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[bootski]

I believe I have seen the tweet you are talking about it and I am nearly certain it did not say this.

the tweet he's referring to is quoted by him almost verbatim. it was not that long ago i believe and was quickly deleted.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

the tweet he's referring to is quoted by him almost verbatim. it was not that long ago i believe and was quickly deleted.

This wasn't one of her proudest moments, but Giant Bomb was pretty especially shitty to her. The way they treated her a few years back probably didn't help this current climate.

 

[GiantBreadbug]

Just sorta now catching up on all this. People who are passionate GamerGaters and even probably fringe GGers are what's disillusioned me with gaming at large. The paranoid hyper-masculine culture is really offputting and I find it fitting that all the things I dislike about gaming culture have been wrapped up into this movement.

Hopefully this shit dies soon. It's doing nothing but harm. Horrifically ironic harm.

 

[outunderthestars]

I can't believe this has made to the headlines of CNN.com

 

[bootski]

This wasn't one of her proudest moments, but Giant Bomb was pretty especially shitty to her. The way they treated her a few years back probably didn't help this current climate.

agreed. was just correcting buddy's misconception up there. leigh has always seemed a little overly vitriolic to me in a lot of her writing (including tweets) and it's probably the reason her article was one of the watershed moment for this whole thing.

I can't believe this has made to the headlines of CNN.com

school shooting threat bro. that's the bread and butter of 24hr news media. edit: i will add i'm actually impressed at the solid coverage i've seen from cnn and msnbc on doing a quick summary of the goings on of the past couple months.

 

[Carcetti]

The last few weeks have probably given gaming more bad publicity than Jack Thompson ever managed. Stellar work, absolutely stellar.

 

[Messofanego]

Posted an article about the terror threats on my FB account along with my disapproval of them, was met by a couple of my friends coming out in support of the GG movement and how she was "asking for them" and "they benefit her because she can now play the damsel in distress trope she rallies so hard against".

Kinda disgusted with my friends right now. You know, you read that kinda shit on Twitter or Kotaku comments and you don't think these people are actually real. But they are. And they're some of my friends. And it depresses the shit out of me.

That is indeed depressing. Did you talk it out with them or avoided them?

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Posted an article about the terror threats on my FB account along with my disapproval of them, was met by a couple of my friends coming out in support of the GG movement and how she was "asking for them" and "they benefit her because she can now play the damsel in distress trope she rallies so hard against".

Kinda disgusted with my friends right now. You know, you read that kinda shit on Twitter or Kotaku comments and you don't think these people are actually real. But they are. And they're some of my friends. And it depresses the shit out of me.

I'm glad my brother knows nothing of GamerGate at this point, because I don't want another retread of his thoughts on Ferguson.

 

[LiegeWaffle]

I am terrified to think that this might end up to be one of those stories which would later drive the narrative about how it is necessary to limit anonymity on the Internet and give a carte blanche to the well-known law enforcement agencies.

I hope that instead we can start discussing about what we (on many levels, from communities like NeoGAF to larger companies like Twitter) can do to proactively combat the harassment crap.

 

[freddy]

I am terrified to think that this might end up to be one of those stories which would later drive the narrative about how it is necessary to limit anonymity on the Internet and give a carte blanche to the well-known law enforcement agencies.

I hope that instead we can start discussing about what we (on many levels, from communities like NeoGAF to larger companies like Twitter) can do to proactively combat the harassment crap.

Twitter definitely needs to do more. Some of the stuff posted on there is awful. It's not like they're hurting for money to be able to pay staff either. I'm all for freedom of speech but when it terrorises or threatens someone then it's too far.

 

[SwissLion]

the tweet he's referring to is quoted by him almost verbatim. it was not that long ago i believe and was quickly deleted.

Ah, I must have been thinking about something else then. So many Leigh Alexander tweets being trotted out lately.

In any case. It was quickly deleted, so clearly she realised she was lashing out inappropriately. It has been a fucking awful time, and if any of us could go through it without being a little publicly angry occasionally, I'd be happy to see it. I imagine most of the GB guys would agree that what she does is more "Interesting" in that sense though anyway. She tends to explore things that lovably dumb video content doesn't.

All in all though. Who cares about journo beef if it even exists. It's not some evidence that she has some great disdain for the greater gaming culture. The people who dug up the tweet clearly thought along those lines though and I'd prefer not to indulge them.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

Twitter definitely needs to do more. Some of the stuff posted on there is awful. It's not like they're hurting for money to be able to pay staff either. I'm all for freedom of speech but when it terrorises or threatens someone then it's too far.

