NeoForged is a new fork of Minecraft Forge by the previous staff memebers except for LexManos. The reason they give is that lex is hard to work with and toxic and openly an asshole. This may seem good, but there are many huge issues. First of all it is likely that soon NeoForge will not support MC Forge mods, cpw has stated the plan to keep compatibility while Curle said it will likely not be stored, however the 2 are still talking. This can very much harm the modding community as a whole as there are 2 major MC Forge versions modders will need to target, but many are considering dropping support for the original. I doubt this will happen for a long time though as many of the 3rd parties (such as mod distrbution websites and launchers) currently support the traditional MinecraftForge but many (such as Modrinth and PrismMC) are planning in supporting both. This can be good as it gives the user more choice, but it is important both are maintained. Many are saying Lex will just give up, this is doubtful because MinecraftForge is Lex’s main source of income.
Another issue is the staff. While many are saying Curle is a good professional person, they also do not mention the partially known darkside. Curle is known for her extra territorial jurisdicition, slander, hiding evidence from defendant, ban sharing, preventing appeals, and much more. She is not a great person for moderation position, she does not have much time because of all the projects she works on and the fact that she is a university teacher. This does not prevent her from wasting time targetting people and joining ban networks like the Quilt Community Collab which she was part of and a cofounder of until her dramatic being kicked out. Curle as a staff member should be taken with a grain of salt and is not to be trusted with bans without evidence and the ability for the defendant to speak (which should always exist).
In terms of features we wonder what changes will exist, again it is important to keep in mind lots of legacy stuff is being destroyed, we hope core mods within java continue to exist. There is also lots of talk about SpongeMixins which in some ways can be good and in other ways bad. Lex was one of the earliest opponents to spongemixins but they have become quite common despite the fact that they have many issues.We will support both with our mods but are rather against this coup and hope for a reunification eventually. If you are interested in NeoForged you can read more about it here on the NeoForged website.