"Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

[lizzyinthesky]

Yeah, I hope Jim Sterling and Moviebob at least raises the issue with The Escapist.

So what you're saying is that instead of trusting the definite word straight from the source, they're believing a secondary source that largely makes things up, because it fits better with the narrative in their head?

SURELY they wouldn't be THAT naïve?

I doubt Jim will, he really seems content to try and play the Total Biscuit style WAIT TO SEE ALL THE FACTS from my POV.

[JonCole]

Jim has been relatively active in this continuing saga, especially since he was "targeted" on that list of SJW's to avoid. I think he's quieted down a little since #GameGhazi but I wouldn't count him out.

[Denial]

The title makes me think of bad, overly angsty DC comics crossover events myself. Which is not unfitting

Also, wasn't Identity Crisis roundly criticized for depending on the illogical targeting of a widely beloved woman by an irrational stalker for its narrative impetus?

Seems legit.

 

(Edit of "universally", because somebody out there probably hates Sue Dibney.)

Edited September 5, 2014 by Denial

[Flynn]

https://medium.com/@upstreamism/to-fair-minded-proponents-of-gamergate-7f3ce77301bb

 

This is a nice one.  

[Undeadpool]

I think the end game is that most get distracted and drift away, but the hardcore group of harassers who instigated it remain. Some communities get better at policing abuse, others double down on harbouring it. More women are driven from Twitter and games, the systemic and opportunistic harassment continues on a smaller but nevertheless harrowing scale.

 

Traffic on most gaming news sites is way up compared to August, but they've been crowing over Alexa graphs showing it down. But: Alexa isn't that reliable, they changed the way they compile stats recently, the slump in the graphs starts long before #GameGhazi, and an August slump is a well known phenomenon for video game sites. Hooray for correlation!

 

I finished screen capping their etherpad conversations, because it got really difficult to stomach after a while. Once they found out they were being screenshotted and tweeted, they complained that it was showing their words out of context. Because sure there are nice, ethical ways to praise astroturfing and declare that Jenn Frank "had it coming". Here are all the shots I took:

http://puu.sh/bkcsX/21bac6cae7.jpg

http://puu.sh/bkcsA/4f90eb1f6f.jpg

http://puu.sh/bkUiD/232db02262.jpg

http://puu.sh/bkXvc/8a71d42dbf.jpg

http://puu.sh/bkXH5/07b4e7ffba.jpg

http://puu.sh/bl0Cn/43eb6a24b0.jpg

 

Edit: I couldn't resist another look ¬¬

Here they are fabricating their own story over Jenn quitting games writing:

http://puu.sh/bmwTc/0d3917ece1.jpg

That's possibly unintentional, but when a primary source is so public and readily available, I think it shows how for some of them, their ideology sways how rigorously they want to check something out.

 

 

Last one:

 

You're doin' God's work, son (no idea if you're younger than me, or even male, but the quote just doesn't work the same otherwise).

 

I kinda figured (hoped) this would peter out RIGHT around the time things like REAL attention and scrutiny was paid to it. I mean it was obviously started by Trolls Without Goals, but a lot of people seemingly jumped on (and many RIGHT back off) thinking there was some real purpose behind it. It's a similar reason you see skinheads beating up on KKK members: you can't fuel something on hate alone. After the initial rush of sophomoric rage wears off, you realize you're surrounded by people it turns out you don't actually agree with all that much.

 

Not that that'll stop it altogether, unfortunately, and I shudder to think of the creative minds we may have lost, both present and future, but it IS somewhat satisfying to see them lose something in the same breath they declared victory.

[Stuart]

I had written this whole fucking thing on these issues going on right now, but i accidentally erased it. 

 

So I made these thinkpieces on the state of video games and gamer culture right now. Hope you like them

 

 

 

And finally, my pièce de résistance. 

[GraysonEvans]

I think the thing to remember that no matter what A) people sexual relationships are no ones business except the participating parties and friends can have sex and that's okay.

[tegan]

That screenshot of the conversation about the "Gaming Feminist Illuminati" would be adorably naive if it weren't for the fact that these are almost certainly grown-ass dudes.

 

Next time on 4chan: anon tries to get a job as a Federal Breast Inspector.

[Synnah]

friends can have sex and that's okay.

 

The perfect smiley.

[Nachimir]

 

 

And finally, my pièce de résistance. 

 

 

Mind if I tweet these? If attributed, how do you want that?

