(I'd originally posted this as a reply to a forum topic, but thought there was enough there to constitute its own blog-thing)

Last week I was replied to by the wikileaks account on twitter after I questioned them jumping on the 'gate hashtag. As a result, my timeline was unreadable for a good couple of days - not even with abuse (though there was some in there) but just so much goddamned NOISE. Tweet after tweet of useless junk, just 'gaters talking at each other in slogans and @mentioning me in their back-and-forths. I would occasionally engage one in conversation, but it was nigh impossible to keep track of who was saying what amidst the din. It's impossible to reason with an attention-seeking stubborn hydra who has infinite spare time and nothing better to do.

Over the past few weeks I've started to feel shitty for sharing a lifelong hobby and passion with a bunch of assholes who seem to have no sense of empathy or compassion. