Slashdot Mirror
SXSW Cancels Panels On Harassment Due To Harassment (sxsw.com)
New submitter rMortyH writes: Two panels on online harassment in gaming scheduled for the upcoming South by Southwest festival have been cancelled due to online harassment and threats. According to a statement from SXSW Director Hugh Forrest, "... in the seven days since announcing these two sessions, SXSW has received numerous threats of on-site violence related to this programming. ... If people can not agree, disagree and embrace new ways of thinking in a safe and secure place that is free of online and offline harassment, then this marketplace of ideas is inevitably compromised."
People are tired of the politically correct narrative, and this is their way of rebelling.
Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
This is one of those things that's gotten too far out of hand. Now is not the time to have a rational conversation, that's impossible, now is the time to sit on it for a while so that we can come back to it later without quite so much yelling.
When you define disagreement as harassment, there is no way to have discussion.
Within game journalism. Hosted by The Open Gaming Society. Lynn Walsh was slated to speak.
Had nothing to do with harassment, unless the fact that Gawker apologists keep sending them bomb threats and trying to portray them as some kind of anti-women terrorist group counts. They pulled the same shit at an SPJ meeting, crickets from the press.
FWIW, the cancelled panels and some info from Googles cache:
SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community
We are attempting to organize a panel that we’d like to hold at SXSW 2016’s Interactive (Gaming) conference. The panel will focus heavily on discussions regarding the current social/political landscape in the gaming community, the journalistic integrity of gaming’s journalists, and the ever-changing gaming community, video game development, and their future. We will encourage honest critique and open dialogue between panelists and audience members, and will attempt to create a space where we can all speak on the social-political issues.
Speakers:
Lynn Walsh
Mercedes Carrera
Nick Robalik
Perry Jones
Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games
A panel from experts on online harassment in gaming and geek culture, how to combat it, how to design against it, and how to create online communities that are moving away from harassment. The panel will dive into data around abuse in larger gaming communities. One of our panelists will talk about about ways to actually develop the social aspects of games - including UI decisions and how they can influence accuracy and usage of reporting abuse. Another will dive into UX design choices to stymy harassment in social media spaces.
Speakers:
Caroline Sinders
Katherine Cross
Randi Harper
Was run by someone who passes around blacklists and tells people to set themselves on fire. Tells you everything you need to know about these "harassment" accusations.
http://www.ship2block20.com/hidden-face-hypocrisy-randi-harper/
Meanwhile Savepoint had a journalist and a game dev on board.
From what I've seen there was 1 panel for each side. #SavePoint by the open gaming society Level Up panel organized by Randi Harper Both sides were harassed. Both canceled. OGS statement here: http://www.theopengamingsociet...
So, GamerGate's first large meetup in Washington, D.C. was disrupted by a bomb threat.
Then, GamerGate's panels in Airplay were disrupted by several bomb threats, despite precautions taken against possible bombs by the SPJ at the venue.
Now, their panel at SXSW was cancelled due to threats of violence and harassment.
The fact that they cannot seem to peacefully assemble, which is defined as a basic human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations (among many other human rights documents), should be concerning no matter what your position on GamerGate is.
"Gee I wonder what this Slashdot comment thread will look like...."
Loved the humor you two a/cs, even if the moderator is too PC, I laughed. Also GGP is not a -1, troll, people are sick of the politically correct narrative and it is their way of rebelling.
This reminds me of my sister in law. I was teasing my brother, and he was smiling and happy, and she misunderstood the teasing as insults. She came screaming across and had a go at me. The smile on my brothers face dropped, like "oh no not again", and he tried to calm her down, explain that we were joking and he was having fun.
She insisted we spend the holiday apart after that, she couldn't simply admit she was wrong, it had to become a PC thing.
She doesn't interact in social situations much, and isn't use to the concept of ragging or teasing for fun. So she doesn't know how to behave in groups among friends, and they try to avoid her.
In short, she's a real cunt who can't admit she's wrong and makes REAL problems from her IMAGINED issues. For us, we had to find another hotel at peak season, which meant walking 2 miles with heavy bags on a hot summers day with no water. Fucking cow.
I see the same things here with these people. They don't interact much with real people in the real world, and so don't get to develop the thicker skin needed to be happy in social situations.
So the take actions which do serious harm, in order to be protected from the most minor imagined slight. As if their slight is more important than the real harm to free speech they're doing.
