well, the the escapist was just attacked.

[Calbeck]

Standard forum etiquette on any website on the internet is that you search for an existing thread on the topic first before creating a new thread.

And the other threads which specifically discuss the DDoS attack on the Escapist are where, again?

 

[Akjosch]

So I'm just checking this thread out now and haven't read through the previous dozen or so pages, but I curious what the consensus is around this DDoS attack. I'm guessing most folks believe either "SJWs" [in quotes because I loathe the term and its use] or even some game journalists were behind this. Am I correct in this assumption? And has there been any update about the nature of the attack and where it came from?

What we know is that the attack was targeted at, and attempted to disrupt, the GamerGate discussion. That's all the fact we currently have, but I trust that the authorities are informed and investigating.

Sadly, these things take time - on the order of months, if not years.

There was also the case of strange appearances on the forum, like people's message count going into hundreds or even thousands without much of anything attached to it, or avatars missing, but this could easily be the result of the forum software or database giving in a bit under pressure. The hope is that these issues aren't somehow exploitable to actually hack the forums. Software works in mysterious ways sometimes (... and I'm a programmer since 30 years, so I should know. ).

Everything besides these points is idle speculation. Feel free to join in; I won't waste my time with it.

 

[Exley97_v1legacy]

So I'm just checking this thread out now and haven't read through the previous dozen or so pages, but I curious what the consensus is around this DDoS attack. I'm guessing most folks believe either "SJWs" [in quotes because I loathe the term and its use] or even some game journalists were behind this. Am I correct in this assumption? And has there been any update about the nature of the attack and where it came from?

What we know is that the attack was targeted at, and attempted to disrupt, the GamerGate discussion. That's all the fact we currently have, but I trust that the authorities are informed and investigating.

Sadly, these things take time - on the order of months, if not years.

There was also the case of strange appearances on the forum, like people's message count going into hundreds or even thousands without much of anything attached to it, or avatars missing, but this could easily be the result of the forum software or database giving in a bit under pressure. The hope is that these issues aren't somehow exploitable to actually hack the forums. Software works in mysterious ways sometimes (... and I'm a programmer since 30 years, so I should know. ).

Everything besides these points is idle speculation. Feel free to join in; I won't waste my time with it.

Yeah, I'm not sure about the authorities investigating part. I don't mean to be insensitive, but the FBI typically doesn't investigate every DDoS attack (for many reasons, not the least of which being there are too many for the cybercrime division to keep up with) and when it does investigate, it usually limits its investigatory scope to government agenices or very large organizations. This is, of course, not to say that the Escapist doesn't matter, and I'm happy to be proven wrong. I'm merely saying, with knowledge of how law enforcement typically operates in these cases, I wouldn't hold your breath for a resolution.

That said, I would LOVE for the authorities to investigate and resolve this, for a variety of reasons starting with the context of the attack.

As for the software hack....more likely it's a forum software glitch or an unintended side effect of the Escapist IT team trying to stave off the DDoS attack and get the forum back online. If someone *did* find an exploit, I'm guessing he/she/they would have done a lot more than just run up the post counts and remove avatars.

 

[Stats ^1]

Standard forum etiquette on any website on the internet is that you search for an existing thread on the topic first before creating a new thread.

And the other threads which specifically discuss the DDoS attack on the Escapist are where, again?

The big thread. So this discussion is closed now. No one has anything more to say.

 

[Akjosch]

As for the software hack....more likely it's a forum software glitch or an unintended side effect of the Escapist IT team trying to stave off the DDoS attack and get the forum back online. If someone *did* find an exploit, I'm guessing he/she/they would have done a lot more than just run up the post counts and remove avatars.

That's not how such hacking works.

What generally happens is that you see a software doing unexpected things and go "Huh. Strange. I wonder if I can reproduce it." After that, it's a matter of trying exactly that (we had a quick flare of the same strange behaviour 18 hours ago as of this writing) and, if possible, to acquire the software, replicate the environment it's running under and see what happens on the database and process level. If you don't or can't replicate the software, you keep probing, though at a significantly lower intensity level so as to not attract any attention.