People are trying to rally twitter to include better measures for blocking people, including shared block lists. Not sure they're listening, though.

 

[Galactic Fork]

Yes I did. She didn't say 'thinks about your industry', she said 'knows about your industry'. Those are two very different sentences. Those two sentences can lead to vastly different interpretations.

Please explain the difference... Because when talking about somebody from the outside looking in, all thought and knowledge is based on perception, not absolute knowledge and you can only see what's shown to you... and if the stereotype is the loudest and most visible, it's what they know.

And those interpretations get skewed further when she goes on to say:

Suddenly a generation of lonely basement kids had marketers whispering in their ears that they were the most important commercial demographic of all time. Suddenly they started wearing shiny blouses and pinning bikini babes onto everything they made, started making games that sold the promise of high-octane masculinity to kids just like them.

Some parts of her article I have no idea about her intended voice, but in other places, it's pretty blatant.

I'm not sure you actually read the article all at once as one cohesive thing... That part you quoted comes after:

When you decline to create or to curate a culture in your spaces, you’re responsible for what spawns in the vacuum. That’s what’s been happening to games.

That’s not super surprising, actually. While video games themselves were discovered by strange, bright outcast pioneers -- they thought arcades would make pub games more fun, or that MUDs would make for amazing cross-cultural meeting spaces -- the commercial arm of the form sprung up from marketing high-end tech products to ‘early adopters’. You know, young white dudes with disposable income who like to Get Stuff.

This part is about the origin\history of the "gamer" stereotype that gaming has grown beyond. Heck, the very next sentence after the one you quoted is "By the turn of the millennium those were games’ only main cultural signposts: Have money."

You can't deny people like the stereotype exist, but Leah is saying they aren't all there is. Real gamers (without the quotes) are more diverse. Gaming is larger and the publishers should recognize this and move past focusing on the stereotypes.

People are conflating the word gamer with the stereotype "gamer." As if if you game, you must be a stereotypical "gamer." It's really ironic that people think she's saying "all gamers are X" when the whole point of the article is that "Not all gamers are X and shouldn't be the only focus."

Eh, so she's mean about the stereotype. I'm not super fond of the stereotype myself. I'll be blunt. If you do identify with the stereotype, just accept the industry is larger and #notallgamers.

 

[Fredescu]

This letter to PixieJenni had some good points I thought: https://pixietalksgamergate.wordpress.com/2014/10/16/gamergate-as-a-defence-of-internet-culture/

It's pretty raw, but it makes the point that a lot of GamersGate is basically the defense of 4chan style lawless internet culture.

 

[alstein]

Twitter definitely needs to do more. Some of the stuff posted on there is awful. It's not like they're hurting for money to be able to pay staff either. I'm all for freedom of speech but when it terrorises or threatens someone then it's too far.

The only defense I can see for twitter is that it is too easy to creature sockpuppet accounts, and putting limitations on who can reply to you based on x number of followers can also be gamed. They might have internally decided the fight won't be won.

That said, they should have a clearer, less intrusive way to report people and a more proactive stance on it. Their current way seems to be designed to stop reporting period.

 

[bootski]

I am terrified to think that this might end up to be one of those stories which would later drive the narrative about how it is necessary to limit anonymity on the Internet and give a carte blanche to the well-known law enforcement agencies.

I hope that instead we can start discussing about what we (on many levels, from communities like NeoGAF to larger companies like Twitter) can do to proactively combat the harassment crap.

i was thinking about that today. outside of someone getting seriously hurt, it'd be the absolute worst case scenario. fortunately, i don't see how anything like that would be possible outside maybe mandating data retention laws, which most of the larger sites adhere to already.

hopefully, twitter already has something in the works to address the kind of behavior that we're seeing from people. i'm surprised, given the level that this has reached, that they haven't come down with a heavy hand already.

 

[mediapulp_wes]

Just catching up on the thread and,

For the record, most definitely not pro-gamergate, definitely pro-journalistic ethics and gender equality. I even originally RTd the image above because it pissed me off, but then I found this uncropped image.

Now while the Science with a Sparkle thing still riles me. The Scouts were totally bashed for the cropped image, which doesn't tell the whole picture of the organisation (neither does the full image, but it gives a better idea),

 

[Noaloha]

For the record, most definitely not pro-gamergate, definitely pro-journalistic ethics and gender equality. I even originally RTd the image above because it pissed me off, but then I found this uncropped image.

