Misplaced Pages

Talk:Gamergate (harassment campaign): Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 06:09, 30 November 2019 view sourceLowercase sigmabot III (talk | contribs)Bots, Template editors2,306,903 editsm Archiving 2 discussion(s) to Talk:Gamergate controversy/Archive 59) (bot← Previous edit Revision as of 13:20, 11 December 2019 view source Alex Devens (talk | contribs)265 edits Neutrality???: new sectionNext edit →
Line 107: Line 107:


Just adding a new section since the above section seems to have a hostile tone in it, but the article has been updated to include the records of the investigation have been released, which may or may not affect the tone in which this article should be written, or if it should be rewritten to be more neutral or include the evidence found within the investigation reports that were just released today. Also might need to add that tag to the page that it involves something current since the investigation records were just released and will likely be researched over the weekend with many people checking in to this page to see if it is neutral and/or factual on the law enforcement section. ]-] 05:28, 30 November 2019 (UTC) Just adding a new section since the above section seems to have a hostile tone in it, but the article has been updated to include the records of the investigation have been released, which may or may not affect the tone in which this article should be written, or if it should be rewritten to be more neutral or include the evidence found within the investigation reports that were just released today. Also might need to add that tag to the page that it involves something current since the investigation records were just released and will likely be researched over the weekend with many people checking in to this page to see if it is neutral and/or factual on the law enforcement section. ]-] 05:28, 30 November 2019 (UTC)

== Neutrality??? ==

Around 2014, I was a close follower of the GG movement, and I remember being incredibly disappointed with the way it was covered in the mainstream media, and that includes Misplaced Pages. I haven't thought about it much since, but I was recently linked to this article, only to be horrified to find that it is just as biased as ever. The first sentence alone is problematic:

"The Gamergate controversy stemmed from a '''harassment campaign''' conducted primarily through the use of the hashtag #GamerGate."

Harassment campaign? Really? I thought Misplaced Pages wasn't supposed to use inflammatory language like this. While it is true that many opposing Gamergate would refer to it as a "harassment campaign," absolutely no one within the movement itself, or even someone from the outside as a supporter/follower, would use this terminology, and it definitely should NOT be used in an encyclopedic article, because it smacks of bias. It's the same reason the article on ] doesn't begin "Donald Trump is a racist, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, bigoted, neo-Nazi who lied and cheated his way into the office of President of the United States." Because while there are certainly a minority of people who feel that way, these words do not represent the facts. He would not describe himself that way. His base/supporters would not describe him that way. The same principle should apply here. Use language that is not incendiary and that everyone can agree on. If I could rewrite this article's opening sentence, I'd probably put it something like this.

"The Gamergate controversy was an online backlash to a perceived lack of ethics in video game journalism. While proponents of the movement argue that it arose solely out of moral concern, opponents have referred to it as a harassment campaign."

Bingo. So the opening sentence is two sentences now, but at least it presents both sides of the argument, and does not present either side as though it is the objective, unvarnished truth. Anyone who reads the above should be able to agree with it, because it merely presents the facts: how people on one side have described the movement, and how people on the other side have. It's not nearly as horribly one-sided as the current opening sentence.

I could go through this entire article and point out all the ways in which it is disgustingly biased, but I really don't have the time or patience to do so. I just hope that at least one administrator (because as it stands, they are the only ones who can edit this article) will read this and heed my advice, because I think a massive rewrite of this article as a whole is needed. I have always upheld ] as a pillar of Misplaced Pages, and a large part of what makes it so great, and it does seem like this policy is applied ''most'' of the time. It's just a disappointment that for a small minority of articles, especially those concerning controversial topics, such as this one, the discussion seems to have been dominated entirely by one side, and the page itself fully protected so that the other side has little platform to voice their grievances. I want to see this article improved. Come on, Misplaced Pages. I know you're better than this.

] (]) 13:20, 11 December 2019 (UTC)

Revision as of 13:20, 11 December 2019

Skip to table of contents
This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Gamergate (harassment campaign) article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.
Article policies
Find video game sources: "Gamergate" harassment campaign – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR · free images · free news sources · TWL · NYT · WP reference · VG/RS · VG/RL · WPVG/Talk
Archives: Index, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62Auto-archiving period: 28 days 
The contentious topics procedure applies to this page. This page is related to articles about living or recently deceased people, and edits relating to the subject (living or recently deceased) of such biographical articles, which has been designated as a contentious topic.

