Spoke to Martin on the phone. Our memories are both fuzzy. However, Martin does have an email record that
I do not have. I need to review those carefully.
The main point I wish to make is that the email record Martin sent me does not support the claim that he asked me not to write about Markos and Kathy Sierra. That is on me, and I accept full responsibility for the prior post that was incorrect on Martin’s role in what went down. After I review all the emails I will re-post to reflect a more accurate representation on what occurred regarding Kathy Sierra.
My apologies to the entire community for not having all my ducks lined up in a row, and for going off half-cocked.
I feared you had disappeared into Nacht und Nebel.
Yes, my bad.
Ya know, some days stuff just happens.
Props for being open about it. I am eager to hear what happened when your memory is refreshed.
Will do.
A follow-up diary – Misogyny.
Im a pretty hardcore gamer so stupid threats of violence combined with existing authority giving a shrug at best is pretty familiar. I might not agree with Anita Sarkeesian’s approach, but a hyper agressive response is the most hateful counterproductive reaction I can imagine.
What’s wrong with her approach? All of her videos — to me — are spot on.
I think its a mistake that she selects examples to make her point rather than looking at the state of the industry as a whole. Thats not dishonest or anything, but I think it limits discussion. I also dislike that she doesnt engage in discussion about the issue in regards to legitimate criticism (such as bringing up counter examples or looking at how Japanese culture itself more patriarchal, influenced the entire industry). Part of that is certainly because there is too much hateful crap to wade through to make it practical, but I think a chance to sharpen points on the issue is lost (and she does on rare ocassions make shakey factual statements). Finally it annoys me that her videos come out so slowly. Been over 6 months since the last. You got backed to do X, do it instead of just giving speeches.
There is absolutely a problem. I have cringed at depiction of women in games some times or rolled my eyes at certain tropes. I count myself a supporter of hers. I will almost always prefer a realistic female character over a sexual charicature or male fantasy. But I think she could be accomplishing more if she modified her approach a little.
It hasn’t been 6 months since the last video. She had one released last month:
I just don’t agree that she would have accomplished more if she changed her approach. I don’t even know what other approach there was to be had; everyone cherry picks certain data points when they’re trying to make a point. Further, she picked some of the most popular games — thereby the most widespread — for most of the points she’s made.
To me, this is like saying if Obama changed his approach that Republicans would come around at some point on issues of agreement to solve issues when in reality there is no good faith dialogue to be had. The muck in the gaming community runs deep, from the executives in Japan to their users here in the US.
There might be some specific criticisms here and there, and I’d be willing to discuss them (not here as it’s a bit derailing), but everything I’ve seen comes down to “SHE’S NOT EVEN A GAMER!!!”
Ah good, the last post about it on feminist frequency was dated to September. Its more like when I say if Obama had changed his approach he could have got more done or done things faster. Healthcare for instance, it was 100% a waste of time to include republicans and that was clear from early on.
Agreed about derailing, but saying she’s not a gamer is stupid. Whether she is or isnt doesnt having any bearing on her points
Thanks for this, Steven. Looking forward to your update.
As I just mentioned on the previous thread, Markos is making a mistake. It’s up to him what he wants do do with his blog; the center of my concern is the problems this sort of thing has the potential to cause within the movement. It also shows an unwelcome insecurity from him, personally.
People just have to have it out, while exhibiting acceptable levels of respect for and online behavior with each other. As has been witnessed, I’ve gotten into plenty of tussles here, but it’s never entered my mind to think that any commenter here should be banned. It’s possible that it could happen in the future, or has happened in the past; just hard to imagine, given the current congregation.
I’ve experienced a local political blog site which allowed their comment threads to become sewers, and I generally avoid newspaper story comment threads for that reason as well. But even in those cases, I just walked away from visiting the sites, rather than feeling that the hosts needed to shut down the hostile bullshit artists. If the blog hosts wanted to lose me and others, that was their decision.
In cases of comments which express and/or foment emotional abuse, threats, and physical violence, I not only think those people should be banned, I think there should be better recognition that the First Amendment does not cover every expression, and those people should face more punishment than getting booted from an online site. The Supreme Court and much of the rest of the Judiciary has not been in agreement with me on that, unfortunately. I hope that changes.
But the idea that commenters should be banned for plain, respectful expressions of opposition to the views of the blog host on a single campaign is anathema to me. Even less respectful expressions should be allowed.
Our memories are far more fragile than we think they are. Even though it’s often a pain, I seem to spend a lot of time doing internet searches to check on whether I’ve remembered facts and dates correctly or not before commenting. Small details can make a big difference in how such and such looked in real time.
Looking forward to your post, Steven. (and I missed the one you took down) am pretty horrified at the edict over at the orange place and plan to leave. seemed to me the fp has already transitioned away from discussion of the dem primary.
Thanks, Steven. And thanks for all the work you and Martin do here.
where getting the facts right — or, if not, at least correcting them in timely fashion — is still considered an obligation.
Good on you, steven, for being straight up about it.
Not something one could have any confidence of finding in the corporate media, much less the rightwingnut media, blogosphere, or political arena. So passe!
Thanks for this. I have deep respect for anyone who values the truth enough to correct their own words.
This is a good post, very timely for this blog, which covers the intersection of Presidential politics and online behavior:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2016/03/his-hometown-papers.html
Hell, newspapers should do this more often. Maybe it would reduce the ridiculous levels of abuse in their story comment threads. I definitely view this as news that should be reported. If a political movement is full of abusive people with retrograde views, that’s important news for the public to receive.
The local paper here (Bloomington, IN) shut down the entire comment section for a week for behavior much less egregious than this. It seems to have helped.
For eons the Republicans presented themselves as the more civilized and genteel party. Now they have to read profane and hideous comments from their members. Such irony.
I remember an earlier June pie fight @dKos which led to many bloggers joining Booman Tribune. 🙂
Misogygny – the patriachal failure inherent to men.
Found this post via archive of diaries on topic “Kathy Sierra”