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Revision as of 12:28, 14 October 2014 view sourceTarc (talk | contribs)24,217 edits Ingrained misogynist and sexism in gaming community: did you cut n paste this from the Men's Rights Movement?← Previous edit Revision as of 12:37, 14 October 2014 view source TheRedPenOfDoom (talk | contribs)Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers135,756 edits Harassment of supporters of GamergateNext edit →
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::There's little to no proof the harassment isn't from trolls. The few who have threatened anyone under the tag have been reported by Gamergate supporters. But the sources don't report that. I wonder why. It can't be because "women under attack by nerds!" makes a great story. ] (]) 11:58, 14 October 2014 (UTC) ::There's little to no proof the harassment isn't from trolls. The few who have threatened anyone under the tag have been reported by Gamergate supporters. But the sources don't report that. I wonder why. It can't be because "women under attack by nerds!" makes a great story. ] (]) 11:58, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
::::::oh poor poor poor gamergaters first people ignore their claims of conflict of interest because they are harassing. now people ignore their claims of harassment. its sooooooo horrible to be such an oppressed minority! what ] !!!-- ] 12:37, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

:::In the same sense, there's little or no proof that the attacks on GG supporters are not from trolls - the lack of formal membership criteria makes it difficult to know who anyone is. All we can report is that harassment is occurring, both to GamerGate supporters and to people who have spoken against GamerGate, if we want to take that path. - ] (]) 12:22, 14 October 2014 (UTC) :::In the same sense, there's little or no proof that the attacks on GG supporters are not from trolls - the lack of formal membership criteria makes it difficult to know who anyone is. All we can report is that harassment is occurring, both to GamerGate supporters and to people who have spoken against GamerGate, if we want to take that path. - ] (]) 12:22, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

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Articles for deletionThis article was nominated for deletion on 6 September 2014. The result of the discussion was keep.

Why does the article only mention one guy Quinn allegedly had a relationship with

I'm sure the claim was there were five of them, maybe I missed it, but I think in that case it should be made more clear.Halfhat (talk) 15:03, 10 October 2014 (UTC)

Mentioning any of the other allegations would be a BLP violation - it is only the one with Grayson that has recieved attention as being proven false, that means that we have to include it to complete the others. Any of the other ex's allegations are unnecessary in the scope of GG and fail BLP as our RS's do not address these others. --MASEM (t) 15:12, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
Here are some sources: .--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 16:39, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
Not enough, really. They mention the allegations alongside the main one but do no attempt to discredit or the like. As such, that's gossip that flat out fails BLP. (The only thing that might be necessary, and I am very much against including it unless it needs to be, is the mention of the certain chain in association with the allegations as shorthand for the situation, but that's not really used alot around. --MASEM (t) 17:55, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
Wilipedia is not in charge of policing peoples sexual activity on behalf of creeps. Artw (talk) 16:49, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
More evidence that GamerGate isn't about Zoe Quinn except for all the GamerGate people who want us to republish all the details of Zoe Quinn's personal life. Thank you for helping demonstrate why reliable sources treat GamerGate as a fount of misogynistic harassment. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 18:24, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
From my perspective, the issue here is that we are misleading readers by characterizing it as though she simply was with another guy, with some editors even wanting to downplay the cheating aspect, and her boyfriend went on a tirade against her sparking off a wave of misogynistic harassment. According to Gjoni, the problem is that she cheated on him with multiple men. There is actually even more to it than that, but the reliable sources only talk about the cheating on him with multiple men part. You can guffaw about how this proves it is all totally about Quinn, but it is really about the narrative. It is well-recognized that Gjoni's post was a big part of what sparked this off and it is also well-recognized that many media are using their characterization of that post and Gjoni to perpetuate a certain narrative regarding GamerGate. Not suggesting we go on about all the dirty details, but I think simply noting the allegations concerned cheating and concerned more than one incidence of cheating is an important bit of context. It does give you a little insight into why Gjoni might have been a tad upset. Again there is more to it than just cheating, but that is what we have from reliable sources.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 19:26, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
We need to move off that fact, because it wasn't Gjoni's initial accusation, but the ones that extrapolated that to professional impropriety and that is the only accusation that is significant to GG. We are not here to even question Quinn's personal life choices at all, and it would be BLP to go into that further than the fact that the ex felt jaded enough to announce her relationship with Grayson. --MASEM (t) 20:13, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
Okay, so if nothing Gjoni said was relevant then I say we remove all of Marcotte's insinuations about him, the New York Times characterization of his blog post, and any other references to Quinn's "personal life" and focus only on what people inferred from his blog post with nary a mention of what he actually said. Editors cannot have it both ways and still be in accord with NPOV. We can't avoid mentioning the allegation of Quinn cheating on Gjoni with multiple guys on the basis of it being irrelevant despite getting mentioned in numerous reliable sources and simultaneously weaponize his blog post against GamerGate without being at odds with policy.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 20:30, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
I would agree with this - this should not be about anything about their past relation (outside they used to have one). To be clear, this is not for removal of the stuff about Depression Quest and the harassment she got for that beforehand (that establishes that she was a "target" before the accusation), but any other personal life stuff about Quinn that is extraneous from the issues of GG and her subsequent harassment should be removed. --MASEM (t) 20:36, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
TDA: Can I ask what parts of "Quinn's personal life" you are seeing in the article that shoudl be removed? I'm not sure what you mean (or if you are just saying we shouldn't care to have them even) --MASEM (t) 20:46, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
So basically, the material in question would be the following:

Amanda Marcotte in an article for The Daily Beast described the controversy as arising from the comments of a "vindictive ex-boyfriend", stated it was "pure misogyny to use online harassment troops" against Quinn . . .

. . . noting that its origin was attacks on Zoe Quinn concerning her personal life.

This post, which The New York Times described as a "strange, rambling attack," . . .

In fact, if Gjoni is so irrelevant to this subject that we cannot mention the allegation of Quinn cheating on him, let alone with multiple guys, then the only mention of him should be when mentioning him putting up the blog post, rather than referring to the controversy in terms of "Gjoni's accusations" or "Gjoni's blog entry" at other points in the article.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 23:52, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
So again you are stating that this whole gamergate thing is because allegations of Quinn's sex life being more interesting than all of the basement dwelling gamergaters could possible hope to ever experience? -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 00:02, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
That is just being childish. Come on man calm down. You're just being prejudiced. We're not here to argue about the merits, or lack there of, of GamerGate. We're here to make a good article covering the drama. Halfhat (talk) 00:07, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
When the gamergaters start showing actual adult interest in actual conflict of interest and not on childish prurient "drahmaz" over wild and meaningless allegations of other peoples sex lives as rationale for harassment and stop flooding this talk page with fixation of the same, then there may be reason to treat the comments here as anything other than childish lashing out by sexually repressed basement dwellers. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 03:45, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Like most origin stories, it is important and it is only natural that it be discussed. As I told Masem, if we are not going to note what many reliable sources note about Gjoni's accusations, then we cannot be using other people's characterizations of him or the blog post and still remain in accord with NPOV.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 04:37, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
That is hardly what I am saying and it is definitely not my position. We cannot be right with NPOV if we are saying the blog post can be used against GamerGate without us being clear about what the post concerned. If the position here is that we have to ignore numerous reliable sources noting the allegations concerned cheating because his allegations are irrelevant, then what people think of Gjoni and the blog post is also irrelevant since their thoughts are premised on his allegations. My default position would be to keep the stuff about Gjoni and the blog post being evidence of "vindictive" behavior and misogyny, but note the blog post concerned Quinn allegedly cheating on Gjoni with multiple men. Both details are backed by numerous reliable sources, but if we are saying the latter detail cannot be included, then the former detail is no better for inclusion.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 00:18, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Actually, we don't have a lot of RS on what else was accused in that post so that's why per BLP reducing the "important" of the blog post should be done so that it is simply "he accused her, others jumped on that". --MASEM (t) 00:21, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Sorry but mentioning other people is not a violation of anyone's personal lives as these people worked either with press and gaming community as well. --Artman40 (talk) 22:29, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
It is a BLP violation to make a claim about the relationships, however, even if the names are recognized people. --MASEM (t) 22:44, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Just because someone works in the "press and gaming community" does not make their personal lives a subject of Misplaced Pages interest, and it doesn't change our reliable sourcing requirements. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 22:49, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
At least the article should mention that the press does not comment on those other people. It would be hypocritical to only include Grayson. It would be like saying that the person is innocent when committing 4 crimes, being charged with 5 and finding 1 of the crimes baseless. --Artman40 (talk) 09:12, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
No. There is zero public interest in any allegations made in an ex-boyfriend's "strange, rambling attack." NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 10:07, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
There IS public interest. By the way, Kotaku, Destructoid and other sites are accused on harming journalistic integrity and therefore count as primary sources. http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2014/09/09/GamerGate-Why-Gaming-Journalists-Keep-Dragging-Zoe-Quinns-Sex-Life-into-the-Spotlight --Artman40 (talk) 11:08, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Breitbart is not an acceptable reliable source, and your claim that sites "accused on harming journalistic integrity" (huh?) become primary sources is utterly nonsensical. No, they don't. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 11:56, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Excactly why aren't Breitbart, Nichegamer and Techraptor reliable sources and why is Cracked a preferred source to Forbes? --Artman40 (talk) 12:08, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Cracked is not used on this article. It may be used at Zoe Quinn because it's a piece she wrote about herself, but nothing else from Cracked is being used anywhere on Misplaced Pages. Breitbart has an established history of blatantly lying, taking things out of context, and other instances of a complete lack of journalistic integrity to even be close to be considered a reliable source. The only reason the gaters have latched onto it is because Milo Yiannopoulos and Gamergate supporters have a lot in common. I don't know what Nichegamer or Techraptor have said on these matters, but the issue at hand here is that in the context of what Gamergate wants itself to be about, there is only one personal relationship out of all of Eric Gjoni's allegations that the latched onto and wanted to expose and that was the relationship with Grayson rather than anyone else Gjoni rambled on about.—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 12:16, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
With that logic, we can say that Kotaku, Polygon, RockPaperShotgun and other alledged sites want the context of Gamergate to be about misogyny despite GamerGate not being about misogyny. --Artman40 (talk) 16:46, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
That is not what people are saying here or on this article. Again, people acknowledge across the board that Gamergate wants to be about journalistic integrity, but they note that there is a misogynistic streak in the actions perpetrated under the name of Gamergate. This has been picked up outside of the gaming websites, where as the pro-gamergate rhetoric only comes from these fringe and completely unreliable sources.—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 17:35, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

requesting 5 sources for ingrainedness of MISOGYNY

@Masem: regarding your removal of a reference where you said:

There are at minimum 5 sources for this. This was established on talk page before, discuss there and do not change again

I would like to see these 5 references, or be provided a link to where they were provided previously.

Keeping in mind that this is about misogyny, not sexism. This dispute is about calling misogyny ingrained, not calling sexism ingrained. Sexism is a broad issue I am not objecting to, as I see it ingrained in pretty much anything.

As misogyny is hatred of women, I would like to see these 5 sources you claim support the allegation that hatred of women is ingrained within gaming culture.

I believe that if multiple sources DO support that, that we should list them all as references on the page. Listing shadow references doesn't make any sense.

We currently only list one reference, a 2011 article from VentureBeat, and I supplied a 2012 article from VentureBeat which contradicts the casual claim of it being ingrained, which explicitly states in the title that gaming culture is NOT misogynistic.

Unless there is a basis for thinking McLaughlin a more reliable reporter than Yang, I think you ought to explain why we leave Rus's article up as a reference while you have deleted Joe's article as a reference, when they come from the same news site.