Editors who repeatedly or seriously fail to adhere to the purpose of Misplaced Pages, any expected standards of behaviour, or any normal editorial process may be blocked or restricted by an administrator. Editors are advised to familiarise themselves with the contentious topics procedures before editing this page.

WARNING: ACTIVE ARBITRATION REMEDIESThis article is subject to discretionary sanctions; any editor who repeatedly or egregiously fails to adhere to applicable policies may be blocked, topic-banned, or otherwise restricted. Note also that editors on this article are subject to a limit of one revert per 24 hours (with exceptions for vandalism or BLP violations). Violation may result in blocks without further warning. Enforcement should be requested at WP:AE.

Note: This article has been protected so that only users with extended confirmed rights can make edits. See Misplaced Pages:Protection policy#Arbitration 30/500 protection.

The subject of this article is controversial and content may be in dispute. When updating the article, be bold, but not reckless. Feel free to try to improve the article, but don't take it personally if your changes are reversed; instead, come here to the talk page to discuss them. Content must be written from a neutral point of view. Include citations when adding content and consider tagging or removing unsourced information.
Do not feed the trollDo not feed the trolls!
This article or its talk page has experienced trolling. The subject may be controversial or otherwise objectionable, but it is important to keep discussion on a high level. Do not get bogged down in endless debates that don't lead anywhere. Know when to deny recognition and refer to WP:PSCI, WP:FALSEBALANCE, WP:WIKIVOICE, or relevant notice-boards. Legal threats and trolling are never allowed!
The purpose of this Talkpage is to host ongoing discussion among interested editors regarding the Gamergate controversy article itself. This page is not for discussing this Talk page itself or any other meta-discussion; use the Talk:Gamergate controversy/Meta subpage for that. The subpage's creation is an Arbitration Enforcement action. Info on changes to the reference list are here: Talk:Gamergate_controversy/Reference_Info.
? view · edit Frequently asked questions

To view an answer, click the link to the right of the question.

Q1: Can I use a particular article as a source? A1: What sources can be used in Misplaced Pages is governed by our reliable sources guideline, which requires "published sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy". If you have a question about whether or not a particular source meets this policy, a good place to ask is the Reliable sources noticeboard. Q2: I found a YouTube video, a post on 4chan/Reddit/9GAG/8chan, or a blog that relates to Gamergate. Can I use it as a source in the article? A2: All sources used in the article must comply with Misplaced Pages's standards for reliable sources. Self-published sources cannot be used for biographical content on a living person. If such sources were used, then gossip, slander and libelous material may find its way into the article, which would a) tarnish the quality of Misplaced Pages's information and b) potentially open up Misplaced Pages to legal action. For further information, please read the guidelines for sources in biographies of living people. Q3: Why is Misplaced Pages preventing me from editing the article or talk page? Why is this article biased towards one party or the other? A3: Content on Misplaced Pages is required to maintain a neutral point of view as much as possible, and is based on information from reliable sources (Vox, The Wall Street Journal, etc.). The article and its talk page are under protection due to constant edit warring and addition of unsourced or unreliably sourced information prohibited by our policy on biographical content concerning living people (see WP:BLP). Q4: The "reliable sources" don't tell the full story. Why can't we use other sources? A4: Verifiability in reliable sources governs what we write. Misplaced Pages documents what the reliable sources say. If those sources are incorrect or inadequate, it is up to other reliable sources to correct this. Misplaced Pages's role is not to correct the mistakes of the world; it is to write an encyclopedia based on reliable, verifiable sources.
In addition, this article falls under concerns relating to content on living persons. Sources that go into unverified or unsupported claims about living persons cannot be included at all. Editors should review the talk page archives here before suggesting a new source from non-mainstream sources to make sure that it hasn't been discussed previously.
Articles for deletionThis article was nominated for deletion. Please review the prior discussions if you are considering re-nomination:

