I probably shouldn’t make this public post, but I’m going to anyway.
I’m sorry to anyone following me or just around in general that’s getting harassed and abused by people (or possibly one person) that have it out for me. I block them when they come after me under a new name, but there’s not much I can do to stop them from going after other people.
Aaaand abusers gonna abuse. I definitely want to be informed if I’m being an ass and don’t realize it, but if the person saying it is making up things about me, twisting my words and acting in bad faith, I’ll assume they’re just trying to hurt me.
Also: I’ve had this username for over a decade. I’m not going to abandon a part of my identity that I care about, especially not if making me drop it is one of the goals of harassment directed at me. I’m not important, my thoughts and feelings don’t carry much weight, but I’m still me. Harassment isn’t going to change the fact that I’m alive.
*looks at latest reblog notifications*
… Really? Three different accounts, nearly a week after my initial post, just so happen to reblog each other’s remarks on that post within the same couple hours using the same logic, with its progression slowly building toward increasingly hostile and abusive?
That’s… that’s not very subtle. I mean, none of it is subtle, but especially not that.
I’m sharing this on my account for a couple reasons. One, to further demonstrate that harassment is bad, and excessive harassment is increasingly getting punished via law. Two, because of the number of accounts he used.
This is a guy who created 300 Twitter accounts for the sake of harassing other people. 300. Social media like Twitter and Tumblr makes it INCREDIBLY easy to make multiple accounts, and extremely devoted people can and will be heavily active with a slew of them to make themselves and what they’re doing look bigger and broader than it really is.
I’m saying this because I’m extremely familiar with fandoms and social media use. I know there are some great, amazing people out there who get bombarded with hate in this fashion. Without having experienced it over a long period, it’s easy to think all that hate is a wide swath of people and you did something horribly wrong to deserve it. In reality, a lot of the time, it’s one person with multiple accounts and a mission or vendetta of some sort.
“How can someone maintain 10 or 20 fairly active accounts? This can’t all just be one person.” That’s the most common thought, and this article is proof that a single person can definitely maintain that many active accounts. If this man could maintain 300 accounts, what’s 10-20?
Puerto Rican with 300 Twitter accounts accused of harassment
I normally don’t post about GamerGate on here. I leave that almost exclusively to my Twitter account, which is also why I’m not as active on Tumblr as I once was: I put more focus on dealing with GamerGate. However, some things have happened that require me to post here.
I strongly urge not going to or supporting SXSW. Or at least, not SXSW Interactive.
https://twitter.com/randileeharper/status/658742655652909056
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/sxsw-has-approved-a-gamergate-panel
I don’t expect everyone reading this to know or understand GamerGate or what’s going on, so here’s the gist of things.
GamerGate started as an abuse campaign against Zoe Quinn under the excuse of “ethics in games journalism”. They conjured up false claims about sex for favorable game reviews, and over time, they’ve attacked anyone else who either won’t let them bully others or who they see as “deserving” in some way. Their targets are always feminists, usually women, and usually ones with a promising career either currently or ahead of them. They make false claims about their targets to “justify” their attacks, claiming pedophilia, bestiality, etc in hopes of ruining reputations and lives.
The second link above explains how a panel SXSW accepted is tied to GamerGate.
The first one is far more important, and the reason I’m making this post: SXSW canceled Randi Harper’s panel. Here’s what the panel was going to be about.
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/54068
The panel was going to be about overcoming harassment in games. SXSW canceled it due to threats of violence, after having accepted the GamerGate one.
They’re permitting a group that has doxxed, SWATed, hacked and harassed many people to have a presence at SXSW, while kicking out a panel headed by people that group has attacked, a panel focused on dealing with those attacks. They’re essentially saying that all it takes is a false veneer of good intent (”ethics in games journalism”) and threats of harm for SXSW to reward abusers and punish abuse victims.
I’m not demanding anyone reading this to take an action they don’t feel comfortable with doing. I absolutely encourage doing searches, looking around, discovering things for yourselves to decide if you’re making the right decision. But I needed to make this post in light of everything currently happening.
If there are any important updates, I’ll reblog to add them.
I mentioned I’d reblog for any important updates. I have important updates.
http://www.sxsw.com/news/2015/sxsw-statement-hugh-forrest
This is the statement SXSW put out. It’s also archived here, if the archive becomes necessary: https://archive.is/NBXId .
They canceled the GamerGate panel, which is good. But, they also canceled the harassment panel. And their “logic” for this is that they wanted both panels for “an exchange of ideas”. We’re already seeing awfulness out of SXSW when they equate one panel that’s a cover for an abuse campaign and another panel that’s about stopping abuse as “two sides” of a debate.
SXSW has sent a message that if a mob threatens violence, it can get a panel shut down that’s about how to deal with the kind of behavior you’d see in a mob that threatens violence.
Here are news articles written so far on this issue.
http://tech.blog.austin360.com/2015/10/26/sxsw-interactive-cancels-two-2016-panels-due-to-threats/
http://www.polygon.com/2015/10/26/9618362/sxsw-cancels-gaming-related-panels-in-light-of-threats
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/sxsw-cancels-gaming-panels-due-to-threats-of-violence
http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/26/9618086/sxsw-gamergate-harassment-panels-cancellation
Another update.
These are new details about the situation.
I highly suggest reading all of it. SXSW is disgusting, and at the absolute bare minimum, has proven it is not safe to attend. If threats of violence are enough to make SXSW cancel panels rather than beef up security, that means they’re completely incapable of keeping their convention safe.
Yet another update!
SXSW’s decision caused a lot of blowback. BuzzFeed and Vox Media/The Verge threatened to withdraw from SXSW if the panels aren’t reinstated, and Representative Katherine Clark sent a letter to SXSW urging them that it’s important not to silence the discussion of dealing with online harassment that those threatening violence sought in making their threats.
There were also tons of articles chastising the decision at Washington Post, Salon, Slate and many others.
SXSW since put out this announcement saying they understand the frustration and are looking into options: http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/news/2015/safety-top-priority-and-so-your-voice . One site, re/code, is saying they heard from exclusive sources that SXSW is considering a day devoted to the issue of combating online harassment as an answer and apology: http://recode.net/2015/10/27/exclusive-after-gamergate-misstep-sxsw-weighing-an-all-day-forum-on-online-harassment/ .
Hopefully, everything taking place comes to a good conclusion. A day dedicated to combating online harassment sounds like a good one to me, it’s increasingly becoming one of the most important issues in online and tech culture.
Another update. There’s both good news and bad news.
SXSW is bringing back both panels they canceled, and even dedicating an entire day to an online harassment summit.
http://www.sxsw.com/news/2015/sxsw-announces-march-12-online-harassment-summit
A summit on online harassment is a great idea, and clearly needed given SXSW’s incredibly poor handling of the situation.
However, there are two problems. 1) SXSW is including the GamerGate panel as part of the summit, and 2) they didn’t even speak with the panelists of Level Up, the panel about online harassment, about SXSW including the GamerGate panel in the summit.
https://twitter.com/randileeharper/status/660135591133114368
https://twitter.com/randileeharper/status/660145625757974529
SXSW announced the Level Up panel’s return, but because SXSW isn’t actually addressing the panel’s safety concerns or conferring with them about these things, whether or not the panelists actually go ahead with the panel is up in the air.
Meanwhile, this is an archive of what the GamerGate panel was about.
None of the GG panel was about online harassment. They claim it’s about “the social/political landscape of gaming”, “integrity of gaming journalists”, and other video game topics, but not one bit of that is about online harassment. There is literally no good, logical reason whatsoever for that panel to be part of the online harassment summit.
At this point, I’m hard-pressed not to think the worst about SXSW. Either they’re grossly incompetent, trying to exploit the situation for attention, deliberately trying to make things worse for the Level Up panelists, or the organizers just don’t care at all about anyone or anything other than themselves. Not even the conference they run.
Even in the nicest, most accommodating view of GamerGate, it doesn’t take more than one second’s glance to look at the GG panel’s purpose and think “Okay, we’ll bring it back, but it needs to be a different day since it doesn’t fit the summit at all.”
