. Following a vote in Resurgence Elite, the Head Admin role was scrapped. Despite this, Card0's activity implied very little change in his actual permissions.

Impact of the National Security Law

The National Security Law came into effect in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020. Fearing for a worst-case scenario, Hongkongggag staff privated the page and all associated platforms on July 4, 2020. There were emergency plans to take down the page if need be, with Vista urging that the community migrate to Signal as soon as possible. However, the page was never taken down and a Signal group chat was created much later.

Start of Satirical Maps

On August 26, 2020, Card0 began the First Season of Satirical Maps, starting with Wan Chai and ending with Sha Tau Kok, on August 31, 2020. [[|A satirical map of Wan Chai District ]][[| The final map! Sha Tau Kok. Thanks for all the support!]] Satirical Maps was well-received and helped boost the page.

At the time, Card0 had no plans for a second season.

September Religious Debates

On September 26, 2020, a heated debate between Salmon, Tolmo and anidiot occurred. This led all three staff members to be put on probation albeit for a short period of time.

After the debate, Cassandra resigned, leaving the group without explanation and returned a few weeks later. It is not known whether this was a direct result of the religious discussion that occurred at the time.

Vista also announced a break, calling the group an echo chamber and criticizing the community's lack security.

Gradual Reopening

Around late September of 2020, Card0 decided that it was adequate to reopen the page to the public. However, The Resurgence remained a private communications group chat.

Great Decline

The Era of Decline was defined by a series of controversies, as well as slow growth and motivation in the community. This has retrospectively been referred to as the community's dark age, and according to Card0, the worst time to be in the community. This lasted between November/December of 2020, until March 2021.

December 2020 Controversies

Controversies and questions about the administrative process of The Resurgence were often raised by Aditya and Tolmo, leading to conflict between them and Card0. The tense situation led Cassandra to resign for a second time.

On December 27, 2020, Tolmo voluntarily resigned from his position as Chat Mod due to a joke made in poor taste, fulfilling a pact he made prior to resign if he made a severe mistake.

Follower growth dropped also during this period, often going into the negatives. Card0 has often claimed this month as the worst month to be in this community. Yet at the same time, the discord server began to grow slightly, with signs that it would overtake the WhatsApp GC as the main community platform going forward.

Satirical Maps Season 3

On January 8, 2021, Card0 started Satirical Maps Season 3 in an attempt to boost the page. While not as successful as Season 2, it oversaw immense follower growth, By the end of the season, hongkongggag had amassed over 9000 followers, largely coming from satirical maps.

Satirical Maps Season 3 ended on February 8, 2021.

Partnership with WaterOmelette

In February 2021, 852 Resurgence became partnered with the wateromelette Discord Server. As a result, members from WaterOmelette's server, such as Bossuuu, Hill and ImMcNutty, joined 852 Resurgence. When wateromelette became inactive, her server's members started settling in 852 Resurgence, increasing their participation and activity in the server. This was the first server partnership in the community's history, laying the benchmark for future partnerships.

Discord Reforms

In face of 852 Resurgence's increasing interest, a rank revamp was implemented on the server. Ranks were renamed to Citizen, Trustee, Councillor, Senator, Governor and Prestige. Some of these rank names were inspired by the MRT Server's ranks, however as time went on some of their names would be changed. Trustee, Councillor and Governor were renamed to Attache, Dignitary and Vice respectively. Later on, roles for affiliates and ambassadors were introduced on the discord server.

Vista's Resignation and the Election

See Also: March 2021 Moderator Elections

Since November 2020, three staff members had resigned: Cassandra, Tolmo and Deni (who had left in February 2021). This inevitably had an effect on Card0 and the rest of Staff, as they became more pessimistic towards the community's future. However, Card0 didn't believe the situation was volatile for drastic action just yet, hence the lack of reforms for the community.

On March 9, 2021. Vista resigned. Vista reiterated many of the concerns he expressed in his statement from September and left the community soon after. Following this, The Resurgence Bot was taken down permanently. According to Card0,he was under the impression that Vista would return after his exams were over, and was very surprised by the announcement.

Due to a rapidly shrinking staff team, Card0 called the March 2021 Moderator Elections. Running from March 20 to 21, 2021, polls were held on both Discord and Instagram. lemontea and zo.loft became Moderators afterwards. The other three candidates: Salami, Lieutenant Quattro and Chief Kweef were not promoted though two of the members (Salami and Quattro), became Staff members later on.

March 2021 Incident and the March Reforms

A week after resigning, Vista published a statement detailing the reason for his resignation and proposed changes for the community, as he believed there were significant shortcomings present at the time. This sparked a debate between Card0, Aditya and Tolmo in the Core Community. Many members such as Boba and Salami tried to mediate the conversation.

At some point, Card0 backed down shortly after Tolmo had taken a step back. Despite this, Aditya continued criticizing the community especially Card0's leadership, even though other members tried to calm him down. This aroused concern, leading to a meeting on Discord that night, with 10 to 12 people attending. Meanwhile, Card0 talked with various members about the best way forward for the community itself. One of these members was KarpiG, who Card0 had a long conversation with on how the community should proceed.

A document entailing modifications towards the community's leadership was drafted by Card0 and KarpiG. including:

• The establishment of Mediators, staff members that acted as a second opinion and opposing voice for the community, tasked with eliminating the presence of an echo chamber, and
• Substitution of "Head Admin" with the Founder role. This was meant to solidify Card0's position and to ensure transparency on the Staff team's structure.

Wsdu and Boba were nominated by Darren, becoming the first Mediators. Other issues such as the reform of Core Community were also discussed and approved.

Reform & Expansion Era (March 2021-May 2022)

The Reform Era marked significant reforms in the community, not just the shift from WhatsApp to Discord but in the community's standards and purpose.

Shift to Discord

After the March reforms, the community gradually transitioned from the WhatsApp group to 852 Resurgence, as interest in Discord grew. From early to mid 2021, there was an increasing proportion of new members entering the Discord server over the WhatsApp group, and activity of Staff on the former piqued. It should be noted that the Discord server had begun growing in importance prior to the March reforms around February, however the reforms were seen as a key turning point for the community's choice of platform

Sometime during April-May 2021, the Signal and WhatsApp groups went completely private due to a lack of new members and security concerns.

New System, New Staff

A new system for new moderators was put in place. Known colloquially as the "nomination system", this saw candidates being nominated by members every month before being voted on by the Staff privately.

Bossuuu was the only member to be promoted via this system. Simpus Olympus went through a modified version but was denied. Later, the system became more publicised before being partially scrapped in October for a system that favoured popular votes.

With the situation in Hong Kong becoming more unstable, Card0 promoted lemontea, a moderator who joined in 2019 residing in the United States to Admin. Around the same time, Drea resigned from her position as Admin due to inactivity.

Minecraft Server

See also: Hongkongggag Minecraft Server

In summer of 2021, Syntax offered to run a Minecraft server for the community. The server ran from July 23rd to September of the same year, when Syn7ax became occupied with immigration.

Syn7ax's work with the server earned him a promotion to Moderator.