*img*

Now while the Science with a Sparkle thing still riles me. The Scouts were totally bashed for the cropped image, which doesn't tell the whole picture of the organisation (neither does the full image, but it gives a better idea),

Thanks for that! It certainly crossed my mind that the cropped image probably wasn't showing everything. I absolutely appreciate the whole page being presented on its original terms.

 

[Neoriceisgood]

Now while the Science with a Sparkle thing still riles me. The Scouts were totally bashed for the cropped image, which doesn't tell the whole picture of the organisation (neither does the full image, but it gives a better idea),

Uncropped image makes it clear the organization isn't "All bad", doesn't make the science with a sparkle thing less asinine though, I'd still be highly annoyed by it even if shown in the uncropped context.

 

[Galactic Fork]

For the record, most definitely not pro-gamergate, definitely pro-journalistic ethics and gender equality. I even originally RTd the image above because it pissed me off, but then I found this uncropped image.

Now while the Science with a Sparkle thing still riles me. The Scouts were totally bashed for the cropped image, which doesn't tell the whole picture of the organisation (neither does the full image, but it gives a better idea),

Isn't that an ad for an unaffiliated offsite thing by a completely different company?
Also, apparently science with a sparkle is about science of cosmetics.

 

[SmokyDave]

This wasn't one of her proudest moments, but Giant Bomb was pretty especially shitty to her. The way they treated her a few years back probably didn't help this current climate.

After her belligerent appearances on the Bombcast, I struggle to see GB as the bad guys in that particular affair.

 

[freddy]

The only defense I can see for twitter is that it is too easy to creature sockpuppet accounts, and putting limitations on who can reply to you based on x number of followers can also be gamed. They might have internally decided the fight won't be won.

That said, they should have a clearer, less intrusive way to report people and a more proactive stance on it. Their current way seems to be designed to stop reporting period.

Yea but even a specialised team to handle the really bad stuff, like suicidal kids being told to off themselves, people trolling family members who just lost someone, death threats, etc. If other big organisations can keep a lid on things somewhat, then they can too.

 

[RubberJohnny]

GamerGate is an attack on ethical journalism

In the ongoing, head-scratching pseudo-scandal that is #GamerGate, there is a narrative that is starting to take hold that is really beginning to bug me. That narrative, which is a classic example of someone assuming that the “middle ground” is always the most reasonable, goes something like this:

“Yes, #GamerGate is a deplorable and misogynist harassment campaign, but there’s some poor, well-meaning fools that really did get involved because they have concerns about ethics in journalism.”

Ah, horseshit. Anyone who legitimately cares about ethics in journalism would react to #GamerGate by screaming in horror and hanging garlic from the doors.

1) The main target of #GamerGate is not a journalist. She’s a video game developer. Holding her accountable for “ethics in journalism” is like telling your accountant that it’s his job to negotiate peace treaties in the Middle East.

2) The second biggest target of #GamerGate is an exemplar of clean journalism. If what you don’t like about gaming journalism is that it’s too cozy with the industry and therefore the writers are afraid to be critical, then your fucking hero should be Anita Sarkeesian. She funded herself with Kickstarter and not industry money. She is harshly critical of video games, even as she is a fan. She is the ideal of what a critical gaming journalist should be: Knowledgeable, critical, fair, thorough and utterly non-corrupt.

3) The biggest victory to date of #GamerGate has been an attack on ethical journalism.One of the most important ideas when it comes to ethical journalism is that there’s a wall between advertising and editorial. #GamerGaters hate this rule of ethics, because, as opponents of ethical journalism, they wish to control what journalists say and censor any ideas or opinions that they don’t want to hear. And so they have been targeting advertisers, trying to get them to pull ads from gaming websites that publish ideas they wish to censor.

5) The most recent target of #GamerGate was selected because she engages in ethical journalism. If Brianna Wu had kept her mouth shut and just quietly developed video games, she probably would have been left alone. Instead, she dipped her toe into the art of writing ethical journalistic pieces. But, because they are opponents of ethical journalism, #GamerGaters attacked Wu like they do any other young woman that doesn’t just churn out mindless pro-sexist propaganda.

6) One of the main leaders of #GamerGate works for Breitbart. Milo Yiannopoulos has been up front, rallying the troops of #GamerGate and even helping them select the inevitably young, female targets for harassment. He also works for Breitbart, an organization whose hostility towards ethical journalism is legendary. No surprise there, because #GamerGate is also opposed to ethical journalism.

