Lightknight said:
Lissie InCode said:
Let me ask you, GamerGate supporters who want this to be about changing gaming journalism: what made you seriously think this brand was the banner you wanted to fly under? No, really, tell me. Because given it's short history I can tell you no one cares it's goals for journalism... and I doubt that will change because right now, Wikipedia, Know Your Meme, and most of America won't get past the "Zoe Quinn's Boyfriend" part without dismissing you all. What I'm saying is: even if your goals are good, you were naive to think GamerGate was any type of vehicle for the changes you claim to want.
There's a few things to consider:
1. False or even planted name associations: Many of us have been around from the beginning and have never been about the Zoe's personal relationship stuff. Just because the group we're accusing of impropriety has framed us as mere slut shamers doesn't make them a legitimate source.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.858347-Zoe-Quinn-and-the-surrounding-controversy?page=14#21282642
"I don't mean the elements that are private and nitty gritty. I don't care who someone sleeps with. Just the elements that actually matter like criticisms of journalistic integrity and the claim that she fabricated attacks on herself and even got pro-feminist organizations trying to do charity work doxxed and pubicly shamed without any reasons as to why."
That's me on August 19th asking for legitimate journalistic responses to the journalism side of things. To the ethics.
So for many of us, the group has been falsely pigeonholed into being a harassment group by the very people we're allied against. It's an easy way for them to silence us and get people like you perhaps assuming that they're right and we should be silent.
2. A rose by any other name...: are you assuming that if we allied under a different banner that the few people who are actually harassing others wouldn't move right along with us? That looters show up to take advantage of a peaceful protest doesn't remove legitimacy of the cause or mean that we should stop protesting.
3. Brand recognition: Right now, for better or worse, this is causing a discussion to take place. As less biased sources are beginning to actually do their homework, they're finding legitimacy to our claims and we are starting to see the story unravel in a meaningful way. If someone started up some other cause it wouldn't have any sort of traction and would likely die in the water. It sucks that our opponents successfully tarnished our name by focusing on the small fringe members that did something wrong. But let's not forget what they've done, the charities they've tried to derail, the GGers they doxxed and harassed, and all the other things they've accused us of.
I'm sorry, but we really can't let them win this whole thing just because they were able to control the narrative that got out. I mean, it's hard to fight against journalism.
But I want you to consider the fact that some sites we've been involved with, like this one, have actually changed their policies for ethics and have edited old articles they wrote to reflect the truth they failed to obtain and got innocent people harassed for accepting someone's word without fact checking.
Good is and has been coming out of it, whether you or anyone else likes the term GG is irrelevant. It's what we've got to work with and us continuing to work under it has no bearing on our motivations anymore then the fact that many of us were here from the start. When people like the anti-GG community decide they're going to say we're like ISIS to try and defame us, it's time to just call Godwin's Law on them and move on through. Not roll over and die just because they wanted us to.
So I know about the planted names, back and forth, etc. The thing is, there ARE actual slut shamers and bad guys in your group and they've carried your message and they lit your fires. I have been here from the start, and there was a reason an angry ex tipped it all. It would be more honest and show more integrity if you all acknowledged that because I am not buying that there were "plants." Sure, some shit may have been planted but I doubt all of it was. It's not likely.
I doubt think you, or GamerGate, should be silent. I think you should grow. I think you should get another hashtag, organize apart from this brand, and leap forward. Because it's the best way to achieve your goals. The good in GamerGate is doing a sever disservice to itself by wrapping in the bad as a distraction. It also confuses your brand image and goal: if I was an outsider, I wouldn't know if you were for better journalism, or against "bad" feminism. Even if you don't believe in anything else I said, you should believe in smart social networking and inbound marketing if you want o make change on an online platform.
I don't think this is about "winning" and neither should you. Making change is about compromise and strategy, and success. There are no goodies and baddies. There is only change. And I don't buy it was just opponents who "tarnished GG;" the hashtag seems to have done a good enough job of that on it's own already. Remember, the real harms come from within. I doubt the successes GamerGate lauds (mostly advertisers pullings funds from gossip rags) is quite the success it seems now, because it doesn't help you achieve your goals. It just hurts the opposition.
And speaking of goals... god, what ARE GamerGates goals? If Forbes couldn't get a grasp of it, I doubt I stand a chance. I'm too humble to assume what it's goals are, but I can say what it looks like you want: a discussion. But you have that now, so what now? Give me a mission statement, anything. If you want to be like Anonymous, that's admirable, but then what does that mean for journalism? And what does it mean for women?
Speaking of women, Gamergate needs and will bleed by how it handles this. You have been gifted with coverage but what happens when the news cycle dries up? What's the plan here? What real established journalistic practices and industry practices need to change, and how will you all do it from the inside?
Just to be clear, I decided to pose a few smart hashtags or banners new GamerGaters could fly under if they wanted to get away from the GamerGate label and the baggage of the entire thing, just to offer a solution. How about something positive, a nice message for people to get behind? You could all be #Gamergreat, or, #GamerPlus, #GamerGreats... pick one yourselves, I don't know, and post it on 4chan or Reddit. Will you lose people? Yes. Will it be hard? Yes. But I would argue it will be worth it, it will turn a lot of your enemies to allies and it will increase your legitimacy. This isn't just me talking: this is what actual PR people and brand marketers do after a brand is killed. I think Mad Men did it once. It doesn't just work for products, it works for people and movements too.
If it seems like I'm asking a lot, that's because GamerGate has demanded so much from others and to my eyes, so little from itself. So very, very little from itself. You ask for integrity but GamerGate itself has little to none. You preach charity claims from GamerGate supporters but those are private funds from private people, and they're not very much to brag about when weighed against the charity your opposition has given. GamerGate wants the discussion to move beyond Zoe Quinn yet it was that scandal itself which lit all your fires and coalesced everything. You all preach tolerance but everywhere I turn, most of your spaces scream against SJW as if that's a bad thing to everyone (it's not). It's dubious and spurious to me that there has been such opposition to Sarkeesian when even now, publishers and game devs who do actual harm are left untouched.
The worst in me says, GamerGate is a bunch of people being socially manipulated by some very, very good social engineers who want to just "shake things up" and that, as they say, is that. But the best in me says there are also some good ones there, and you do want change in some areas of gaming which need it. So I will reiterate: get a better brand, get organized, and get away from the mindset you need to protect the misogynist trolls in your brand to succeed (and if you don't or can't think you can do that, I feel sorry for you, because you can if you foster a culture from within which demands it).
I hope I answered your questions and remember: criticism can be constructive, but only if you let it be so.
