Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Game developer Brianna Wu leaves home after death threats for supporting women

venturebeat.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 114 posts

Re: Game developer Brianna Wu leaves home after death threats for supporting women

#3

Post by throwawayGG »

It's interesting what a chilling effect the evil "gamergate" people have.

By making it clear they target anyone who stands up for women in gaming or for freedom of press they have intimidated people who would usually be up front in their support for the people attacked.

I hope someone can come up with a sensible strategy for dealing with these trolls. I'd like to see real-world consequences.

The article indicates there are "some well known names" involved in the group. Who are they and what companies do they work for?

(Written from a throwaway, which says a lot doesn't it?)

Re: Game developer Brianna Wu leaves home after death threats for supporting women

#5

Post by LandonAB »

sremani wrote: post #2

This is totally tragic and unacceptable. I hope the troll is met with punishment he/she deserves. But I am wondering - is our reaction to them is empowering these trolls. Its better to be safer than sorry. This is truly disturbing.

Yeah, I am wondering the same thing. When they hide behind anonymity (cowards) what the hell can anyone do to A) support these women and B) stop these people from creating a new account and repeating the behavior.

Re: Game developer Brianna Wu leaves home after death threats for supporting women

#6

Post by adnzzzzZ »

LandonAB wrote: post #5
sremani wrote: post #2

This is totally tragic and unacceptable. I hope the troll is met with punishment he/she deserves. But I am wondering - is our reaction to them is empowering these trolls. Its better to be safer than sorry. This is truly disturbing.

Yeah, I am wondering the same thing. When they hide behind anonymity (cowards) what the hell can anyone do to A) support these women and B) stop these people from creating a new account and repeating the behavior.

Here's a different perspective on anonymity that I think few people appreciate or even consider http://kazerad.tumblr.com/post/99022123468/shepherd-of-the-m..., which also might point to a solution to the problem you mention.

Re: Game developer Brianna Wu leaves home after death threats for supporting women

#7

Post by uvTwitch »

throwawayGG wrote: post #3

It's interesting what a chilling effect the evil "gamergate" people have. By making it clear they target anyone who stands up for women in gaming or for freedom of press they have intimidated people who would usually be up front in their support for the people attacked. I hope someone can come up with a sensible strategy for dealing with these trolls. I'd like to see real-world consequences. The article indicates the…

This narrative you're pushing here is a very hard sell considering this is one of their most prominent banners: http://www.nichegamer.net/media/2014/09/gamergate.jpg

Being the interenet, there are naturally aggressive and violent people who will throw harassment around. With regard to this issue, it is downright false to claim that they originate from, or are encouraged by, any one camp, as there are examples of harassment originating from both sides. One of the more prominent journalists writing articles supporting gamergate was mailed a syringe filled with mystery liquid; far from a friendly gesture.

There are, however, a lot of people who wish to paint gamergate as woman-hating trolls - the kind of people in the media who have a lot to lose, who always pick up on these sort of outliers and point to them as the bulk of the movement, to try to distract the public from the real message of gamergate, which is that they want proper ethics and integrity in gaming journalism, not 10/10's for games made by your friends, or articles brazenly insulting your readership.

Post reply on HN