I am open to considering your sources, but if you won't link to them in the article, you should present them here on request. Previous replies I have seen have moved the goalposts of the issue and not addressed misogyny directly in references. Ranze (talk) 23:48, 10 October 2014 (UTC)

You're arguing a different point. The current situation is about the sexism and misogyny in the culture, whether from the harassment or just as it has been for sometime. Those are the five references at the end of the first paragraph. Your edit was saying because one author said otherwise, we can't say it's about misogyny but that's clearly not the case. Now on the other end of the argument, a very different one, is the claim that these have been issues for some time, and we've had this discussion before in the archives that point to several points in VG's industry past that discuss both terms (), but for the purposes of establishing that it's been around, we need that one source for the word "ingrained". Your source is only one voice, and also is a clear blog piece and not a reviewed work and such is unallowable as a source. --MASEM (t) 23:56, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
To be more exact - in the lead, the broad summary of sources clearly shows that sexism and misogyny are long-standing issues in the industry and to go into any more detail in the lead is bogging that down. In the body, we can (if necessary) present Yang's opinion as a counter statement, though again, I caution that as a clear opinion piece and not necessarily one with journalisic standards, we may not be able to use it. But if it usable, its in the body of the article. --MASEM (t) 00:02, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
The broad summary of sources? Sorry, but that just doesn't cut it since that seems more like a personal opinion. You have to cite the sources and proof that there actually is misogyny -- if it is just a reporter or a cluster of reporters claiming such a thing then it isn't worth anything. Only if the reporters themselves provide actual proof to their claims can they be taken as anything but just an opinion panel. Like mentioned before, sexism and misogyny are two different things and I'd argue that sexism itself hasn't been proven either. For instance if a woman isn't hired because the men there don't want to work with women, guess what? That is NOT sexism, that is just exclusion. Likewise, misogyny is hatred of women, if you want to say somebody practice misogyny then you would have to actually prove that they hate women. But that is the problem with how media allows feminism and people to get away with this kind of crap. Since calling somebody a misogynist could land them sued for slander and libel, people instead call institutions and groups "misogynist". I.E they are claiming that the core reason of a group hates women. In other words they are claiming that the game industry hates women as a sex. ORLY? and their proof? Well, that is why we are asking you to actually post proof. If you don't you are just turning wikipedia into a propaganda page for feminism.--Thronedrei (talk) 16:44, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
There are several sources in my link above, including two GDC talks from developers, citing misogyny from the industry/content creation side - maybe not intentional but prevailing through video games through the decades. (And no, the definition of misogyny is not "hatred" but "dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women", the latter the focus of most every discussion on the issue) --MASEM (t) 17:08, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Above where? Please post links again in reply to my reply here. Also, no you are incorrect; misogyny MEANS hatred for women: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/misogyny http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/misogyny You probably believe it is dislike because of this source yes?: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/misogyny But even the Oxford dictionary mentions that it is derived from the word hatred. So just because Oxford is trying to redefine the word for some odd reason, does not mean that it is correct. Reality is still reality, not what we pretend it is. --Thronedrei (talk) 16:34, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Repeating from a few comments above: I have listed several articles. And while dictionaries use only the "hatred" def, at least, online, the fact that there's other variations of that means that we cannot assume that people are using "misogyny" to mean that the industry "hates" women, but certainly the other definitions apply. --MASEM (t) 16:57, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
No, I asked you to list and link to the sources again, not link to a page where you had "somewhere" had linked to a source. I'm not 100% sure exactly what articles you claim as proof see? That said reading the replies there I notice it as as full of fluff and no real proof. The only thing you can cite is that these sites CLAIM that there was misogyny -- but these sites are second hand sources and should be treated as such. At the very least of you want to still keep the lie that there is misogyny even though it can be misconstrued as if there actually is -- you need to make sure that it is absolutely clear that there is no proof in the articles themselves but that they are just wild claims. For instance many of these stupid blogs use the whole trolling as "evidence" that there is sexism, they claim that rape threats are sexist... but that just shows how utterly bafflingly stupid they are. Threats of rape is not sexist, only a sexist feminist would claim this since rape can happen to both genders. If a man or a woman threatens a woman with rape, then this is a threat, not a sexist comment. Again, this just shows how stupid people are. Which brings me back to the whole "Misogyny" discussion. No and absolutely no -- you can't use the word misogyny to describe people that are distrustful of women since it is used as an umbrella word. You have other words you can use instead such as "prejudice against women" or "mistrust" if that is what you are going for. That said, these blogs are beyond stupid. Where is the prejudice? It is all based on facts. Look at Sarkeesian and Quinn, they did exactly what people knew they would do, they started creating crap and ruining things. A woman's brain is different than that of a mans, it is not prejudice to expect what is biology.--Thronedrei (talk) 18:34, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
"We're not sexist! Women create crap and ruin things!" OK then. <facepalm> NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 18:42, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
How fucking hilarious is the paranoid capacity for unthink. Now even Oxford has joined the conspiracy against the poor whinging gamergaters and sexual fixations and harassment! -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 18:33, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
I do not believe @Thronedrei: speculated as to why Oxford was changing the meaning of the word. He did not mention this event being related to gaming, so I believe you are constructing a straw man to misrepresent Thronedrei's commentary and should stop doing that. Ranze (talk) 11:55, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Harassment occurring does not make harassment ingrained. This is tantamount to saying fiance-punching is ingrained in football just because it has happened with Ray Rice. I already dismantled the 5 references at the end of the first paragraph in our previous discussions, not a single one far as I recall used terms like 'ingrained' in associating misogyny with gamer culture. The burden is on you to explain here how those references support the use of such a strong word which composes a strong condemnative statement about gamer-culture. You only have 1 author saying it is ingrained, and there is at least 1 author saying the culture isn't misogynistic (more strongly, and more recently) the other sources do not make claimed about the culture overall or it's ingrained attributes. The discussions we had before had bad rebuttals I never got a chance to reply to because they got archived so quickly, you never defended those 5 references as conveying this message, nobody did. The OR section criticism stands: saying misogyny is ingrained in game culture is still original research, because you're quote-mining a single article on a news site while removing contradicting articles from the same news site. There is no uniform viewpoint, so Misplaced Pages should not speak as if there is.

I call on you to directly show us where these sources call misogyny ingrained. If you want to change it to long-standing, feel free to edit the text and argue on that end. It seems to me that when called to task for 1 term, it's flipped to another in a cup game. You call Yang's article an 'opinion piece', what qualifies you to say that Yang's is opinion while McLaughlin's is journalistic, exactly? Ranze (talk) 00:08, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

You're mixing apples and oranges. The five references at the end are not supporting the claim of "ingrained" but instead that GG is about sexism and misogyny in the culture. There is one used source to identify that these aren't new topics but I've pointed to where you can find several more sources that assert this. And again, the culture is not just gamers, it is gamers and devs and publishers - everyone being "guilty" here, not just an isolated group. And again, your source is not usable as a counterpoint to the many sources we have as it is just an opinion piece. --MASEM (t) 00:17, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
This is a settled issue. Further rehashing of a settled issue is disruptive. Tarc (talk) 00:18, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Hardly a settled issue. Saying it is "ingrained . . . in the gaming community" is a generalization about the gaming community being deeply sexist and misogynistic in nature, which is a very serious allegation (just so everyone remembers the severity of the term, "misogyny" literally means "hatred of women"). Nothing I have read even remotely convinces me that this is an accurate description or sufficiently backed by reliable sources.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 00:29, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
The key is that we're talking the culture which is fully inclusion of gamers and developers and publishers, so it's a broad allegation that applies across the board. If it was specifically only for gamers that the phrasing was intended, I would definitely be asking for more, but by pointing to the culture, we are addressing "everyone". --MASEM (t) 00:32, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
So, are you saying that developers hate women? or that game-companies do? Or that most "gemers" do? See the problem here? You are using a blanket claim which you don't actually go into specifics with. Since the blanket statement includes any and all there is no need for the person making the claim to actually provide any proof or so it seems. So exactly what are you saying? Are you saying that the "culture" of gaming is created or based on hatred of women? Or... what exactly ARE you saying?--Thronedrei (talk) 16:52, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
No, you're using too strong/narrow a definition of misogyny. "dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women" is what is referred to here, with the last part being the more applicable focus. And this is mostly from the dev/publishing side that can be sourced as a long term problem, and very difficult to paint gamers as such until only these recent harassment attacks. "Culture" is the proper term, though again, I would rather say "industry" since that's where the problem is clearly originated from. --MASEM (t) 17:08, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Umm no. Misogyny might be an umbrella word that is both used for mistrust for women as well as hatred but that is the problem isn't it? If somebody mistrusts the intentions of women as a group based on their gender then they are mistrustful right? That does NOT mean that they hate women. However since the word misogyny (as you very well know) also means hatred for women, such a word can't be allowed when it does not actually describe what it is intended to describe. So if there is contempt or whatever for women -- then write THAT instead. Don't throw around the word misogyny as if it didn't actually mean hatred for women, because it does.--Thronedrei (talk) 16:30, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
It is sourced, that's all there is to it. The present wording was somewhat of a compromise from the previous version as well, but now, suddenly, it isn't good enough? Do you think you're fooling anyone here? The slanted pro-GG editors scream and demand a change, and their editing suggestions are met halfway. Then a few weeks later, they come back again because THAT previously agreed=-upon wording is now no longer any good. So you're going to approach this "death by 1,000 cuts" style until it is in exact tune with the minority pro-GG point-of-view. Not gonna happen. Tarc (talk) 00:35, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
"ingrained issues of sexism and misogyny in the gaming community". Ingrained isn't needed at all. Ingrained means a habit, belief, or attitude firmly fixed or established. Calling the gaming community sexists and misogynists in the first sentence is clearly controversial. Diyoev (talk) 07:18, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Personally, I had less a problem with "long-standing" than "ingrained" as the former only suggests there have been issues of sexism and misogyny in the community for a long time, which does not cast that issue on the whole community. To say it is "ingrained" is to effectively stain the entire community as sexist and misogynist.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 00:47, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
At one point I had used the word "video game industry" as to reflect that the producers of the content were aware they were creating this problem, also taking some of the blame off the gamer side (as other wording can do potentially). --MASEM (t) 01:01, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

@Masem: I think you ought to choose a single role regarding this article. You should either be a moderator (as we see you using your administrative powers in the below section) or advocate your interpretation of this conflict. You acting as an administrator here is a conflict of interest when your are simultaneously engaging in POV-pushing.

Masem if the 5 references are about GamerGate and not gaming culture, why exactly did you bring them up here? If these references did not support your declaration (you have made it yours by restoring it) about gamer culture then it was misleading for you to refer to them during your reversion.

You continually claim 'many sources' but have not listed them here or on the page. As you admit, the five you referred to are related to whether or not misogyny is a factor in the gamerGate controversy, not in gaming culture as a whole, leaving you bereft of references.

@Tarc: settled this issue isn't, as TDA points out, and your effort to squelch conversation through intimidation by throwing accusations like 'disruptive' around is itself disruptive to discussion, where we aim to properly vet all sources to see whether they adequately and fairly support statements Wikipedians have made here.

Getting back to Masem's further claims here, although I agree 'community' is broad and can apply to developers/gamers, widening the net does not strengthen any arguments for labeling misogyny as 'ingrained'. Developers have created several characters with moustaches, and the gaming community includes gamers who are fans of moustaches, and may even grow them. The mere presence of a factor does not qualify is to say 'moustaches are ingrained in gaming'. Isolated presence is not overwhelming presence, and if you want to upgrade the former to the latter, you must properly reference it, which has not been done.

Getting back to Tarc's further claim, it hasn't been properly sourced, because it is only displaying a single source showing a single isolated view. No valid reasoning has been introduced as to why this sole viewpoint is being portrayed as truth, when I have provided a source of EQUAL WEIGHT which has a contradicting viewpoint.

Tarc I am finding difficulty assuming your good faith when you paint this particular issue as pro-GG in nature. This actually isn't about GamerGate at all. This is about a broad statement made in this article applying to a much wider topic, that of gaming in it's entirety. Thinking that misogyny might not be ingrained in gaming, thinking you're only showing the elephant's trunk, does not relate in any way to holding any particular stance about GamerGate in particular. The participants in this controversy do not reflect gaming culture or community as a whole.