In other words, #GamerGate is about “ethics in journalism” in the same way Fox News is “fair and balanced”, which is to say “not in the slightest and, in fact, they are the opposite”. Fox News called itself “fair and balanced” to cover for a not-exactly-discreet intention to be unfair, unbalanced and frequently just straight up misleading. And so #GamerGate claims to be about ethics in journalism, when in fact it is about the opposite: Bullying gaming journalists until they get in line with a corporate-friendly agenda of uncritically marketing “games pitched at the intellectual and emotional level of a 16-year-old suburban masturbator“. Anyone who actually tries to talk about anything interesting or intellectually engaging, particularly if female, will be drilled out with harassment.

Fucking owns

 

[Lime]

I wonder when prominent right-winged news media will pick up on this and spin it to their advantage. Like when Fox News enter the fray and starts badmouthing women or poor people or call for censorship or something.

 

[chaobreaker]

I wonder when prominent right-winged news media will pick up on this and spin it to their advantage. Like when Fox News enter the fray and starts badmouthing women or poor people or call for censorship or something.

I thought Breitbart was already doing this?

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

I wonder when prominent right-winged news media will pick up on this and spin it to their advantage. Like when Fox News enter the fray and starts badmouthing women or poor people or call for censorship or something.

"Actor Adam Baldwin is here with us today to talk about Gamergate, an exciting new movement calling for accountability in journalism (brief stutter because those words sting a Fox News anchor's lips) and fighting against censorship."

 

[mediapulp_wes]

"Actor Adam Baldwin is here with us today to talk about Gamergate, an exciting new movement calling for accountability in journalism (brief stutter because those words sting a Fox News anchor's lips) and fighting against censorship."

It's just a matter of time before this happens.

 

[Alex_Mexico]

Sorry if this was already posted but holy moly guys, this article is right now the second in importance at cnn.com just below the Ebola-Texas nurse fiasco.

Gamergaters who hate on feminists and Anita should get through their heads by now that she would've been as niche and non-famous as she was two years ago were it not for their incessant harassment campaigns. I didn't even know who she was until I began seeing articles about the hate she was receiving over a series of videos she hadn't even made yet!

The haters made her famous and proved that her cause was worth backing! Will they ever realize how badly they've reacted to all this?

Front page of the New York Times and now cnn.com front page. Congratz, Adam Baldwin I hope it was worth it.

http://us.cnn.com/2014/10/15/living/gamergate-explainer/index.html?c=homepage-t

 

[Corpekata]

I don't think Fox is ready to give up the ghost against videogames generally so I don't see them jumping in to support it.

I think if they do it, they won't cover the journalism angle, it'll be more along the lines of "Political Correctness infecting entertainment."

 

[HarryHengst]

This letter to PixieJenni had some good points I thought: https://pixietalksgamergate.wordpress.com/2014/10/16/gamergate-as-a-defence-of-internet-culture/

It's pretty raw, but it makes the point that a lot of GamersGate is basically the defense of 4chan style lawless internet culture.

Which is clearly a terrible culture and we should think long and hard if that is something we want to allow.

 

[Brakke]

the tweet he's referring to is quoted by him almost verbatim. it was not that long ago i believe and was quickly deleted.

This was then and is still now totally true.

 

[kcp12304]

This was then and is still now totally true.

It doesn't have to be a contest.

 

[Foshy]

GamerGate is an attack on ethical journalism





Fucking owns

This is great.

 

[HarryHengst]

The one thing i do like about this whole mess is that thanks to #gamergate people i now know which sites are worth reading.

 

[bootski]

Which is clearly a terrible culture and we should think long and hard if that is something we want to allow.

what exactly would you want to disallow? and how would we go about doing that?

 

[Zomba13]

GamerGate is an attack on ethical journalism





Fucking owns

Checked the link out, saw it was written by a woman, now I feel bad because I know some gamergate assholes will be sending her death threats

Completely agree with her though. She is absolutely right.

 

[Lime]

what exactly would you want to disallow? and how would we go about doing that?

Like I wrote earlier:

Reminder: The structural and systemic issues in the video games industry and culture are fostering the attitudes we see on display here. The lack of perspectives, of worldviews, of experiences, and of values all contribute to this environment we live in where people get told over and over again that they're awesome for buying video games and that anything being criticized for something they themselves aren't familiar with or incapable of relating to should be protected at all costs. These are people who think that saying anything critical of women in video games amount to censorship. These are people who spend tons of energy and literally hours on trying to debunk a woman's Youtube video series. And these people are never challenged because of the environment they live in never expose them to the actual diversity of the real world.

