There's not enough bitching

[Dracos]

Feel better, Anastasia.

[Anastasia]

Yeah, it only lasted a few days. Could've been way worse.

[Merc]

I dread the response I will find in the morning to my tweet on the Dode controversy.

For EXTREMELY quick and dirty highlights on the subject, a streamer named Dode who is a major part of the SMW community, was called out publicly on his lack of response to the trans community about allowing a transphobe in his stream that actively harrassed trans streamers/members elsewhere, and on top of that auto-hosting that person (this despite many attempts at private discussion). No adequate response was given for a period of time, an 'apology' was later made, other things were brought up that put into question sincerity, Dode deletes his twitter account, closes down his discord, takes a sabbatical from twitch for a bit over a month. Trans community continues to get harrassed, now with people crying for justice for Dode. Dode returns this week, carefully granting manual approval to certain members to his discord, and banning anybody that asked for better from Dode from his stream. All vocal members of the LGBTQ community and supporters were just...banned. His stream has over 1k people show up for his return stream. He makes well over $2000 in subscriptions/bits/donations and receives well wishes all in the first 30 minutes of stream consisting of nothing but a "Starting Soon" screen, and then he comes online...and doesn't address anything about the trans community. If anything he appears very cheekily dismissive of it all.

And I have friends, both those who reject dode and those who welcomed him back. I'm in many ways somehow still very centrist in all of this for all that I think Dode's handling is absolutely atrocious/disgusting, and potentially going to draw fire from both sides for my thoughts. I dunno, we'll see what twitter shitstorm I wake up to for expressing my thoughts.

[Anastasia]

* Anastasia pats Merc. It seems that once again the internet makes people jerks.

Personally I think most gaming streams are better off with a 'no politics or social issues' rule because generally, those issues isn't germane to gaming. I know the main streamer I watch right now has one and cultivates a friendly atmosphere in the chat, which does wonders for the stream. No one wins when you bring thing sort of thing into your entertainment product.

Good luck enduring all of this, Merc. I hope it gets better for you.

[Ebiris]

I have no idea who any of the people mentioned are, but Dode sounds like a piece of shit who's clearly courting a specific audience so doesn't deserve any benefit of the doubt. Dismissing trans lives as 'just a political issue to avoid' feels very unfriendly to me, but I prefer to watch streamers/youtubers who're explicitly inclusive about that stuff, and I've had to drop a few I've otherwise enjoyed because they've shown their true colours over social issues.

There's so much content available though, it's not really a loss to drop one for actually being shitty regardless of how otherwise informative or entertaining they might be.

[Merc]

Well, I woke up to my little corner of twitter being pretty quiet, either due to a mix of not being noticed or me being peanuts. I'm okay with that, I guess. I got some of my feelings off my chest.

The rest of the SMW corner is still on fire though.

Dune - Almost all gaming streams DO have that 'no politics or social issues', some make a bit of minor allowance for a quick comment here and there, or asking people to go to discord for example, but generally, that does apply. A big problem in all of this was the fact that the reason for those policies is that most streamers additionally claim they want to foster said friendly atmosphere and one that can serve as a safe space for viewers, and people were feeling unsafe seeing toxic people in spots they had thought were safe and then being ignored when they tried to ask quietly for action.

The SMW community always had felt like a safe space for the trans community, and many are speaking up of how friendly/welcoming the community was to them when they first came upon it, how many got into kaizo/speedrunning/level creating/etc. Quite a few streamers have openly identified as trans (as well as gay/lesbian/etc on LGBTQ spectrum), because of that, and phobic sentiment always seemed to get rooted out and banned rapidly through the community via word of mouth. And then somehow one phobic person found an audience and found support. And at least two big streamers seemed okay with that person, or at least 'to not take sides, and to keep their stream safe for everyone as long as they behave there'. It was a matter of people using the safe space thing to excuse the presence of uncomfortable elements...and then other phobic people slowly seemed to find their voice. It's just jokes! Don't take it seriously! It didn't happen on my stream! Dode would get PMs over things that happened...and nothing. Then he was publically called out on it, asked to indeed make his space safe. Suddenly everyone had a thing to scream, for/against Dode and many others. Trolls muddying the waters on both sides. Dode remained quiet as other friends admitted to trying to reach out to him.

Everything that follows has had a carefully crafted feel to it that has made it clear to many where he drew the line he stands on, and left many of us shocked at where that line was. Many people gave up friendship with him over it, either back in September when his lack of action first came up, or now with his return.

The problem with that carefully crafted feel to his behavior is...it's becoming apparent just how carefully crafted it was, that while many have denounced him, so many are happy to just have him back and are seeing everything else as twitter extremists and people that are harrassing Dode. Dode does have members of his community still that are LGBTQ, including in his mod team. He's made his token attempts to response, and oh no he was crucified for it, and he was driven into self-exile, oh no, oh no...

Right now the division in the community is that so many people that everyone thinks is inclusive in their communities were still supporting Dode and people fearing a Dode 2.0 moment with these additional streamers. There's these talks of lists of banning people for chatting in Dode's return stream, just like Dode banned people from his stream. And people talking similarly about banning people that ban Dode.

And this, with promises of safe spaces, of no politics, no social issues.

It's just a shitshow all around.

[Anastasia]

My dog died.

It always hurts to lose a pet, especially a beloved one.

[Merc]

Sorry for your loss, Dune. =(

[Anastasia]

Thanks, Merc. It just sucks, I had that dog nearly 18 years and I miss her.

[Dracos]

You had a lot of good years :(  Hope she went peacefully.

[Anastasia]

About as much as possible. Thanks Drac.

[Anastasia]

Sick. Hope it's just allergies plus a head cold.

[Dracos]

Sickness sucks -_-.  Have had something minor for a bit.

[Anastasia]

So many doctor appointments. Annoying but needed.

[Anastasia]

I hate that feeling of something being missing when you look over and your dog's no longer there.