TDA I agree, while I have problems with both ('long' being too strong, IMO) ingrained is way more suggestive, any neither are properly referenced. We ought to dial this back to just 'sexism' until desciptors about misogyny are referenced in a balanced way, they never have been. Ranze (talk) 01:11, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

It is completely okay to do non-controversial corrections as an involved person. I can't add new stuff while its protected but fixing a wikilink is not an issue for example. As for references I have provided a link to a prior discussion that gives at least 6 that talk about sexism and misogyny in the past of the VG industry, and this was part of the previous discussion that Tarc has pointed out that we've gone over and over again and a consensus was reached on the wording. You need to go back and re-read those discussions first. --MASEM (t) 01:18, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Fixing a typo would be a non-controversial correction. What you did was not a correction, it was nothing like 'fixing a wikilink' and it IS a controversial edit. The page is locked with YOUR (and Rus McLaughlin's) viewpoint, even though you haven't sourced it in a balanced way. Adding things is not the only way to generate controversy. You removed a reference, removing a reference is not controversial.

What you have done is enforced a biased view of the discussion of misogyny's role in gaming community/culture. Previously I removed the claim of long-standing (now allegedly inherent/ingrained) misogyny and you added it in again, rather than supply supporting references on the article (nor even on the talk, your claims about doing so are false) you just injected your PoV as summary.

The prior discussion's 6 links have discussed RECENT events in VG industry. You are portraying those reports inaccurately by injecting your PoV that they constitute a new 'ingrained' issue by putting forth that sole viewpoint and squelching the contrary viewpoint that gaming culture is not overall misogynist and that these are merely accessory events by portions of it (much like criminal violence and football players).

Tarc has not 'pointed out' anything real, he's clearly, like you, trying to restrict conversation here by calling us GGers and disruptors, even though this is not making claims about GG and in reality, generalizations about gaming culture are themselves disrupting and distracting from an article that is supposed to be about GamerGate and not about injecting isolated unbacked criticisms of gaming community/culture as a whole.

If misogyny is an ingrained issue, why is it not even mentioned on articles about gaming community here? The reason that jumps out at me is that pages like that lack dedicated PoV-pushers continually re-inserting unbacked claims as this one has.

I am not making any support of GamerGate here, and the only thing I am disrupting is evidence that Misplaced Pages is hosting a biased improperly sourced assertion (a claim that misogyny is ingrained in gaming community) because only a single-sided (single-referenced) viewpoint is being conveyed here.

If this is to be balanced and you want to rely on VentureBeat as a reliable source of references, then you are obligated to mention Joe Yang's headline alongside Rus McLaughlin's footnote. You are conveying undue importance to Rus' article because it suits your viewpoints even though there is no reason provided to give his article priority over Joe's.

You are wrong when you claim consensus was achieved over what wording is ideal. Consensus was not achieved, the argument merely got buried. Past consensi also do not remove the requirement of adequate referencing. If 10 page editors reach a consensus that 'Obama is a martian' it doesn't mean someone can't come along later and demand proper referencing for it. The need for proper sourcing outweighs tyranny of majority (or more accurately, tyranny of the daily-editors over the weekly).

I have reread all those discussions, I was part of them and saw how they concluded, and nothing of required substance was added prior to their archival. If you think anything was, summarize and reiterate how MULTIPLE sources allege this to be ingrained, because the two VentureBeats cancel each other out. Find a 2nd supporting the viewpoint you keep adding in and I'll then shoulder a burden of searching out further contradictors to provide a balance viewpoint. Ranze (talk) 01:59, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

The rest of us have come to consensus, so asking us to rehash a point you disagree with is disruptive. (Also, the edit of removing your change was done before the article was locked, and because it introduced an unreliable source into an article that needs higher scrutiny of sources, so that was not done as an admin action). --MASEM (t) 02:03, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
And again to point out: the Yang VB article is not a reliable source for the claims as it is specifically labelled as an unreviewed opinion piece, while the other VB article is not and presented as a editor-reviewed work. Huge different there. --MASEM (t) 02:05, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

You are painting a false picture of those discussions, I was not the only detractor to your arguments then, nor am I now, nor would opposition being singular matter, consensus is not a vote, it is more than majority, and I am not convinced you have even that. I am not understanding your argument for one VB article being reliable and the other being unreliable. Let's compare:

  1. Rus McLaughlin (February 15, 2011). "Sexism and misogyny are gaming's status quo". VentureBeat. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  2. Joe Yang (11 December 2012). "Why gaming culture is not misogynistic". VentureBeat. Retrieved 10 October 2014.

You claim 1 from 2011 is "editor-reviewed work" while 2 from 2012 is "unreviewed opinion piece". These articles are not merely on the same website, they are both part of the same ongoing series called "GamesBeat". Let's look at the actual phrases:

  1. This post has been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
  2. This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.

Now keep in mind that BOTH of the GamesBeat articles on VentureBeat contain this disclaimer:

  • These are unvetted stories from the GamesBeat community. The staff picks the best ones and edits them for the front page.

So while the 2011 was 'edited', it is still 'unvetted' and does not reflect staff opinions. All this could mean is that staff had to fix a typo in the 2011 article but didn't have to make any corrections to the 2012 one. That an edit was made does not in any way give the 2011 article more reliability than the 2012 one. 'Staff pick the best ones' means that BOTH were reviewed by staff.

I request you admit that your summary here was wrong, and that you are misleading talk page readers about these sources. BOTH pieces are presented as editor-reviewed works AND 'opinions by community writers' (this phrase is the single time 'opinion' appears on either article). They are of EQUAL status and you are misinterpreting and/or misrepresenting the relevance of an edit being made to one. Ranze (talk) 02:19, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Even considering that, Yang's article does not counter the statement we make. Key quote "gaming culture is not inherently misogynistic. Its institutions, its structures, hierarchy, its payscales, and its distribution of power may be misogynistic, yes, but gamers themselves are not misogynistic. Their beliefs and rituals are not inherently misogynigistic." We are not saying that the gaming culture, by its nature, misogynist, only that there does exist misogyny within it for some time, and the Yang article agrees on this point. --MASEM (t) 02:58, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
That is , as long as other editors agreed that the first piece to source "ingrained" is fine, then this source can be used as a backup to that claim as well; if not, we've demonstrated in the past archives how the term still applies since it goes back pre-2000 (it is also fairly obvious to any subject matter expert in the field). --MASEM (t) 03:01, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

@Masem: Who is the 'we' making the statement? That's whoever added it, and I suppose whoever adds it back when it is removed or changed. You are wrong, Yang's article definitely DOES counter the statement. The source for 'ingrained' is McLaughlin saying misogyny is ingrained 'in video game DNA'. If we take 'game DNA' to mean 'culture' then Yang saying misogyny is not inherent in gaming culture definitely contradicts the interpretation that McLaughlin took.

I think the issue of disagreement here is the amount of weight we see in the adjective 'ingrained'. You summarize this as meaning 'exists within' but its usage has a stronger impact than that. Some definitions use the word 'fixed' for example, with 'ingrain' meaning 'deeply connected'.

For example look at some definitions from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ingrained

  • complete/utter
  • deep-rooted
  • deeply impressed or instilled
  • firmly-fixed
  • inveterate (meaning hardened/constant/habitual or set/fixed/rooted)
  • usage: "you don't change corruption that deep and that ingrained in a culture from the outside."

Ingrained means inherent, basically. A clear thing here may be that Yang is distinguishing between gaming culture and gaming INDUSTRY. Since the core phrase you rely on is a metaphor (game DNA) I think you should also be wary of interpreting that to mean a comment on CULTURE when it could simply be a comment on PRODUCT.

This source is a contradiction, not a back-up. I do not remember you competently arguing that the term goes back pre-2000 as a comment on culture. Whenever you wish to make request to previous discussions I request you link to the archive. In this case I would also like it if you could directly link to your pre-2000 source and also quote an excerpt and interpret it. I responded to older articles you brought up before and found them completely off-topic red herrings. Ranze (talk) 11:34, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Brianna Wu

, was following this last night, this appears to be first story about it (and do not: gamasutra has put a statement that they are involved due to the Intel piece - that's okay to use them). However, as she is not notable (for a standalone page), I 'm not sure if we need to include yet as another example. --MASEM (t) 20:21, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Venturebeat too so we can avoid the dependent source. --MASEM (t) 20:34, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Re/Code has it now as well: NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 20:38, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Kotaku:
Worthwhile quote there: "I was literally watching 8chan go after me in their specific chatroom for Gamergate," she told Kotaku today. "They posted my address, and within moments I got that death threat." Artw (talk) 22:07, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Not notable, already countless mentions of harassment, it was a throwaway twitter account. Maybe a one sentence mention with other figures harassed. But this will fall into yet again another "according to Kotaku writer A GamerGate is misogynyst, according to Gamasutra writer B GamerGate is misogynyst" Loganmac (talk) 22:26, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Your claim that it's not notable is interesting, yet reliable sources state otherwise. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 22:51, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Exactly. We only need a sentencet to mention here, up where we talk Phil Fish. I know there's been talk of how many have been harassed/death threated/doxxed (and claims on both sides) but the only major ones that have been reported are Quinn, Sarkeenstain, Fish, and now Wu. --MASEM (t) 22:57, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Milo has also been mentioned here and there, including in the Kokatu article linked above. And the Slate twitter piece mentioned other online harassment, although not as serious as what has been covered. It may be worth thinking about an "Online harassment" in the "Backlash and social media campaign" section, although we're probably getting to a point where a discussion about an overall reorganisation is perhaps merited. - Bilby (talk) 00:06, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Milo was also mentioned in the latest RealClearPolitics and Slate pieces. Willhesucceed (talk) 08:55, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Also in The Verge. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 22:52, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
And Destructoid. I'll start working up a proposal section shortly. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 23:59, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Actually this might be best: Polygon, which includes confirmation that the police are investigating. Again, we only need like a sentence for this, given that she is not that significant yet to the overall issue, but it is a noted example of a problem. --MASEM (t) 00:29, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
A sentence, a paragraph or whatever we see fit. Artw (talk) 01:51, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
For now only a sentence or two are warranted. That is the way it is with Phil Fish.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 03:45, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Perhaps now her previous article on misogyny and sexism in gaming can also be included in the article as it was before?—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 12:20, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
We can add she was harassed from that before, so not an unknown in this, but the rest of the details would bog this down. Again, a sentence or two is literally all that is needed if we decide to add this. --MASEM (t) 14:10, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Article predates the controversy so it should not be included. I think reliable sources about this incident already mention her previous writings and experiences.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 20:32, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Now in The Boston Globe. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 14:13, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
We will be definitely including that source, over any of the ones above. --MASEM (t) 14:17, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Daily Mail (UK) for some more national newspaper coverage. This event seems to be getting quite a lot of coverage outside the gaming/tech press. 78.105.4.241 (talk) 10:40, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Brianna Wu appeared on MSNBC's The Reid Report this afternoon to discuss the death threats and GamerGate. Viewable here. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 19:08, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Definitely would at minimum want to point out that over 1.2 million tweets have been made about GG , as to demonstrate the size/scope of the matter (currently the article gives no idea of the size/scope of the matter). I'm sure there's a few other points in that. --MASEM (t) 20:42, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Brad Wardell interview

I don't know if this is notable, reliable, or not, but I believe this is the first time a game developer has really weighed in: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/gamergate-interviews/12397-Brad-Wardell-GamerGate-Interview

I leave this here for others to use, or not use, at their discretion. 2601:B:3100:5E9:6439:B30B:3F8C:B85E (talk) 01:14, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

I self-correct. A number of articles from various industry professionals, spanning a variety of different views, were posted simultaneously: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/gamergate-interviews This was merely the first one I encountered. 2601:B:3100:5E9:6439:B30B:3F8C:B85E (talk) 01:24, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Technically there is also a similar set from female game devs, though the Escapist has come under some flak on this in both presentation and the fact the female devs all replied anonymously. (in addition to one of the male devs having a reputation in the present situation). I'd rather cut down on the singular opinions here only due to how that is creating the bias here. --MASEM (t) 03:04, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Ingrained misogynist and sexism in gaming community

So hating women and sexism is what makes a gamer community? According to whom and on what factual data? Accusing millions of people of being sexist and misogynist just because they wear the tag "gamer" is a serious accusation. Is it a requirement to be a misogynist or are you a sexist if you are a gamer? Is it some small minority with those beliefs? Can you paint the whole gaming culture as sexist and misogyny based on an editorial piece? What is the consensus of the editors here on this? If its a minor belief within the gaming community, shouldn't this reflect the fact? If it is a major held belief, then leave it at that, but we would need some proof of that. 76.27.230.7 (talk) 03:20, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

It reflects the sustained patterns of harassment that women within the video gaming culture, from developers to players, have experienced over the years. Tarc (talk) 03:24, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
@Tarc: that sounds like original research to me. Male players and designers have also sustained patterns of harassment and generalizastions about their attributes. We could go so far to say that sexism is a problem in gaming as it is in ANY subculture, but to claim that sexism is worse, or that the particularly distasteful flavor of it that is genuine misogyny happens more in gaming than elsewhere (which is what 'ingrained' or 'long-standing' or even mentioning it at all conveys) is a strong claim which demands strong referencing, which hasn't been provided. It's also unclear just how much sexist harassment exists, since some harassment painted as sexist is actually a criticism of other attributes of a woman (like what charities they claim to donate to, or the actual quality of their game) which are being misleadingly reframed. Ranze (talk) 12:07, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
As with most of your input into this area, you are woefully incorrect. We go by what the reliable sources say, which note the deep-seated sexism and harassment that males in the community subject females to, and have been doing for quite awhile. Males who have been harassed have not been singled out because of their gender, when is where your boiler-plate Men's Rights Movement claptrap of an argument usually falls apart. Tarc (talk) 12:27, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
We do not make the statement that the sexism and misogyny is ingrained in the community, but the culture (encompassing all parts of video game industry including devs and journalists and publishers), a very key difference in wording. I would agree that we actually would not be able to say that the community has these ingrained issues as that's very difficult to source, but for the culture, it is very well sourced and acknowledged as a problem. --MASEM (t) 13:57, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
I think the key phrase is that you (take it singular or plural) are making this statement, rather than a balanced assessment of references commenting on the issue. Yang clearly contradicts and luckily for you the page was locked preventing your blatant removal of contradicting evidence to advance your PoV. The word 'acknowledged' is biased, and your false claim is not well-sourced at all, you picked a single journal entry and ignored contrasting viewpoints, cherry-picking only the reference that supports you. Ranze (talk) 12:07, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
Revealing that you are in the organization means nothing. The possibility of being neutral while being involved in the issues is a misleading argument. Again, it means nothing. Possibility means nothing. A chance of it's validity doesn't implicitly give it validity. Repeating the point I have made in my previous statement, she is in the Kotaku as a writer when Gamergate happened. Kotaku is the website involved in the controversy, her words on the subject is therefore discredited. I wasn't talking about Gamasutra. Note my conversation above when I made this point. Exefisher (talk) 06:32, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Why is the person involved in the controversy allowed to be a source in this?

The WSJ article was written by the same person involved in the controversy, this is bias. EDIT: Corrections I meant the Time magazine article — Preceding unsigned comment added by Exefisher (talkcontribs) 09:16, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

There's nothing from the Wall Street Journal used in the article. Could you be more specific as to the issue at hand?—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 09:30, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Per your correction, it has been previously discussed that content by Leigh Alexander prior to Intel pulling ads from Gamasutra are still considered reliable sources because at the time she was not a "person involved in the controversy". You cannot retroactively discredit a source like this because the author has become part of what has since happened.—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 10:23, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Corrections. She's in the organizations involved in the controversy. Since that's the case, using her article as a source will be counted as bias. I — Preceding unsigned comment added by Exefisher (talkcontribs) 11:36, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
What "organizations involved in the controversy"? Is this organization the "video game media"? It's clear you're trying to discredit her word here, and the word of anyone that has voiced opposition to Gamergate. It's not going to fly.—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 11:53, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Ridiculous for you to assume that I meant video game media, do not make a strawman. Kotaku is involved in the controversy, also video game media is GENERAL. Kotaku is one of them which is involved in it. Also it is quite clear that you are trying to discredit my words here and the word of anyone that is for Gamergate. It's not going to fly.Exefisher (talk) 04:44, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Exefisher, this has been pointed out again and again, and a handful of editors continue to insist that it's a usable source. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Willhesucceed (talk) 13:15, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Consensus on an issue that can be argued doesn't mean anything other than argumentum ad populum. Exefisher (talk) 04:44, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Populum implies there's a majority, I think 'handful' is more appropriate, I don't think people insisting a NYT article by a Kotaku member is a valid source necessarily constitute a majority, so WHS is more like 'some people insist so... why u object?" or something. Ranze (talk) 12:10, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
Or the way to actually explain it is, a majority of editors cite project policy regarding verifiability and sourcing. This is not a point of legitimate contention. Tarc (talk) 13:43, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

The Time piece was written well before the Intel bit made her "involved", so it is a completely acceptable source. Now that she is, her writing would be a "dependent" source as involved, meaning we'd prefer independent sources for equivalent information, but not invalid as a source. --MASEM (t) 13:54, 12 October 2014 (UTC) Again, she is involved in the organizations which is in the heart of the controversy. Therefore she was bias even before she herself was involved in it.Exefisher (talk) 04:44, 13 October 2014 (UTC) Never mind that Alexander writes for Gamasutra, Polygon, Kotaku, that she's written over and over again about how much she despises her audience, that her Twitter feed is full of even more of such bile, editors will continue to insist she's a good source on this. Imagine if we treated the Westboro Baptist Church's thoughts on homosexuality as reliable. This is basically the same thing. But it's okay because Time knows so much about video games that surely they wouldn't pick the wrong person to write the article! ;) Willhesucceed (talk) 17:10, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Keep in mind: sources are judged case by case , and in reference to what they have done. Alexander has a history of good journalism before this, so if she writes an article that contains factual statements with no hint of bias or opinion, that's fine. If she writes something as her opinion, we have to judge how appropriate it is to include here. (Note that her "rant" piece on the death of gamers is not used to source anything about the event, outside of it being highlighted in the Intel situation, for example). --MASEM (t) 17:17, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Irrelevant. The fact that she was involved in the controversy destroyed her credibility in the subject, using a piece of opinion as intel itself is a fallacious move and further judging is unnecessary. Explanations? An opinion which is a judgment of situations not a descriptions even if it is, it's bound to be bias. Exefisher (talk) 04:44, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

No, it didn't. I mean, seriously, can you put together a comprehensible argument? If "being involved in a controversy" meant we could no longer use someone as a source, wouldn't we have to remove every single pro-GamerGate source because they're involved in the controversy too? Think for 10 seconds before you post such illogical word salad. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 04:50, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

That isn't even what I said. Also, a strawman, it isn't just a "being involved in a controversy" argument, it's being involved therefore being bias about it. So no. It's a comprehensible argument if you simply just comprehend it. Also do remove any pro-Gamergate articles just base on an opinion because unless it describes facts, it likely won't have neutrality. Exefisher (talk) 05:32, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

You sure do like being condescending don't you, Willhesucceed? (´・ω・`) Perhaps she would have a better view of the movement if it hadn't attacked her viciously and cost her website money because people were incensed over her actions instead of just like not going to her website anymore. No. You have to get advertising pulled instead of just not going to the website in the first place.—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 17:37, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Do not make ridiculous accusations of attack unless you have evidences. No one other than trolls have attacked her, generalizations and false accusations is unfounded for Misplaced Pages. Moreover is your "perhaps she would have better view of the movement" admitting that she is bias?Exefisher (talk) 04:44, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

And who are you to make pronouncements of who attacked her or not? Are you presuming to know better than her who attacked her? NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 04:50, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Never said that. Was referring to Ryulong's accusations of Willhesucceed attacking websites. I didn't make any pronouncement. Are you referring to the generalizations I made? 4chan is the main place where they actually attack Zoey Quinn other than that there nothing of note that, no source or evidence of anyone else that is just attacking her for the sake of it.If you have it. Show it. Exefisher (talk) 05:32, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

There is a difference between a dependent source (which she now is due to the Intel part) and an unreliable source, which there is no evidence that she is unreliable that has been brought forward. Bias != unreliability unless it has been a clear pattern of bias for a long time, which cannot be shown here. We do have to be careful but we don't avoid her. And as pointed out several times before, the articles we use from her were before Intel pulled their ads so those are even more in the clear for this. --MASEM (t) 04:53, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Again, a piece of opinion cannot hold any neutrality because it is bias and therefore unreliable. You said that the clear pattern of bias cannot be shown here but I already said the very fact of being involved in the controversy themselves has already discredit the argument altogether. The argument about it intel had already been explained. "using a piece of opinion as intel itself is a fallacious move and further judging is unnecessary. Explanations? An opinion which is a judgment of situations not a descriptions even if it is, it's bound to be bias." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Exefisher (talkcontribs)

By default any opinion piece will have a bias, which doesn't make it unreliable. It is if that bias continues into non-opinion pieces that becomes a question of reliability (eg of the Fox News style). Being involved does not implicitly create a bias; they are dependent, but they can still report neutrally on the manner as long as, should it apply, they reveal their connection to it (as Gamasutra is now doing as they report on GG based issues). And again to stress: at the time that those articles were written, she was not involved - the Intel issue , or even the intense criticism on her Gamasutra piece - had not happened, so a source cannot retroactively become unreliable because of a sudden new involvement that arrives. --MASEM (t) 15:13, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Opinions are bias. Since you have accepted it as a fact, there should be no further debates. The article cannot be used as a source for supporting the statement of allegations being unfounded, it can be said that she denied the allegations that was put forward not that it was unfounded. Revealing that you are in the organization means nothing. The possibility of being neutral while being involved in the issues is a misleading argument. Again, it means nothing. Possibility means nothing. A chance of it's validity doesn't implicitly give it validity. Repeating the point I have made in my previous statement, she is in the Kotaku as a writer when Gamergate happened. Kotaku is the website involved in the controversy, her words on the subject is therefore discredited. I was not talking about Gamasutra. Exefisher (talk) 06:47, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Source saying the gaming press is biased

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/2014/10/11/gamergate-does-games-journalism-have-a-liberal-bias-problem/

"These sites shame readers and proponents of GamerGate with attempts to appeal to their humanism, effectively coercing emotional responses. Instead of objectively reporting on a cultural dilemma, these journalists become personally involved."

"Much of this content is sensationalist in nature and is so saturated with bias that the writers neglect their duty to present clear, dual-sided content. What readers are given instead is eerily similar to propaganda."

"Sottek’s piece feels like a personal tirade, a kind of rant, where he attempts to unceremoniously dismantle the movement while being oblivious to his favoritism of games journalist Leigh Alexander, games developer Zoe Quinn and left-wing feminist critic/activist Anita Sarkeesian."

"These outlets conveniently overlook the swath of offensive content found in Alexander’s social media interactions on Twitter, which have since been deleted."

"It could even be argued that key websites support Alexander by writing smear content because of personal favoritism–not professional courtesy–and used their high standings in the media to retaliate."

"Attacking GamerGate seems like a knee-jerk reaction to a very real threat–one that could out the media’s established, almost-incestuous relationship with itself. But even still the liberal media refuses to take responsibility for its part of the cultural rift simply because it doesn’t see what it’s done wrong."

"This is not a media that’s free of corruption. This is a media that freely caters to liberal activism and shakes its finger at you for saying its wrong."