From there, if you find even one buffer overflow or underflow, even one SQL statement not being properly escaped, even one concurrent modification or race condition situation, you concentrate on that problem. So far in the history of the internet, every single one lead to being able to execute arbitrary (i.e., the hacker's) code on the system running the software. The methods to derive a working exploit from a specific kind of problem are both well-understood and well-documented, since security researchers and engineers need to know about them as much (if not more) than black-hat hackers.

If someone found an exploit, or at least a single bug which can lead to the exploit, don't expect them to use them right away either; or at least not in any visible way. Those things can bring in quite the money on the "market", as can leaked user data.

So ... let's hope those "glitches" were just side-effects of the tech staff doing their jobs. The alternative is way more insidious.

 

[Calbeck]

Standard forum etiquette on any website on the internet is that you search for an existing thread on the topic first before creating a new thread.

And the other threads which specifically discuss the DDoS attack on the Escapist are where, again?

The big thread. So this discussion is closed now. No one has anything more to say.

So your position is that ALL GG-related discussion should and must be relegated to the single megathread, including specific news about The Escapist being DDoSed?

How do you feel about the other GG-related threads currently active outside the megathread --- specifically, the ones started by professed anti-GG posters? How is it that you could possibly have missed the chance to walk into those threads, declare them "over", and demand they refer all further discussion to the megathread?

Also, when exactly did you think you'd been appointed site staff, to declare ANY discussion "closed"?

Welp, reported for harassment. You don't get to badger other people into shutting down discourse.

 

[ChaoGuy2006]

Welp. I picked the wrong 10 days to go on holiday.

In any case, a lot of the 4channers who are working on Gamergate have moved (and are all still together, so that's good). I hope you guys recovered well. Don't let them grind you down. Fight for good vidya, good critique, and good journalism.

 

[Exley97_v1legacy]

Standard forum etiquette on any website on the internet is that you search for an existing thread on the topic first before creating a new thread.

And the other threads which specifically discuss the DDoS attack on the Escapist are where, again?

The big thread. So this discussion is closed now. No one has anything more to say.

So your position is that ALL GG-related discussion should and must be relegated to the single megathread, including specific news about The Escapist being DDoSed?

How do you feel about the other GG-related threads currently active outside the megathread --- specifically, the ones started by professed anti-GG posters? How is it that you could possibly have missed the chance to walk into those threads, declare them "over", and demand they refer all further discussion to the megathread?

Also, when exactly did you think you'd been appointed site staff, to declare ANY discussion "closed"?

Welp, reported for harassment. You don't get to badger other people into shutting down discourse.

Wait, hold on -- you reported him for harrassment? Don't you think that's a little....excessive, to put it mildly?*

*please don't report/flag me for asking the question, thank you.

 

[Zeraki]

You know at this point I don't care who is on what side, I'm just tired of getting caught in the shit flinging crossfire of whatever is the controversy of the month.

If I wasn't annoyed at the possibility that my account information could have been compromised over this fiasco I want no part in, I'd probably be laughing at how silly it has gotten. It's like being in high school all over again.

 

[Calbeck]

Wait, hold on -- you reported him for harrassment? Don't you think that's a little....excessive, to put it mildly?

"So this discussion is closed now."

That's excessive. If you look back, it's also not a throwaway --- he's been pushing for the thread to be shut down from the beginning, because he personally thinks anything GG-related (except for threads started by anti-GG posters) needs to move to the megathread.

Yes, I'd call that harassment. It's a call to selectively silence discussion of events he personally doesn't want to see discussed outside a thread which is already over 220 pages.

 

[Falling_v1legacy]

Here is where I have to jump in and actually stop this train of thought, since you skipped a step. You have to demonstrate that hateful comments, even ones that use sexually identifying slurs, are actually fueled by a hatred of women. This is sort of a big part of the contention, actually.

See, I have glasses. And if I piss someone off, they might make an insult based on that fact. Now them mentioning it doesn't mean they hate glasses or people with glasses, just that they are dicks and grabbed at whatever they saw as a point I may get offended by.

