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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   37968 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024

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If anything should convince me to lurk moar, this would be it. Alas, like dog returns, so do I. Good luck being the tall poppy.

Your unintentional seclusion during the great ant infestation is doing you a disservice, here. It was Gamergate that pushed him over the edge, in my view, because so much of Gamergate was fought on Wikipedia. I recognized some of the names, such as David Auerbach and Ryulong and NorthbySorthBaranof, although I hadn't thought of the latter by name in, well, a decade.

Kotakuinaction had a number of other subreddits, including wikiinaction. Alas, that seems to have been invaded and conquered in the great purge three years ago. It was more focused on this kind of thing, although it was never as popular.

Still, I appreciate a good effortpost. Well done.

What's the deal with the ants/gamergate connection?

I only included it because Numba Nine referred to it that way, but yes, a gamergate is a type of ant.

When Gamergate became a culture-war issue, the anti-Gamergate people started talking about ants (a Gamergate is actually a type of ant, as well as an internet argument) to prevent pro-Gamergate people from seeing what they were talking about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate

It used to link directly to the ant page, but was updated in August 2021.

Checking the timing on everything, his malicious edits started in earnest well before the ant farming really kicked off. He participated in the Gamergate nonsense, certainly, but I will firmly maintain my reading that his shift came before that point and Gamergate just solidified things.

his malicious edits started in earnest well before the ant farming really kicked off.

I think this is true of the internet in general. You sometimes hear that Gamergate started it all, but really it was just the moment a certain faction of previously apolitical people realized that progressives were going to politicize the internet and everything.

but really it was just the moment a certain faction of previously apolitical people realized that progressives were going to politicize the internet and everything.

The moment they realized the progressives had already done it. When all the censorship hit at once, when Gamergate was still "5 guys burgers and fries".

I recognize exactly what I'm saying, when I say it, given your stated themes.

I can believe that, and I can't be bothered to check for myself.

thezoepost was middle of August 2014, and the #gamergate hashtag was coined at the end of that month after the Gamers are Dead articles. You cite March 2014 as the Eich imbroglio on Wikipedia, April 2014 as EA/NR/LW on RationalWiki, and July 2014 as when he started on LessWrong's Wikipedia.

Checks out.

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