These are the most interesting quotes. Racuce (talk) 09:30, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

BrightSideOfNews.com is not considered a reliable source as Derek Strickland is not a member of its staff and is simply someone who has been using the website to publish content on Gamergate that would not get posted anywhere else.—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 09:44, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Well, that is unfortunate, but thanks for pointing this out Racuce (talk) 10:10, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
If it's been published there, it will have gone through the editorial team. Therefore it's RS. Willhesucceed (talk) 10:55, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Similar pieces by the author at the website have been pointed out to not be reliable sources on the Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn pages. Strickland is not a staff writer and BrightSideOfNews.com's format just goes "send us a story and we might publish it".—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 11:51, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Source those claims. Willhesucceed (talk) 13:09, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
I don't have to source shit here but if you insist Talk:Zoe Quinn/Archive 1#Possible sourcing for controversy., Talk:Gamergate controversy/Archive 1#Finding Sources, Talk:Gamergate controversy/Archive 4#Why was my submission closed?, Talk:Gamergate controversy/Archive 5#NPOV tag, Talk:Gamergate controversy/Archive 6#Undue weight tag, Talk:Gamergate controversy/Archive 7#Asian sources / Patreon / Quinn, Talk:Anita Sarkeesian#Pieces discussing general criticism. Pieces from Bright Side of News have been consistently rejected as reliable sources, primarily because Derek Strickland is not on the payroll for the website and they have no information available on their guidelines for submission or their editorial policies. They invite anyone who wants to publish something through them to send them an article. It's self-publishing being vaguely given some credence. I can also see that you, Willhesucceed, have consistently pushed for pieces written by Strickland to be used in this article. Drop the stick.—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 13:22, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Wouldn't that be applied to the source used from Time Magazine since she was not the official writer? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Exefisher (talkcontribs) 11:43, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Yes, but Time Magazine has a history of editorial oversight. BrightSideOfNews.com does not. Stop trying to get the Leigh Alexander piece removed because she was critical of the movement and then her website had its advertising pulled in retaliation.—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 11:50, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Yes, but the Time article gets to stay because Wiki contributors say so. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Willhesucceed (talk) 13:17, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Time is an established publication with an editorial history that everyone knows about. BSN* is not. Drop the stick. This is just the same gater shit over and over again. You want unbiased press but you praise the press that's highly biased in your favor.—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 13:24, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

More strawman from you. Exefisher (talk) 06:34, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

I have yet to see a decent argument given for why BSN is not a reliable source. Derek Strickland has extensive experience in gaming journalism and BSN requires that any submissions include sources and be reviewed by the editorial staff, even if we assume the staff listing is an exhaustive up-to-date list. We cite the rantings of a late-night comedy talk show host regarding the state of journalism and even use her to rag on Milo a bit, so I think this source should at least be given more meaningful consideration.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 05:48, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
His writing has been excluded on every other page related to this topic because of the BLP concerns in his writing, the fact that he is. It a staff member of bright side of news, and that their submissions process is not known. It only says that maybe they will give the wrter credit. Why is Strickland writing for this website and none of the other ones he apparently has a history with? Why is this man's opinion, being touted as a neutral and unbiased source by the pro-Gamergate editors, so important that we must use it to refute everything else in the article when no one else on the Internet will publish his writing?—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 13:43, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
You can't just cry "Not reliable" without reason and have that be enough for policy reasons. None of the discussions you point to establish any consensus on the source and the reasons you provide here are completely absurd. Many outlets do not explicitly lay out in detail how they review submissions. The fact it is subject to editorial review is important. The fact they demand that submissions come with sources is important. The fact the author has long-time experience in gaming journalism is important. All I see in all those discussions are a few people who clearly disagree with what the writer is saying coming up with a bunch of invalid reasons to exclude him as a source.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 20:05, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
An unreliable source declares a reliable source is biased. That's the beginning and the end of the discussion right there. Tarc (talk) 13:47, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

New article from Reason magazine

Part 1 (suggesting part 2 may be coming).

Yes, Reason is liberal-leaining and so definitely siding proGG on this but it is also a person not involved in the gaming community and for all other purposes an RS, for at least setting up some of the rationale of what proGG side is looking for. --MASEM (t) 15:38, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

If I'm not mistaken, this is the same article published in RealClearPolitics. Willhesucceed (talk) 15:47, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
With some slight changes:

Note: This version of the article incorporates a minor correction to the original, which incorrectly stated that the Kotaku editor who contributed to Zoe Quinn's crowdfunding account went on to review her game. It also contains some additional information in the first paragraph on the political profile of GamerGate supporters.

Willhesucceed (talk) 15:50, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
It still contains a number of unsubstantiated or outright debunked claims about Quinn that may make it tricky from a WP:BLP aspect. Also Reason is basically the house magazine of the Libertarian movement, and in no sense "Liberal". Artw (talk) 15:54, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
However, unlike the pub in RCP (which admits its an aggregator and not editorialized), Reason is, making at least some of the comments usable. I did see the "mistake" about Jade for example, but there's other factors that are completely legit "here's what proGG is looking for" statements that are not refuted by anything else we have. --MASEM (t) 15:56, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Useful for her opinions, if we decide they're interesting enough to merit inclusion. Not usable for allegations about living people. She states her POV on her sleeve right up front by comparing "SJWs" to "cultist zealots who enforce the party line with the fervor of Mao's Red Guards." So like The Week piece, et al., it's an op-ed rather than a reported news story. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 19:42, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
The difference between the Cooper piece and the Young piece, is that the former did not really make any factual claims about anything. It was pure opinion, while the latter contains many factual claims, backed by sources. Her opinionated statements should be treated as opinion, but her factual statements should be given greater consideration.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 20:52, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Yeah, I don't think we can use this for any BLP (outside of some claims that proGG have been harassed or doxxed), but her other points are reasonable for inclusion to document the proGG side. --MASEM (t) 21:06, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
I don't see any actual sources for the key claims about living people, just links to the same tired, accusatory conspiracy nonsense at best and argument by assertion at worst. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 21:26, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
If we're going to go down that path, all of the articles based solely on Quinn's claims will have to be removed, as that's as good as being unsourced. Goodbye, New Yorker! Willhesucceed (talk) 22:56, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
There's a big difference between conspiracies theories that have no sourcing to back it up at all, and someone claiming they are being issued death threats and harassment that can be verified by looking at social media to see what is happening. --MASEM (t) 23:00, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
I don't really see any conspiracy theories in Young's piece, nor anything significant about living people not already covered by other sources. Her characterization of "Social Justice Warriors" is no less inflammatory than the characterizations of GamerGate we find in countless sources being used in this article for factual details.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 23:46, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
The difference is that this article makes claims about identifiable living people, which we treat significantly differently than claims about an anonymous, amorphous Twitter-hashtag group. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 00:23, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Leigh Alexander's "list of ethics problems"

From her own blog.

Understanding she's involved, etc. etc. , that this is an SPS, etc. etc. I will point out that I've seen this linked now from a few other RS places (eg ) to show that there is legit ethical concerns in the industry above and beyond the current GG issue. I know there's other sources that are by VG journalists that affirm that there are self-recognized problems with how the current VG journalism industry is being run. I'm just not 100% sure how to include it or if it needs including. --MASEM (t) 16:57, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Could probably go at the end of the second paragraph. Artw (talk) 19:52, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
And no, showing that concerns about journalistic ethics in games journalism exist does not support the claim that GakerGate has ever addressed them, in fact per the source they have not. Artw (talk) 00:06, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
I'm fairly sure that she made that blog post purely in reaction to the GamerGate thing. No idea how it's relevant, just putting it out there. --86.140.193.247 (talk) 00:14, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Actually, could we get a couple of those mentioned source in here as well? Would be nice to substantiate the points she makes in her blog with other sources. --86.140.193.247 (talk) 00:14, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
I'm sure we can source better the specific cases, my suggestion is that here is a journalist that provides a partial list of what issues they know are wrong with game journalism, suggesting they want to also try to fix the situation with input from those concerned about it. --MASEM (t) 15:22, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Quinn picture

Given that the picture on Zoe Quinn got switched out for a cropped headshot, should the picture here get replaced as well? Also, since it's still a crummy picture either way, has anyone asked her if she'll release a better photo of herself into the public domain or licensed as CC-BY-SA? --PresN 22:19, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

I prefer the uncropped picture on both articles, it shows Quinn at an industry event. Whereas the crop just shows a face. I thought about cropping it originally, but couldn't get it a size I liked without including too much of the guy on the right, so just left it as is. By chance, I spotted Quinn commenting on the photo in a Reddit thread and directed her to Wikimedia Commons - hahnchen 00:06, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Conflicts of interest? Were there any?

With a couple of snips for brevity, the opening now reads:


Gamergate ... concerns ... journalistic ethics in the online gaming press, particularly conflicts of interest between video game journalists and developers.


I've snipped out the bits I don't see a problem with, in order to focus on what remains.


Do we have any actual evidence from reliable sources of de facto conflicts of interest? Obviously the Zoe Quinn allegations won't wash there. Anything else mentioned under the Gamergate tag? I do notice that we state that the initial assertions of conflict of interest were proven unfounded.

I'd suggest changing this to:

Gamergate ... concerns ... journalistic ethics in the online gaming press, with a primary focus on alleged conflicts of interest between video game journalists and independent developers.

This drills down a bit to the original unfounded allegations which are still, alas, circulating.


We don't want the opening section to promise more than the article body can deliver. --TS 23:45, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Actually, we have journalists themselves recognizing that they have conflicts of interest with AAA publishers (as well as indie devs) - eg , (from 2012), , and I could get more. It is not limited to the indie devs here, and is one of those problems they do recognize. --MASEM (t) 23:50, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Whoa! Collosal misuse of sources there. Artw (talk) 23:57, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
To date GamerGate has uncovered nothing that would reasonably be described as a conflict of interest, corruption or an infraction of journalistic ethics. Nor do they actually show any interest in any of those things, despite claims to the contrary. Artw (talk) 00:08, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
I've heard pro-GGers scream about the GameJournoPro email list/group. Would it be considered a breach of journalistic ethics for said journalists to talk amongst themselves about whether or not to cover a story, or would the fact that the story would cause unneeded harm actually support journalistic ethics? --86.140.193.247 (talk) 00:27, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Every profession has back-channels for talking amongst themselves, socializing, sharing ideas, discussing issues, etc. While there could theoretically be concerns if literally every journalist on the list agreed about everything... the leaked e-mails actually revealed that there was widespread disagreement among list members about the issue, that the idea of putting out a group support letter was generally rejected and that nothing remotely resembling "collusion" occurred. What ended up being leaked were long e-mail threads of journalists arguing with each other. Which is why the "story" was a fat nothingburger that never went beyond Breitbart. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 01:13, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Right, JournoList wasn't a thing at all. Willhesucceed (talk) 02:11, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
If this had been covered by anything remotely resembling the reliable sources that covered JournoList, your comparison might have merit.
JournoList was explicitly, if not admittedly, ideological; limited to liberal and liberal-leaning journalists only; and a number of the leaked e-mails showed behavior that was, charitably, open to interpretations that it represented bias. GameJournoPros had none of the above features. The e-mails were leaked... and everyone yawned because they showed nothing more than journalists arguing with each other. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 02:40, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
A number of sources have mentioned the Patreon problems, especially in Asia, and every time I bring them up editors waffle and hum and haw. Willhesucceed (talk) 02:13, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Please note that the allegation that was considered unfounded was specifically the claim of Quinn having sex for a positive review of her game. There is no indication that actually happened and Grayson did not write any such review. We have nothing addressing a broader claim of a conflict of interest on Grayson's part based on his relationship with Quinn. As to conflicts of interest that have been noted in reliable sources, you can check in the legitimacy of concerns section where some are noted.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 00:20, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
There is no such broader claim, because for a conflict of interest to exist you have to have two conflicting interests. Absent a review by Grayson, there's no interest to conflict. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 00:28, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Well, no there was an article written about her and, per Kotaku's disclosure, it was right before the relationship started. Reliable sources have not really touched that angle of the story, though, hence why we should make it very clear what allegation we are saying was proven unfounded.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 00:50, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
The story wasn't about her, it mentioned her. It was before the relationship started, by anyone's timeline. Any allegation about that article is, at best, totally-unprovable speculative gossip seeking literally anything with which to attack its target. Which is likely why no source has touched it or is likely to. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 01:04, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

So could we switch to saying alleged? I'm not seeing any Gamergate-derived conflicts. Doritogate was ages ago and, besides, the Gamergate people really haven't gone after the AAA developers the way they did Zoe Quinn. --TS 02:15, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