[Problem Machine]

So it turns out that for the last two weeks Zoe Quinn has been logging all activity in the IRC channel 4chan has been using to orchestrate Gamergate, and is turning it all over to the police.

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508174331243810817

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508175131017871361

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508176313564160000

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508176985932046336

https://twitter.com/MsMinotaur/status/508177920687210496

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508180612348256256

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508181098145136640

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508181338264842240

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508182027980390400

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508182566327709697

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508184768815448064

 

Zoe just Poirot'd the SHIT out of #GamerGate.

[Hermie]

She's still posting as we speak, including logs of them discussing her personal info, even though they claimed she faked it. This must be so vindicating for her, maybe this is how she has managed to stay strong, because she knew she had this up her sleeve.

[Merus]

This is incredible stuff. So, so good.

 

I don't know how these "gamers" managed to be so outplayed.

[Stuart]

 

Mind if I tweet these? If attributed, how do you want that?

 

I've already tweeted them myself and this one seems to have gotten a large audience.

[Problem Machine]

Here's a storify, a bit less unwieldy:

https://storify.com/strictmachine/gameovergate

[tegan]

This is incredible stuff. So, so good.

 

I don't know how these "gamers" managed to be so outplayed.

 

Seriously, I am so fucking giddy about Zoe having all of this as concrete evidence and being able to launch one big "fuck you" all in one go.

[tegan]

 

[zerofiftyone]

So it turns out that for the last two weeks Zoe Quinn has been logging all activity in the IRC channel 4chan has been using to orchestrate Gamergate, and is turning it all over to the police.

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508174331243810817

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508175131017871361

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508176313564160000

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508176985932046336

https://twitter.com/MsMinotaur/status/508177920687210496

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508180612348256256

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508181098145136640

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508181338264842240

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508182027980390400

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508182566327709697

https://twitter.com/TheQuinnspiracy/status/508184768815448064

 

Zoe just Poirot'd the SHIT out of #GamerGate.

 

Woof. Owned.

[Mangela Lansbury]

She's still posting as we speak, including logs of them discussing her personal info, even though they claimed she faked it. This must be so vindicating for her, maybe this is how she has managed to stay strong, because she knew she had this up her sleeve.

 

Is secondhand vindication a thing? I think that's what I'm feeling right now.

[JonCole]

I feel a bit vindicated in putting ethics and journalistic integrity in quotes.

[Merus]

Sooo.....

 

...Zoe had evidence that Jenn Frank and Mattie Brice were being targeted by these shitheels while the harassment was going on?

 

Edit: the biggest losers here, I think, other than all the people who were senselessly attacked of course, are the gaming enthusiast websites. We've seen that they're neither willing to make their ethical stance clear, nor stand by their writers. People who were tricked by 4chan into #Gamergate are going to be looking askance at those websites and their lack of response. People horrified by #Gamergate will remember how those websites stayed silent, or posted mealy-mouthed thinkpieces, when generalist sites like Badass Digest and The New Republic took strong and clear stances.

[JonCole]

Swimming through those tweets, probably my favorite thing is #GamerGhazi people demanding that Zoe release "full logs" so that they don't look like total idiots for following 4Chan. The irony of asking Zoe for evidence that exonerates their gullibility is so tasty.

[Merus]

I know Danielle's had her heart in her throat over this; what does that say about the kind of protection Polygon can provide its writers? (Then again, it's not like The Guardian did any better for Jenn Frank.) Edit: turns out Danielle was right to be worried; there were apparently efforts to try and doxx Patricia, which would almost certainly have led to her being doxxed as well. Dodged a bullet there, Mints.

 

We've also learned that Twitter will stand by and do nothing while this harassment goes on. I think it's worth discussing, as an industry and community, establishing our own social network that's a lot less awful. (I've always wanted to see someone take the idea behind Reader, and polish it up to a mirror sheen, where everybody has a feed, including websites, and you can re-syndicate things from other people's feeds. Like a Twitter using RSS feeds.)

 

The thing that makes me angry, still, what makes me livid, is that Twitch got bought for $1B by Amazon, and the very next thing we did was turn on each other while everyone watched - and I say we because we also have proof that many of the #Gamergate people weren't MRA misogynists, they were being badly mislead. What a great way to celebrate a big milestone in video games being relevant.

 

I would write an angry blog post if I had a blog that was in any way current and I thought the world actually needed another fucking blog post on this thing, fuck it all.

[Merus]

As angry as I am, I guess I'm not as sarcastically angry as MrHoatzin:

 

 

(he is running afoul of Poe's law, guys, calm down)

[tegan]