Template:Copied multi

Miscellany for deletionDraft:Gamergate controversy was nominated for deletion on 23 June 2017. The result of the discussion was redirect.
This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.
This article has not yet been rated on Misplaced Pages's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to multiple WikiProjects.
WikiProject iconVideo games Mid‑importance
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Video games, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of video games on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Video gamesWikipedia:WikiProject Video gamesTemplate:WikiProject Video gamesvideo game
MidThis article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.
Summary of Video games WikiProject open tasks:
Summary of Video games WikiProject open tasks
AfDs Merge discussions Other discussions No major discussions Featured content candidates Good article nominations DYK nominations Reviews and reassessments
Articles that need...
Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.
WikiProject iconFeminism Low‑importance
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Feminism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Feminism on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.FeminismWikipedia:WikiProject FeminismTemplate:WikiProject FeminismFeminism
LowThis article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.
WikiProject iconJournalism Low‑importance
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Journalism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of journalism on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.JournalismWikipedia:WikiProject JournalismTemplate:WikiProject JournalismJournalism
LowThis article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.
WikiProject iconInternet culture High‑importance
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Internet culture, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of internet culture on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Internet cultureWikipedia:WikiProject Internet cultureTemplate:WikiProject Internet cultureInternet culture
HighThis article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.
WikiProject Internet culture To-do:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:
Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.
WikiProject iconSociology: Social Movements Mid‑importance
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Sociology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of sociology on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SociologyWikipedia:WikiProject SociologyTemplate:WikiProject Sociologysociology
MidThis article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.
Taskforce icon
This article is supported by the social movements task force.
Media mentionThis article has been mentioned by multiple media organizations:
This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.
This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Gamergate (harassment campaign) article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.
Article policies
Find video game sources: "Gamergate" harassment campaign – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR · free images · free news sources · TWL · NYT · WP reference · VG/RS · VG/RL · WPVG/Talk
Archives: Index, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62Auto-archiving period: 28 days 

Sanctions enforcement

All articles related to the gamergate controversy are subject to discretionary sanctions.

Requests for enforcing sanctions may be made at: Misplaced Pages:Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement.


Neutrality?

Enough. This is not a forum to air grievances, and years of discussion have led to the conclusion that Gamergate was a harassment campaign. WP:NPOV is clear. If you wish to submit specific additions or changes to the article, start a new section with your proposed change & sources to back it up. Per WP:FORUM I'm closing this. (non-admin closure)The Hand That Feeds You: 18:51, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.


Like all deeply polarizing issues, Gamer Gate has given rise to widely different narratives. The article as it is gives undue weight to one of these narratives (the "it is a case of Online Harassment" angle) and barely touches upon the other points of view, relegating them to an "Ethics in journalism complaints" section where they are hardly given a fair hearing. The article needs to be re-written entirely in a manner which clearly emphasizes the difference in narratives and gives them equal weight. The reputation of Misplaced Pages as a politically neutral organization dedicated to knowledge is at stake.

For the moment there is just no consensus on what exactly happened during Gamer Gate and it will probably take many decades before a consensus may be reached. In other words, it will be the job of future historians reviewing the early XXIst century culture wars. In the meantime, the only honest thing to do is to acknowledge the lack of consensus and give the different narratives equal weight. Fi11222 (talk) 09:00, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