Thus the comments about Zoe or Anita or whoever are not demonstrated as misogynistic, and are instead assumed and repeated as such. Ironically, the sort of defense against misogyny sends a message to people who want to insult her that her gender is a point of weakness and thus they tend to make reference to it more.

@runic
Glad we have agreements on some parts.
re: me needing to demonstrate that the comments necessarily means that the commenters are misogynist.
I don't really think so, because I would I would have to double check my own comment, but I'm pretty sure I did not claim they were misogynist. I said that many comments were sexist and that they harassed. In another time and place, I might have made the extra conclusion, but I'm kind of tired of the same argument circles, and so did not. I don't really feel like proving whether they are misogynist or not (I very carefully did not even use that word.) But there were many hateful comments, and that is sufficiently bad to say there was (and maybe still is) a significant contingent people saying those sorts of things. Motivation doesn't really matter, although I am pretty sure their motivation was not complementary or kindly in any way, shape, or form. Quite the opposite, actually. It was not just a handful of individuals or it would not have blown up this big, I do not think.

you must compare the response she got with the backlash people who reported on the issue got, such as Mundanematt, IA or even later arrivals like Jaydfox. You will see the level of hate and bile thrown their way is equivalent, only they do not get the media reporting on it or spend the excessive amount of time pointing to it and then to their back account link.

Tbh, I have not seen the backlash. I have not gone to see what sort of things 4chan or tumblr were saying. My judgement was and is largely based on the behaviour of Escapist forum posters- all the conspiracy theories posted on these forums. An anti might post some links that I'll read. Or a pro will post a youtube of their side, and then discover wait, you are bringing this white nationalist guy up in defence of your cause? This might be a large gap in my understanding of the problem because I'm not seeing anti-SJW's, but I'm not so sure. Escapist has started sounding like the central headquarters or at the very least a bastion of the pro-GG side. If anything, I ought to be inocculated against the 'anti-GG' side because I'm really only hearing the controversy from the pro-GG side. I don't think there are legit tumblr SJW's on here, unless the line got drawn for them (cue Jim's, well then give me a hammer, I guess.) But I got turned off from the whole thing at the beginning based on the 'pro' side alone. I'm certainly not 'anti-GG' as such. But I am anti-crappy posting, anti-conspirarcy theories, anti-harassment, and I am suspicious about why it blew up around Quin and not around over-reaching corporatism.

I'll agree that you can do that with a small amount of people, yes. Though that fact alone tells us nothing about the motivations, alliances or ideology about them. Or, for that matter, even their size, as it only adds to possibilities, it doesn't actually remove any.

I'm 100% with you on this. Possibilites are added, none are removed as suspects. But until we know, I do not think it is appropriate to assume guilt, then denounce based on that assumption. (As we saw on the very first page of this thread- again, I am consistently judging what I see on Escapist.)

I don't think it is an assocation fallacy. I am not saying because a large group are terrible posters, the entire group are as well. I am saying there was (maybe still is) a significant group within your composition. A is a part of B. And A was pretty big. (Or at least visible and loud.) Too big.
I don't think its mockery to decry conspiracy- there were people legitmately believing that Quinn held sway over reddit admins and far more. Every time someone came out against the hateful comments, people were wondering 'how deep does this go?'

Now it might be that tumblr has a large group of C a part of D, and C is very big. But I don't hang out in D (tumblr), so I cannot plead for moderation among D against C. I do hang out in Escapist, so I plead for moderation here. If a bunch of tumblr-ites jumped in here and spewed bile in these forums when I am reading, I'll join in denouncing, certainly.

 

[000Ronald]

So apparently, the Destiny and Call of Duty; Ghosts servers were taken offline at the same time as The Escapist Forums, [http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Destiny-Call-Duty-Ghosts-Taken-Offline-By-Hackers-67420.html] courtesy a group called The Lizard Squad, who I know nothing about. Haven't seen anything about it in The Newsroom, so I thought I'd mention it here.

Does anyone know anything about these guys?

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

So apparently, the Destiny and Call of Duty; Ghosts servers were taken offline at the same time as The Escapist Forums, [http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Destiny-Call-Duty-Ghosts-Taken-Offline-By-Hackers-67420.html] courtesy a group called The Lizard Squad, who I know nothing about. Haven't seen anything about it in The Newsroom, so I thought I'd mention it here.

Does anyone know anything about these guys?

The Lizard Squad were a group of people who got a plane flight diverted because of a bomb threat, and I believe Sony's CEO was on board that plane. If not the CEO, then another high-ranking Sony official.

These people are known, because of that incident (which saw a member or two apprehended), to cause trouble for the shit of it.

If what you, and by extension cinemablend, claim is true, then it wouldn't surprise me any. Attacking The Escapist at that time would prove beneficial to them as the recent events involving staff of The Escapist would deflect attention to other groups or individuals, as was the case for me.

 

[wearesoneutralthatithurts]

Yeahh.. so the sjw are lizardmen? So the illuminati-reptilian-plan is true...
I will need to get aluminium foil..


Yeah serious, SOME GG-people tend to have a tendency for premature Accusiculation. Maybe stopping thinking we know who 'THE CULPRIT (for gg its the sjw, for those(i never met them. Where are they?)is vice versa..) and just WAITING until there is definite proof?
(And no: thread xyz was attacked so it has to be the anti xyz-crowd that people assume exist and define their opponents as part of HAS TO BE IT.


Even the ffin taliban or hamas say when they did shit.

 

[Thorn14]

Everyone is. If the #GG thread at Neogaf (strongly anti-GG) had been DDOS people there would be blaming #GG

 

[Exley97_v1legacy]

Wait, hold on -- you reported him for harrassment? Don't you think that's a little....excessive, to put it mildly?

"So this discussion is closed now."

That's excessive. If you look back, it's also not a throwaway --- he's been pushing for the thread to be shut down from the beginning, because he personally thinks anything GG-related (except for threads started by anti-GG posters) needs to move to the megathread.

Yes, I'd call that harassment. It's a call to selectively silence discussion of events he personally doesn't want to see discussed outside a thread which is already over 220 pages.

Okay, but....he CAN'T silence you. Unless he's a moderator, then he doesn't have that control. So who cares if he's shooting his mouth off? Dude, that's TROLLING. And even if he did have that control to lock or move this thread....how can you describe those actions as harassment after the crap we've seen around this issue over the last two months?

I think, for the benefit of any GG-related topic, it might be worth having a baseline understanding and/or generally accepted definition of the word harassment. Because honestly, this hyperbole isn't helping to foster a civil, informed discussion.

 

[Jux]

How do I use myself as a shield? The entire point of a shield is for you to not take hits.

How was I unclear? You accuse of 'SJWs' using minorities as a shield against criticism, I'm saying you're using the same shield yourself, accusing people that are against gg as supporting a racist status quo.

And the social justice principles? Tumblr has principles? Social media, somehow, has a rule book? Really? I don't go to social media for news on equality, the NCAAP and NCLR are for that.

That you automatically assume 'tumblr' when someone says 'social justice' speaks volumes.

SJWs are by definition people who promise diversity but never deliver or someone who superficially uses it for fame. And they never will deliver because the constant promises benefit them. It became obvious when they refused to work with academia. The entire idea is that oppression will always be around so they should use it to their advantage.

One of many definitions from what I've seen. In any case, what you're basically doing is putting a label on someone based on intention. Which hey, if you want to do that, I can't stop you, but I'm going to ask for evidence that their intentions are false, which is a pretty hard standard to meet.

And I reject that. Teaching people how to live with oppression is perpetuating the problem rather than ending it.

I'm not suggesting anyone learns to live with oppression.

I have chosen to pursue diversity by joining the boycott. It has become obvious they won't actually introduce real diversity until monetary incentives are added. It has become obvious for diversity and ethics to happen in games journalism is to hurt their pocket books. That lip service and hate won't be accepted anymore.

Who is 'they'? Who is being boycotted? Publishers? Devs? If you want diversity in gaming, boycotting review sites and 'games journalists' (not sure how you boycott a journalist if they aren't selling you anything) isn't going to get the job done. So is gg about diversity now? Or is that just a personal goal? I keep hearing that gg was about journalism ethics, has that changed again?