September Decline

852 Resurgence and hongkongggag saw a decline in September. As most members were returning to school, Card0 did nothing to try and increase growth, instead waiting for a later date to boost the community's numbers.

Big Boom

On October 1, 2021, Salmon, who had not made a post on hongkongggag since September 2019, posted several "relatable" memes. His posts were extremely well-received. On one occasion, the page gained 1315 followers in a single day, the most the page had received at the time.

In hindsight of his work, Card0 capitalized on the trend, making several "relatable" memes for audience appeal. He also made school-specific memes, using both local and international schools as a basis for content, including universities and community colleges. While he had done this before, they were more popular this time around.

The boost in popularity affected 852 Resurgence, growing the server from 400 to 600 members in a short period of time. Notable members who joined during the Big Boom include Sleepy, Bakasta and E Man.

Ban of NICORE

On October 9, 2021, staff held a meeting to discuss various issues of the community, including the sudden surge of hongkongggag's popularity. One of the issues discussed was NICORE and his suboptimal behaviour on the Discord server. Staff decided to issue a Level 6 Warning to him on the same day.

NICORE went on to make extremely disrespectful comments to another affiliate, resulting in an indefinite ban the following day.

Satirical Maps Season 5

Card0 had teased Season 5 for a long time, despite Season 4 not doing well. He started making satirical maps throughout October and November, taking in requests while also making maps of his own. This, alongside the aforementioned "relatable" and school specific memes boosted the page from 13 thousand followers at the start of October to 20 thousand by the end of November. This season was also supported by flutters, making satirical maps for South Horizons, Tseung Kwan O, Ap Lei Chau and Pok Fu Lam.

While less successful than other seasons, the page was boosted during its runtime.

Further Democratization

Card0 considered more democratic reforms for the community but was hesitant to do so. He asked via a poll if more community decisions (rule changes, new channels etc.) should be chosen through popular vote, to which a majority agreed.As a result, Card0 put up multiple polls asking people to vote on various community affairs, such as the creation of new Discord channels or rule modification. He also withdrew several sanctions, believing that he had made an incorrect decision issuing them. These reforms led to more democratization in regards to the moderator promotion process.

McNutty Spam Attack

In late November, ImMcNutty and some of his friends sent spam accounts asking Bosssuu for her SnapChat.

This action caused Card0 to interrogate ImMcNutty and his friends. Although they denied it, Card0 received incriminating evidence pointing towards McNutty. As a result, Level 2 warnings were issued to McNutty, SKully and Nizzy.

A Level 1 warning as well as a harsh verbal warning were issued towards Hill and Sakii respectively for being complacent in the attacks. Afterward, Card0 locked down the server temporarily for a couple of hours.

andi was partially promoted due to this incident.

Creation of the Hongkongggag Study Server

While study channels existed on 852 Resurgence, they were rarely used. To have a more centralized place for study resources, Card0 and flutters decided to create the Hongkongggag Study Server.

While all 852R staff members got automatic staff powers on the study server, sleepy, a member at the time, was also given powers on the server due to her technical knowledge.

CJ's Minecraft Server Incident

in the face of the Hongkongggag Minecraft Server still being offline, CJ suggested running an unofficial Minecraft Server. He set up a Discord for his Minecraft server and gave administrative permissions to all existing members of 852 Resurgence staff.

On CJ's Discord server, a member: Trickster spammed racial slurs, including on an alt account, causing Card0 to temporarily ban them. Card0's actions led Wesley to call him out for overextension and abuse of power on an auxiliary server. Wesley was then banned by Card0 from CJ's server after revealing his political stance of being pro-Beijing, as per 852 Resurgence standards. Card0 was swiftly met with sharp criticism from CJ, claiming that he was abusing his authority on a foreign server. Eventually, both servers broke off relations.

Card0 believed that the situation needed to be addressed transparently, resulting in an emergency community meeting concerning his involvement. As many members held negative opinions towards Card0's actions, he took some time away from the community to reflect and calm down.

Rise of the Cults

On December 17, 2021, Card0 accidentally said 19371 as the answer to a question during a trivia game. As a result, flutters prompted everyone to change their names to include 19371 at the start.

On December 19, 2021, the #cults channel was invented. Other than adding the existing cults like the Moyai Cult, Bossuuu Cult and the YUU Cult; flutters went on to create many cults not so long after the last. The Ms Chan Cult, Sushi Cult, Honey Cult, <4 Cult, Lia's BB Cult, French Cult and the Everest Cult were all made by flutters within a week. Not even when the French Cult and the Everest Cult was created, flutters was told that they needed to transfer all but one cult as they had a cult monopoly. flutter's chosen cult to keep was 19371. The cults are ever so expanding with new ones appearing at least every 48 hours.

Hongkongggag Community Awards 2021

On December 18, 2021, the first Hongkongggag Community Awards were held. Awards were given to multiple members associated with Hongkongggag, including those outside the Discord and WhatsApp groups. Over 20 people were given awards.

The ceremony was hosted by flutters and Card0, lasting roughly 40 minutes.

Tolmo's Second Resignation

On December 19, 2021, Tolmo, who was promoted to Mod a few weeks ago, posted a study concerning the connection between homosexuality and pedophillia in the debate channel on 852 Resurgence, enquiring about its validity. The study was removed from the channel by Card0.

After a back-and-forth argument about his actions, Tolmo resigned from his position as Moderator. in his resignation statement, he expressed his disagreement with the staff team's methodology of running the debates channel and server.

Later that week, the debates channel was reformed to only allow members who opted-in via a message.

Ban and Unban of ImMcNutty

On December 21, 2021, Card0 announced that he had indefinitely banned ImMcNutty for harassment against another member. This sparked outrage in the community, feeling that McNutty's side of the story was not properly told. This response led Card0 to unban ImMcNutty 4 hours later, supplemented by a verbal apology in Voice Chat.

Following this, Card0 banned CJ: who was a friend of ImMcNutty, for confidential and unrelated reasons.

January 2022 Controversies

See More: January Controversies

Technician Crisis

In the first couple days of the new year, Card0 suggested the idea of a new staff rank known as Technician. Technicians would be ranked below Mediators and have some Staff powers but would mainly focus on the "tech-aspect" of the community including bot and wikia management.

A heated debate between Card0, flutters and Tolmo began in #discussion-forum on January 9 2021.

Grooming Allegations

At some point during the argument, Senpaii and SKully accused flutters of grooming Sleepy with little supporting evidence. Under the old warnings system, they, along with other associates, were temporarily banned.

Eventually, the Technicians proposal was approved, with Sleepy and Tolmo being promoted to the rank.

Warning System Reform

flutters proposed a new warning system, stating that the old one was unnecessarily long. Following brief opposition by Card0, the system was implemented in favour of its simplicity.

flutters' Probation

flutters was put on probation for a few days due to bad behavior in late December of 2021. However, their impudent attitude acting rasher and harsher towards Card0 and other members. After a series of incidents including Tolmo's promotion to Technician, Card0 decided to issue a month-long probation to flutters on January 17, 2022.

flutters went on several breaks due to their mental health between mid-January and early February 2022.

flutters' Resignation

Main Article: Admin Controversy

Throughout most of January, tensions between Card0 and flutters remained high. flutters proposed to make the Founder role more equal with Admins. After heated debate with Card0 on February 9, 2022, flutters resigned from their Admin position.

Satirical Maps Season 6

On February 10 2022, the sixth season of Satirical Maps was issued. However, not only did this season not meet Card0's expectations in terms of reception, but accroding to him, the behavior and attitudes of other Hong Kong meme pages began affecting his enjoyment.

He announced an early cancellation of the season, posting a total of 17 satirical maps. Following the end of the season, Card0 announced that Season 7 was unlikely given recent responses.

Intervention in Charlie Jackson's Server

Frosty, also known as Charlie Jackson, had set up his own server. He reached out to Card0 for advice who agreed to help him while also offering a partnership between 852R and this new server.

The partnership became official on February 12, 2022. However, the server was fraught with issues ranging from trolls to staff members. This led to Frosty asking Card0 for help from his Staff team, of which 2 members: Tolmo and flutters, became staff members on the server in order to improve the experience of it.

March 8 Incident

At around 8pm HKT (GMT+8) on March 8, 2022, Card0 posted a new meme, criticising the government's decision to have an early "summer break" for local schools, which had started earlier that week. A while after posting, some people allegedly from international schools posted comments that seemingly poked fun at those that had the so called summer break.

Some of those people from local schools would then fire back at them, calling them out on their entitledness and privilege. The heated situation would lead Card0 to make a post on the page's story, asking for those involved to calm down. However, the situation remained tense and as such, Card0 archived the post after waking up the next day. This was one of the few times where a meme was genuinely controversial, rather than being "drama-free".

Lilshotanekoboi Controversy

In early March, lilshotanekoboi shared a concept drawing of him as Piper Perri in the meme format "1 girl 5 guys" popped up in #art. The context behind the meme was sexual The community's response towards the drawing was very conflicted with most of the members being against him. Later on, he would repost a more finalised piece of the art which spurred staff to hold a trial.

lilshotanekoboi was allowed to have a jury and trial to justify his actions. The thread, now deleted, consisted of the same points of how unethical the drawing is. Lilshota argued that he put a cake with the number 18 on it, using it as defence that the boy in the drawing was 18. However others pointed out that in the original draft, there was no cake and was added after. He then tried to defend himself again, claiming that it was underneath the layers, something that the jury and the rest of the public couldn’t see. Despite not all jury members being present for the trial itself, both Andi and flutters decided to issue an indefinite ban, with approval from Card0.

March-April 2022 Community Crisis

Between mid March and early April 2022, 852 Resurgence experienced a rise in toxicity and increased inactivity. Several members such as Hill (who later rejoined), emperor time, and Simpus Olympus (who shortly rejoined and left) would leave the server as a result.

Nyan’s Ban

On March 16 2022, flutters created the #lgbtqia-plus channel, over a week later, Andi would create a similar channel for positivity. However, both channels had the opposite effect as Staff noticed that some people were being toxic to each other. In addition, Staff also received reports about toxicity in the community. As such, Card0 announced on March 27, 2022, Staff would officially take a harder stance against toxicity, especially in the venting channels. This would lead to sanctions issued to several members due to this new stance.

One member: Nyan, posted anti-LGBTQ+ comments in the #lgbtqia-plus channel and was issued a L1 warning by Card0. However, he would then continue his homophobic behavior with multiple staff members in DMs, leading to a temporary 1 month ban. This would further escalate as Nyan would use his Instagram account to play the victim, daring staff to permanently ban him. As a result, he would later be permanently banned. Shortly after, Nyan would use the Instagram page of an e-sports team he was a part of, to paint the staff of 852R in a bad light, accusing them of "indoctrinating future generations". Some members would then call him out on his behavior.

Toto Controversy

On March 30 2022, Toto523 was temporarily banned for 2 weeks for spamming in several channels, including the venting channels.

However shortly after on April 1, 2022, Staff received word that Toto was planning a raid via 4Chan. Seeing this, Andi quickly upgraded Toto’s ban to a permanent one. Toto would be upset with this, sending a long piece of text in the Moyai Cult server criticising the staff, especially Card0. The rant accused the staff of being entitled simply because they went to international schools (which was inaccurate), as well as making other irrational takes. Card0, and other members of the community, denounced the statement.

End of the Crisis

On April 2, 2022, Card0 decided to ask the members of the server what they thought the main issues were, what they thought about staff and what should be done to help make the server a better place. The response was mostly limited with most members having at most, minor issues with how the server was run. Card0 would also decide to start promoting the server more via server events on the page's story, and look into offering privileges for those of higher ranks, in order to help boost the server's activity.

Eventually, other events would lead the crisis to a close, ending a stressful time in the server's history.

The impact of r/place

On March 30, 2022, a member known as HKGAFD joined the server and promoted his project: to create the Black Bauhinia flag onto r/place 2. Card0 offered them a server partnership between 852R and their server to which they accepted. Over the course of r/place, the amount of members in the r/place HK server increased to 1600 at its peak. HKGAFD would also be given a special role: Black Bauhinia Leader.

However, HKGAFD had plans to archive the server after the event was over and as such, Card0 decided to promote 852R to members on the other server who wished to continue talking. Some of these members included Bricky and MrTup. Shortly after on April 6, 2022, HKGAFD would cancel the archival and work to create a community server, though the staff team would still archive the server later on due to a continued lack of interest.

The new 852RSMP

After several delays, Sleepy decided to help host the Hongkongggag Minecraft Server on a new seed instead of Syn7ax. New rules were written up by Card0 and Sleepy and a rudimentary spawn area was built by Card0.

The server opened on April 12, 2022. While there were issues among different factions, the server was very popular in its first few days of opening. Furthermore, Staff were allowed to "admin abuse" to a certain capacity provided they didn't ruin the fun of the server.

Mythguy Incident

On April 15 2022, Card0 decided to play a prank by teleporting Mythguy1314 to a pit and then dropping him into it, causing his death. This angered Myth as his levels were also gone. However, Card0 defended himself citing that "it was just a game" and that he would compensate. While some members sympathised with Myth, they soon asked him to stop as he was making things worse.

Myth would then ask Card0 for Flint and Steel to which Card0 gave it to him, he would then proceed to grief parts of Card0's base in the Mutualist Republic of New Estonia which would lead him to be banned for 1 week and warned. This would be upgraded to a 2 week ban and an indefinite ban from the SMP as he threatened to grief the SMP as a whole once he was unbanned.

The Road to 40K

On April 14 2022, Card0 began a new series, making fun of various international schools in different memes by generalising students from those schools. Seeing the immense success, he would decide to continue the series but with local schools, further increasing the page's popularity. Many followers began to ask for specific schools to which Card0 tried to fufill their wishes. Soon, people weren't just excited for the accuracy, but also the mention of their school on the page as the schools chosen became more and more lesser known. On one occasion on April 17, 2110 new people followed the page, the most the page has seen since.

Furthermore, it would lead to an increase in members in 852 Resurgence such as Jasper and Hcone. This would also see a slight boost in the popularity of the SMP which, despite the resumption of face-to-face classes in Hong Kong on April 19, remained popular.