There are different narratives, but neutrality isn't formed by giving equal weight to each side. That creates a different imbalance, where minority perspectives are given undue weight - the cliched example is that it isn't neutral to give as much emphasis to flat earthers as we do to the (vast) majority who know that the Earth is round(ish). Similarly, while those within GamerGate have a particular perspective on what it is about, those outside formed a very different view, and that became the majority viewpoint. Thus in the article we need to emphasise the majority view as expressed in reliable sources, and cover the alternative only to the extent that it is represented in similarly reliable sources. - Bilby (talk) 09:34, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
Just wanted to make a clarifying addition to what Bilby wrote - the "majority view" means the majority view in reliable sources. CIreland (talk) 10:24, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
I dispute the fact that this is a majority view. How do you measure majority in such a case? Besides, the idea that there are any "reliable" sources in this situation is not reasonable. All sources, including major press outlets have a vested interest in this kind of controversy, in particular because the honesty of journalists has been called into question during the controversy itself. Academics for their part, at least those who have taken an interest in this dispute, act no better than activists and cannot therefore be considered to be neutral (see e.g. the paper by Megan Condis referenced just above this section). As a result, this is one of the rare cases in which there are just no sources which can be considered reliable or impartial. We are in the heat of a dispute, the outcome of which is just not decided yet. Acting as if one side of the argument has prevailed and represents the "majority" is just a partisan position and unworthy of Misplaced Pages.
As you have probably noticed, there is a culture war going on, the intensity of which has risen significantly over the past years. Any article that assumes that any of the issues pertaining to the culture war has been resolved conclusively is just dragging Misplaced Pages into the fray and making it a party to the said culture War. That is NOT what Misplaced Pages aims to be. Fi11222 (talk) 12:36, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
We go by the sources - thus the majority view is that expressed in the majority of the reliable sources. You can argue that all of the media and the academics are opposed to GamerGate, and are therefore biased, but ultimately they are all we have to go on. Misplaced Pages can only reflect what others say. - Bilby (talk) 13:13, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
Before you do that, you have to demonstrate that the sources that you use are reliable in that particular instance. Sources can be reliable for a great variety of things but not for certain topics; in particular those in which they have a vested interest. That is why judges recuse themselves from cases which they have a relation to. There is a passage in WP:reliable sources which says that if no reliable sources can be found for a certain topic then Misplaced Pages should not have an article on that topic. I believe that, in the case of Gamer Gate, this is pretty much the situation. So there are only two choices: 1) You consider Gamer Gate as an undecided cultural/social controversy and you treat all sources as partisan, reporting all the different narrative on an equal footing 2) You delete the article. Otherwise, you are just turning Misplaced Pages into a thinly veiled soap box for some activist propaganda or other. This does a lot of damage to Misplaced Pages's reputation. I think there is a serious case to be made for recommending this article for deletion. Fi11222 (talk) 13:28, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
Or choice 3, we take note that very similar arguments to yours are well-represented throughout the archives of this talk page and have failed to gain consensus support, watch the same thing happen this time around, and make no major changes to the article. - MrOllie (talk) 13:50, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
The situation here is completely biased. The article is protected in such a way that very few people are able to express their opinion. Unprotect it and see what happens. The very fact that this article needs to be "protected" is a clear sign that no consensus exists. Fi11222 (talk) 13:56, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
Bit late to the party aren't you? It's protected because of disruptive editing. Not by those adding fair or balanced comment, or requesting even better sourcing or citations, but by people complaining about not letting Thunderfoot videos be allowed as sources or twitter feeds of quote mined content, selectively edited videos, or flame wars on reddit being considered reliable citations for extreme claims. I personally have no issue with discussing Gamergates supposed claims to ethics etc as part of a movement, but under no circumstances can the sequence of events not stress that the significant majority of the efforts on their parts was the harassment of Quinn, and prolonging harassment of Sarkeesian. If there are any reliable sources you can identify, anywhere, let us know. Koncorde (talk) 15:25, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
@Fi11222: You're right - reliable sources operate within their own set of biases, and no source is truly unbiased. And when only one side of the argument dominates the reporting by respectable journalistic outfits and by academia, Misplaced Pages's articles are going to reflect that bias. Check out Misplaced Pages:Systemic bias. It's a problem, but the alternative of deleting even more of the coverage of huge swaths of the world, which would only exacerbate the bias. Guettarda (talk) 17:10, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
When systemic bias is being recognized, as you seem to be doing, isn't it a better idea to simply rewrite the article in a neutral manner and just list the different narratives? Fi11222 (talk)