Thinking of just a recent example, some feminist (Laughing Witch) started and participated in a letter-writing campaign in order to get a particular anti-feminist (Thunderf00t) fired from his job. This letter contained several falsehoods and embellishments, and sought to leverage laws that could potentially lead to an unwarranted arrest. Pretty damn low.
In response to this, Thunderf00t found out where Laughing Witch worked and initiated a campaign to leave negative reviews of that business, since she was one of the company's officers. Answering the call with cult-like obedience, several of Thunderf00t's followers left fake, negative reviews of the business, and also tried writing letters of their own to get the woman fired. They reasoned that anyone else who happened to work for the business simply should have known better than to work alongside such a woman. Just as low.
Out of curiosity, I tried to point out how unethical the actions of both Laughing Witch and Thunderf00t were. Talk about bonkers. On the SJW side, Laughing Witch was of course justified, and any criticism of her tactic was somehow victim blaming. On the MRA side, any employees who would be harmed were just acceptable collateral damage in a round of karmic justice. On both sides, reasoned argument was something no longer considered of any use; instead, silencing the opponent (somewhat viciously) was considered the only option.
Both sides of this thing now view the debate as a war, and both sides are resorting to ever more despicable tactics.
"Is not a sentence" is not a sentence. Well damn.
The "panel" included Randi Harper - one of the most notorious trolls on the internet. I can only guess she's considered an expert because she has engaged in so much abuse that she can spot it a mile away.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-j...
This person is a horrible human being who should not be given any kind of soap box from which to speak.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
"People are sick of the politically correct narrative! SJWs won't stop playing the victim card!"
THIS WAS A PRO-GAMERGATE PANEL YOU NUMBNUTS. MERCEDES CARRERA WAS ONE OF THE PANELISTS.
I'm not even IN it anymore and I knew that, but people here see "panel about harassment in gaming at SXSW" and they go full fucking cultist. Incidentally, this kind of dumb shit is WHY I'm not in it. The longer any given group exists on the internet, the more likely it will turn into a bunch of howler monkeys that get triggered and assblasted by words they're afraid of. The fact that tumblr SJ trash did it first and loudest doesn't make this any less idiotic.
It's not as if SJW hadn't wished "death to all men" before...
Curiously when Christina Hoff Sommers get threat from SJW, to the point where she need police protection, it doesn't make it to /. ...
Do they mean shit talking? I thought talking shit was part of the appeal of online gaming? What am I missing here?
People having varying personalities and approaches to social interactions. Some people (male and female) enjoy trash talk, as friendly competitive banter. Others find it aggressive, stressful, immersion-breaking, and plain annoying.
Plus there is trash talk, and there is plain insulting, discriminatory aggressions (racist, sexist, homophobic, ageist and ableist, notably), sexual harassment, and real-life threats and stalking (and there are sometimes 'real' consequences to this, with 'doxxing', 'swating', harassing family or co-workers/bosses, etc.).
There's also a matter of time and place. Starting to insult a complete stranger after he crushed you, flooding the chat with stupid binds, calling cheat and starting a voteban, isn't "friendly banter". You're just an annoying sore loser brat. Same with bragging about 'winning' a round, in a completely unbalanced game because of stacking or pros going pub-stomping, with people leaving, or going spectator to join the 'winning' team, even after having been switched to the 'losing' team as part of autobalancing.
And there's also the problem of griefing and cheating in multiplayer games, not just trash talking. They are often linked.
Of course, this is mostly a mirror of society (and kids imitating adults), it has absolutely nothing to do with computers, Internet, and gaming in particular, although the sense of anonymity and distance sure make it easier for people to 'slip'.
In some cases, people don't use smileys when they should too, particularly with strangers. There is a huge difference between a "Go die! :P" and "go die". Even when the person might actually have the exact same state of mind.
One important thing to note is that trash talkers in a carebear world, would just find things boring. While the opposite situation can lead to depression and suicide. A good society has to take the side of people more sensible and vulnerable to aggression, even if in many cases, this is actually just 'friendly' (albeit often clumsy) trash talk.
To summarize, you can trash talk all you want with your friends who enjoy it, particularly when you're on your own server, or isolated from strangers. But you're supposed to tread lightly with strangers, until you know they're receptive to friendly banter. And finally, many aggressive behaviors are just plain annoying, and I'm sure you are of the exact same opinion, most likely very openly. So, when we are talking about these problematic behaviors, just don't take it personally, right? 'Cause that's precisely what you're trying to argue is an error on the part of more sensible persons... Yes, there is overgeneralization in many news articles about it, like on most other subjects. That's not a reason to throw everything out in reaction.
