Operation Disrespectul Nod

Operation Disrespectul Nod

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Updated Oct 09, 2015 at 06:04AM EDT by RandomMan.

Added Feb 05, 2015 at 08:01PM EST by RandomMan.

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About

Operation Disrespectful Nod was an email campaign organised and executed by supporters of the Gamergate movement in September 2014, sending emails to various companies who advertised on the websites of specific online media companies in an attempt to damage their advertisement income.

Background

On August 28th, several news sites published articles calling for an end to the “gamer” cultural identity, including The Financial Post, Ars Technica, The Daily Beast, The Stranger, Beta Beat, Gamasutra, Polygon and Kotaku (shown below). On September 1st, journalists and independent developers involved in this published a signed open letter to the gaming community, asking gamers to end the harassment towards critics and developers.[3]


Gamers' don't have to be your audience. We Might Be Witnessing The 'Death of An Gaming Is Leaving "Gamers" Behind A Disheartening Account of 'Gamers' are over. _amm The Harrassment Going On In Why the vitriol of the gaming internet is ldentity' Gaming Right Now (And how Joseph Bernstein BuzzFeed Staf Adam Baldwin Is Involved) ed to: SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIORS 58 minutes ago uest August 28, 20141 By Leigh Alexander I often say I'm a video game culture writer, but lately I dont know exactly what that means. Game e know it is kind of embarrassing not even culture. It's buying things, spackling over memes and in-jokes repeatedly, and it's getting Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Programming, Art, A Guide to Ending "Gamers :57:00 pnm I've been working at Kotaku for nearly eight years now, and while I've seen some online kerfuffles over various issues in that time, I've never seen anything like the past two weeks. The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra's community The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and net Gamasutra s been t e in every conceiveable There has been so much hate. So many angry words, so many aceusations, over...what? Video games? Women in video games? People who write about video games? sense of the word, in some part due t in the concluding chapter of lan Bogost's esca the hundreds of tweets being written about it, we're seeing calls to do away with the concept of The death of the "gamers" and the women t its peak and things me who "killed"hensa certo hea What the hell is going on with gamers right now Anita Sarkeesian Threatened ith R--- and Murder for Daring to Keep Critiquing Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian prove points a certain gamer-type refuses to hear he past several weeks have seen an extraordinary amount of vitriol between some game fans, game makers, and game writers. That anger has started to spill out of traditional gamer-internet silos and onto social networks, and people without ames posted by ANNA MINARD on THU, AUG 28 direct stake in gaming have taken notice. It's prompted some hard questions for game culture, and a lot of soul-searching. Anita Sarkeesian, the woman behind a fantastic web series critiquing misogyny video games, released another video this week. Funded as a Kickstarter project Sarkeesian's Tropes vs. Women in Video Games" series scholarly look at video games through a feminist lens, in which Sarkeesian breaks down a bunch of common female stereotypes in games and explains how to spot them and why they're harmful, with tons of examples (including examples of games really check it It's Dangerous to Go Alone: Why Are Gamers So Angry? A screenshot of a domestic abuse scene from Watch Dogs used a Oh, Anita, you're so beautiful and sexy. you know that? was the nicest terrible thing a random Twitter user said to Anita Sarkeesian, creat peppered her with threats of r---, death, and the address of her home and that of her parents following the posting of her latest video on Monday. The video, which would be right at home on PBS in tone if not content, suggested that many mainstream games represent women as accessories and shorthand rather than as humans, a viewpoint that generated swift and unrelenting rage the Tropes vs Women in Video Games series, as he The subset of entitled, belligerent gamers convinced that bein ny intendo reveals the New necessary are overwhelmin Feminist Video Blogger Is Driven From Home by Death Threats Just because adult women are the largest demographic in The attack on Sarkeesian was among a number of incidents in the last few weeks that exposed some the ugly (yet familiar) attitudes and prejudices that remain deeply ingrained in the gaming culture This time, those sentiments have gotten tied up in ethical arguments in an attempt to highlight Opinion by Chris Plante on Aug 28, 2014 at 1:21p @plante Click for more on how Polygon writes opinion pieces Dan Golding Sexism, misogyny and online attacks: It's a horrible time to consider yourself Last week a game desiger's persoal life was exposed tothe internet and used to Dan Golding, writer and academic. Here's BY JACK SMITH IV 828 10:50AM What an awful week for the culture that surrounds and influences video games. yourself ua academic stuff. This tumblr is for things that t go anywhere else. justify physical threats to both the developer and her colleagues. The designer was one gamer f many people targeted in an orchestrated harassment effort directed at game PATRICK O'ROURKE 1 August 28, 2014 | Last Updated Aug 28 9:33 PM ET More from Patrick O'Rourke l @Patrick ORourke Misogynistic Trolls Drive Feminist Video Game Critic From Her Home The End of Gamers The last few weeks in videogame culture have seen a level of combativeness more marked and bitter than any befo First, a developer-a woman who makes games who has had so much piled on to etuate things by namingh harassment campaign that attacked her personal life and friendships. Campaigns of They are dismayingly common among those who happen to be women, or not white straight men, and doubly so if they also happen to make the sort of game at game devel Anita Sarkeesian has made enemies of misogynists in the gaming community. Time and time again, they've gone much, much too far. (Screengrab via Feminist Frequency) anv through their very existence. The viciousness and ferocity with which this campaign occurred, however, was shocking, and certainly out of the ordinary s hard to take seriously the online cesspools where men's rights activists and not-all-mer apologists congregate. But as ridiculous as they seem, a lot of these guys are dead serious, and capable of causing very real havoc rou routine, shockingly). It was an ugly spectacle that should haunt and shame those involved for the rest of their lives. Anits Sarkeesians Feminist Frequency examines common tropes in video games Here's your daily reminder that Internet misogynists are vile, horrible creatures and that women face threats and harassment on a daily basis just for having opinions and voicing them: feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian has been driven out of her own home after receiving an COMMEN minist Frequency and Anita Sarkeesian's latest video, Women as Background Decoration (part 2), is thought-provoking, eye-opening and most importantly accurate. outpouring of death and r--- threats on Twitter n her latest video Sarkeesian examines how non-playable female characters in video games are often only used as objects of sex and violence. She discusses notable titles like itman Absolution, Bioshock: Infinite, Watch Dogs and massive franchises like the Grand Theft Auto and the God of War series. TECH HEALTH 08.28.1 Fanboys, White Knights, and the Hairball of Online Misogyny ees and r--- threats. The men who defended her were accused A harmless woman is being harassed online by a nerdy subculture. The fact 08/28/2014