Thats how it relates. Because until they actually do something they are just in the way. Especially if they view established civil rights groups as evil.

And they are also in the way of ethics because social media bullshit for friends trumps rules.

I'm tryin to follow you here man, but you're all over the place. Who is even the leaders of gg? What are ya'lls stated goals at this point?

 

[Jux]

And you comment on the day where a journalist was caught equating all muslims to ISIS on a stream and how there isn't racism.

Nice work. Totally great timing.

And? If he's being racist, he should rightly be called out for being racist. That has zero to do with what I said though.

It got famous on tumblr and its where it got its full start. On facebook the only thing you really have is the "like for water" bullshit whenever someone makes a post about Africa. With Tumblr's fame and relative seclusion it allowed these little pissing contests to fester since you can set up echo chambers pretty easily.

Social justice has been around a hell of a lot longer than tumblr. If tumblr is your only exposure to the social justice movement, that's pretty sad.

The stream was the final proof that games journalism is far too preoccupied with impressing friends than actual diversity.

Out of all games journalists, how many identify as social justice advocates?

No one for justice would equate all muslims to ISIS. No one for justice would be praising ISIS at all or comparing first world problems to third world. No one for justice would call for violence against black men for oogling white women and then have their friends retweet it.

I agree, though I fail to see how this is some indication of a broader trend.

No one would be questioning harassment and believing only friends. No one should be questioning race just because they disagree.

The proof has all been there that these people don't care. That their friends don't care. Its blatant.

If you want to call out individuals when you see it, by all means, do it. It should be done. I'll do it too. But if you want to present this as some problem endemic with 'games journalism', you need to show that now only is this a trend, but if you want to link it to how they do their jobs, show that racism is affecting how they do their reviews or reporting. On top of that, if you're going to make it a 'SJW' thing, you need to show they're self professed social justice advocates.

Gamergate has no leader. Its a loose congregation of pissed off customers for various reasons.

1. They don't like being lied to and cheated out of 60$ with fake reviews then blamed when that "evil game" sells well.

2. They don't like being insulted, and have racist comments made about them so someone can impress their friends.

3. They don't like Journalists stifling progress because of friendships with black outs. Some devs came out and said they were forced to donate through patreon. Boogie came out and said that they have been shouting him down. A black dev was canned and has been slandered for not agreeing with a white woman.

4. They are sick of the homogenous people in the games press. The lack of diversity that allowed this to happen.

5. They are disgusted with journalists using their friends to scam people out of money.

Gamergate started out as Journalistic ethics but has now expanded to racial diversity and outrage over comments made and attitudes held by games journalists weeks ago.

and boycotts do work. We have been a boycott since Adam Baldwin came along. Thats why all our links are mirror so no ad revenue.

RPS has taken a huge hit and is still nosediving. Polygon took a huge hit. Gamasutra's traffic loss is terminal at this point. Its been dropping with no sign of stopping.

Kotaku lost a sponsor who said they refuse to work with Kotaku again. Polygon lost a sponsor. Gamasutra lost a sponsor.

We are boycotting sponsors, and not visiting sites to deprive them of ad revenue. And its been working.

These journalists have been brow beating devs, and using their connections to blackball them. If we want progress and real diversity then we need these people out. Peace is out of the question since they walked out of TB's peace negotiation. Why? because they would need to get rid of Patreon donations.

An Indie market can only flourish if these people can't brow beat them into line.

As it is, the game developers have a huge diversity problem, not gamers. Games journalists have a diversity problem, not gamers. Neither can change until these journalists are gone.

hell, Blacks and Hispanics log in more game time than anyone. yet no one wants to see that.

These people have no problem running minorities out of the industry that is already hurting for diversity. They are hurting the industry with their little friendship club and stopping minorities from joining the industry.

They aren't here to help, they are here to complain and look good doing it.