While growth would slow down after April 19, 2022, the page still saw accelerated growth as Card0 shifted to making "why don't you join" memes of universities while still continuing the students memes for a while.

On April 22, 2022, the page would finally reach 40 thousand followers. Following this, the page's growth would slow down even more although it remained fairly high compared to before.

Imposter Situation

On April 19, 2022, a page known as hongkongggag_v2 was discovered by Card0, who was impersonating the original page. Almost immediately, Card0 called upon members of the discord as well as the page's followers to report the page immediately. A few members did point out that as the page claimed to be "stolen content", he had no right to take action though Card0 argued that it was using the page's brand regardless. Others argued that the page was small and as such, Card0 should not pay as much attention to it.

Wutty Incident

On May 1, 2022, a member called Wutty joined the server, accusing Card0 of silencing free speech for blocking him as a blue ribbon. This of course, led Card0 to ban him indefintely.

A day later on May 2, 2022, a new member known as Farhan.xkhan reported that Wutty was planning a raid. As such, Card0 immediately decided to shut down the server and set it to private. As Wutty's threats increased in terms of severity, Card0 even put the page on private for a few hours, the first time since the Underground Era.

The lockdown lasted until the morning of May 3, 2022 when the server was re-opened again. As a result of the raid threat, Card0 purged about 20+ members while also enhancing the server's security.

End of the Hype

Shortly after getting 44 thousand followers in Early May, the page's growth began to stunt severely until Hongkongggag would only see less than 30 new followers daily. This bought an end to the 3rd era of hype.

Great Era of Hype (May 2022-January 2023)

The Great Era of Hype was called as such due to the immense amount of follower and server member growth in this period, compared to most periods in Hongkongggag's history.

Wsdu's Resignation

Following a heated debate in #debates on June 2, 2022, Wsdu was put on probation for a week due to his actions. Despite Card0 giving him a chance to think over his actions, Wsdu would then promptly resign effective from June 4, 2022, initially only staying to purge his messages. Later, Wsdu apologized for his behavior in #debates and announced that he would remain active in the server as a regular member until he left the server in December, later rejoining on May 17, 2023.

Creation of Asianggag

On June 21, Card0 asked the community on what should be done with the inactive backup page: hongkonggag2. He gave the community three ideas: the second being to make Asian memes. This option was by far the most popular and as a result, the backup page was rebranded to Asianggag later that day.

Withdrawal from the Hong Kong Inter-Page Alliance

On June 22, Card0 asked the community if the page should leave the Hong Kong Inter-Page Alliance: a group of Hong Kong pro-democracy independent news pages that Card0 founded back in 2019. However, he realised that some of the people in the group became too sensationalist and often exaggerated the truth. As a result, the page withdrew from the alliance after a discussion with the community. This decision was not controversial and the members who responded to Card0 largely agreed/trusted him.

Operation British and the Revival of the SMP

In Early July, Zeon commenced Operation British on the 852R SMP, destroying Yuutopia. This was based off an off hand comment by YUUtopia's main leader: Zoe, that he didn't care about the faction anymore. However upon discovering Operation British, Zoe would get mad at Zeon and as a result, Card0 would de-op Zeon's leader: Lieutenant Quattro, for 1 week on the SMP.

Card0 would then help Zoe as well as Aqua to rebuild Yuutopia, even granting them Creative mode on occasion. Nax and Luminous would also help rebuild the faction. The new design would reflect New L'Manberg from the Dream SMP. This whole affair would also revive interest in the server for a short while.

Tsz Kong Revival

Having remained inactive since April, Card0 revived the sim on July 4th 2022 with new members such as Kevinovich joining the sim. Farhan.xkhan would win the elections under the Nationalist Party held just a few days later. However, he would be ousted after acting unconstitutionally leading to Card0 to call new elections. In these new elections, Kevinovich would win under the Social Democratic Worker's Party (SDWP), though activity and interest in Tsz Kong would slow down for the latter half of his term until the August Elections.

MRT Controversy

In July, some members began to join the MRT Server, a server some members in 852R had come from due to Card0 playing on the server as well. As some members began to bring in 852R jokes on a more prominent level, the MRT's owner: Frumple: clamped down, targetting members from 852R while ignoring other inside jokes on the server. This sparked outrage among both those who hadn't played on the MRT previously and those that had.

Card0 would make a statement on the situation, with past incidents of Frumple's emotional manipulation influencing the statement. However, the response to it on the MRT was lukewarm with largely those that sided with Frumple calling out Card0 while others who disagreed with Frumple remained silent. Since then, Frumple has become a meme on the server, with one of Frumple's messages becoming a sticker in the server.. Furthermore, when Card0 would be banned for jokingly calling Zoe "fuck you" in late November, his ban message would also become a sticker though it would later be removed.

4th Anniversary

On July 18, the community as well as the page celebrated 4 years of the page. Card0 made a speech, posting it both on Discord and Instagram, thanking everyone and reflecting on the last 4 years of running the page. During celebrations that night, he would read an abridged version of the speech. Other members such as Tolmo, Aqua and Joyce would also read short speeches or type them out in #general.

Some old members would also return to the server, most notably former admin Vista as well as Rei, both of whom left in 2021 (though the latter would leave soon after). Other new members also joined the server for the first time due to heavy promotion on the page.

Throughout the month of July, several events would be hosted to celebrate the 4th anniversary.

Peak of Demotivation (July 2022-August 2022)

Throughout July and August, hongkongggag, as well as many other Hong Kong meme pages both English and Cantonese speaking experiences drops in follower growth. The page was sitting around 47 thousand followers. However, daily growth rarely exceeded 15-20 new people.

This of course, was due to Instagram’s new reel based algorithm as well as other incidents in the Hong Kong meme space most notably the fallout of the Mirror “We Are” Concert incident. Additionally, Card0 claimed that due to the high number of new HK meme pages, content had become saturated possibly leading to this drought.

Card0 would post a few statements in early August while also asking the page’s followers on what could be done. However he was left with not a lot of options besides waiting. This would end with Card0 finally began posting reel-type memes, with the same style and design as the other non-reel memes. These would be well received, boosting the page's growth.

Tsz Kong August Election Controversy

The August Tsz Kong Elections were held on August 16th, with candidates declaring their participation a few days earlier. While Kevinovich declined to run again, the previous president: Farhan.xkhan ran again. A new party: the Ronak Libertarian Party, led by sid, was formed.

However, Farhan was accused of vote rigging by inviting his friends just to vote for him. Both of these known friends also had profile pics of a Nazi and Saddam Hussein respectively. Card0 would ban both and give Farhan a deadline to list those names. While Farhan did eventually give Card0 his names, his initial attempt to lie about it led Card0 to disqualify Farhan anyways.

Meanwhile in the political sim, the disqualification of the Nationalists meant that Lieutenant Quattro of the Zeonist Party, won the election, returning to the post once again.