The article needs to be re-written entirely in a manner which clearly emphasizes the difference in narratives and gives them equal weight is textbook WP:FALSEBALANCE, as is your suggestion that we should consider all of academia (!) unreliable and treat all culture-war disputes as being between equally-supported sides. There is, in fact, a general consensus on what happened among high-quality reliable sources; there are facts that are reasonably well-established, and analysis that comes from people with extensive expertise and reputation in the field. --Aquillion (talk) 16:39, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
The way the article is written at the moment is an abuse of WP:FALSEBALANCE. If it is called "false" balance it is because there are times when real balance is actually needed. In the current culture war (especially post 2016), it is clear the all of Academia and most of the press have become partisan entities in the said war. They are on one side of it and as such loose their credentials as "high quality" or "reputable" sources. If Misplaced Pages refuses to acknowledge this state of fact, it simply means that it too has become a partisan entity and risks becoming a casualty in the culture war. That would be regrettable. Fi11222 (talk) 18:07, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
The fact that the excitement has died down is a good reason to re-open this subject in a more balanced and calmer manner. Gamer Gate is in the process of becoming history and the best history is done when passions no longer get in the way. I disagree that the most important facts were the "harrassment" events. And most Gamer Gate insiders disagree too. They would say that the essential story was a dissatisfaction with gaming industry journalism and that the harassment of Quinn and others was caused by a small minority of disgruntled gamers which were unconnected with the main group of people who were questioning the way gaming journalism worked and the relation it had with game studios. I do not know who is right. But if you claim that "in no circumstance" you are prepared to accept that the harassment aspect was not as essential as it is portrayed in the current article, you are just displaying bias. How can you demonstrate that "the significant majority of the efforts on their part" was the harassment? How do you measure that? Of course, the press latched on to that aspect because it is sensational. A headline like "Two poor female game-developpers harassed online" will obviously get more clicks than "A group of nobody gamers have an obscure fight with game journalists". And then who would not expect a whole truckload of so called "academics" to jump on such a band-wagon? But what does that prove? There is absolutely no reason to believe that coverage by such "sources" would be unbiased. So what really happened? Was the harassment central to Gamer Gate or was it a certainly reprehensible but peripheral aspect of it? I do not know. To be fair, nobody knows and there are widely differing accounts. Many of those seem to be in good faith. The current article is giving a bad name to Misplaced Pages. It gives credence to claims that it has become a partisan propaganda outlet. This is a serious problem. Like every Misplaced Pages user, I have repeatedly been asked to donate. My first impulse was always to do it. But because of article like this, I never did. Fi11222 (talk) 16:02, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
It's cool that you and Alfalfa and the rest of the He-Man Woman Hater's Club claim it was about journalism, but it's fairly clear that this was complete bullshit. No one - literally no one - believes the "ethics in game journalism" line, so you can stop with that. Garmergate was about harassment - that's what nearly every source says. Until and unless you can find other sources, this is it. Sorry you were suckered. --Jorm (talk) 17:52, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
The above is not a partisan statement? Just by itself this gem justifies that the article be rewritten enirely. Fi11222 (talk) 18:00, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
I am absolutely, 100%, entirely partisan and biased towards facts and reliable sources and absolutely against assholes and harrassement and misogyny. You got me!--Jorm (talk) 18:06, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
"Asshole" is an insult. Saying that you are "against harrassment and misogyny" is a partisan statemnt in this context because it paints the Gamer Gate people as being for "harrassment and misoginy" which they obviously deny. I am against harassment and misogyny too but it is not the point. One narrative about Gamer Gate absolutely wants to make it about "harassment and misogyny" while others claim it was about something else entirely. Why would one side be automatically right? Fi11222 (talk) 18:55, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
I noticed that my previous post was removed and I reinstated it. How rude is this? This is a talk section. Why should I not be allowed to reply to the previous post? Are you trying to prove that Misplaced Pages has indeed become a totalitarian propaganda outlet where dissent is censored? You are doing a convincing job of it with this kind of thing. Fi11222 (talk) 17:42, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
Unlike other web sites you might be used to, Misplaced Pages's talk pages are not unrestricted discussion forums. Talk page posts that veer away from improving the article and into soapboxing about the issue in general may be removed. - MrOllie (talk) 17:49, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
My post contains only material that is about the article and it discusses what to do with it. If you disagree with it, fine. If you suppress it, you are just confirming that all is not right here. Fi11222 (talk) 18:00, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
Talk pages should be used for proposing actionable changes to the article - ie posting a potential reliable source, and posting wording supported by that reliable source. PearlSt82 (talk) 18:04, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
I have seen many instances in which talk pages were used to propose entire rewrites of pages or even their deletion. This is certainly not an unheard of proposition. Fi11222 (talk) 18:09, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
information Administrator note @Fi11222: your participation on this article talk page has become increasingly tendentious. There is a limit to the circularity that is going to be permitted here. El_C 18:14, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

