Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
What if a stalker had an army? Zoe Quinn’s ex-boyfriend was obsessed with destroying her reputation—and thousands of online strangers were eager to help. The first thing Eron Gjoni said after sitting down across from me at Veggie Galaxy in December was that he would probably violate his gag order if he talked to me….
cache hit 371:single/related:1e6d73af662c029f845c9bf78cd7213d empty Enlarge / Zoe Quinn speaks at the 2015 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Sam Machkovech When I sat down with her in January 2015, Zoe Quinn looked like she’d been through hell. In the public eye, Quinn was a number of things: an independent video game developer; a withdrawn, idiosyncratic presence at…
Silicon Valley Has Lost Its Way, the WIRED headline began. Sure, I’ll go with that. It continued, Can Skateboarding Legend Rodney Mullen Help It? And there it is: the idea that skate culture could energize a languid tech world. Is skateboarding the EpiPen the Valley needs? No. Please no. Not now. The last time skateboarding was a…
A video appeared recently that that reawakened fears about Gamergate. It caused game developer Brianna Wu to file a restraining order against the man in the video. It was also a factor in her reasoning to pull her company, Giant Spacekat, out of gaming festival PAX East, fearing for her employees’ safety. It scared Wu, it scared other female developers…
This weekend, a man wearing a skull mask posted a video on YouTube outlining his plans to murder me. I know his real name. I documented it and sent it to law enforcement, praying something is finally done. I have received these death threats and 43 others in the last five months. This experience is the basis of a Law & Order episode…
For the past eight years, TechCrunch has hosted a bizarro tech world version of the Oscars called the Crunchies. The industry gets all dolled up, walks the “green carpet,” and watches Silicon Valley insiders present trophies for categories like “Best On-Demand Service” and “Best Overall Startup.” At the eighth annual Crunchies last Thursday, the best startup…
The internet has made everybody audible. And, as a result, anybody can become a victim of a pitchfork-wielding mob, if you happen to say something online that the mob wants silenced. Nowhere has this reality been clearer than in the backlash against nascent feminism on Twitter. Simply sharing an anecdote or observation has become an…
Game developer and frequent Gamergate target Brianna Wu says she fears for her safety due to a bizarre and threatening YouTube video posted by a Massachusetts man this weekend. The man has posted several videos accusing Wu of trying to assassinate him; the newest video shows him standing next to his wrecked car, which he…
I.“Hey Anna, do you like pizza?”I was just sitting down to dinner one evening this past November when I looked through some new Twitter notifications on my phone. My night, I realized regretfully, was about to get very, very stupid. The Twitter user was named “Davidkalac69,” the photo a white egg on a purple background….
For nearly as long as theantifeminist culture war known as Gamergate has raged across the internet, a microcosm of the battle has taken place on Wikipedia. Should Gamergate defined as a push for ethics in gaming journalism, or a paranoid campaign against women in gaming? This week, Wikipedia’s highest court made a major decisionin favor…