Cerium refused to really say anything about it, although non-staff did discuss it. This is the major thread where people were discussing how not only should the moderators be paid but also they should setup funding for underprivileged children to learn how to develop games and other big brained ideas. Along with lots of people who said they'd be willing to pay for the site to keep it ad free and even just to exist:
NeoGAF was the most popular video game forum. I suspect that era is over now. One of my concerns, and many, many other members' concerns with that forum is how the owner financially managed it. It became user hostile with viglinks, intrusive ads, and hijack your browser mobile ads. More...
www.resetera.com
The punchline is that the thread was locked with a "we have heard your comments" boilerplate by an admin who has since self-requested a ban.