I disagree. I'd have to chew through a few sources, but first - while alleged, some journalists and devs specifically in response to the GG side have stated they have connections with others, and have discussed this is norm for the industry - as to a point admitting part of the proGG complaints (the other aspect, that journalists have specifically favored these people, are unfounded to the best I know). As such, if we want "alleged" we'd have to reword the statement. Second, it has been established that these past issues with the journalistic press has been part of the complains of GG (though far from the current ones), that before GG went down, there was already distrust of the system. Add that there are people on both sides that want to open a discussion of game ethics. (Mind you, there's a lot you can read into why the GG side has not gone after AAA developers which has been discussed above, but would be OR for this article). --MASEM (t) 02:28, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Agreed. I've seen the gaming media pointing out possible problems, and I've seen the gamergate email campaigns against media outlets whose views are too progressive for their liking, but I've seen very little in the way of sourced, specific criticism about any genuine conflicts of interest coming out of gamergate (as opposed to out of the gaming media). They exit, but with nothing to connect them to gamergate, presenting these sources as examples of the 'corruption' that gamergate claims to be attacking would be original research, because the fact is these are not the issues that the movement is focusing on. In fact we've had several occasions now of people saying 'hey, why hasn't gamergate mentioned this very real, concrete and obvious example of conflicts of interest in games journalism instead of, you know, setting off another harassment campaign of yet another relatively minor indie dev?' The most recent (though I don't think it's made any RS yet) being the question of why Escapist's vehemently pro-GG editor who published their recent article about 'what Game Devs think' about gamergate (that is, the *real* game devs, the male ones, to contrast with their previous article about what the *female* game deves think) didn't disclose his financial interest in one of the devs selected to represent 'game devs.' Sauce for geese isn't sauce for ganders, I suppose. I think at this point it's past time to stop taking gamergate's word for the 'corruption' angle in absence of any source other than gaters saying 'gamergate is about corruption.' -- TaraInDC (talk) 02:42, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
There were a whole pile of problems with that Escapist piece - it wasn't their finest moment. :) Other than the false allegations about Quinn and Grayson, I'm aware of two claims about COI emerging from GamerGate. One was the Patreon issue, with at least two journalists supporting a developer through Patreon. That, however, is questionable in regards to COI, as I don't think a solid case has been made as to why that should be regarded as a COI. The second was with a journalist who was close to a developer, and I believe it was claimed that they shared a house at some point. That one was more substantial, in that the relationship was of close friends, and did lead to some clarification of the ethics policy from one of the gaming sites. Beyond that, the various allegations of COI from the GG-side of things have been unproven, as far as I'm aware. - Bilby (talk) 03:08, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Even though we're reaching Forum type discussion, not having monetarial links to your subject is almost the number one rule of proper journalism, why do you think otherwise. In more serious aspects of journalism these people would be laughed at for not acknowledging it. And as mentioned before, the GameJournosPro list, someone saying they shouldn't "cover" the story is collusion, blacklisting and unethical everywhere you look. That journalist you say shared a house, it's a Kotaku journalist (not giving names for BLP), but she did in fact re-edit her articles to include mentions that she was close to the people being covered. Saying there's no COI anywhere is just ridiculous and I hope you don't really think that Loganmac (talk) 04:27, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
The Kokatu journalist is the one issue that has been shown to have been a COI through GamerGate, although it is unclear as to how significant it was - an issue, but not on the same level as some of the COI problems we've seen in the past. But that might be enough to say we don't need to add "alleged" to the article. The GameJournosPro list ended up being largely overblown, but at any rate isn't a COI concern. - Bilby (talk) 04:35, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
You obviously haven't actually read the leaked e-mails from the list, because there's nothing about them that can remotely be described as "collusion." Nobody agreed on anything except that harassment is a bad thing. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 04:45, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Again, this is not a forum but I'll source this http://www.brightsideofnews.com/2014/09/19/inside-the-secret-world-of-games-journalism/ "they discuss what to write about, what to include, and more importantly, what to omit.", one screencaps says and I quote "I would LOVE to use my platform to reproach this kind of behavior... but that would go against 's valid and understandable desire not to have this personal matter publicized by the media... Maybe we should just stick to Twitter to boost the signal on this one, rather than our 'front pages." "Maybe we should get a public letter of support going around decrying these kinds of personal attacks, signed by as many sympathetic journalists/developers as we can," "Maybe we should just use this as an excuse to give more attention to her work... I know I've been meaning to review Depression Quest since its Steam release." Do you think this is ethical in any way or form or you're just defending you view point for the sake of not agreeing with anything about GG, also lol, just to let you know, I've had acess to more emails than there are publicly available, personally I think this discussion should be locked as it's not even relevant to the article Loganmac (talk) 05:13, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Here's the key word: Discuss. You have provided a number of cherry-picked quotes from the many people expressing their opinions about the subject. You have conveniently omitted any number of quotes from people who were uncomfortable with the idea of "signal boosting" and you have conveniently omitted the fact that the vast majority of people commenting on the "public letter of support" idea said it was inappropriate and the person who offered the idea later withdrew it and said he recognized the ethical issues with what he was proposing.
The word "collusion" doesn't mean "people expressing opinions," it means some sort of under-the-table agreement to do or not do something. None of the e-mails show any sort of general agreement by any group of people to follow a particular party line on this matter — thus, there is no "collusion." That's why reliable sources completely ignored it — because it's a nothingburger.
All you're left with is a bunch of journalists talking to (and arguing with) each other about what they're writing, how they're covering it, their thoughts about the issue, etc. In other words, a standard professional backchannel as has existed in every profession forever. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 05:36, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Just before we go any further along this path, whether or not the GameJournosPro link was ethical is interesting, but not related to a conflict of interest. It might have been unethical, but it isn't a COI allegation, so won't help the current discussion as to whether or not the claims of conflicts of interest were alleged or real. - Bilby (talk) 06:51, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Here is one example not currently covered in the article: .--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 05:00, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
I believe that has been discussed before but has shown no obvious connection to GG. --MASEM (t) 05:32, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Read the article, please.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 05:50, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
It's a different version of what has been put before, but key is the lack of any serious connection to GG - beyond happening at the same time the situation with GG blew up. There is no evidence that the report of the hack was driven by backlash from GG from other sources that also reported on this. --MASEM (t) 06:02, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
The Reddit thread was being pushed on Twitter by GamerGate before anyone reported on it. Kotaku not giving them credit is, well, unsurprising. Suffice to say, it was definitely tied in with GamerGate and we have a reliable source that verifies as much.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 06:13, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Again, the story was discussed before, and we've determined the ties to GG are tenuous at best - it happened at the same time when ethical reporting was being questioned by GG and the fact there's no direct mention of GG or the issues of GG by involved parties is a strong hint that it's not tied to it. Even this CinemaBlend piece doesn't affirm a connection, just noting this went on as GG was in full gear. --MASEM (t) 06:21, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Funny how an account just popped up on Reddit all of a sudden in the middle of all this to make a bunch of claims about Australian gaming media being too close to the Australian gaming industry and yet you are arguing that, even though a source explicitly relates this to GamerGate, we should not include it because you feel this has nothing to do with GamerGate despite it being pushed a lot on Twitter by a bunch of major names in GamerGate prior to the reporting. Cool, and apparently Tara is going to use such exclusions as a reason to slant this article even more against GamerGate. I am thinking you are either just more moderately anti-GamerGate than some of the others here or are basically the Alan Colmes of GamerGate sympathizers.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 22:45, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

It's looking like the upshot of this conversation is that no, there are no reliable sources indicating any legitimate conflicts of interest or other ethical problems that have been targeted, promoted or investigated as part of gamergate: all we have are sources on ethical problems, and sources that say that gamergate says its about ethics, but nothing that connects a to b. In light of that I support Tony Sidaway's initial proposal, but I think further work will be needed on the lede in light of the fact that two months down the line we still have few if any reliable sources taking the gaters' narrative seriously. We have extensive sources for the movement's misogynistic harassment and essentially nothing for its 'ethics concerns;' it's time the lede acknowledged that. -- TaraInDC (talk) 21:41, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

So, in light of the very clear opposition to the already blatantly anti-GamerGate slant of this article, you are proposing that we slant it even further on the basis of you thinking that the various changes in policy regarding conflicts of interest do no warrant it.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 22:45, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
you've pretty comprehensively failed to make a case that GamerGate has ever turned up anything worthwhile. What you're doing now is basically just special pleading. Artw (talk) 23:04, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
"This article is so biased!!!" is not a coherent argument. We're supposed to be reflecting the sources here, not bending over backwards to accommodate poorly-sourced fringe viewpoints, no matter how many individual accounts are advocating that we do so. -- TaraInDC (talk) 23:08, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
And you continue to downplay that while we cannot introduce more proGG arguments due to lack of any, we don't flood the space with antiGG ones just because there's counterpoint. There's moderation in how much of the antiGG side we should present while saying neutral in the matter. --MASEM (t) 23:15, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
I really don't think WP:UNDUE and WP:FRINGE support you on this - it's basically just a personal theory of yours. Artw (talk) 23:23, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
The fact that "we cannot introduce more proGG arguments due to lack of any" is exactly the problem here. "Both sides have points" and "the truth is somewhere in the middle" are not always 'neutral' positions. See Gray fallacy. So long as we're abiding by WP:WEIGHT we're fine - and I'd argue that we're not, but only in that we're currently giving too much credence to the gaters' position. We have sources for the fact that gaters say their movement is about corruption, but actions speak louder and the reliable sources on what the movement is actually doing tell a very different story. Our lede currently has a rather inappropriate pro-gamergate bias by stating uncritically that gamergate is about things like corruption, ethics and conflicts of interest when the only such claims that the movement has even raised have proved to be complete bunk. We are not expected to treat all 'sides' of an issue seriously when our reliable sources are not doing so, and the preponderance of reliable sources do not take the 'it's about corruption' angle seriously. We can say that they claim it's about corruption, but at this point we're burying our heads in the sand by saying that it actually is, in Misplaced Pages's voice. -- TaraInDC (talk) 23:26, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
I wouldn't disagree that we might be giving some weight to the proGG side, but at the same time, we are overloading this with very negative opinions about the proGG from antiGG sources that basically are there to convince the reader that proGG is bad, and that is not our function. Are they seen in a bad light? Sure, and there's no way to avoid that. But as pointed out before, we don't need to use sources to take pot shots at them every opportunity one arises, which is what the present Responses section is basically doing. Granted, with more articles coming out that now attribute stronger language towards proGG (eg "hate mob" in some recent ones), it is going to look worse for the proGG side but we can still moderate how much we include that points a finger at them. (We don't do this for "evil" people or groups in history, there's certainly no reason to do this here)
And "We are not expected to treat all 'sides' of an issue seriously when our reliable sources are not doing so" is absolutely the wrong attitude to take. First, some but not all are dismissing the proGG side, but there's still plenty of legit serious discussion about their complaints, and as such we as a neutral entity have to try that seriously in as much as we can to source it. You cannot reject this approach, this is required under NPOV, recongizing that the broad claims of what proGG want are far outside of FRINGE. We have to take what is being reported about what they want as serious as we take the claims the antiGG is making to effective balance this article in as much as it can be. That's one reason why we get floods of external editors and SPAs because there are people editing this that would rather not even give the proGG side the time of day. Until every source says "The GGers are spouting nonsense", we have to treat that side as a serious party in the debate. --MASEM (t) 23:35, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Reddit does not get a vote on whether we follow Misplaced Pages policy. Artw (talk) 23:41, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
I'm not talking about Reddit or the like as a source. I'm talking about established RSes that are at least still giving serious weight to the issues of proGG. I fully recognize that the trend right now is that if a segment of proGG continue the "strategy" they have been doing (re: Wu) that they are going to find fewer and fewer sources that will take them seriously, and at that point, there's little that this article could even do to give them a fair shake. But that day isn't here yet. --MASEM (t) 23:48, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Escapism article

No consensus for the source, discussion has gone off topic. - Bilby (talk) 08:50, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

This article http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/features/12383-Game-Developer-GamerGate-Interviews-Shed-Light-on-Women-in-Games interviews numerous developers who claim that gamergate is really about SJWs censoring artistic expression using accusations of misogyny and homophobia, rather than Zoe Quinn (the fact that so many people want to make it about her seems to prove their point). This should be reflected in the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.64.27.69 (talk) 04:09, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

