Gistmania began life as something else entirely. Naijapals launched as a Nigerian social networking site and forum in July 2008, and its discussion boards grew fast enough that in 2012 the news side was split off under the name Gistmania and given its own domain, registered that August. The publisher is Naijapals, a subsidiary of Techdorado Ltd, and the operation still runs on both fronts: a news feed and a Simple Machines forum where the same stories are opened as discussion threads. It describes itself as self-funded, with staff paid from display advertising across the desktop site, mobile site and apps, and states that it maintains journalistic independence by generating its own revenue rather than taking outside backing. The apps claim more than a million interacting members. Named contributors are absent, but the forum's most active members are listed publicly by post count. Today, Gistmania is mainly focused on Nigerian breaking news, politics and elections, crime and policing, celebrity and Nollywood gossip, religion, relationships and sport, published as a news feed paired with open discussion threads, from their base in Nigeria. One interesting fact: Its politics board is called N-olitics. The forum names its sections in Nigerian internet slang, so national political debate sits under a pun, beside boards for Naijapals Base and The Buzz Central.