Getting tired of breaking quotes down, so I'm just gonna lump the rest here. Look, if you personally want diversity in gaming and better ethics in journalism, more power to you. However, I can't support a movement born out of a slut shaming witch hunt, no matter what their self professed goals are. There is just too much dirty laundry attached to ya'll at this point. I'm seeing a lot of accusations tossed out here about 'being forced to donate' and 'canned and slandered', but as far as I can see, this is hearsay, so pardon me if I'm not willing to simply take you at your word that all of this is true.

And before you say 'It's all in the gamergate thread, just go look', stop. I'm not digging through a multi hundred page thread to hunt down sources for your claims. If you want to make these sorts of claims, do yourself a favor and just link relevant information in the post you make the claim so we can avoid that.

 

[Exley97_v1legacy]

Here are the loss of sponsors:

https://twitter.com/TripleSK7/status/509105586990878720

https://twitter.com/ANDREW_KILROY/status/510157904847306752

Hold up, I'm a little confused. Wasn't Unilever one of the original advertising partners that helped create Polygon? And yet according to that email, Sue Garrard, who is a real person and serves as the senior vice president of communications at the company, says they've "used Polygon in the recent past" and "only used them on a one-off basis"? Well, that's entirely false. Unilever did a whole lot more than just buy ads on a one-off basis with Polygon. They were a founding sponsor of the site.

Either she is mischaracterizing Unilever's relationship with Polygon -- badly -- or this email is fake.

 

[Jux]

social justice wasn't coined to mean civil rights or equality. Social justice is a different word used to describe what I just said. Social justice hates academia, and hates any established civil rights group because its not based on personal feelings.

You might want to stop right there. Where are you even getting these definitions and notions? If you want a basic outline of what social justice is and where it's roots are, you can look at the Wikipedia page [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice]. But if you want a tl;dr, social justice is primarily concerned with correcting issues of social privilege, wealth inequality, and equality of opportunity.

Of the ones within the scandal? A shit load. Gamasutra, polygon, RPS, Ars technica, the list goes on. These are major sites in gaming. They have pull. They should not be getting away with this.

Not sure what this is an answer to, but if you're answering this:

Out of all games journalists, how many identify as social justice advocates?

What you're doing right now is naming websites, not journalists.

And they did pull out of the roundtable for peace:

'For peace'? Is there a war going on that I wasn't aware of?

And Developers and Journalists have spoken out, we have a direct link to the entire list post + other evidence:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.860762-GamerGate-Discussion-Debate-and-Resources#21397742

Link one has nothing to do with games journalists brow beating devs or racism, unless you count accusations of racist undertones in this guys book. [http://www.littletinyfrogs.com/article/457741/GamerGatethe_free_ride_is_over]
Link two has nothing to do with games journalists brow beating devs or racism, so far as I can see[/url.
Nothing in the third link either about browbeating devs or racism [http://www.littletinyfrogs.com/article/457868/Gamergate_Escalates].
Fourth links only connection to racism appears to be a tweet from Chuck Jordan, who I didn't even know until I wiki'd his name. [http://rpgfanashton.tumblr.com/post/96720124203/gamers-are-not-dead-they-just-leveled-up]
Fifth link, no accusations of racism or browbeating devs [http://revuelabs.com/2014/08/25/who-the-fk-is-zoe-quinn/].
Still looking for browbeating by devs or racism [http://daemonpro.tumblr.com/post/97625002839/a-personal-statement-from-an-indie-dev-on-why].
Still no specific accusations. The closest one came was this: [http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Stardock-CEO-League-Legends-Devs-Others-Support-GamerGate-67327-p2.html]

Spoiler

?Today we are on a crossroad. Direction A means w, [sic] as indie developers commit ourselves to censorship and Direction B means we keep our ?artistic freedom.? I was expecting the very same people from the movie to push events in Direction B?s favor but now one of them agrees that gamers are dead, one of them whines and acts like a toddler and others keep radio silence.

?So yes, I feel sorry for indie scene. Today the indie scene is betrayed and raided by clueless people.?

