Who's running Escapist now?

[Johnny Novgorod]

If it were up to me I'd leave it at that but I'll throw some meat on the post.

Russ Pitts has decided to take a "voluntary leave of absence" from his EIC duties following some fiasco involving an ethics thinkpiece (unread by me), now replaced by an apology (also unread by me), and some Twitter drama involving the usual suspects. Anyway, he's gone. Here's the announcement, which he made on Twitter but is nowhere to be seen in Escapist:

All this just to ask who's in charge now, if anybody knows, and where does this leave the website.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

There's a little hamster named Hamster Steve,

Spoiler: This is his bio-pic

He's in charge now

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

There's a little hamster named Hamster Steve,

Spoiler: This is his bio-pic

He's in charge now

What are Hamster Steve's views on [REDACTED]?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

There's a little hamster named Hamster Steve,

Spoiler: This is his bio-pic

He's in charge now

What are Hamster Steve's views on [REDACTED]?

He believes everyone involved should eat more banana chips and carrot sticks

 

[EvilRoy]

It is super weird to me how insulated I've become to the rest of the site. Usually I read the articles of interest once a week during a particularly long transit I have to take, and timing means I just gently hopped over this.

Digging in, this was a fuckin mess - and deeply surprising from a dude who clearly viewed himself as being above all this and tossed a lot of scorn in a lot of different directions over the exact topic he blew off his own foot with.

All that aside - As much as I don't know a name, rest assured that such a person does exist. Given that Russ was operating as a partner in the group that picked up the Escapist, and chances are his partner already had a hand in the day to day of the site. The remainder of the responsibility will just transfer to them in the meantime.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

It is super weird to me how insulated I've become to the rest of the site. Usually I read the articles of interest once a week during a particularly long transit I have to take, and timing means I just gently hopped over this.

Ordinarily I'm just as indifferent to the website, I'm here to watch ZP and kill time at work.
I simply saw the unusually high commenting an editorial was getting and pulled the thread.
What's baffling to me is that after making such a big show out of "redeeming" the site from infamy we go back to radio silence and the relatively important question of management gets relegated to a discreet peep on a different social platform altogether.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Huh. I don't actually read the articles except Shamus' column, I didn't know this had happened. What did Russ say?

 

[IceForce]

It is super weird to me how insulated I've become to the rest of the site.

Meh, not that weird, nor surprising.

We basically have *two* sites, two "Escapist Magazines"; This old site, which the (still active) forum resides and which still hosts all the old archived content, and the new site which has been plagued with teething problems - everything from layout and design issues, forcing Disqus on commenters, and becoming a home to politically-charged hitpieces (despite Russ promising to "leave politics at the door").

It's funny really, I'd hoped this place had learned its lesson when Alexander "Archon" Macris made the very same declaration, and then completely failed to adhere to it.

I swear, this place never EVER learns from the mistakes of the past.

Never, ever.

 

[EvilRoy]

It is super weird to me how insulated I've become to the rest of the site. Usually I read the articles of interest once a week during a particularly long transit I have to take, and timing means I just gently hopped over this.

Ordinarily I'm just as indifferent to the website, I'm here to watch ZP and kill time at work.
I simply saw the unusually high commenting an editorial was getting and pulled the thread.
What's baffling to me is that after making such a big show out of "redeeming" the site from infamy we go back to radio silence and the relatively important question of management gets relegated to a discreet peep on a different social platform altogether.

If I was the next guy there's no way in hell I would pop my head up. The escapist already had an image problem, this made it worse, and Russ throwing himself on his sword is not going to be enough to take the heat off of the site and the guy taking up the slack.

 

[Red Sentinel]

Oh, they pulled the article? I'm not surprised.

This site has been completely destroyed by a culture war which caused this site to become a virtual battleground between two sides that were so dogmatic in their ways that no-one involved were ever going to give an inch or change any minds, and disinterested third parties and onlookers were driven away in their droves.

If this site wants to rebuild, which I assume it does, then the last thing anyone in charge wants to be doing is pouring more fuel on that particular bonfire.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Huh. I don't actually read the articles except Shamus' column, I didn't know this had happened. What did Russ say?

No idea. We can guess from the wording of the apology, though I haven't bothered reading it or, for that matter, the original offending piece. Whatever it was, it was apparently worthy of self-exile with only a minimum of Russ's customary fanfare. The main thing is that Zoe Quinn et al were offended by the article (just for existing without consultation, going by her initial tweet) and Russ replied dismissively, to everyone's collective gasp.

 

[Red Sentinel]

I swear, this place never EVER learns from the mistakes of the past.

Mistakes of the past?

 

[IceForce]

I swear, this place never EVER learns from the mistakes of the past.

Mistakes of the past?

Well, Russ making the same mistake as Archon is only the latest example in a long conga line of repeated mistakes.

Probably the most infamous example I actually made a thread about many moons ago. But basically, a number of years ago, a large number of people got banned in a thread about adblock, sparking a very vocal public outcry and outrage.
Fastforward a few years, and Jim Sterling makes a video about adblock, and the forum administrators - apparently having learned nothing from what happened a few years prior - proceeded to moderate anyone and everyone in the thread for talking about adblock, even though Jim himself brought the subject up.

It's like watching a hamster running on a hamster wheel and getting nowhere. This site, despite rotating through various different owners and staff members, seems to keep treading over the same ground and making the same avoidable mistakes, time and time again.

 

[Samos205]

Huh. I don't actually read the articles except Shamus' column, I didn't know this had happened. What did Russ say?

my guess would be the article on "ethics" that was an opportunity to bring up gamergate, again, despite it being against the terms of service. He got into an argument or something with zoe quinn on twitter around the same time, so that likely had something to do wtih it as well

It is super weird to me how insulated I've become to the rest of the site.

Meh, not that weird, nor surprising.

We basically have *two* sites, two "Escapist Magazines"; This old site, which the (still active) forum resides and which still hosts all the old archived content, and the new site which has been plagued with teething problems - everything from layout and design issues, forcing Disqus on commenters, and becoming a home to politically-charged hitpieces (despite Russ promising to "leave politics at the door").

It's funny really, I'd hoped this place had learned its lesson when Alexander "Archon" Macris made the very same declaration, and then completely failed to adhere to it.

I swear, this place never EVER learns from the mistakes of the past.

Never, ever.

Those who fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

I am sorry to hear Russ has been struggling, hopefully he will be back in action in no time. Everyone needs personal time now and then, I wish him the best hope he comes back soon!

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Can someone tell me what happened and, for simplicity's sake, also how I should think about it?

 

[JoJo]

I'm not aware of anyone else stepping up to the EIC chair right now. The rest of us will keep things running smoothly, though, until Russ is refreshed and ready to return.

 

[Baffle]

I don't know anything about this, but Hamster Steve looks very much like a guinea pig to me.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

I don't know anything about this, but Hamster Steve looks very much like a guinea pig to me.

Yeah I didn't want to say anything in case I was wrong, but yeah. Guinea pig.

 

[09philj]

Can someone tell me what happened and, for simplicity's sake, also how I should think about it?

Russ wrote an article which was basically apologist for that thing which The Escapist has a bad history with and didn't even acknowledge the harassment that occurred as a result, then decided to compound it by being dismissive to Zoe Quinn on Twitter. Both of these things were unpopular decisions on social media so the article got retracted and replaced with an apology. At the same time the first trailer went up for that Recon show which appeared to show a journalist deliberately making a female Riot manager uncomfortable which was a great fucking look considering what's recently come out about Riot.