The article is interesting, but it simply reflects the opinions of different developers (some of whom, such as Damion Schubert, are opposed to GamerGate). As personal opinions they may certainly be helpful, but what is needed is more critical analysis over opinion. That's probably something that will only emerge with time, though. - Bilby (talk) 04:15, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
So, just so we are clear here, fighting with "SJWs" and NOT journalistic integrity? Gotcha. :-) Artw (talk) 04:17, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
You missed the point completely. Censoring developers for not falling in line with your ideology IS lacking in journalistic integrity. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.64.27.69 (talk) 04:29, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Hey man, personally I'd love to have that article included, but unless there are these so called reliable sources saying these people are "relevant" to the issue, you can't really include them. I think for example, Adam Baldwin's views are needed, since he's a very known person, cited in a lot of sites as the hashtag creator, and that it's not in the article yet Loganmac (talk) 04:34, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Baldwin is currently mentioned as the originator of the hashtag, in the "Backlash and social media campaign" section. - Bilby (talk) 04:39, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
And what exactly are Baldwins qualifications to be making assessments of journalistic ethics? His background as far as I know is not academics, journalism or ethics - its acting. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 04:57, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Isn't The Escapist an RS? They vetted all these people.
Yes, in that we trust them to accurately depict the opinions of those they interviewed. - Bilby (talk) 04:39, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Okay, so we have an RS interviewing people they describe as long term and influential game developers giving their options on what GG is about. What's the problem? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.64.27.69 (talk) 04:55, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
So their opinions might be usable as opinions, along with the opinions of female developers. On the other hand, their opinions have not been fact-checked, which means we aren't going to include any accusations or allegations about living people that they may have made.
If someone wants to propose an addition to the article based on the two Escapist interview series, let's see it and see if we can get a consensus to add something under protection. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 04:59, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
This seems particularly relevant "We have removed the testimony of Slade Villena, known as RogueStar, after we've received evidence that he has harassed some contributors to The Escapist." Whereas Quinn and female developers are viciously harassed high profile male developers are amongst the harassers. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 05:16, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
The lede should be changed to reflect less undue weight on Zoe as the reason for GG and more on the fact that developers are unhappy with journalists harassing them with labels like misogynist. 184.64.27.69 (talk) 05:26, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
That's an unsupported fringe view. I've not seen a single source that says developers claim they being harassed by journalists. (I recognize there are some proGG people that say they are being harassed, but this is neither certain proGG developers, or harassment from journalists) --MASEM (t) 05:30, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
The interviews basically state this. Yes, my language was chosen for rhetorical purposes. But the previous editor turned the fact that one interview was pulled due to the interviewee harassing an Escapist journalist into a poor Zoe moment, without knowing what they said or their views on GG. The fact of the matter is, people want this to be about Zoe because it makes the GG movement look bad. The truth is, this article explains the real reasons developers, as well as average gamers, are upset with gaming media. There is absolutely nothing fringe about it.184.64.27.69 (talk) 05:46, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
oh wah wah wah - i suddenly got a clue that the companies that pay for the ads that keep my favorite game website afloat get glowing reviews that their games dont deserve so i am going to send death threats to high profile women in the industry because its obviously sex that caused this problem and you people need to ignore the death threats and listen to meeeeeee!!!!!! -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 06:17, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
A few do, but not all, and as such that represents a fringe view that we cannot turn this around on. We can talk that some proGG believe this is about the journalistic problems, including some developers, but there's no way with the prevailing attitude in the mainstream/non-VG press that we can de-emphasize Quinn's involvement. --MASEM (t) 06:09, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
The first editor simply went on a childish rant which completely missed the point: it is harassment to call someone a misogynist simply because you don't like the outfit you gave a female character, and giving bad reviews to a game for this reason is an abuse of journalistic power. To the second editor, these are all important game developers (as vetted by an RS) and there are a good number of them saying this, so calling it a fringe view is an arbitrary reason to exclude them.184.64.27.69 (talk) 06:26, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
No, it's not, and no, it's not. You have, on accident, gone right to the root of why GamerGate is not taken seriously by anyone with a clue. If that's GamerGate's complaint, it literally has no clue what journalism is or means.
Calling something or someone "misogynist" is a subjective opinion. While it is possible to express a subjective opinion in a harassing manner (for example, bombarding a person's e-mail box with spam or doxing them), the mere expression of the opinion in a public forum is not harassment in any way, shape or form.
A "game review" is, by its very definition, the subjective opinion of the writer about the game. The writer of a game review is expressing their opinion about the game. There is nothing remotely resembling "an abuse of journalistic power" in a writer stating in a review that they believe the game in question contains misogynistic portrayals of women.
What do you even think a review is, anyway? Have you ever read any reviews of film, music, TV shows or other forms of cultural expression? Because that's literally what reviewers do — explore and analyze a work's message, themes, content, ideology, etc. Reviews of cultural compositions are not lists of how many guns they have or what FPS they run at. Video games are now being taken seriously as a significant part of our modern world's culture. They're that important. As someone who has been playing video games since the Commodore 64 was a thing, I happen to think that's pretty awesome. Welcome to the next level. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 06:33, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
There's a couple of problems with using the article here, but they're more to do with the aim The Escapist had when writing it. The article wasn't intended to be a general survey of developers, and so we don't know how they were sampled, and the selection is quite small. Thus we can't assume that this group of developers is representative of developers as a whole. Even then, their views aren't consistent - Costikyan and Schubert are very much saying that is about misogyny, even though that is a minority view in this selection. We could potentially use the article to source individual opinions, rather than making general statements, but to do that we'd need to evaluate who the developers are, and only slightly over half gave their real name. In the end, this may well be an important piece in the debate, but like the previous article about women developers, it isn't, in itself, something that fits with what Misplaced Pages is doing. None of that says that it isn't reliable or valuable or even incorrect - just that we can get lots of opinions, but opinions aren't really what we need to focus on right now. - Bilby (talk) 06:45, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
The game developers in the article are very clearly stating that there is a culture of bullying in the games journalist industry which sacrifices artistic expression to push an agenda. Apparently that culture has found its way here.184.64.27.69 (talk) 06:59, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Some of them are, yes, and perhaps that is true here, as it is elsewhere. In regards to WP, we're limited by the aims of the project, which means that we have to rely on certain types of articles over others. It's not that we can't use opinion pieces, like these, but we have to use them sparingly and only when there is a clear reason to use the opinions. This situation of GamerGate isn't one that Misplaced Pages is set up to cover well - WP will, I think, but only when enough time has passed for the sorts of sources that it needs to have emerged and there is some distance. - Bilby (talk) 07:08, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
For definitions of "culture of bullying" that equal "we think some games are needlessly misogynistic, therefore we're going to call them on it and ask them to do better." Which is exactly what ethical journalism does.
Once again, the schizophrenia of GamerGate is laid bare. It claims to be a movement about "journalism ethics," but is resting its case on a couple game developers saying that they don't like it when video game journalists express honest opinions about their games.
Which is it? Does GamerGate want honest video game journalism, or does it want regurgitated press releases telling you exactly what developers want you to think? Because the latter is the opposite of ethical journalism. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 07:12, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Okay, so you've made it clear that arguing with the Misplaced Pages wing of the SJW movement is useless. But, to sum it up for those of you interested, numerous game developers believe that a cabal of SJW's review games based on their rather silly agenda rather than the quality of the game. This is a breach of journalistic integrity because it affects developers sales if they don't bow down to the pressure. It also affects them personally as they are harassed by being labeled misogynist (using a very stupid definition of the term). Meanwhile, a narrative is being pushed by the people who have been exposed that this whole thing is just an excuse to harass women because everybody identifies themselves as a gamer is a crazy misogynist. And you ridiculous people just buy it. I also want to add that on all the strings on the subject, this is what is talked about. No one says 'hey, that Zoe Quinn is a bitch! Let's go harass her because she's a woman!' Well there are other clear cut cases of nepetism being discussed, but no RS will touch them because it makes them look bad. Gamers are sick of their hobby being tainted by self righteous idiots with no understanding of human nature.184.64.27.69 (talk) 07:37, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
What should be clear is that arguing without reliably published sources that reflect proportionately how the mainstream views the subject will not do anything but fill 10 pages with repetitive whinging. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 07:45, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
What is clear is that no mainstream reliable source takes seriously the argument that "developers don't like journalists reviewing their games negatively, therefore journalism bias." NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 07:50, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
You people want to pretend that this is all about Zoe Quinn. When she has almost nothing to do with this. You want to repeat the narrative the people who are being exposed want you to. Lucky for you those people control the narrative in RSs. Unfortunately for you you are making yourselves look very silly.

Could this article be more biased?

From the lede to the end of the article, this is heavily skewed towards a feminist viewpoint. Articles are cherry-picked to support one point of view, and weasel words are used constantly to support one side. Come on, Misplaced Pages editors, I know we can do better than this. Lithorien (talk) 14:09, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages articles are written using only content that can be verified by reliable sources and must not give undue weight to minority view points not represented in reliable sources. In his instance, that means that this "feminist viewpoint" you describe is what predominates in the media regarding Gamergate as it is seen as conservative gamers trying to exclude feminist discussion of video games from the Internet by means of threatening to kill at current count 3 different women who dared to 1) have a sexual partner who happens to write for a cpvideo game news site and made a video game they didn't really like, 2) provide feminist commentary for video games that they do not really like, and 3) I don't really remember what Brianna Wu did to receive the most recently reported death threat. However, this content in the article presently does not actively exclude the content regarding seeking out conflicts of interest in the video games media and industry. It is just at none has been found that is reported in reliable source, at least none regardi he independent games scene rather than Bungee paying that one guy to do game reviews in front of bags of Doritos and bottles and/or cans of Mountain Dew. If you have any actual specific complaints, please raise them instead of vaguely complaining about something that has been discussed to death on this article's talk page.—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 14:33, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Weren't you leaving to focus on other stuff lol that lasted a lot Loganmac (talk) 16:59, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
I had free time during a layover.—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 05:49, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
Except as explained several times before we don't have to flood the article with one view because the other view cannot be readily documented. There is a major problem in that approach to villainize the entire other side. --MASEM (t) 15:08, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Lithorien, "Heavily skewed" in this case just means that due weight has overall been given to reliable, mainstream sources. And those sources tend not to be in favor of foul-mouthed, anti-feminist conspiracy theorists. We've always had problems with systemic bias regarding stuff like the disproportionate number of articles on video games, military history and whatnot. This and the inane campaigning at Anita Sarkeesian is actually really part of the same bias, although in these cases, it's way past innocent quirkiness.
All I can say is: start getting used to the presentation of gender issues not going your own way. Even with female users in the minority, most dedicated users aren't keen on giving YouTube-ranters, Reddit regulars and other shrill amateurs undue representation on Misplaced Pages.
Peter 15:25, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
You have too much faith in the editors. When the bias are systematic, nothing changes. Only way to fix this article is to make it unprotected and available for the mass to edit. Delay this enough and this article becomes THE Truth and a source of fact. 76.27.230.7 (talk) 18:52, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Misplaced Pages's content is based on verifiable facts, and not "THE truth" that the Gamergate movement subscribes to.—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 05:50, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
I'm not certain I would label the problem in bias in this article a 'feminist' one necessarily. If anything it is more anti-gamer in nature. Feminism doesn't inherently mean calling something misogynistic for example, even if some of us might observe it is thrown around too freely based on unbacked reasoning amongst those communities, that is more like a problem that sometimes crosses over with feminism (much like sexism can be a problem that crosses over into gaming) and not an inherent attribute that would qualify describing the problem as based in that movement. Ranze (talk) 12:15, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

New Guardian article

It's actually more about how difficult it is to report neutrally on Gamergate due to the various tactics that the GG side uses. Definitely need to work this in if only to describe the broader press reaction to GG as difficult to judge and understand that side. --MASEM (t) 16:10, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

I have been thinking there should be some effort to go into the politicization of the controversy and this actually offers a good take on it. The Bright Side of News being discussed further up provides another take.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 20:58, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Jezebel source (likely not usable but tracking for that)

Jezebel's take. Two problems here is 1) they're part of the same network as Kotaku so I'm sure there will be complaints on bias, and 2) they are a female-oriented website (not necessarily feminist but the implication that they bias on that side is there). As such, I can't see easy use save for the overall example of this author, who was doing a open survey study of the impact of sexism on video games who had the study effectively flooded with useless responses originating from some of the GGer side. (But again, do we need this? Only if a thirdparty comments more on this article) --MASEM (t) 18:06, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

