Dept. of Raging Disappointment

[kaffy_r]

Boosting the Signal

Just so you folks know, I sent this email to the Wikimedia Foundation earlier tonight.

To Whom It May Concern,

This year, for the first time, I donated money to support the Wikimedia Foundation, and I thought I had done a good thing in doing so.

However, the recent news that your Arbitration Committee has made a decision to permanently ban five writers and editors, in response to pressure from members of the so-called Gamergate community, has decreased my respect for, and confidence in, your organization and its policies.

I refer to these reports:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/23/wikipedia-bans-editors-from-gender-related-articles-amid-gamergate-controversy

http://internet.gawker.com/wikipedia-purged-a-group-of-feminist-editors-because-of-1681463331

I hope someday to be able to donate to your organization again. For now, however, I join other members of the Internet community in saying that, until you fix Wikipedia's systemic bias against women, you will not get another penny from me.

And please do not indulge in the traditional defense of the disingenuous and cowardly; do not say, "We are not responsible." Of course you are, because you are financing and supporting the toxic atmosphere of its administrative and cultural infrastructure.

The buck stops with you.

Most sincerely,

Kathryn J. Routliffe

With many thanks to kerravonsen 

Comments

[shanghaied]

Every time I have the misfortune to hear the word 'Gamergate' I throw up in my mouth a little. Very sad to find that you don't. That is all.

[kaffy_r]

I also throw up a bit in my mouth about aspects of Gamergate, although I suspect we might find different aspects of that issue unpalatable.

My angry disappointment with the Wikimedia Foundation also centers on their willingness to let a significant subset of their organization undertake a mass banning of writers/editors (and yes, I believe if you ban five people at once from editing items connected to conceptual issues such as gender, it's "mass"). Wikipedia trumpets its open nature. Almost anyone can edit items. Countless pages on Wikipedia contain factually incorrect information, or work from highly selective biases/sources, and nothing gets done about them. And yet, this issue is somehow worthy of draconian action.

As a reporter, as a sometime editor, as a journalist, I find Wikipedia's sudden decision to abandon its editorial laissez faire, and to administer a vaguely worded punishment that seems more akin to "disrespect of the Prophet/Glorious Leader/The Unity of the State" than to anything else, indicative of an overall willingness to cave in to demands that have nothing to do with editorial ethics.

In other news, I am thankful that I live in the Midwest, and not on the North American East Coast, since a major winter storm is bearing down upon them. I'm perfectly happy with the light dusting of snow we've received thus far, especially given the fact that I will have to venture out and cover a school board meeting later tonight. My little Hyundai is not built for large snowfalls.

[shanghaied]

No time for a proper reply right now (probably tomorrow morning, if I meet the latest deadline before then), but I just have to say that I just noticed the icon you used for this post and I am...well...'offended' isn't too strong a word. Because, oh the irony, before I opened this page and saw that icon I was about to leave you with a tiny RL tale that I thought might puzzle you but which I see as relevant. So fuck it, I'll tell you anyway:

Once upon a time, I had a long love affair with one of the great loves of my life so far, full of love and full of sex and full of music made together and separately. He's dead now, but that doesn't take away any history nor any memories of him.

A couple of days ago, as I was on my way to work, a young man got on my train carriage, sat down opposite me, smiled a beautiful smile and then turned to watch the world go by out the window. And after a few moments of whatisitwhatisitwhatisitthere'ssomethingwhatisit brain-racing, I actually shuddered with the strength of my astonishment - because this young stranger looked enough like my long-gone darling to be his twin - and I suddenly realised, for the first time in forty-five years, that my long-gone darling, so familiar to my eyes and lips and heart and hands... my long-gone darling, who I'd known and adored in every aspect of his form and features...

...wasn't what the world calls white.

Cue slightly blown mind. Then I filed this in the same mental folder with my astonishment on finding out a few years ago that one of my closest currently living friends is half-Indian, and that another dear friend, sadly long dead, was 100 per cent North American aboriginal, and that a colleague I worked with for years was mildly (but apparently, obviously to everyone else) crippled. And so on.

It's not that I don't notice, exactly; it's just that these things are so much a part of a particular friend or lover or colleague that they have no separate meaning to me.

There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in the (assuredly well-meaning but generally foolishly tunnel-visioned and often far too screechy) philosophies of internet activists, it would seem :-)

Back later!

[owlboy]

[shanghaied]

Nah, trufax.

[kaffy_r]

A Brady Bunch GIF! My teenage years are rushing back to me, possibly not in a good way!

[shanghaied]

Ah, is that what it is. I had no idea! And you won't be surprised to learn that I had to wiki 'Brady Bunch' - never heard of it o_0

[kaffy_r]

As I said, "and not in a good way." The father character was an architect who, if he actually had designed the house in which his family lived, would never have gotten another job in the business.