And this environment is something everyone with even the tiniest bit of power are complicit in fostering. When Polygon hires white guy Ben Kuchera almost immediately after him losing his job, while marginalized writers have to live off the good-will of people through Patreon. When Giantbomb hires two more guys despite having a chance to diversify their staff. When all the diversity discussions we have primarily and exclusively talk about women when other topics such as race, class, age, ability are downprioritized. When Polygon hires another White dude as their senior editor. When console reveals only brings men to show off the products and games. When people allow racist/sexist/homophobic slurs remain unchallenged in online multiplayer games. When people doubts a woman when she tells her own story of being discriminated against. When trade shows and huge press conferences fail to include a diversity of speakers and presenters for their games. When marketing people think advises developers to remove women from front covers of video games and their marketing. When people in the workplace don't call out the boys-club mentality and how it affects the work atmosphere.

There are so many factors and instances where everyone existing and participating in this culture are complicit in fostering this environment where Gamergaters come from. And there is not enough that is being done to change this environment. We, as in people within this culture, seriously need to be better and much more actively foster an environment that challenges oppressive and bigoted attitudes and thinking, while helping and ensuring the well-being of people affected by the structural and systemic oppression and discrimination.

 

[Alex_Mexico]

The last few weeks have probably given gaming more bad publicity than Jack Thompson ever managed. Stellar work, absolutely stellar.

You are absolutely, without a spec of doubt in my mind, 200% right in that statement you just made.

Jack Thompson was child's play in comparison to this. This is what he should've done from the beginning; attack gaming from withing! Let them destroy themselves! He was but one man, he couldn't against millions!

He must be somewhere watching from a distance and just smiling while sipping his morning coffee while reading the front page of the New York friggin' Times!

 

[ICKE]

I just don't see anything good coming out of this.

I've enjoyed games as sort of escapism from the real world but now it seems as if these culture wars are becoming more relevant and we are going to have a strong political divide as differing factions are pitted against one another.

The most visible rhetoric is very divisive, people are being called "undersexed white males" or "social justice harpies". Most likely all the moderate voices will be silenced after prominent figures such as Sarkeesian gain more visibility. Big companies will probably play it safe, because they are worried about sales and do not want to disenfranchise their customers.

So we end up with a very hostile environment and the worst case scenario is that new releases will be vetted thoroughly by different factions, Bayonetta 2 on steroids or what have you. We might even have devs who smell cash and start pandering to both sides thus fueling the divide even more.

I've personally dealt with gaming related abuse for around 16 years now. Stalking in Ultima-Online was my first experience, constant trolling in competitive Counter-Strike went on for years and apparently now it is time for culture wars as story telling has gained a stronger foothold. This will never change, it is the defining characteristic of gaming I suppose, the only option is to embrace the hate and strengthen ones resolve. -_-

 

[Galactic Fork]

I just don't see anything good coming out of this.

I've enjoyed games as sort of escapism from the real world but now it seems as if these culture wars are becoming more relevant and we are going to have a strong political divide as differing factions are pitted against one another.

The most visible rhetoric is very divisive, people are being called "undersexed white males" or "social justice harpies". Most likely all the moderate voices will be silenced after prominent figures such as Sarkeesian gain more visibility. Big companies will probably play it safe, because they are worried about sales and do not want to disenfranchise their customers.

So we end up with a very hostile environment and the worst case scenario is that new releases will be vetted thoroughly by different factions, Bayonetta 2 on steroids or what have you. We might even have devs who smell cash and start pandering to both sides thus fueling the divide even more.

Just for my own curiosity, what would you say is a "moderate voice"?

 

[Lime]

. We might even have devs who smell cash and start pandering to both sides thus fueling the divide even more.

One particular group of people have been pandered to excessively for the last 30 years, so it would be nothing new.

 

[HarryHengst]

I just don't see anything good coming out of this.

I've enjoyed games as sort of escapism from the real world but now it seems as if these culture wars are becoming more relevant and we are going to have a strong political divide as differing factions are pitted against one another.

The most visible rhetoric is very divisive, people are being called "undersexed white males" or "social justice harpies". Most likely all the moderate voices will be silenced after prominent figures such as Sarkeesian gain more visibility. Big companies will probably play it safe, because they are worried about sales and do not want to disenfranchise their customers.