A reply to the Admin threat that was just added to this talk section: Look at what just happened here. I am a single individual expressing a dissenting opinion. I did not bring a posse of like minded friends to support me. I am just expressing my personal opinion in good faith. This is what the talk pages are for, aren't they? Now what did happen in response to my initial post? A group of people, obviously coordinated, came in a short span of time to oppose my point of view and create the impression that their is a consensus in their favor. Several of them were rude and one of them summarily cancelled one of my posts. These are intimidation tactics. Not people discussing in good faith. A debate cannot be settled in such a short span of time. People who summon their friends to support them are simply trying to stifle debate. There is no honest attempt at exchanging views here. Just a will to silence dissent. This is the definition of tendentious. Fi11222 (talk) 18:26, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

One more threat has been sent to my personal page. What kind of behavior is this? It really smells of totalitarian impulses Fi11222 (talk) 18:35, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

Oh, I just realized that this latest threat was sent to me by the author of the most tendentious, disrespectful and obviously partisan post above: "It's cool that you and Alfalfa and the rest of the He-Man Woman Hater's Club claim ..." Shameful disrespect and obvious bias all rolled into one disgusting phrase. Is that what Misplaced Pages has become? Fi11222 (talk) 18:41, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

I just received one more threat on my personal page. This time, I am being asked to "assume good faith". And what about my good faith? Why am I accused of "disruptive" editing and of being "tendentious"? All my posts above have been in good faith and in a measured tone. I never dismissed anyone nor used rude language. I have replied to the arguments offered with reasonable arguments of my own. I do hold a dissenting opinion on this article. Is that "disruptive" or "tendentious" in itself? Fi11222 (talk) 18:47, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

I've blocked him indefinitely as nothere. In a deleted post he stated that this was an experiment, that we were in a Cold War, and what looks very much like a death threat. Doug Weller talk 20:08, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

Way to prove everyone here right. "We're not about harassment but I will fucking kill you if you don't do what I say."--Jorm (talk) 20:25, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
More nuanced than that. It's been rv/deleted but it was more or less if I see any of you in person someone will due. Doug Weller talk 20:56, 16 October 2019 (UTC)
I saw it. It was specific enough that I wonder if law enforcement shouldn't be involved. Some of us are pretty open about ourselves.--Jorm (talk) 21:14, 16 October 2019 (UTC)
I messaged Misplaced Pages's Emergency contact team yesterday, as soon as I saw that. I think we can let them handle it from there, as they have more information than we do about the user's location & potential other accounts. Right now, WP:DENY is more relevant. — The Hand That Feeds You: 21:25, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

investigations records released

Just adding a new section since the above section seems to have a hostile tone in it, but the article has been updated to include the records of the investigation have been released, which may or may not affect the tone in which this article should be written, or if it should be rewritten to be more neutral or include the evidence found within the investigation reports that were just released today. Also might need to add that tag to the page that it involves something current since the investigation records were just released and will likely be researched over the weekend with many people checking in to this page to see if it is neutral and/or factual on the law enforcement section. shadzar-talk 05:28, 30 November 2019 (UTC)

Neutrality???

Around 2014, I was a close follower of the GG movement, and I remember being incredibly disappointed with the way it was covered in the mainstream media, and that includes Misplaced Pages. I haven't thought about it much since, but I was recently linked to this article, only to be horrified to find that it is just as biased as ever. The first sentence alone is problematic:

"The Gamergate controversy stemmed from a harassment campaign conducted primarily through the use of the hashtag #GamerGate."

Harassment campaign? Really? I thought Misplaced Pages wasn't supposed to use inflammatory language like this. While it is true that many opposing Gamergate would refer to it as a "harassment campaign," absolutely no one within the movement itself, or even someone from the outside as a supporter/follower, would use this terminology, and it definitely should NOT be used in an encyclopedic article, because it smacks of bias. It's the same reason the article on Donald Trump doesn't begin "Donald Trump is a racist, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, bigoted, neo-Nazi who lied and cheated his way into the office of President of the United States." Because while there are certainly a minority of people who feel that way, these words do not represent the facts. He would not describe himself that way. His base/supporters would not describe him that way. The same principle should apply here. Use language that is not incendiary and that everyone can agree on. If I could rewrite this article's opening sentence, I'd probably put it something like this.

"The Gamergate controversy was an online backlash to a perceived lack of ethics in video game journalism. While proponents of the movement argue that it arose solely out of moral concern, opponents have referred to it as a harassment campaign."

Bingo. So the opening sentence is two sentences now, but at least it presents both sides of the argument, and does not present either side as though it is the objective, unvarnished truth. Anyone who reads the above should be able to agree with it, because it merely presents the facts: how people on one side have described the movement, and how people on the other side have. It's not nearly as horribly one-sided as the current opening sentence.

I could go through this entire article and point out all the ways in which it is disgustingly biased, but I really don't have the time or patience to do so. I just hope that at least one administrator (because as it stands, they are the only ones who can edit this article) will read this and heed my advice, because I think a massive rewrite of this article as a whole is needed. I have always upheld WP:NPOV as a pillar of Misplaced Pages, and a large part of what makes it so great, and it does seem like this policy is applied most of the time. It's just a disappointment that for a small minority of articles, especially those concerning controversial topics, such as this one, the discussion seems to have been dominated entirely by one side, and the page itself fully protected so that the other side has little platform to voice their grievances. I want to see this article improved. Come on, Misplaced Pages. I know you're better than this.

Alex Devens (talk) 13:20, 11 December 2019 (UTC)

Categories: