I feel like people don't consider that both sides have lousy people being awful. Have members of #GameGate been jerks? Absolutely, I won't defend those people, and many were trying to actively police the tag when we realised what had happened to Jenn Frank. People are individuals, there's only so much you can do to rein in those who decide to go on the attack.
But Journalists have been doing mass character assassinations, mocking and basically outright dismissive of their readership. We had people calling anyone daring to associate with the tag misogynist, white, male nerds who live in moms basement en masse because of journalism setting that agenda for the weekend.
A lot of people go "hey why didn't you care when Doritosgate/Kayne and Lynch ect. happened" well actually we did, I remember several very long threads on those things, and people getting quite upset about those situations. The difference at least then, were these being isolated incidents - and journalists actually kind of tried to report the situation best they could. Mass Effect 3's ending saga was a bit awkward and resulted in some slightly unprofessional statements on twitter - but I didn't really care for ME so assumed it was worth the slight bops on head to readership.
The reaction to this situation has been so weird to me, I follow a lot of jornos on twitter and suddenly with this news "your point is irrelevant this" this and "lol gamers" that. I used to think these people were just like us, just they got to play games for a living. The way many of acted during this time, I can't see it that way anymore. It's like a certain level of trust and acquaintanceship I had with those people is shattered.
People seem awfully resistant to have the discussions needed to smooth things over. If they advertised TFYC (without attempting to stick a bias on what is a charity game jam) - if these companies properly reviewed their ethics and came back to people and said "hey look we're sorry we acted really unprofessional on social media, and we looked into this so this might be workable, and this might not, but we want to make sure our readers are happy and we can work together to make this better" - a lot of this would go away.
But I've seen little give and take in that regard, a few have come into the tag to ask questions. But it's almost always the same, complete and utter dismissal. If your super lucky to be one of the "weaponised minorities" like myself and others, you also get told about how apparently your cause is misguided or you are "brainwashed" - that's not the slightest bit insulting or condescending nope.
Why in any respect would I stay around for people that have that much contempt for me and the hobby I enjoy?
We could not bother to fight at all, choose to walk away and never give them another click or morsel of ad revenue. But we decided to fight because we wanted to be heard, we want to fix this. But it's not going to work if the solution is basically the same as before, sweeping it under the rug and pretending these problems are not there till the problem rears it's ugly head again.
I appreciate greatly that The Escapist is changing their ethics policy and looking into how they engage on social media. It'll be interesting to see what they come up with as a result.
(BTW there are rotten parts to gaming community that need to be sorted too ect but that's gonna take work and maybe media being more considerate of how their articles sway discussion on these matters)
Ultimately at this point, I won't be giving bigger sites my clicks. But turn to independents & streamers instead. I'ld like to see change, and less people being at odds with each other but for now the backbiting continues.