So we end up with a very hostile environment and the worst case scenario is that new releases will be vetted thoroughly by different factions, Bayonetta 2 on steroids or what have you. We might even have devs who smell cash and start pandering to both sides thus fueling the divide even more.

There is no moderate voice. There is a right voice (anti-GG) and a wrong one (pro-GG). Dont fall into the trap thinking that both sides are equally right/wrong.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

So we end up with a very hostile environment and the worst case scenario is that new releases will be vetted thoroughly by different factions, Bayonetta 2 on steroids or what have you. We might even have devs who smell cash and start pandering to both sides thus fueling the divide even more.

Aside from the obvious point that this is a weird Kafkaesque paranoid scenario, pandering to "both sides" would still represent an improvement over the status quo; that is, pandering exclusively to the Gamergate demographic.

 

[Neoriceisgood]

From what I've come to understand:

Moderate = We don't actually threaten to kill people or verbally endorse it.


Clearly a virtue worthy of respect and recognition, considering how difficult it is to resist sending death threats in this day and age.

 

[Carcetti]

So we end up with a very hostile environment and the worst case scenario is that new releases will be vetted thoroughly by different factions, Bayonetta 2 on steroids or what have you. We might even have devs who smell cash and start pandering to both sides thus fueling the divide even more.

The 'emasculation' of video games by critics like Sarkeesian or 'dilution' of games by including stuff like Depression Quest seems to be Gamergate fear. However, if you look at any other form of entertainment from comics to books to movies, we can see that the only thing that will happen is diversification. There will be dumb games, games with tits everywhere, violent shooters with white heroes and whatever. There will also be other kind of games, and apparently that's somehow bad. Gamersgate appears to be a really reactionary movement, and that's sad.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Totalbiscuit wrote this, right?

They are not wrong exactly. Not publicly announcing actually is the best thing you can do, but it's much more difficult to deal with this stuff without doing it.
Obviously not saying anything would also help GG, that is out of the question, but in a normal situation it would actually be the best cause of action. Problem is that some people obviously will now use this as "WELP she said it again out loud, obviously she doesn't actually care"

From what I've come to understand:

Moderate = We don't actually threaten to kill people or verbally endorse it.

That's basically the textbook definition of moderate, right there

 

[ICKE]

Just for my own curiosity, what would you say is a "moderate voice"?

The moderates are normal people who nod in agreement when someone like TB makes valid criticisms related to gaming journalism or early access sales for example. But that ship has sailed at this point, now we are back to the usual shenanigans with all the loons.

In gaming, twitter or what have you, the most visible people are not those who articulate their views carefully. That was already apparent 15 years ago when people would yell curse words next to Britain bank in UO for hours if they had some grudge to bear.

we can see that the only thing that will happen is diversification. There will be dumb games, games with tits everywhere, violent shooters with white heroes and whatever. There will also be other kind of games, and apparently that's somehow bad. Gamersgate appears to be a really reactionary movement, and that's sad.

One would hope that you are correct. I personally don't really care about the story telling elements, I'd choose Dark Souls over a Bioware game any day of the week. And yes, it is really silly when people use feminism or emasculation of men as talking points when companies are simplifying mechanics in order to gain a wider audience.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

They are not wrong exactly. Not publicly announcing actually is the best thing you can do, but it's much more difficult to deal with this stuff without doing it.
Obviously not saying anything would also help GG, that is out of the question, but in a normal situation it would actually be the best cause of action. Problem is that some people obviously will now use this as "WELP she said it again out loud, obviously she doesn't actually care"


That's basically the textbook definition of moderate, right there

The problem is that the goal of these death threats is to silence the person. By not saying "I know what you're doing and it won't work," they also still win. So it makes a lot of sense to do the thing that lets you look strong in the face of danger.

And it doesn't even have to be a logical choice. If someone is trying to shut you up, saying "Fuck you, I'm just going to talk louder" is probably most people's natural reactions.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

The problem is that the goal of these death threats is to silence the person.

Huh yeah of course. Don't know why I haven' thought of that. -->Dumb

 

[Galactic Fork]

The moderates are normal people who nod in agreement when someone like TB makes valid criticisms related to gaming journalism or early access sales for example. But that ship has sailed at this point, now we are back to the usual shenanigans with all the loons.

In gaming, twitter or what have you, the most visible people are not those who articulate their views carefully. That was already apparent 15 years ago when people would yell curse words next to Britain bank in UO for hours if they had some grudge to bear.

So keeping the things the way they were?