The design and business of gaming from the perspective of an experienced developer

On Being Doxxed and Third Party Shitheads

Yes, I was doxxed -kinda sorta (we’ll get to that). I’m safe.  Wife is rattled but fine.  It was clearly the act of a third party shithead.  Other targets by the same guy in theory included Adam Baldwin (literally, the father of the #gamergate tag) and Patton Oswalt.  Which is pretty weird company to have insomnia and wake to find yourself in, all told.

One of the other supposed targets (Mark Montag, whose portrait suggests he is pro-gamergate, illustrating the ‘third party shitheads’ emphasis I want to make here) had this to say.

The information posted about me is also quite outdated.  As in, I haven’t worked for Origin and had an email address for 15 years and, hell, it hasn’t been around as a game company for, what, 10?  So please, no one feel inclined to bother the nice woman who bought my house.

I do not blame any individual in #GamerGate for this – there is no evidence to support that claim.  I do blame the toxicity and circus-like atmosphere that surrounds #GamerGate-the-Event, though.  People will be unsurprised that this does not change my views on gamergate at all.  But despite that, people on all sides of the issue need to acknowledge that everyone is being trolled by third party shitheads.  

That being said, I will note that the founder of 8chan, one of the places where GamerGate supporters like to congregate, had this to say about whether or not he would even denounce doxing on his site, much less take action to stop it.

Needless to say, I disagree with what you say, buddy. But maybe I’m a LITTLE FUCKING CRANKY RIGHT NOW.

And if you are a GamerGate supporter, you should be depressed.  This is ranking up to be yet another day that the tag is full of discussion about harassment and he-said, she said bullshit instead of game journalism ethics, which even though it was clearly instigated by a third party shithead,  only further makes the hashtag seem toxic to outsiders.

39 Comments

  1. John Cobalt

    Here is the thing though: Pretty much all doxxes/threats have been by third parties wanting to stir shit up. Media just painted GG misogynists for it and now, we are kinda pissed.

    • John Henderson

      Here’s the thing: No one cares that you’re pissed.

      Do something positive, shiteyes.

      • John Cobalt

        😉 Aren’t you a joyful fellow.

        • John Henderson

          Your post suggested that anything justifies doxxing. Damion’s been trying to be conciliatory to a mob, and this is what he gets for sticking his neck out. And he’s not even blaming #gamergate for it.

          Fuck yourself, very much.

          • A person

            “Your post suggested that anything justifies doxxing.”

            His post suggested nothing of the sort.

            Nobody is interested in your shit-stirring, pipe down. Maybe step away from your keyboard for the first time in 6 weeks and come back when you’re coherent.

          • John Henderson

            If his post didn’t justify doxxing, then all it did was say that “people are pissed.”

            Which is irrelevant to the topic of the article. Damion got doxxed. Eat shit, rando.

          • A person

            You must have a very sad life.

        • A person

          This guy openly mocks people who receive threats, posts idiotic insults and one-liners, and stamps his feet and moans whenever someone has the nerve to disagree with his poorly-formed opinions.

          He’s a winner.

          I find it hilarious that this guy claims to be friend of Damion’s and he’s easily the most obnoxious and idiotic commenter on these blogs. With friends like these…

          Hey Damion, maybe you should moderate comments from people who directly attack other posters with petty insults for no good reason. Not to be a backseat driver!

          “This is ranking up to be yet another day that the tag is full of discussion about harassment and he-said, she said bullshit instead of game journalism ethics, which even though it was clearly instigated by a third party shithead, only further makes the hashtag seem toxic to outsiders.”

          There’s nothing GG people can do to change an imposed narrative. You admit that the narrative here is not correct.

          If people are intent on erroneously pinning things on GG to score points in an infantile war that’s on them, not on GGers. It may be depressing but what’s depressing is people discarding the facts in favor of a good yarn.

          • John Cobalt

            Well thank you for coming to my rescue!

          • John Henderson

            “If people are intent on erroneously pinning things on GG to score points in an infantile war that’s on them, not on GGers. It may be depressing but what’s depressing is people discarding the facts in favor of a good yarn.”

            I’d rather not reference Gamergate or GG ever again. I’d rather just call obnoxious assholes out on their own individual opinions, except that so many are still using a single hash tag to justify themselves.

            It is impossible to “erroneously” associate anything with or without GG, because as has been established, GG is nebulous, leaderless and pointless. While there are legitimate gripes to be had, well-meaning people are well-advised to just speak for themselves.

            But doxxing is indefensible. Damion blames third-party shitheads. If you are not a shithead, you don’t need to be defensive at all.

    • Jonathan

      Don’t stop, gamergate
      I’m sure if you continue repeating for a few more days the same things you’ve been repeating over and over for 8 weeks, the world and MSM will come to finally see the truth, and completely change it’s opinion about it.

    • Jonathan

      I mean, the world and MSM are just idiots that need to be told the same argument 996 times before it finally understands

    • Damion Schubert

      The media hasn’t painted anything. They are reporting the facts. There sure may be some better angels in gamergate, but the hashtag was born of harssment of women, and is still fueled by it. It makes it trivial for trolls to feed that fire.

      Stop being pissed at the press. Stop being pissed at the outsiders. Be pissed at the trolls and the extremists shitting in your pool. Everyone else is freaking out at what they see come out of your hashtag, nothing more.

  2. Devin

    Hello, about the 8chan thing. 8chan has 1 global rule. Don’t do anything illegal. Doxing is actually illegal, so it is already against the rules. There doesn’t need to be a special rule just for it.

    • John Henderson

      Then it should be no trouble condemning it. Not talking about making a rule for it, just say publicly that it’s shitty.

    • Damion Schubert

      At this time, Zoe has her dox details up on their /war board. Your statement is false.