They're also a group blog. So they're unusuable. Tutelary (talk) 18:13, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Not true: it's run very much like Kotaku as there is established editorial control, so that doesn't eliminate them as a source. --MASEM (t) 18:28, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
They're a blog. If they're somehow being used as a RS, the articles which do such should be investigated. Tutelary (talk) 19:22, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
No, the word "blog" isn't a magic word that prevents something from being used as an RS. Self-published blogs are not RS because they don't have external editorial control. Jezebel is not a self-published blog, it's a media platform akin to BuzzFeed, Kotaku, Engadget, etc. It has, in fact, a higher level of editorial control than the Forbes contributor articles by Erik Kain. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 19:31, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
So what's stopping me from starting my own 'blog' and calling it a 'media platform' to secretly influence articles on Misplaced Pages? Of course, shouting 'blog' doesn't make it unusable as a source, but The policy verifiability seems to make it so that it's largely unusable. Oh, and where's said proof of editorial control, North? I've yet to find a single instance of Jezebel having any. Tutelary (talk) 19:37, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Hi, here's a link to their editorial staff that took me all of 5 seconds to find on the page. It's an established publication focusing on women's issues.
Nothing is stopping you from launching a publication that could be accepted as a reliable source at some point. You just need a staff, fact-checking and editorial policies, some time to develop a reputation... being part of a larger publishing organization never hurts, etc. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 19:42, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Oh, so merely having a makeshift editorial staff is enough to render a blog completely usable, right? Tutelary (talk) 19:43, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
1. Moving the goalposts. You asked for proof of editorial control, I provided it. 2. The word "makeshift" needs a tag, because it's your unsourced and unsupported opinion. Not sure what it's supposed to mean in this context anyway. It has an editorial staff, same as Kotaku, Engadget, The Verge, Gizmodo, etc. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 19:46, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Not really, but it's interesting given your responses to certain sources but not others. Given you've been one of the main supporters of the present article, it's good to get your thoughts on what makes a certain source reliable but not others. So, editorial control = ultimately BLP compliant, plus a reliable source, even if it is a blog. - North. Got'cha. Will be researching sources based on this material. Thanks. Tutelary (talk) 19:54, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Remember that a key RS factor is a history of editorial control and fact checking. Jezabel's been around long enough to make that judgement call. Your hypothetical new blog with a new editoral staff will not (unless, for example, your editor in chief might have a previous well-established reputation. This was the case of Kotaku relatively recently when they brought Stephan Tolito on board who had a recognizable history of good editorial control). --MASEM (t) 19:56, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
We evaluate sources on a source-by-source basis; as Masem said, a new source can become considered an RS very quickly if it is run by a larger organization with a reputation and staffed by experienced journalists (such as The Verge or Polygon) and there are very old sources that have no chance of ever becoming an RS because of their structure and nature (DailyKos, RedState, etc.). NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 20:01, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Isn't there a Misplaced Pages Policy for what counts a editorial control? Can't we use that? --86.140.193.247 (talk) 19:51, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

In this case Allaway is not a writer for Jezebel and this is obviously an opinion piece, which means our criteria should be based on her expertise. The Escapist describes her as a "student researcher" and she appears to be an undergraduate. While I applaud the young Miss Allaway on finding a way to hitch her wagons to this controversy to promote her school project, there is no reason why we should indulge this, even if the folks who own Kotaku decided to let her appropriate their megaphone to vent her rage at the people accusing their journalist of professional impropriety because some of them also spammed her open survey with junk responses.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 20:48, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
I do agree that I don't think this is usable at this point (it's not unusable just because its on Jezebel, as being argued above, but there are other reasons it is unusable we should consider). But if a third-party points to this as an example of the effects of GG, then this can back up that source. --MASEM (t) 21:00, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Masem, this subject heading is inappropriate. What's the point in starting a conversation about a source you think isn't usable in this article? Why this source in particular, when there are many published every day? As with your repeated comments about hypothetical future articles by Leigh Alexander being "dependant sources," when you do this it looks a lot like a preemptive strike, trying to shape the discussion on the usability of a source before anyone has even tried to use it at all. What's the harm in letting someone who actually wants to use the source down the line make an argument for it and respond to it then? -- TaraInDC (talk) 21:32, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
I'm tracking sources that are out there that would otherwise fit RS standards that may be useful to the article. Just that on this one, my initial take is there's not much yet we can do with it. But if someone reads that and goes "hey we could include..." and start discussion for including, that's fine. This is exactly what talk pages are for. --MASEM (t) 23:12, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Vox article - "Angry misogyny is now the primary face of GamerGate"

Well, if the consensus of the reliable sources wasn't clear enough before... Angry misogyny is now the primary face of GamerGate, from Vox.

Late last week, after she posted links to a meme making fun of the #GamerGate movement on Twitter, game designer Brianna Wu had her personal information shared among supporters of the movement. Coupled with the endless stream of harassing tweets she had received in the wake of the memes and several that threatened specific acts of violence, it was enough to drive Wu from her home.

Unfortunately, this has become par for the course for the loose-knit #GamerGate movement. Ostensibly, it's a community of gamers who are concerned about ethically problematic relationships between independent game developers and the journalists who write about them. But in practice, the movement has mostly been about deplorable harassment and intimidation of critics — usually women — who dare to disagree with them. It has becoming a misogynistic mob masquerading as a social movement.

There are plenty of well-meaning, intelligent, thoughtful people within the #GamerGate movement, people who might not understand how journalism works 100 percent of the time, but also certainly don't bear ill will toward women. But the way #GamerGate keeps devolving into an incoherent, misogynistic rabble means those voices get choked out. As such, the movement is impossible to take seriously anymore.

Goes on to discuss the issues with it being an unidentifiable movement that becomes identified by its worst adherents, because it lacks any identifiable leadership or any means of steering it in productive directions.

Also a key quote: Instead, (GamerGate) began as an angry attack on Zoe Quinn, for the offenses of being young, female, outspoken, and sexual. This is another source flatly rejecting the claim that there was any wrongdoing by Quinn. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 21:35, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

This doesn't actually add anything to the question of weight seeing as we already use Vox and it is not as distant from the controversy as other outlets that offer a less inflammatory take.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 22:49, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
There is between this and a few other pieces that have come out in light of the harassment against Wu as that there is an opinion that GG is a "hate mob" (note: a shared opinion, not a fact). But I'd like to see more that aren't as tight in the situation as sites like Vox are before adding that. --MASEM (t) 23:06, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
Here's a better one from today from Business Insider - Video Gamers Are Having A Bizarre Debate Over Whether Sending Death Threats To Women Is A Serious Issue Or Not. Basically paints the death threats and angry rhetoric as the most visible part of #GamerGate to non-video game enthusiasts, or even as the only part that matters, and trivializes any journalism ethics concerns as the "video games journalism" field is a "niche" field that publishes "some pretty feeble stories posing as "news."". --PresN 04:17, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
Well, at least someone recognises how laughable the industry's press is. Willhesucceed (talk) 10:42, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
Also, no, it's not recognised as a hate mob if BBC Radio, Forbes, Slate, Techcrunch, Reason, Al Jazeera, etc. don't recognise it as such.
When Jezebel's on your side, you know you're in the wrong. Willhesucceed (talk) 11:54, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

BBC Radio Business Matters

Engadget guy specifically attributes the harassment to internet culture, not gaming culture.

Woman says corruption/ethics/professionalism concerns are valid. "The journalistic ethics in the coverage of games are really, really something to be worried about."

Wu's thing is connected to Gamergate, somehow, despite lack of any evidence.

The rest is old hat.

It starts at about 17:00. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/business/business_20141014-0100a.mp3

Willhesucceed (talk) 02:01, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

I see GamerGate is gathering attention from really mainstream places, MSNBC did a interview with two antiGG people which couldn't be more one-sided if they tried but, well. While the BBC stream was kinda neutral Loganmac (talk) 09:56, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

So, between this and Slate talking about Twitter and Forbes, we seem to have a question as to whether this is caused by gaming culture or internet culture. That seems worthy of inclusion. Willhesucceed (talk) 10:47, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Indiecade in the limelight of GG

. Not sure what can be included immediately from it, but it highlights the indie scene in light of the GG controversy. --MASEM (t) 06:14, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

It's the same thing over and over again. Maybe if it mentioned the IGF/IndieCade scandal lol Loganmac (talk) 10:11, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 14 October 2014

This edit request to Gamergate controversy has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Edit the phrase "...developer Zoe Quinn was subjected to after an ex-boyfriend posted numerous allegations on his blog in August 2014, including that she had"

Should be "...allegations on her blog" 101.113.4.114 (talk) 07:56, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

It was posted on Gjoni's blog, so "his" is correct. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 08:10, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Harassment of supporters of Gamergate

We finally have enough sources to note this, I think.

Techcrunch:

Since I wrote my initial draft, reports have emerged of increasingly worrying attacks on GamerGate supporters. A friendly reporter had a suspicious syringe sent to his house. There have been real-life threats. People have received intimidating phonecalls and text messages from complete strangers. An academic who supports GamerGate was doxxed and received a violent threat. Major games publications have yet to report on these attacks against their consumers.

Reason:

The TFYC hacking was just one of many disturbing incidents directed at GamerGate supporters. In late September, there was a "doxxing"—net-speak for public release of private information—directed at six prominent GamerGate supporters including Yiannopoulous and Baldwin, with their "crimes" listed alongside their home addresses. Yiannopoulous also received a jiffy bag in the mail containing a syringe. Oliver Campbell, a black male videogame journalist, has written about being harassed and threatened on Twitter after he spoke out in support of GamerGate.

A young female gamergater who wanted to be identified only as Lizzy F.—she says there have been attempts to hack into her email and Twitter account—wrote to me in an email that she has experienced a stream of harassment:

'I have been told to drop dead on multiple occasions, and received a threat of "I hope your windows are secure." The last statement was sent from someone who also threatened to release the home address of another female supporter. I have been called a gender traitor, a "token," all off the female derogatory slurs in the book, and even had my "woman card" revoked, somehow.'

Most hurtful, Lizzy says, was the accusation of "internalized misogyny" and tweets dismissing her as a male troll posing as a female. Like many other women involved in GamerGate, Lizzy had to resort to posting a photo as proof of her womanhood.

Slate:

Consequently, harassment has also been directed in return at GamerGate supporters themselves, who at this point endure constant doxing and torment of their own members; hashtag searches makes finding harassment targets easy. An unfailingly civil university professor who supported GamerGate on Twitter was doxed, told she was a “self hating fucker,” and warned that if she didn’t stop posting, “its time to just shove something metal and sharp in the closed up cunt of yours and twist.” Another anonymous woman was simply told, “I know where you live know who your family is. Stop posting about #gamergate.” Such occurrences are now commonplace.

Forbes:

abuse goes both ways. According to some #GamerGate is the tech world’s version of ISIS, the resurgent Middle-Eastern militant group responsible for things like killing and beheading innocent people. I’ve spoken with writers who claim to have been blacklisted for showing support for the movement.

Willhesucceed (talk) 11:09, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Personally, I think that it would be a mistake to do a section specifically on harassment of GG supporters, but I don't have a problem with an "Online harassment" section that covers (briefly) events from all perspectives. Harassment continues to be an issue - mostly from GG supporters, but also to them, so including this in the coverage as an ongoing concern makes sense. - Bilby (talk) 11:40, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
There's little to no proof the harassment isn't from trolls. The few who have threatened anyone under the tag have been reported by Gamergate supporters. But the sources don't report that. I wonder why. It can't be because "women under attack by nerds!" makes a great story. Willhesucceed (talk) 11:58, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
oh poor poor poor gamergaters first people ignore their claims of conflict of interest because they are harassing. now people ignore their claims of harassment. its sooooooo horrible to be such an oppressed minority! what WP:SYSTEMICBIAS !!!-- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 12:37, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
In the same sense, there's little or no proof that the attacks on GG supporters are not from trolls - the lack of formal membership criteria makes it difficult to know who anyone is. All we can report is that harassment is occurring, both to GamerGate supporters and to people who have spoken against GamerGate, if we want to take that path. - Bilby (talk) 12:22, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
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