This article actually came up among the people I follow on Twitter. Discussion was pretty much how bullies really aren’t about the fandom they claim to be about, as illustrated by these ones even attacking the team that created Steven Universe. Bullies only really care about bullying people, and attacking anyone that gets in the way of the “thrill” they get in doing it.
‘Steven Universe’ fandom is melting down after bullied fanartist attempts suicide
I normally don’t post about GamerGate on here. I leave that almost exclusively to my Twitter account, which is also why I’m not as active on Tumblr as I once was: I put more focus on dealing with GamerGate. However, some things have happened that require me to post here.
I strongly urge not going to or supporting SXSW. Or at least, not SXSW Interactive.
https://twitter.com/randileeharper/status/658742655652909056
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/sxsw-has-approved-a-gamergate-panel
I don’t expect everyone reading this to know or understand GamerGate or what’s going on, so here’s the gist of things.
GamerGate started as an abuse campaign against Zoe Quinn under the excuse of “ethics in games journalism”. They conjured up false claims about sex for favorable game reviews, and over time, they’ve attacked anyone else who either won’t let them bully others or who they see as “deserving” in some way. Their targets are always feminists, usually women, and usually ones with a promising career either currently or ahead of them. They make false claims about their targets to “justify” their attacks, claiming pedophilia, bestiality, etc in hopes of ruining reputations and lives.
The second link above explains how a panel SXSW accepted is tied to GamerGate.
The first one is far more important, and the reason I’m making this post: SXSW canceled Randi Harper’s panel. Here’s what the panel was going to be about.
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/54068
The panel was going to be about overcoming harassment in games. SXSW canceled it due to threats of violence, after having accepted the GamerGate one.
They’re permitting a group that has doxxed, SWATed, hacked and harassed many people to have a presence at SXSW, while kicking out a panel headed by people that group has attacked, a panel focused on dealing with those attacks. They’re essentially saying that all it takes is a false veneer of good intent (”ethics in games journalism”) and threats of harm for SXSW to reward abusers and punish abuse victims.
I’m not demanding anyone reading this to take an action they don’t feel comfortable with doing. I absolutely encourage doing searches, looking around, discovering things for yourselves to decide if you’re making the right decision. But I needed to make this post in light of everything currently happening.
If there are any important updates, I’ll reblog to add them.
I mentioned I’d reblog for any important updates. I have important updates.
http://www.sxsw.com/news/2015/sxsw-statement-hugh-forrest
This is the statement SXSW put out. It’s also archived here, if the archive becomes necessary: https://archive.is/NBXId .
They canceled the GamerGate panel, which is good. But, they also canceled the harassment panel. And their “logic” for this is that they wanted both panels for “an exchange of ideas”. We’re already seeing awfulness out of SXSW when they equate one panel that’s a cover for an abuse campaign and another panel that’s about stopping abuse as “two sides” of a debate.
SXSW has sent a message that if a mob threatens violence, it can get a panel shut down that’s about how to deal with the kind of behavior you’d see in a mob that threatens violence.
Here are news articles written so far on this issue.
http://tech.blog.austin360.com/2015/10/26/sxsw-interactive-cancels-two-2016-panels-due-to-threats/
http://www.polygon.com/2015/10/26/9618362/sxsw-cancels-gaming-related-panels-in-light-of-threats
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/sxsw-cancels-gaming-panels-due-to-threats-of-violence
http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/26/9618086/sxsw-gamergate-harassment-panels-cancellation
Another update.
These are new details about the situation.
I highly suggest reading all of it. SXSW is disgusting, and at the absolute bare minimum, has proven it is not safe to attend. If threats of violence are enough to make SXSW cancel panels rather than beef up security, that means they’re completely incapable of keeping their convention safe.
Yet another update!
SXSW’s decision caused a lot of blowback. BuzzFeed and Vox Media/The Verge threatened to withdraw from SXSW if the panels aren’t reinstated, and Representative Katherine Clark sent a letter to SXSW urging them that it’s important not to silence the discussion of dealing with online harassment that those threatening violence sought in making their threats.
There were also tons of articles chastising the decision at Washington Post, Salon, Slate and many others.