Dear SXSW:
Grow some balls.
The Slashdot comments on any story related to women in gaming, or women in tech more generally, always bring Lewis' Law to mind.
Dammit.
/. admin.
What really pissed me off about this is that my submission about the thorough debunking of the UN cyber violence paper was deleted by a
Could you please be less obvious, Slashdot? No one with three brain cells is missing the bias here, but I want to pretend I'm missing it. It dulls the blatant insult to my intelligence.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
SJW are not trying to "have a conversation", they are in a pseudo-righteous fight to get more female privileges through pseudo victimization, in an already gynocentric society. They want to eradicate everything which does not conform to their moral standard. To some extend, they belong to the liberal / progressive faction very much against freedom and what it stands for. They have successfully banned men-focused association from campuses, and restrict everything which does not conform to their pseudo-egalitarian agenda.
They don't give a shit about their own female folks in the islamic world. All they want is easy gain and power to satisfy their ego.
btw, some of them have even suggested to put all men in concentration camps, and nobody condemned them... http://www.infowars.com/top-fe... [ed. and don't tell me either InfoWar or me went for the Godwin point, the original quote is from Julie Bindel, a prominent feminist & journalist ]
I will continue to play violent game because its fun. No body will tell me what I should or should not play.
Not a native english speaker, I presume?
No one is telling what you should play. Let's take Anita Sarkeesian. The people she's actually criticizing are game DEVELOPERS for overusing tropes.
That's it.
But YOU are taking her criticism of GAMES and developers personally.
"She's saying I'm a bad person when she says the games are bad."
But she's not saying the games are wholly bad, she's criticizing the tropes. That's it. Your problem is that your identity is too tied up in the games. In other words, you need to grow up.
Really, even Randall Munroe would have to work very hard to beat this one :)
In a country where law enforcement seems quite eager to use lethal force agains perceived threats, why are death threats like those mentioned numerous times here not at least investigated by relevant law enforcement agencies?
In all seriousness, violence or threats of the same are not part of 'debate'. If anyone is laboring under that illusion, it's high time grownups stepped in, preferably with law enforcement of the anti-terrorist kind in tow. In civilized countries, death threats could easily lead to jail time.
-- That grumpy BSD guy - http://bsdly.blogspot.com/
The review does not exist. If it does, I'm sure you can post a link to the review or a reputable archive such as the wayback machine. Two things to note, in order to pre-empt a bunch of non-review links I've been given before:
a) two words is not a review.
b) A mere mention along the lines of "Zoe Quinn (who you may remember from such games as Depression Quest) is doing something else which I'm now talking about" is also not a review of the game.
Now as I'm sure you're an honest, upstanding chap, I'm sure you will have no trouble providing me the evidence for what has essentially been the rallying cry.
I also fully expected to get modded down for this because it seems nothing is quite so trollish as actually demanding hard evidence. I've got Karma to burn so bring it.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Enough GamerGaters are pro-harassment (with excuses as to why it's justified) to where you really can't argue that GamerGaters aren't a factor when harassment occurs.
Really? I'm sure you've got some non-citeogenesis articles to prove that. Especially since you won't find people who lean pro saying that harassment or doxing is justified. But then you'll get the "big name people" in the anti-GG side like Randi Harper or Zoe Quinn who have doxed people, have harassed, or have belonged to things like Helldump(which of course has caused people to commit suicide). Saying that doxing, harassing, and all that is perfectly fine. Or people like Bob Chipman saying "No bad tactics, only targets." Which explains a lot in terms of how far SJW's are willing to go.
Om, nomnomnom...
Uh, wait a second here. You absolutely will find people who lean pro saying that harassment and doxing are justified, and furthermore, this whole fucking flap began because some of them doxed and harassed.
Really, let's go look at /r/KotakuinactionHmm...nope...doesn't look like it...and where people made mention of it, they were called out and shouted down. Well let's look at GG's current 8ch board. Hmm...nope, and when someone tries, they're shouted down and auto-saged off. Let's go look at the8chan archivesHmm...again it looks exactly like what happens in GGHQ. Well that's troubling...how about #gamergate? Well even WAM Didn't find that, and their own data said it was mainly the work of trolls.
Hmm...let's keep looking, how about this one? A journalist wants to know about GGers and harassment/doxing. Well this could be promising....oh wait...he only wants GGers that explicitly support it, so he's just looking for stuff to re-enforce the narrative that people in GG support it. Well that's a problem...
Om, nomnomnom...
