By Vivian Kane | Miscellaneous | April 23, 2015 |
By Vivian Kane | Miscellaneous | April 23, 2015 |
Last weekend, Anne Wheaton, lover of googly eyes and Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton is her husband), attended the Calgary Expo. Also in attendance at the Calgary Expo, if you hadn’t already heard, were a group of Gamergate trollspawn determined to ruin the convention for everyone who wasn’t a hate-fueled garbage person. Anne wrote a post on her blog this past Monday, talking about what a great experience she had at the expo, but also mentioning that this one particular group tried to ruin everyone’s fun.
As much as I enjoyed meeting and seeing all of these wonderful people, I also know there can be people out there who look for opportunities to try to be hurtful and harmful to people who just want to enjoy a convention experience. I know this happened at Calgary Expo this weekend, and the staff and local authorities handled the situation immediately. It’s an unfortunate world we live in where angry and unhappy people try to find ways to take the joy out of life for someone else, but it was obvious by the thousands of people at this convention that it wasn’t going to affect their enjoyment of the weekend.And because this is the internet, that single paragraph in a blog post, in which she doesn’t name any people or groups, but instead stays positive and courteous, earned her a tidal wave of Twitter abuse.
I know I am a good person and I do what I can to make a positive difference in the world. For days, I have been attacked by terrible people.
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 22, 2015
So she came up with the most awesome response possible.
For every angry, hateful, and/or disrespectful tweet I receive from a GamerGate person, I am donating $1 to @femfreq. I'm already up to $67.
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 22, 2015
I will not engage in your comments, GamerGate people. But I will mute you and donate $1 on your behalf to @femfreq.
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 22, 2015
I am capping my donation tally at $1,000, but if you feel like matching or contributing to my @femfreq donation, feel free to do so!
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 22, 2015
Funny how quiet it just got.
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 22, 2015
@scalzi @AnneWheaton @femfreq Make that $3, I’ll join (up to $500)
— Tom van der Woerdt (@TvdW) April 22, 2015
Remember, if you're saying something shitty to me, I'm muting you and donating to a feminist cause on your behalf!
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 22, 2015
You should probably know that I don't even play video games. This makes this whole thing even better. What a bunch of bozos. HA!
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 22, 2015
The donations have more than doubled in such a short amount of time. Thanks, guys! @femfreq will be so happy you're supporting them!
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 22, 2015
Not everyone fully understood how this worked, apparently.
We're several hundreds of dollars in on donating to @femfreq on behalf of the online angry trolls. And thanks to those matching donations!
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 22, 2015
It's safe to assume I've hit the $1,000 mark to donate to @femfreq. I'm adding $1,000 to @RAINN01 and $1,000 to @ACLU. Good prevails!
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 22, 2015
For those requesting links to donate like I did, go to http://t.co/xEERELbTha then hit donate button. They are a 501(c)3 non-profit charity!
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 22, 2015
The links to the other two charities I donated to is http://t.co/VZxNET32pk and http://t.co/el50pVhVbu if you'd like to contribute as well!
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 22, 2015
Three days of muting the yuck of the internet is exhausting. Time for some peace and quiet away. Be good to each other!
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 23, 2015
When attempts at insults go so beyond off the rails, you can't help but laugh at the stupidity. pic.twitter.com/1zTvRBX5NF
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 23, 2015
In between all the hate, there was a lot of good stuff, too.
In the flood of hatred spewed my way over the past few days, I have seen the sweet and supportive tweets as well. Thank you for that. :-)
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) April 23, 2015
Which, of course, was the entire point of her original post: that there will always be angry idiots. And they are loud and can be hard to ignore, but there’s usually a lot more good going around than there is stupid jerkiness.
Via The Mary Sue.