SXSW since put out this announcement saying they understand the frustration and are looking into options: http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/news/2015/safety-top-priority-and-so-your-voice . One site, re/code, is saying they heard from exclusive sources that SXSW is considering a day devoted to the issue of combating online harassment as an answer and apology: http://recode.net/2015/10/27/exclusive-after-gamergate-misstep-sxsw-weighing-an-all-day-forum-on-online-harassment/ .
Hopefully, everything taking place comes to a good conclusion. A day dedicated to combating online harassment sounds like a good one to me, it’s increasingly becoming one of the most important issues in online and tech culture.
I normally don’t post about GamerGate on here. I leave that almost exclusively to my Twitter account, which is also why I’m not as active on Tumblr as I once was: I put more focus on dealing with GamerGate. However, some things have happened that require me to post here.
I strongly urge not going to or supporting SXSW. Or at least, not SXSW Interactive.
https://twitter.com/randileeharper/status/658742655652909056
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/sxsw-has-approved-a-gamergate-panel
I don’t expect everyone reading this to know or understand GamerGate or what’s going on, so here’s the gist of things.
GamerGate started as an abuse campaign against Zoe Quinn under the excuse of “ethics in games journalism”. They conjured up false claims about sex for favorable game reviews, and over time, they’ve attacked anyone else who either won’t let them bully others or who they see as “deserving” in some way. Their targets are always feminists, usually women, and usually ones with a promising career either currently or ahead of them. They make false claims about their targets to “justify” their attacks, claiming pedophilia, bestiality, etc in hopes of ruining reputations and lives.
The second link above explains how a panel SXSW accepted is tied to GamerGate.
The first one is far more important, and the reason I’m making this post: SXSW canceled Randi Harper’s panel. Here’s what the panel was going to be about.
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/54068
The panel was going to be about overcoming harassment in games. SXSW canceled it due to threats of violence, after having accepted the GamerGate one.
They’re permitting a group that has doxxed, SWATed, hacked and harassed many people to have a presence at SXSW, while kicking out a panel headed by people that group has attacked, a panel focused on dealing with those attacks. They’re essentially saying that all it takes is a false veneer of good intent (”ethics in games journalism”) and threats of harm for SXSW to reward abusers and punish abuse victims.
I’m not demanding anyone reading this to take an action they don’t feel comfortable with doing. I absolutely encourage doing searches, looking around, discovering things for yourselves to decide if you’re making the right decision. But I needed to make this post in light of everything currently happening.
If there are any important updates, I’ll reblog to add them.
I mentioned I’d reblog for any important updates. I have important updates.
http://www.sxsw.com/news/2015/sxsw-statement-hugh-forrest
This is the statement SXSW put out. It’s also archived here, if the archive becomes necessary: https://archive.is/NBXId .
They canceled the GamerGate panel, which is good. But, they also canceled the harassment panel. And their “logic” for this is that they wanted both panels for “an exchange of ideas”. We’re already seeing awfulness out of SXSW when they equate one panel that’s a cover for an abuse campaign and another panel that’s about stopping abuse as “two sides” of a debate.
SXSW has sent a message that if a mob threatens violence, it can get a panel shut down that’s about how to deal with the kind of behavior you’d see in a mob that threatens violence.
Here are news articles written so far on this issue.
http://tech.blog.austin360.com/2015/10/26/sxsw-interactive-cancels-two-2016-panels-due-to-threats/
http://www.polygon.com/2015/10/26/9618362/sxsw-cancels-gaming-related-panels-in-light-of-threats
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/sxsw-cancels-gaming-panels-due-to-threats-of-violence
http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/26/9618086/sxsw-gamergate-harassment-panels-cancellation
Another update.
These are new details about the situation.
I highly suggest reading all of it. SXSW is disgusting, and at the absolute bare minimum, has proven it is not safe to attend. If threats of violence are enough to make SXSW cancel panels rather than beef up security, that means they’re completely incapable of keeping their convention safe.
I normally don’t post about GamerGate on here. I leave that almost exclusively to my Twitter account, which is also why I’m not as active on Tumblr as I once was: I put more focus on dealing with GamerGate. However, some things have happened that require me to post here.
I strongly urge not going to or supporting SXSW. Or at least, not SXSW Interactive.
https://twitter.com/randileeharper/status/658742655652909056
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/sxsw-has-approved-a-gamergate-panel
I don’t expect everyone reading this to know or understand GamerGate or what’s going on, so here’s the gist of things.
GamerGate started as an abuse campaign against Zoe Quinn under the excuse of “ethics in games journalism”. They conjured up false claims about sex for favorable game reviews, and over time, they’ve attacked anyone else who either won’t let them bully others or who they see as “deserving” in some way. Their targets are always feminists, usually women, and usually ones with a promising career either currently or ahead of them. They make false claims about their targets to “justify” their attacks, claiming pedophilia, bestiality, etc in hopes of ruining reputations and lives.
The second link above explains how a panel SXSW accepted is tied to GamerGate.
The first one is far more important, and the reason I’m making this post: SXSW canceled Randi Harper’s panel. Here’s what the panel was going to be about.
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/54068
The panel was going to be about overcoming harassment in games. SXSW canceled it due to threats of violence, after having accepted the GamerGate one.
They’re permitting a group that has doxxed, SWATed, hacked and harassed many people to have a presence at SXSW, while kicking out a panel headed by people that group has attacked, a panel focused on dealing with those attacks. They’re essentially saying that all it takes is a false veneer of good intent (”ethics in games journalism”) and threats of harm for SXSW to reward abusers and punish abuse victims.
I’m not demanding anyone reading this to take an action they don’t feel comfortable with doing. I absolutely encourage doing searches, looking around, discovering things for yourselves to decide if you’re making the right decision. But I needed to make this post in light of everything currently happening.
If there are any important updates, I’ll reblog to add them.
Ok, where to begin with this trainwreck.
Gaming was never yours. Never. It was not designed as a safe space for guys free of women and you have no exclusive rights to the medium in the same way that no gender have exclusive rights to film and television. If women said you were not allowed to read books because that is their safe thing you would think they were ridiculous, you do not own a medium.
Women are not required to want to hang out with you in real life in order to game, that is another bullshit standard you apply to them and not to men. If a guy is a jerk whom you wouldn’t want to hang out with in real life you don’t throw a tantrum.
Women are not a hivemind, we each have our own individual thoughts and feelings and judge you individually.
That being said, women don’t want to hang out with you, not because you’re socially inept, but because you are an entitled asshole who thinks that women owe you their time outside of games in order to be able to play games without hostility.
If men weren’t hostile towards women, who have just as much a right to game as them, and weren’t so hostile towards the concept of fair representation then there would be any changes to the “scene” required, because people would already have a fair and fun experience.
Games are not your sanctuary mate, they are a product medium and never once has it been yours. Get over yourself.
“When women invade those safe spaces they leave men with nowhere to go”
Even if this load of absolute bullshit had any truth to it I’m deeply confused as to why this Anon believes that I or any other woman would remotely CARE
Pathetic loser men, and it’s actually been proven that men in games who attack women ARE literal losers, do nothing but act as gatekeepers to something that was never theirs to begin with.
For anyone wondering what big-wired is talking about, here’s the article.
Increasingly, fictional mediums, franchises and characters are getting this sort of exclusionary talk where certain people try to dictate who is and isn’t allowed to be involved. They try to be gatekeepers, deciding that certain criteria that conveniently aligns with their own opinions and experiences determines who has legitimacy.
In this case, it’s guys trying to insist that geek culture – the entire pop culture section of society encompassing video games, comic books and similar mediums with multiple genres, and the ability to make them or fanworks based on them – is a place where women do not belong.
Unfortunately, this is a byproduct of past sexism in these industries. For both comic books and video games, marketing types with false assumptions about boys and girls decided the two mediums are exclusively for boys because a lot of products have action and violence. A lot of the boys who spout this “geek culture is a male space, women are invading it” talk are simply repeating the marketing junk fed to them in their youth without putting any thought into it.
I, for one, am happy to see so many women involved. After growing up with the same marketing junk, made to believe girls enjoying such things is a bizarre anomaly, I’m happy to see women making comics and video games and cosplaying their favorites. I especially love how I’ve seen many women pick up female characters that have been treated very poorly in the past and push companies to do more and better for them.
salarta 