In retaliation to this, in September 2014, GamerGate supporters began spreading instructions amongst themselves to email companies who advertised on specific websites that have somehow wronged the movement; such as Gawker Media, Kotaku, Polygon, Wired and TechCrunch; to protest about the sites' criticisms of their perceived questionable ethical standards and criticisms of the GamerGate movement, which was later dubbed Operation Disrespectful Nod.[1][21] The name of the project is a play on *Nods Respectfully Towards You*, a gesture which managed to become a popular subject of parody following its posting in August 2014. The campaign followed a five step plan,[2] which paraphrased reads as follows:


Problems with Samsung customers sea.samsung.com Problems with Samsung customers Hello, I've been a strong supporter of Samsung televisions (great quality for a good price) for almost a decade now, I have used your televisions to enjoy my video games for a long time. Recently there has been an uproar in the gaming community, about the possible corruption and in-talking between gaming journalists and game developers. One of the websites for gaming journalism in the middle of this is Kotaku.com, which is funded in part by Samsung advertisements. I can not in good heart support either Samsung or Kotaku, due to the inflammatory articles, statements and deeds by their staff that decry gamers as bad people for questioning them about validity of criticism and news, as you can find in many articles on their site. I find it difficult to believe that gaming journalists would attack their own consumer base like this, but as it stands it is happening. I can't support them or the companies who advertise on Kotaku, like Samsung, if it is clear that their agenda is to attack their consumers. Thank you Send Saved