Nothing here either. Ethics policy piece. [http://theralphretort.com/industry-insider-slams-unethical-media-over-gamergate/]
A twitter feed, not even directing me to a relevant post. [https://twitter.com/Oliverbcampbell]
More of the same [https://twitter.com/Revuemage].
Softball interview with a Microsoft employee, nothing about racism or browbeating here either [http://www.nichegamer.net/2014/09/gamergate-interview-anonymous-xbox-edition/].
The closest thing yet. Rakan Almekhaizeem speaks about being worried that he'll get viewed negatively because he's a Muslim and an Arab, though no accusations that there was any sort of browbeating or racism directed at him by these journalists. And some Anonymous devs voicing concern over being blackballed by the industry if they come out in favor of GG, though no explanations are given why [http://www.nichegamer.net/2014/09/real-gamedevs-sound-off-regarding-the-gamergate-controversy/].
Another interview, and more of nothing [http://techraptor.net/2014/09/22/fire-away-interview-captain-brad-wardell-ceo-founder-stardock-corporation/].

If this is your evidence of systematic racism in the games journalism industry, or evidence that developers are getting browbeaten into not speaking, I have to say, this is lackluster.

And devs were harassed for it. There is another famous one but I can't remember the name of his vlog. They fired him too for speaking out.:

https://twitter.com/BlackTridentTV/status/513815088910716928

Doxxing is wrong, no issue there, but this still isn't an issue of journalists being racist or blackballing anyone, unless you intend to prove it was a journalist that called his work to try and get him fired.

https://twitter.com/j_millerworks (creator of not your shield, was fired and harassed in real life)

Why are you just linking a twitter feed?

http://techraptor.net/2014/09/12/interview-daniel-vavra/

The only relevant part is:

Spoiler

When you look at the moral standards of some of those people. When you see them calling respected people with different opinions ?Faded crackheads, shitlords and misogynistic basement neckbeards?. When you see that one of the biggest gaming sites (Polygon) has a blacklist of people they don?t like to hear from, what would you expect? Many people also don?t go deep into the issue and they make an opinion just based on the hysteric reaction to anonymous threats, while the whole thing is about something absolutely different.
Yes I do think that some of the journalist will not like me and our game. I believe that some people may start thinking that I support people who hate women even though I absolutely do not. I may lose some friends. But I think that fighting for freedom of speech and artistic freedom is very important. And I think that some of journalists just crossed the line and somebody should say that.
Leigh Alexander, who writes for several mainstream magazines, has a PR agency at the same time while she is an editor at Gamasutra and threatens people that ?She is a megaphone that could destroy them? and says that Adam Baldwin is a ?washed up crackhead?. WTF is that? How could she still have a job? And that same person is teaching us about ethics and writing articles about childish misogynistic basement trolls? Give me a break!

Again, an interview with zero evidence.

http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/i+plan+to+buy+all+of+his+games+let+s+show_729ef9_5289240.png

A screen capture of a tweet, with the guy saying he's worried he's been blackballed. No evidence of such actually happening.

Here are the loss of sponsors:

https://twitter.com/TripleSK7/status/509105586990878720

https://twitter.com/ANDREW_KILROY/status/510157904847306752

What does this have to do with anything?

Here is the minutes of DIGRA 2014, who are tied to the journalists in the middle of this scandal. Hatred of academia and peer review. All paid for by taxpayers.

http://pastebin.com/X46rkJJu

This is what they push. This is why I called it insane. No civil rights advocate would ever want colleges and peer review gone. Civil rights relies on academia. Feminism relies on academia.

But these people don't. Thats a clear difference.

Are you going to quote the relevant bits, or do I need to slog through all of that only to come up empty handed like that goose chase you just sent me on?

And the final thing:

things may start bad but can end up to be good in the long run.

Civil Rights was born from a time of violence, but no one hates the NAACP or NCLR for it.
No one hates them for what la Raza and the Black panthers did.

The Gaming industry collapsed in the 1980s, but no one blames the modern industry for it.

If you aren't willing to make a change for the better because you didn't like how something started, then we wouldn't have the world as we have it today.

You can't dictate what happens in life, you can only roll with the punches and make the best of it.

And using this rage to end racism, and corruption is the best of it.

If you don't put in the effort, nothing will change. This won't come around again.

I can push for ethical journalism and diversity in gaming without hitching my name to such a movement, thanks.