That's why it gets no coverage. No-one is falling for it
I disagree. It's because the aGG movement (such that it is) is scared in rational discourse, knows they can't back up their stupidity with facts, relies on a false narrative and uses all of that to generate funds from misled people.
Feels like a big con trick to me, and their refusal to engage in calm polite conversation speaks volumes.
Check the date on that article. A week before the Telegraph article I linked.
That Tab article is concealing the fact that the SU rejected his attempt to create a society. Of course FemSoc are happy to let him act within their rules - check their fucking rules out : https://drive.google.com/file/...
To join FemSoc he'd have to "accept you have privilege over women"
That's total bullshit anywhere, let alone in a Mens Society trying to help men and reduce suicide risks.
Just how much of a fucking bigot are you to even think this is acceptable or represents equality?
Holy fuck. You truly are a fucking idiot.
No, the situation was not resolved. He set up a group (as stated in the Tab), the SU said no, FemSoc said, "Be a good little slave and behave for us".
Learn how to read, process information and analyse it before commenting further, your interpretation is facile and false.
the biggest causes of male suicide are the ones that the feminists are trying to address
By refusing men the chance to speak on an equal basis at any FemSoc event, including their own subsidiary FemSoc-MenSoc events?
Oh please.
Fuck this, you're a blithering imbecile, I can't win an argument with someone that lacks basic skills in logic.
If Anita dislikes what is being made by the game developers, why doesn't she make her own games? People buy what the developers make, that is why they make it.
Instead of trying to tell people what they should do, why doesn't she do it herself? She is trying to tell people how to act and what to think, which is always wrong.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Up at the top of the page it says "News for nerds".
OK, fellow nerds, let's remember our school days.
Remember how quick the thugs were to yell "He started it!"? Remember the adults who were supposed to keep things safe dismissing assaults in the restroom and saying we just needed to learn how to handle teasing? Remember how the bullies traveled with entourages who thought they were cool?
People like that are running around in adult bodies now. We all have the background to see them for what they are. We must oppose them immediately and unconditionally, or we are on their side.
Hint: the instant you start making any excuse for any threat of violence from any side of an argument, you are in the wrong.
roflmao! Thank you for that laugh.
you can't honestly deny that it is at least presented in a clam and careful manner,
Oh, yes it is very well presented and calm (assuming typo) careful manner. Not going to deny that.
using examples and rational argument to make points
And this is the hilarity. Seriously, you have to be some conspiratorial nut to follow her rational. Sexists developers make sexist games make sexist gamers. Mind you with zero supporting evidence aside from cherry picking and opinion filled fluffy dialogue. Let's also not forget using "research" as in, trying to use scientific words to give credence to her opinion pieces. Her "research" doesn't pass any level scientific scrutiny or competence.
"players are meant to derive a perverse pleasure from desecrating the bodies of unsuspecting virtual characters. It's a rush streaming from a carefully concocted mix of sexual arousal connected to the act of controlling and punishing representations of female sexuality"
About Hitman, a sandbox game where you do't have to do any of that. In fact, the game punishes you for it. Sexual arousal connected to your choice of controlling and punishing representations of female sexuality when you the player chooses to be abhorrent??? Is she upset you were given the choice but then "players are meant"? How in the blue fuck is that rational?
Women are just trophies for sex because men saving them demand sex!
There are no strong female game characters!
Honestly, all she deserves is snarky youtube videos. You don't need anything else to debunk her. That which is presented without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. She cherry picks evidence or makes shit up. Either way her opinion is overrated Jack Thompson 2.0.
Thunderf00t does exactly the same thing, except he has a giant neck and not an attractive liberal female feminist. I have heard Anita's ideas debunked numerous times. I haven't seen TF's rebuttals to her debunked. All I see is character assassination attempts and ignoring the ideas he presents.
Good money says that certain kinds of perpetual victims cancelled something for fear of hearing the truth.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
There's also Milo Yiannopolous, who calls gamers "overgrown manchildren" and "terminally beta".
Yet he's been quite the thorn in the 'social justice' crowd. If anyone's terminally "beta", it's the social justice warriors that rely on pandering to diversity as well as media gatekeeping to exist. Without both of those, the social justice crowd would be sitting next to Jack Thompson.
It was still two words, as the GP pointed out, in an article providing favorable coverage to 49 other games. But at least you admit it wasn't a review.
Still doesn't excuse Chelsea van Valkerberg's harassment of her ex (and in turn, anyone that dared question her) through the unquestioning media and the courts. Oh, and she still lost her court case despite the money.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.