Trial of Farhan

Following the incident, Card0 would then discuss with Staff on holding a trial for Farhan, to which Staff agreed, partially due to Farhan having controversies in the main server as well. The trial would be held just a day later. The jury consisted of Kevinovich, sid, Salami and Citric Acid. Other members of the community including those not involved in Tsz Kong were also present. Farhan asked Speedbird001 to be his "defense attorney", however in the end the jury, and later the public, decided on an indefinite ban.

As part of the punishment, Farhan was also removed from the HK Meme Page Alliance which was seen as controversial by some members in the group. In addition, Card0 also questioned Farhan's claims of Wutty's raid, having theories that Farhan faked the raid threat in order to gain more power and trust in the community.

Relaxation of the Anti-Blue Ribbon Policy

On August 20, 2022, a member of the server: Yosh revealed in a debate that he was a blue ribbon. However, his past messages as well as more information revealed by himself seemed to indicate he had more neutral views. Card0, who had asked Yosh these questions, had decided after a few calls notably from Tolmo and Sleepy within Staff, to review the anti-blue ribbon policy.

Card0 asked the community for their opinions and while many were concerned, others believed some relaxation was needed. Later on, a poll was held which gave the community 3 options: do nothing and treat Yosh as a special case, relax the policy or remove it entirely. Most of the people who voted opted for the 2nd option, which would be implemented the next day.

Satirical Maps Season 7

On August 23rd, Card0 teased a 7th season of Satirical Maps. The season would begin a few weeks later on September 3rd with a satirical map of Singapore. It ended on October 23rd. The season was special as it frequently featured maps of other cities, notably those with a sizable Hong Kong Diaspora such as London and Vancouver. A New York City map was planned and even made but Card0 would decide not to post it due to him believing it was lacking in its information and humour.

The Reopening of Mod Nominations and the Simpus Nomination Incident

With Mod Nominations having been closed for a couple of months, Card0 decided to reopen nominations as the server had grown since then following a poll held on September 8th. Card0 himself would also nominate two people: Crimson Ghost and Citric Acid though both members declined the position before the polls ended.

On September 11, 2022, flutters (as well as Chilis later on) would nominate Zoe for Mod, this was approved by Card0. Shortly after, Lieutenant Quattro would nominate Simpus Olympus for the position as well. However, Card0 would deny this citing maturity concerns. This sparked outrage from Quattro as well as Ballsy and Hill who accused Card0 of being immature himself, bringing up past incidents to discredit him. This caused Card0 to lock Discussion Forum for a while and announce that he was stepping back from most Staff responsibilities for a while. Zoe would later be promoted the next day. Hill would be issued a Level 2 warning after Card0 came back a week later on the 18th.

Bootlicker Meme Controversy

On September 16, 2022, Card0 posted a meme to the page indicating Hong Kongers who defended the British Monarchy (or the British colonial era of Hong Kong), were bootlickers. Although Card0 expected the meme to be at least somewhat controversial, he did not expect such an extreme response, with many making personal attacks towards Card0. Some of this backlash was also due to the fact that it was posted just a couple days after the Queen's death. This led Card0 to turn off comments for the meme then later archive it. He would then unarchive it and turn comments back on the next day.

The meme, according to Card0, led to around 100 people unfollowing the page in less than 48 hours. Card0 would also make a few more anti-colonial memes, though only posting them on the Discord in fear of backlash. Thankfully, no active members of the community were upset by the meme, with some even defending Card0 most notably those based in the UK such as Andi.

Death of Hanappe

flutters announcing Hanappe's death.

On the afternoon of October 15, 2022, it was announced that Hanappe passed away due to suicide. After the announcement, the 852 Resurgence server icon and banner were changed to black and white artwork drawn by Hanappe before her death, with several members posting their condolences.

The response to her death was overwhelming, many expressed profound statements of grief and sorrow, including many who hadn't interacted with Hanappe a lot or even at all.

A memorial service was held a week later on October 22, with Card0 and other members making statements, followed by a moment of silence. A few days after the service, the server icon and banner were changed to colorised versions of Hanappe's art for an indefinite time.

Introduction of Meme Submission Sundays

File:Kix.png

The meme submitted by Kix.

On October 22, 2022, zt suggested a new event called Meme Submission Sunday, where members can submit memes to Hongkongggag following a specified but optional theme. This was approved by Card0, who opened a #meme-submissions channel. The first theme the next day on October 23 was dim sum, with a meme submitted by Kix Kiefer being chosen by Card0 and posted the next day.

Double-staff Promotion

On October 26, two current staff members, zt and Thoth, were nominated as Moderator and Mediator respectively. The next day they both were promoted.

October 31st Instagram Purge

On October 31st, Instagram would remove inactive accounts across the platform, this caused panic among many "influencers" on Instagram including Hongkongggag. Card0 posted announcements in both discord and on the page's story pleading for people to follow the page back.

Thankfully Instagram reversed the change and in a surprise twist, the page gained more followers as a result of this decision.

Anti-Xenophobia Movement

On November 15th, Card0 silently and unofficially began an indirect purge of Hongkongggag's followers. Rather than manually removing followers, Card0 instead posted certain memes that called out monarchy-bootlicking, Trumpism, Homophobia and Xenophobia in order to get people who supported those ideals to unfollow the page, therefore making the page more of a safe and tolerant page. This "purge" ended on November 18th.

Calling out Oneaguy

For a while, Card0 had been openly calling out Oneaguy (一個人, also known in English as Hong Kong Guy), a xenophobic cartoonist who posted stick figure comics greatly exaggerating the situation in Hong Kong on Instagram. He went on to post a call-out post on November 21st with help from other members. While most reacted to the post postively, with many saying that they had feelings of animosity towards Oneaguy, many called out Card0 instead, even making personal attacks. This led to Card0 blocking many accounts. As result of the post, the page lost about 100 followers, which Card0 presumed were those that were either sympathetic towards, or fans of Oneaguy.

In Late December, Card0 found out that some people on LIHKG had smeared the page's post, calling the page a "leftard" and claiming that Hong Kongers supporting democracy should hate Mainlanders. However, some also noticed that many on the forum didn't really like Oneaguy either.

Impact of the Chinese Protests

While the indirect purge would end on the 18th, it started up again on the 26th. This was due to the sudden protests against the CCP in China and as a result, Card0 decided to combat and call out xenophobia by calling it out. While most people supported him, some also unfollowed the page due to believing that the mainland protests had nothing to do with the pro-democracy movement. This also marked a shift in the page's stance, as it began to connect with mainland-based pro-democracy pages, as well as critiquing the localist factions of the movement as a whole. Since then, Hongkongggag has greatly distanced itself from said localist groups.

The beginning of Pokémon Canary and Azure: a 852R Pokémon World

On the 22nd of November, 2022, zt was bored in their social studies class, and made a crack idea saying they'd make 852R into a Pokémon world. Card0 agreed with the idea, and together, along with a.few other members, started the 852R joint project of Pokémon Canary and Azure. This was a success and as such, a second project was created shortly after Canary and Azure was largely completed, Card0 hosted a poll on December 3rd 2022 asking members to choose which shall be the next region the Pokemon fans of the server shall create. The winner was the Phillipines and as a result, the Pokemon Flux and Stasis project began shortly after, which lasted until early-mid 2023.

