History of Hongkongggag 2018-2021

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)

This Resurgence Era was immediately marked by both rapid growth and deep internal crises. This is also when the page's identity was really forged, with the Satirical Maps series starting in August 2020, offset by a decline in morale, follower counts, and staff retention, leading to a leadership crisis that forced Card0 to democratize some of his authority through the March 2021 Reforms and the establishment of the rank of Founder.

Staff during this period:

Admins: Card0, Salmon, Flutters, Drea, Nissay, Deni, Vista

Moderators: Tolmo, Anidiot, aaronforce1, Sayonara, Cassandra

Resignations: Nissay (June 2020), Cassandra (September 2020), Tolmo (December 2020), Deni (February 2021), Vista (March 2023)

Notable members who joined during this era:

• Salmon
• Drea
• Nissay
• Deni
• Vista
• Crosby
• HikikomoriGod
• Christie
• Tolmo
• Anidiot
• KarpiG
• aaronforce1
• Blep
• Ky3653
• Vartesh
• Aditya
• Meltham
• Chief Kweef
• herro
• Cassandra
• HeyGuysItzSatan
• James Collins
• DepressedSteggy
• Kap26
• Lemontea
• Livie
• DarthMew
• king ronak
• NICORE (Discord only)
• Hill (Discord only)
• Jamiewg19
• Sayonara
• Cobbz289
• Celia
• Boba
• Wsdu
• Salami
• Andy 1987
• Darren
• Lieutenant Quattro
• AquaEclipse324 (Discord Only)

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, Salmon and 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. However, later on there were also questions over the future of the movement, as well as the issue of pro-trump localists.

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 not 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

From September 2020 to January 2021, the page experienced a massive decline, as well as drama in the community.

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.