Apologies for long post but, as another example of external pressure often being able to
get to do more than internal, I'd like to relate the following experience.
In October 2008 I joined
TriggerStreet.com (now Trigger Street Labs). It is a website set
up by Kevin Spacey and his business partner Dana Brunetti, their film production company
made The Social Network and Captain Phillips.
The idea of the website is for members to read each others screenplays / short stories,
watch each other's short films and give feedback. You earn credits for reviewing
material and spend them on adding your own material to the site, you can also add
additional credits to 'push' your work nearer to the top of the pile waiting to be
reviewed.
The website also has discussion forums, I was shocked, not only by the comments on display
but also by the attitude of moderators. In one early exchange the word 'fa**ots'
was used to describe gay people, the thread was locked but no action was taken against the
perpetrator. I e-mailed the moderator asking why, he wrote back to me saying, "As a
gay man myself I am sympathetic to your comments," (I hadn't known he was gay
until he replied) "but as a moderator, I have now locked the thread and it will now
slide down the boards."
Discussing the policy on how the site was run on the boards was a complete NO-NO, there
was just a general rule about 'not feeding trolls'. Another thread I was involved
with concerned a discussion about Julian Assange there was lively discussion as to whether
he was a hero or a villain, but it was civil. Out of nowhere there was a comment,
"Why can't we get back to talking about porn and masturbation." Everyone
ignored this, the conversation went on, there were two further attempts by the same poster
asking the same thing, he then began his own thread entitled the "Porn and
masturbation thread." Not only was nothing done, in a (very, very naughty) thread
suggesting more ought to be done to prevent such behaviour, Dana Brunetti in particular
stated that he didn't want the site to become "sanitized" and he didn't
want it to turn into Orwell's 1984 - to an approving chorus of "Dana's
right" from other members.
Just like Wikipedia there is no way of blocking other users, and, again like Wikipedia,
the nature of what the website was set up to do may mean that it is impractical. It was
all compounded for me by the "screenplay of the month" feature where the winner
was displayed on the home page (since replaced by "featured short film",
"featured short story" and "featured screenplay"). I watched winners
include Mr. "fa**ots" and, another month, Mr. "porn and masturbation
thread". The name of the screenplay of the month winner and their avatar were also
displayed, this prompted one winner to change his avatar to two women in bikinis kissing.
Cue a congratulatory thread to the male writer in his early 20s plus a side helping of
"nice avatar btw." One bigot had his screenplay optioned by a studio - so much
for ignoring trolls.
The website also had an industry podcast each week usually featuring Dana and
Vice-President of Trigger Street, Carter Swan. One week they said that there were going to
be big changes including revamping the website, and anyone who didn't like the new
changes could "f*** off". One of the changes was to get rid of the plays section
(and with it all the credits I had gathered). One of the other changes was to have a lot
more podcasts from a purpose built studio. A fashion podcast, a music podcast, one for
comic enthusiasts and one featuring the porn star Kayden Kross, reviewing a different film
each week.
I complained (by e-mail - no dissent allowed on the forums remember), I was ignored, so
then I tried a different tactic. I wrote to various groups dealing with domestic violence
that were based in Southwark, London (home of the Old Vic where Spacey is the Artistic
Director), asking them to lobby Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic. I also wrote to all the
e-mail addresses within the Old Vic that I could find. It worked the other podcasts
continued but the ones by Kayden Kross stopped.
The rules about using the website also changed, including the following new statement:
"While using the Site or Services, you agree not to: Transmit any content or
information that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory,
libelous, vulgar, obscene, hateful, fraudulent or otherwise objectionable content, or
infringes on our or any third party's intellectual property or other rights."
I have no idea how much of that (if any) was because down to what I did. I have also no
idea how rigorously the new rules were / are enforced, they got rid of me around the same
time as Kross. My account, not deleted, just suspended where it has remained since August
2011, no explanation given and no indication as to if / when it will be reinstated - if
they read this it will probably
The film - 50 Shades of Grey is set to be released on Valentine's Day 2015, it is
being made by Trigger Street Productions.
Marie
From: LtPowers_Wiki(a)rochester.rr.com
To: gendergap(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2014 08:24:12 -0400
Subject: Re: [Gendergap] A cautionary tale
Wow. That's sobering. I'd like to think
we don't have it that bad on WMF sites, but maybe we do?
Then there's this:
"Technical solutions abound when websites and
apps provide options that take targeted users into consideration -- namely,
giving us back our ability to make boundaries. For instance, sites shouldn't
let strangers message strangers, and all sites and apps should allow users to
block others. When Quora tells people to pick interests or topics they
want, it should also tell them to pick interests or topics they don't want."
Unfortunately, I don't see any way that a
wiki can work with the ability to block "strangers" from messaging
each other, or allowing individual person-to-person blocks. Works great for
message boards; doesn't work on a wiki. Does it?
Powers &8^]
-----Original Message-----
From: Delphine Ménard
[mailto:notafishz@gmail.com]
Sent: 22 June 2014 19:05
To: gendergap(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [Gendergap] A cautionary
tale
Hello,
I found
this:
http://www.zdnet.com/quoras-misogyny-problem-a-cautionary-tale-7000030762/
an
interesting read.
Cheers,
Delphine
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