The 2022 Community Awards

Main Article: Hongkongggag Community Awards

Similar to 2021, a community awards ceremony was hosted on December 23rd 2022. However this time, the awards of Best Mascot, Best Staff and Best Member were open to voting from the public, with members voting in a poll hosted by flutters. The winner of the Best Staff Award was Zt while Best Member went to flutters. Several other members would win awards that night, many of them having either joined the community in 2022, or became active in 2022. Card0 and Andi would host the awards as flutters was busy that day. Around 35 people attended, exceeding the audience number of 2021's award show.

Vision 2023

On December 28th 2022: Card0 unveiled the plan for both the page and the community for the coming year: Vision 2023. The plan included both major and minor changes for the server, raging from the creation of a lgbt-memes channel, school memes on the page to be released in batches, and an overhaul of the Admin and Discord Admin ranks. Some of these changes, like the aforementioned Admin reform, were put up to polls on the first day of the new year, with most of these changes passing. Furthermore, Tolmo would be promoted to Moderator on New Year's Day as well, with Card0 saying that he may promote him to Admin in the next 1-2 months.

January 2023 Lockdown

On January 10th 2023, the server was put on private due to a raid threat from another server who wanted to destroy 852R and Hongkongggag. Despite the threat being baseless in retrospect, all invite links were revoked during this time. The lockdown was lifted the next day.

Second Tsz Kong Revival

Throughout most of late 2022, the Tsz Kong Political Sim had been more inactive. While bills were being passed, these often happened only once every week. With only 3 parties confirming participation in the next elections (one of them would be later removed), on January 17th 2023, Card0 made an urgent plea in the server urging people to join the sim. He referred to it as the "black sheep of hkgag", due to its lack of growth and activity compared to 852R and the page. As a result, many people would join the sim and create parties, just before the elections began the next day. New parties included the Ocean Party and the .He would also promote it on the page though by the time most people from there started joining the elections had started. Nevertheless, this led to a very diverse parliament for the next term,

Removal of 30 Day Ban

On January 19th 2023, Card0 and Andi announced that the 30 day ban warning (L3 Warning) had been removed due to it being obsolete, as most people got L1, L2 or L4 warnings instead, with some getting L5 (permanent ban).

Creation of hongkongislandgag

In late January, Card0 publicly bought up the ideas of new "sister pages" to Hongkongggag, beyond asianggag. While he mentioned collaborating with Herro on a potential "australiagag" or "sydneygag", Kix Kiefer would create hongkongislandgag, the first true sister page to the original page. The page got 271 followers less than 4 days after its creation. However, the page is currently inactive at the time of writing.

Frontier Era (February 2023-April 2024)

The Frontier Era is to referred to as the page and community explored new opportunities, leading to new ideas coming about.

Meme the News

In early February, Card0 officially revealed that his memes would be a part of an exhibition at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club in Central, alongside a few other Hong Kong meme pages. The response to the news was overwhelmingly positive, albeit also very sarcastic which Card0 responded as "people going too far".

Meister's Trial

For several months, MeisterBurgerBurgerMeister had been issued several warnings for borderline homophobia and transphobia. Irritated by Meister's actions in General, the Staff decided to hold a trial on the night of February 12th 2023. The trial lasted for around an hour with a jury of 3 members, who decided that Meister should be permanently banned. Before being banned, Meister made a speech mocking the staff and the LGBT community which quickly became a server-wide meme:

Yeah. I did a lot of trolling, and it was worth it. I thought you’d just outright ban me; I couldn’t have expected a trial, and a rigged one at that. Guess I got too silly for y’all. Some folx just can’t handle the smoke, and it clear that you can’t. A safe space. Psh what a joke. That’s funny. I say, it was quite fun to subtly clown on Cardold. And I ain’t gonna learn. The world is a harsh and unforgiving place, and it’s getting worse for people, rebels, like me. I oppose the new world order and globalism. I meant all of what I said. Nothing was ever misinterpreted.

Following his ban, while Meister's friends were saddened by his ban, most of the other members present in the trial, including Card0 celebrated. Shortly after, cup, Meister's de-facto defense attorney, was banned for similiar comments against the LGBT community.

Farhan's Trial

The trial of Farhan in 17th February 2023 was held after his 6 month ban was expired. The trial lasted for 30 mins and Farhan was unbanned from 852r and Tsz Kong.

Creation of Sydneygag

Sydneygag was finally created in February 2023, after Herro and Card0 had discussed it for months. The page is also assisted by Livie and Megan chan who helped out with ideas.

House Memes

In late March, Card0 began making house memes on the page, giving stereotypes of different school houses. This gave the page a lot of followers as Card0 began to also make university faculty memes.

The Immaturity Issue

Throughout February and March 2023, members of the public began noticing a rise in immaturity, something many members of Staff were concerned about. As such, staff decided to take a harsher stance against it from March onwards, giving out more warnings, both verbal and formal, to people deemed immature, as well as a community forum post to address the issue.

Zy's Demotion

Due to his passive aggressiveness, Zy was deposed from President in Tsz Kong, alongside Pixel, who was his fellow MP, on April 2nd 2023. The two had been called out for their passive aggressiveness for a longtime and things reached a peak on the 2nd. Following this, Card0 made another plea in the main server to get more people in Tsz Kong, leading to a few new parties being formed. An election was held on the 4th which Farhan, having been unbanned from TK politics, won with his new party.

Surpassing Hkmehmeh

For months, Hongkongggag was rapidly approaching Hkmehmeh in terms of follower count. On April 9th 2023, the page officially surpassed hkmehmeh with 64.4K followers compared to hkmehmeh's 64.3K. This was announced by Card0 in 852R, celebrating it as a huge milestone for Hongkongggag with it finally becoming the largest English meme page in Hong Kong, an achievement that he has continously touted when talking about the page's success.

New Mods

On April 11th 2023, nominations for Moderator and Mediator were reopened. The same day, Citric Acid and Polaris were nominated and promoted the next day. This came after zo.loft resigned due to inactivity around the same time. Citric was nominated by Card0 in the past, but he declined though he changed his mind for his second nomination.

Creation of the Inter Server Co-Operation Organization

On April 24th 2023, Card0 announced the creation of the Inter Server Co-Operation Organization, a forum for servers to meet and discuss ideas to improve their servers while also providing useful information that could help each other. The organization had 9 founding members though a few other servers would join shortly after its founding.

852R SMP V2

Discussions of transferring the SMP to a paid host to boost activity began ages ago however it wasn't until April 26th 2023 when a poll asking people if they would play on a paid host (that would not require manually turning the server on and off). The results was an absolute majority however due to the old SMP's size, it was archived though not deleted. The new SMP went live at night the following day and was proven to be more popular than its predecessor.

Ban of StormNinja25

On the night of May 11th, following several discussions within staff and with Storm, Card0 annnounced that Storm would be banned from the server, though she would still be allowed to join the SMP. Storm had been banned for immaturity, hyper activity (as she was spamming to get higher on the MEE6 Leaderboard) and bothering others. To many, Storm was the main culprit of the server's general decline in maturity. Although some would defend Storm, many on both sides of the argument understood why staff had to ban Storm.