  1. Select a company and one of its advertisors from the compiled list.

  2. Choose a complaint of interest related to the company's ethical standards.

  3. Choose an article from the company you’re complaining about.

  4. Combine the first three steps into an email using a pre-written form (shown left).

  5. If there is no reply, show patience but persistence through follow up e-mails.

Notable Developments

Gamasutra & Intel

On September 10th, 2014, Redditor endertargaryen submitted a post to the /r/KotakuInAction[5] subreddit, calling for gamers to email sponsors of the video game news blog Gamasutra in protest of an article written by staff writer Leigh Alexander titled "'Gamers' don't have to be your audience. 'Gamers' are over."[4] On October 1st, 8chan[6] user In 'N Out Chef submitted a post containing a screenshot of an email reply from an Intel customer support representative, who revealed that the tech company had pulled an ad campaign off Gamasutra after receiving complaints about the Alexander article (shown below). The same day, Redditor primalchaos submitted the email screenshot to the /r/KotakuInAction subreddit.[7]


support.replies@mailbox.intel.com To Me Today at 10:53 AM Dear Thank you for voicing your concerns about some Intel® Rea!Sense™ Technology ads that were recently placed on Gamasutra's site. Our ad placements coincided with recent technology launches and campaigns, and we were using a purchase order made much earlier this year before Gamasutra's recent controversial articles were published. Our ads were not a reflection of supporting certain article stances or shifts in editorial positioning. We have since decided to pull our current ad campaign off Gamasutra. Thank you again for letting us know your concerns. Intel customer support A repesentative of Intel may subsequently contact you by email in order to obtain your feedback on the quality of the support you received.

Intel's actions were subsequently covered by various news outlets, such as The Verge,[8] Tech Times,[9] NPR[10] and Ars Technica.[11] On October 3rd, Intel[12] also released an official on its decision to discontinue its ad campaign on Gamasutra on their official blog (shown below).

"We take feedback from customers seriously. For the time being, Intel has decided not to continue with our current ad campaign on the gaming site Gamasutra."

"However, we recognize that our action inadvertently created a perception that we are somehow taking sides in an increasingly bitter debate in the gaming community. That was not our intent, and that is not the case. When it comes to our support of equality and women, we want to be very clear: Intel believes men and women should be treated the same. And, diversity is an integral part of our corporate strategy and vision with commitments to improve the diversity of our workforce. And while we respect the right of individuals to have their personal beliefs and values, Intel does not support any organization or movement that discriminates against women. We apologize and we are deeply sorry if we offended anyone."

Sam Biddle's Bullying Tweets

On October 16th, 2014, Gawker writer Sam Biddle posted a series of tongue-in-cheek tweets calling for a return of bullying[13] and promoting the shaming of nerds (shown below).[14] Although Biddle apologised for his tweets the next day,[15] the tweets were met with a large amount of negative replies.




On October 17th, Mercedes-Benz took down its advertisements from Gawker after receiving numerous complaints about Biddle's tweets, according to an official reply to the Washington Post by Mercedes.[16] Mercedes reinstated its campaign a few days later. Biddle also replied to the events through an article on Gawker[19] on October 20th. On October 21st, the official Twitter account for Adobe[17] posted that it had requested Gawker to remove their logo from the site (shown below). A day later, Gawker[18] released an article in reply to Gamergate's actions, sharing that they had lost thousands of dollars due to Mercedes' temporary advertising removal. Alongside, the events were also covered by other news outlets, such as The Verge,[33] Ars Technica[34] and re/code.[35] A week later, on October 28th Adobe released an official reply regarding their tweet,[20] sharing that they weren't an advertisor on Gawker and were instead mistakenly listed as one.