    • Bryant

      I’m looking at the /war board right now. Here’s a quote from someone with admin power:

      “I cleared the board due to tremendous spam and fail. The anti-dox **** pushed everything else off the deep end, soo, ****, some new rules:

      1) Doxx are allowed, but not posted directly. Use paste bin.”

      And later:

      “For the time being, since that **** is linking to here, I am disallowing any DIRECT doxxing. Use pastebin.”

      I don’t know what chain of thought would lead you to assume that making people post the actual information on another site will shield you from criticism.

  3. thejynxed

    From what I understand, the person who owns and operates 8chan is leaving it up to the individual boards to handle doxxing issues as they see fit in their own “communities”. In some boards, it’s immediate report and bans, in other boards, you have dogpiles. Which explains their response (Part of the issue with such a response is due to the “Safe Harbor Provision” of the DMCA, but that is entirely another can of worms).

    In this particular aspect, it’s much like 4chan and some of the other chans I’ve come across.

    Also, you’re right about 3rd parties being involved: See Teridax/GNAA, etc.

    • Damion Schubert

      And this is why 8chan is on my list of websites I’d shoot into the sun if I can. I MAY SEEM A LITTLE CRANKY TODAY.

  4. OmegaMan

    I can already imagine people trying to use this as justification that none of the harassment came from GG even in cases where screenshots and chatlogs are readily available to say otherwise.

    • John Cobalt

      It would be awesome if you could link to that so we can get that reported immediately.

  5. AnonDev

    Sorry to hear you are getting doxxed (although sadly I’m not surprised). It seems some 3rd party is just doing it for the lulz since this issue is getting so much media attention.

  6. Maitland

    Sorry you got doxxed, dude. 🙁

  7. Dave Rickey

    The format and data that’s getting put out by the doxxers leads me to believe that they’re using one of the “Find Soandso” websites out there, which essentially interrogate the databases used by junk-mail advertisers. Which is why they’re often for old addresses, or for people with the right name in the right area, but not the actual person that is being targeted. For about $20/month, you can do hundreds of such lookups.

    If you have customer loyalty cards, that’s the most common way to wind up in those lists (sometimes utility companies sell that info, also). I’m not in any of them, FWIW, when I have to sign up for such a card, I use a bogus address and phone number.

    –Dave

  8. Consumatopia

    Thank you for speaking out on this stuff. It’s not fair that putting up with this crap is the price of doing so.

    • Consumatopia

      Actually, one thing occurs to me. The doxxers are troll, not necessarily #GG or anti-GG.

      But’s it wrong to call them “third-party”. It was their party from the start. These trolls didn’t crash a consumer activist campaign. A bunch of consumer activists decided to show up to troll party.

      • Trevel

        From what I’ve read, it’s more like the Haters decided to throw a party to cover up the trolling in the basement.

        • Ted S.

          It’s the internet version of using human shields…Though only on the internet do you ever get human shields so eager to do the job.

  9. Delance2

    First in order: sorry to hear about the doxing. Stupid shit all around. Also sorry for the nice lady who brought your hose.

    I think you pretty much nailed the issue down. I’m also convinced by the heavy evidence that third-party idiots are doxxing people and generally doing everything to increase chaos. Some people just wanna watch the world burn.

    I would hope to see #GamerGate, in the end, be able to create bridges and dialogues. The toxicity of the environment makes this very unlikely.

    And now the major media outlets appears to be ready to be waltzing into the story, eager to paint video-games and the surrounding culture in the worst possible light.

    Will it even matter who was right or wrong when this happens? Not for anyone who cares about games.

    • John Henderson

      “Will it even matter who was right or wrong when this happens? Not for anyone who cares about games.”

      Then nothing will have changed for the better.

    • Damion Schubert

      Well, unfortunately for Gamergate, everyone else will need someone else to throw under the bus. Guess who is first in line for blame there…

  10. septus

    “I do blame the toxicity and circus-like atmosphere that surrounds #GamerGate-the-Event, though.”

    We’ve been saying it’s 3rd party trolls since the beginning. Do you want to know what kept them coming back for seconds? You idiots making it the topic du jour for 2 months.

    • John Henderson

      Who is “we” again? Gamergate is not a “we,” it’s a mob.

      • septus

        “we” is anyone who isn’t a fucking moron.

        • Joel

          Right. Calling people who disagree with you fucking morons. Way to show that spirit of moderation and tolerance you were just espousing!

          Pro Tip: Don’t claim that rabble-rousing and hyperbole are the work of outside parties in one post, then claim that everyone who disagrees with you is mentally deficient in the next. It destroys your credibility.

    • Consumatopia

      The toxicity and circus-like atmosphere that surrounds #GamerGate, that singles out anyone who speaks out (pro or con) for dogpiling and intimidation is what makes it the topic du jour. The Twitter fights paint targets on people (again, pro-or-con), the third party trolls go after the targets. As long as the GG circus continues, this will not stop, people (on both sides) will keep getting hurt.

      In the long term, we’re all going to have train ourselves to avoid these circuses. And, yes, there have been similar circuses on the SJW side in the past. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything of this scale, though.

  11. bob

    these people are GNAA from something awful, we’ve been saying that from the beginning.

    We have been informing people like Brianna Wu and Anita Sarkeesian EXACTLY who is carrying out these threats and they continue to blame gamergate.

    But you wont see anything wrong with that of course :/

    • John Henderson

      Not at all, because Gamergate’s goals are noise and chaos. No one is accountable for anything.

  12. Ricardo Lima

    Damien take every precaution avaliable. That I disagree with your conclusion, is tertiary to safety. Be Safe. But im afraid the more gasoline is poured the worse it will get.

    Belive or not im trying to put some ice in.

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