Storm later rejoined the server on June 15, using her alt celestial_being#2425 (also known as 19371 uranus blep <4). Suspicious behavior, such as her nickname and trying to quickly earn back MEE6 levels, caused many to suspect celestial_being#2425 of being a Storm alt, confirmed by an independent investigation by Quattro and Hill. As a result, Storm was permenantly banned on June 19, 2023.

On June 22, Storm's ban was officially downgraded to an indefinite ban with an additional 6 months when it was revealed that she was manipulated by Hoch into attempting to dox the server. She was also blocked from editing the wiki on June 24, in response to her creating pages for Hoch and Uranus and writing long rants on these pages, as well adding spam to other pages, the previous day.

However, a month later, on July 22, Storm was permanently banned for the last time after attempting to dox flutters using their LinkedIn page.

Hoch's Campaign and Ban

On June 2, 2023, Hoch posted his campaign for Mod in 852r-forum, encouraging others to show their support. Others also wrote official nominations for Hoch, which were accepted by Card0, who started a poll for Hoch's promotion on June 3. Despite most people voting in the poll approving of his promotion, many others also voted against, including many Staff members, which led Card0 (whose position was neutral on the issue of Hoch being mod), to extend the poll by 24 hours.

Coincidentally, the June 4th Tiananmen Square vigil was held just hours before Hoch's poll ended. However, Card0 noticed that Hoch was getting into a heated argument with other members, such as Noknok05, about US-China relations. This led to Card0 vetoing him for his behaviour. He later stressed that this was not due to Hoch's views, but more how he presented it, especially at a vigil for the Tiananmen massarce. Many agreed with this decision, largely due to the server's population being primarily yellow ribbons.

Despite this incident, Hoch continued to be an active member for a few weeks. Campaigns for staff positions were later banned by a poll, ensuring that a similar situation would not happen in the future.

On June 18, a debate was started in #debates about allowing transgender women to compete in biological women's sports. This debate quickly spiraled out of control, with Hoch making comments viewed by many as borderline transphobic. Because of this, he was issued a level 1 warning, leading to a 2 week ban, as he previously had another warning for insensitive comments. However, this was later raised to an indefinite ban, with Card0 stating that "Transphobia is not tolerated in 852r." Hoch's Discord server was also unpartnered and removed from the ISCO.

As a result of the transgender debate, LGBT-related topics were immediately banned from #debates, with flutters stating that "there is virtually nothing to debate" and that "we should not be defending and debating the existence of us." This was later scrapped due to its unpopularity and some perceiving that it made no difference with Florida’s “Don’t say gay” law .

Hoch's ban was upgraded to a permanent ban on June 22 when it was revealed that he manipulated Storm into attempting to dox Card0.

New Prestiges

At 10pm HKT on June 11, 2023, a celebration was held for the 4th anniversary of 852 Resurgence. During the event, several former Vices were promoted to Prestige by Card0:

• Aqua
• Asianbarb
• AquaEclipse324
• Kix Kiefer
• Drotoch
• Hill
• Helia
• Celia
• Soviзт_Коммissaя
• NoodleCupKKv
• Sumii
• Coom
• Friedchilli
• Yosh

5th Anniversary

Compared to previous anniversary events, the 5th anniversary was planned to be larger in scale, with events being held across July with the main celebrations on the founding date of July 18th. Initially however, events saw low participation due to some members being on vacation. The server's activity also took a big dip, though things gradually improved just in time for the anniversary day.

On the anniversary, many members made speeches congratulating the server, the page and Card0, as the celebrations were meant to celebrate both the server and the page. The anniversary event was also streamed on Instagram, via Card0's phone though the quality was dubious. According to him, over 1000 people joined the stream on Instagram in total, leading him to deem the event an overall success despite the initial inactivity of early July.

Boost in SMP Activity

The SMP was updated to 1.20 on July 21st 2023. Combined with promotion on Instagram, the server saw a boost in activity and members who only came for the SMP, much to Card0's surprise and delight. However, this would end once the summer holidays were over.

New Wiki

On August 14th 2023, the wiki was transferred from its old host on Fandom to a new host on Mediawiki by Jasper. This was due to Jasper's offer to Card0, as well as Fandom becoming a less sustainable place to host a wiki.

HKGAG Music Festival

Around late June 2023, Drotoch suggested a music festival to Card0, who agreed to host it in July. Sadly, due to a lack of participants confirming their participation before the deadline, this was pushed to August 23rd. Thankfully however, several musicians and singers joined with around 10 participants, including Drotoch, taking part.

The event was an astounding success, with around 20-35 people viewing the event in total, including half of the musicians who had either showed up or sent one of their members to attend. Many of the members were blown away at the quality of the music, as some members thought that most of the songs would be memes, and not that serious. As a result, Card0 would hint that a smaller-scale Christmas event may be held later in the year, as well as a second one next year. flutters would also announce the HKGAG Film Festival later that year, though this was not succesful.

Creation of Singaporeggag

On August 26th 2023, Card0 and a few of his close Singaporean associates via Hongkongggag launched Singaporeggag, the fourth sister page in the page's history, fifth including Flutters's page: hkg.flutters.

Hanappe 1 Year Anniversary Vigil

On October 14th 2023, a vigil was held in commemoration of Hanappe, who had died exactly 1 year before. Members such as Card0, Drotoch and asianbarb made speeches commemorating her life.

Hongkongggag Creative Writing Contest

On December 3rd 2023, Card0 announced a creative writing contest for people to submit stories to. He would receive a grand total of 14 submissions, which were then judged by 3 of Card0's real life friends throughout January and February. The winners were announced on February 28th 2024.

Tuck Diarrhea Bussy Incident

On February 6th 2024, Andi pinged @here in funny-quotes with the following message:

"give me that diarrhea bussy - @Tuck to @Card0 @here" This caused mass confusion amongst those who were pinged, with some expressing fear at the incident, which included Card0 himself.

February 18th 2024 Vandal Incident

On February 18th 2024, a suspected quadruple Storm Alt attack occurred on the wiki

At 10:54 GMT+8, a user of "Youknowwhatyoudid" registered, and replaced the whole 852 Resurgence page with the following quote:

"Corruption. Stupidity. You know what you did. You will pay for this."

The edits were swiftly reverted and the user was banned not even 5 minutes after the incident. Another alt registered on the same day at 15:50 GMT+8 called "Littlebitch" where the alt replaced the introductory line to Zt's page "zt, or Hazel is a member of 852 Resurgence." with:

"zt, or Hazel is a bitch."

Within 10 minutes, the content was reverted and the alt was banned.

Then, at 16:03 GMT+8, a user named Rigged registered to the wiki, where 3 edits were made to Hongkongggag Community Awards. The first was adding the word 'Rigged' at the start of the wiki page, the second was adding a second 'Rigged' to make ' RiggedRigged' before blanking the page completely.

At 16:27 the page was reverted and they were promptly banned.

At 17:42 a user of Theoriginaldoxxer was registered, but a London IP Address changed the content of lumi's page to allegations of them being a doxxer, alongside death threats. Then, a the user Theoriginaldoxxer added a rickroll to the page. The changes were reverted ASAP. Some members speculated that this was Hoch, though evidence was limited in terms of his guilt.