Intel's Industry Diversity Fund

On January 6th, 2015, Intel released that it would pledge $300 million to improve the diversity of the company’s work force by attracting more women and minorities to the technology field, aiming to be a leading example against Silicon Valley's diversity issues (shown below).[26] The pledge was the result of the events between Intel, Gamatsutra and Gamergate in October of the previous year, which resulted in negative publicity for the company, as was explained in a statement saying that its new diversity efforts came after the "recent confluence of events related to women and under-represented minorities." Intel's pledge was met with mostly positive feedback and covered by numerous news outlets such as The New York Times,[27] re/code,[28] Gamespot,[29] Time[30] and Wired.[31][32]


Other <196 Black 2% Hispanic 3% Two or more races 4% Asian 30% White 61% Women 30% 6 Gender Ethnicity Men 70% Gender % of employees Ethnicity % of US employees Hispanic Black 4% 2% Female 39% Male 61% Whit 53% Asian 38% wo or More Races 2% Other <1%

Left: Google – Right: LinkedIn

in November 2014, Gamergate supporters launched another emailing under the name 'Operation UV'. This campaign focused around emailing the US Federal Trade Comission (FTC), an independent agency of the United States government aimed at promoting consumer protection, and ask from them to intervene against Gawker Media's practices.[22] The FTC addressed specific issues[23] and following this created a new guideline for advertising,[25] of which it was later on noted that GamerGate was the driving force behind the change.[24]

Search Interest

External References

[1] Gitgud – Operation Disrespectful Nod

[2] Archive.today – @Tienajk

[3] Open Letter To The Gaming Community – Open Letter To The Gaming Community

[4] Gamasutra – Gamers Dont have to be your audience

[5] Reddit – Gamasutra contact

[6] 8chan – Intel pulls ads

[7] Reddit – Intel is pulling their ads off of Gamasutra due to shifts in editorial positioning

[8] The Verge – Intel buckles to anti-feminist campaign by pulling ads from gaming site

[9] Tech Times – GamerGate pressure prompts Intel to shelve ads early, will controversy ever subside

[10] NPR – After Pulling Ads, Intel Tries To Stay Out Of #Gamergate Debate

[11] Ars Technica – Intel issues #GamerGate apology, still not advertising at Gamasutra

[12] Intel Newsroom – Intel Issues Statement on Gamasutra Advertising

[13] @Samfbiddle – Bring Back Bullying

[14] @Samfbiddle – Nerds should be constantly shamed and degraded into submission

[15] @Samfbiddle – I fucked it up, and I'm sorry!

[16] The Washington Post – Inside Gamergate’s (successful) attack on the media

[17] @Adobe – We are not an advertiser w/ Gawker.

[18] Gawker – How We Got Rolled by the Dishonest Fascists of Gamergate

[19] Gawker – The D-List Right-Wingers Who've Turned Gamergate Into Their Loser Army

[20] Adobe Blogs – When Anti-Bullying Efforts Backfire

[21] Gamergate Wiki – Projects: Operation Disrespectful Nod

[22] Reddit – Important Update: The FTC Heard Our Complaints.

[23] Reddit – FTC Update 2: Yes, the FTC is going to address the specific complaints of Operation UV

[24] Reddit – Important FTC Update #4: FTC Confirms that, Yes, #OperationUV is Responsible for the New Guidance on Hidden Affiliate Links.

[25] ftc.gov – .com disclosures – How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising

[26] Wikipedia – Silicon Valley: Diversity Issues

[27] The New York Times – Intel Allocates $300 Million for Workplace Diversity

[28] re/code – CES Snapshot: After Gamergate, Intel to Invest $300 Million in Diversity

[29] Gamespot – Intel Spending $300 Million to Bolster Women and Minority Hiring

[30] Time – Intel Pledges $300 Million to Increase Workforce Diversity

[31] Wired – Intel Invests $300 Million to Improve Its Workplace Diversity

[32] Wired UK – Intel announces fund for greater tech diversity

[33] The Verge – Adobe's symbolic pro-Gamergate gesture frustrates victims

[34] Ars Technica – After #GamerGate tweet, Adobe distances itself from Gawker “bullying”

[35] Re/code – Adobe Distances Itself From Gawker After Writer’s Gamergate Tweet

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