[shanghaied]

Sounds awful - but then, most telly is :P

[kaffy_r]

Racing to work again (from my livingroom to the home office, granted, but still, racing - and I notice you PM'd me, so I'll read that when I can and chat with you there. But I will say very quickly that I believe you. I may not know you well, because we have not spent time together, except as bouncing pixels, but I am familiar enough with what you've presented to me as yourself that it does not surprise me that you would not think in many of the same terms that are common amongst our human tribe.

But you, as we've both commented on in the past, are an unusual representative of the tribe. The way you think is not, perhaps, indicative.

And I will stand by the commentary in the icon because the comment that tops the icon is almost always used by people in certain types of conversations - and those conversations, if taken far enough, and observed carefully, generally reveal a) that of course they do see gender/race/whathaveyou and b) they are saying what they say because they do not want to have to consider the issue of gender/race/whathaveyou, if it makes them feel uncomfortable.
At best, these can be c) lovely people who are sure that simply by stating that they don't see g/r/w, they can impress the rest of the world into doing the same. Neither a), b), nor c) obviate what is said in the icon.

But there is no doubt in my mind that you are telling the truth about your experiences. Because of that, I believe this icon doesn't refer to people like you. I also believe that that means there is no need for you to be offended, although I recognize that it's not my place to command you not to be offended, since people who tell me not to get upset at something generally get the stinkeye from me.

Hmmm. Spent more time on this than I intended to. Now it's off to the races/salt mines again.

[shanghaied]

Yes - and here I am making an even faster reply (owing to sleep-in caused by illness, still not finished with review-for-pay thingummy, gah), which will amuse you when you do get a chance to read the PM, but I want it known here on the page that you are indeed among the very, very few people I 'know' via aetherspace who are welcome to visit me in the real world. And I truly mean that. Whether or not the universe would explode in the moment of our meeting is another matter entirely :D

FWIW it irritates me to feck that I so often seem to end up in bed with the Ukippers and white supremacists and, yes, racism deniers of the world even though I am NOTHING LIKE the Ukippers and white supremacists and racism deniers of the world. Maybe I should start a Respect for Outliers movement :P :P :P

Of course, as you know, I am a racist though: I am deeply prejudiced against and hateful towards the race known as humanity. I'd say I'm hoping for the next big rock to come wipe out our species, but a mega-plague specific only to our own variety of ape would be favourite because there's no need for other, far more innocent and non-toxic, species to suffer! Especially orangutans. And maybe bonobos.

And now back to the grind...

[kaffy_r]

(owing to sleep-in caused by illness, still not finished with review-for-pay thingummy, gah),

This sucks. I'm sorry that you're ill, I hope it's a temporary attack, and I hope you get the energy to finish the review for pay thing.

And I truly mean that.

I thank you for that, a great deal.

Whether or not the universe would explode in the moment of our meeting is another matter entirely :D

Heh. Not before we had a cuppa/joint martinis/damn fine coffee, and maybe a good steak. Or lamb? I make a pretty good curry, and my Nana brought me up to like lamb curry ....

FWIW it irritates me to feck that I so often seem to end up in bed with the Ukippers and white supremacists and, yes, racism deniers of the world even though I am NOTHING LIKE the Ukippers and white supremacists and racism deniers of the world.

Hmmm. I've never envisioned you as anything like that. You are an acolyte of logic and civilized good manners. Ukippers and white supremacists ... are ... not. You are, simply, you. And if we haven't chased each other off yet, then that's good.

[shanghaied]

I'm sorry that you're ill, I hope it's a temporary attack, and I hope you get the energy to finish the review for pay thing.

It's mostly that my boring chronic immune disorder wotsit has been partying hard all over me, but this time it's a real E/N/T bug. 'twill pass, but it's meant more fall-over and more time lost to having to sleep. Ho hum. Am actually very much enjoying writing this review, but it involves a lot of time-consuming research as it's a nonfiction thing.

Not before we had a cuppa/joint martinis/damn fine coffee, and maybe a good steak. Or lamb? I make a pretty good curry, and my Nana brought me up to like lamb curry ....

Cuppa and camelburgers, perhaps? With liqueur muscat for afters? I've never really come to terms with red meat - it's something I keep trying to convince myself I like, but I truly don't - but so far, camel and roo (and a spot of Bambi once every year or two) are all I can put up with.

And if we haven't chased each other off yet, then that's good.