New Ambassadors

On March 12th 2024, Card0 promoted the following affiliates to ambassadors, marking the largest bulk promotion of affiliates up to that point.

The following affiliates were promoted:

• Nox: Ambassador for Clearwater Bay
• Taipeitaoyuandickcheese (June): Ambassador for Fu Tung
• Drotoch: Ambassador for Sai Kung North
• Cursedcitrus: Ambassador for Lam Tin
• Katra: Ambassador for NAIS
• AvianStupid: Ambassador for Po Lam
• Nijo: Ambassador for VTC

Continued Wiki Vandalisms

Throughout the end of February and the start of March, the wiki was vandalised multiple times by random trolls, leading to a restriction on account creation for the Wiki on March 13th 2024 by Jasper. This would be lifted a few months later.

Ballsdex and Inactivity

On January 9th 2024, Card0 introduced the Ballsdex bot to the server: a bot that spawned random countryballs for members to catch. While initially liked, a few members wanted them in another server leading to a poll being held by flutters on January 15th. However as the poll was very close, Ballsdex continued to spawn in #general. Ceadz would also introduce a HK version of it: hkdex to the server around the same time.

With inactivity rising throughout March, Card0 would make a post on March 16th 2024, asking why inactivity was an issue as of late, especially with good follower growth at the time. While some people pointed out that they were busy with exams and assessments, a few mentioned that because of Ballsdex spam, they have been less motivated to speak as it would often cut into conversations. As such, Card0 made a poll that same day asking if the bot should be moved, which saw a majority vote in favour. Card0 would then end the poll early and move both Ballsdex and hkdex to #minigames-bots. However, ballsdex' removal did not increase activity, as activity levels remained low due to many members having exams.

Impact of Article 23

On March 19th 2024, Article 23 was passed in Hong Kong, marking the further encroachment of China on Hong Kong and an expansion of the national security law introduced in 2020. As such, many across the server and following the page were concerned for the page's future, as well as Card0's safety as the man behind the page. In response, Card0 made a statement advising for calm, while also encouraging members to be hopeful that one day the city would be free, and in the meantime to enjoy as much of Hong Kong as they can if they were still in the city. This statement was published on Tuesday morning, a couple hours before the law was passed in LegCo, before being posted on the Instagram story later that day.

Responses to the statement were supportive across both the server and instagram page, with many expressing their continued support for Card0 and Hongkongggag. Unlike the NSL in 2020, Card0 had no plans concerning setting the page or server to private, though he reiterated to many people that several precautions had been put in place in regards to his safety, and the page's longevity.

Second Reform Era (April 2024-Present)

From April 2024, and increasingly from July-August 2024 onwards, several reforms and new ideas were put forward in regards to the community and page.

Expansion of ISCO

During May and early June of 2024, the Inter Server Co-Operation Organization expanded, seeing new members added in order to better connect 852R's different partnered servers, many of which had owners who were on good terms with Card0. In addition, the HK Meme Page Alliance saw some expansion during April-May, though this was more minor and not as drastic.

Supporting br0wnhub and humourofhk

Following br0wnhub's return to activity, and the revival of humourofhk, the latter of which had been mysteriously taken down by Instagram. Hongkongggag would greatly support both pages by collaborating with them on memes, while also tying the three pages closer, something that had been done before with Memes of HK.

Announcing Card0's Retirement

For a while, Card0 had briefly thought about retiring from the server, something he mused he would do in 2025/2026. However, he had not made any concrete plans until June 2024, when he announced at the community anniversary that he planned to step back in late 2025 at the earliest, with 2026 as a more realistic date, in favour of flutters who would be designated as his official successor. While the announcement was made in June, he had already begun thinking about in April-May, though he decided to announce it early so that it wouldn't be too surprising. He also announced his plan to promote Astra and Milktealessweet to Admin to help flutters, while also elaborating that he felt that a disconnect had grown between him and some members, as well as his real life circumstances with him saying that he had been spending more time with friends post-pandemic compared to pre-pandemic and during the pandemic. He also mentioned that previous incidents also influenced his decision, believing that for the sake of his mental health it was better for other staff members to deal with them in the future.

Most people reacted with little surprise, as some people had expected such an announcement would come sooner or later.

Patreon and Sponsorships

On July 9th 2024, Card0 announced the creation of a Hongkongggag Patreon, which would have some exclusive contents in the form of memes, while also guaranteeing patreons a monthly shoutout. However, it did not receive much attention or popularity, with only two people subscribing, with the Patreon shutting down in October.

Later on in July, Card0 made a poll on his story, asking his followers on whether they would be okay with sponsorships, with around 55% voting in favour. The first sponsored, with the Aero-Thai Flying School, went live the other day.

Staff Rank Reforms

On July 26th 2024, Card0 announced special staff roles for specific members of Staff that focused on the expansion of the community and page. The first of these was the Affiliate Recruiter role, which was given to June, who despite being promoted just a few weeks ago, had been very active in the Ambassador and Affiliate group chats on Instagram.

Not long after this, on August 12th 2024, Card0 announced a proposal to reform it so that all Mediators would gain Moderator ranks, due to the former's ambigious role. Andi would also put forward a similar proposal but for technicians. Both saw unanimous approval, as all existing Mediators and Technicians became Moderators the next day.

2024 HKGAG Music Festival

A second HKGAG Music Fesitval was hosted by Card0 and Drotoch on August 23rd 2024, which saw 13 musicians submitting songs for the festival, including 3 bands. Some singers, like Fxith and The Lemon Ones would re-submit, while others such as Issah were newcomers.

While the event didn't see as many people join as the previous festival, around 20-25 people still joined the event, leading to Card0 to deem it a sucess.

2024 August-September Reforms

Not long after Saera was promoted, she would propose several reforms to the server, including a rules revamp, supported by both Jasper and Andi. Card0 would approve this and suggest making discussion about a rules revamp public, which led to an open discussion about server reforms throughout August and September. During this time, the rules would be clarified, while other associated reforms occured, such as the introduction of specified staff roles such as Affiliate Recruiter, and the return of Sleepy's bots which had been down for some time, having been improved with new code from Jasper. A Marketing Council, led by Joyce was also created. The page also saw an influx of new affiliates. The new rules would finally be implemented after a poll, on September 26th.

November Follower Crash

In the leadup to the 2024 US elections, there were many debates on whether Trump or Harris would win, with some members even watching the coverage live. However, as it became more obvious that Trump would win, Card0 would prepare for damage control, while also writing a statement of hope and inspiration to both the server and page.

Around 6pm HKT, 3 hours after Trump was all but confirmed as the victor, Card0 posted the statement on both platforms. While the reception to the statement was largely positive, the same could not be said for the page as many pro-Trump followers commented on the page, though several anti-Trump followers would share the post and like it. The post quickly reached thousands of comments and hundreds of likes, while also leading to 597 people unfollowing the page in one single day, the most in the page's history. However, Card0 later saw this as a victory, believing that with significantly less pro-Trump followers, the page would be further committed to progressive and left-wing ideals.