Unlikely to happen, since you too are a rare outpost of actual!sentient!brainmeats! :D

[jessalrynn.livejournal.com]

Journalism doesn't come from a machine, it comes from a person. As a result, there will always be a "slant". That's the point of choosing your information source or using multiple sources. There are biases, there are angles, there are various ways of looking at a single situation.

Wikipedia is meant to be a collection destination for a million points of information. Everyone is meant to be able to contribute to, and provide compliment for, its content. People who want to pick and choose what's allowed on Wikipedia should be limited to whether the statement is a fact or not, and be done with it. Hell, Wikipedia doesn't even require relevant facts in hundreds of articles, why should an alleged gender or even cultural bias be a problem for them. They are NOT a credible source. They're meant to be the beginning of knowledge, like a grade school text book, and people should choose from there.

Therefore banning people who provide to the collective body of knowledge is wrong.

Thanks for sharing this.

[kaffy_r]

Wikipedia is meant to be a collection destination for a million points of information. ... They're meant to be the beginning of knowledge, like a grade school text book, and people should choose from there.

This is something that too few people realize (even I forget, I admit with shame). It's similar to the situation with search engines; people tend to forget there are other search engines than Google.

But the key point in your comment is definitely that banning people who provide to the collective body of knowledge is wrong - especially when the banning is targeted at a specific group.

[cygnia.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this.

[kaffy_r]

You're welcome. I'm sorry this has to be a thing that needs signal boosting, but I'm glad I could do it.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

VERY well done you! I've only recently started reading up on so-called Gamergate, and I've been appalled by what I found. Ironically, Wikipedia's article on the controversy does actually lean towards seeing it as a blatantly sexist campaign leading to outright acts of violence against women, and in general does not support the claim that it's about so-called 'ethics in journalism'. And Wikimedia does this?

Icon aimed at misogynistic media organisations and people.

[kaffy_r]

Yes, Wikipedia's previous attitude, and the attitude of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, of active and thoughtful neutrality-tending-towards-skepticism about Gamergate supporters, makes this action even more unfathomable.

And I credit kerravonsen for alerting me to this. I'm waiting to see if other main stream media pick up what the Guardian found, and how they play it.

[clocketpatch]

I have nothing intelligent to say, just a resounding face!palm and a very loud Urg.

[kaffy_r]

That about covers it, sadly.

[namarie24.livejournal.com]

I didn't know about this. It makes me angry and sad.

Thanks for posting this.

[kaffy_r]

I hope that enough people engaging with the Wikimedia Foundation in serious conversation about this issue could eventually force them to ask their Wikipedia administrators to reconsider this, and perhaps to begin making more positive changes in the culture there.

[erikvolson.livejournal.com]

A staggeringly stupid decision. But Wikipedia is so self involved that they may not even be aware of the issue.

[kaffy_r]

Wikipedia would be unaware of the actions of its own Arbitration Committee? Lordy.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

This is disgusting - and kudos to you for informing them of their error and said consequences. I have a feeling (just from Andy's article) that you will not be the only one.

Gamergate was a sheer horror. The mysogynstic, narrow-minded and violent outpourings towards women and certain ones who chose to speak out was appalling and frightening: so of course the answer is to rid themselves of 'all feminists en bloc' and 'social justice warriors'. As a gamer and as someone who happens to be a woman, the whole thing was enraging. I wish I could say it was shocking, but in this day in age, even awareness of bad behavior does little to deter it. Quite the opposite in fact. These people acted as if someone was taking their lolly away and the gruesome and terrifying response pissed me off.

Quite frankly, WP siding with the knuckle-draggers doesn't surprise me. I've never gone out of my way to use the site, being well aware of the misinformation and nasty internal rumblings. They are actually the LAST site I ever resource from. Looks like I won't be hitting them again anytime soon, as being a female, my thoughts, input and ideas are obviously not needed - nor my interest necessary - to their site in the first place.

I'm sorry, was that 'catty'? That was 'catty' I'm sure. MEH.

Oh!! Came across this. I don't know how you feel about FOX, but I thought you might enjoy this from a journalistic POV no matter what: High Schoolers and Journalistic Ethics

*SQUISHES YOU TIGHT*

[kaffy_r]

Thank you so much for the link to the High Schoolers' piece. It was very well done, and I agree that Fox should pay attention to people like this. Of course, they won't, but it was gratifying to listen to. God bless those kids, and I hope some of them make it to my profession; it will benefit by their addition!

And I agree with you about Wikipedia. I like starting there for information, but doing so now makes me feel queasy.

*hugs, many, many hugs*

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Urgh, this stuff is disgusting. Thanks for sharing and speaking out, dear. ♥

[kaffy_r]

Glad to boost the signal! (Still waiting for more coverage of this from the regular media. Still being disappointed about that.)

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Always with the media disappointments… *sighs*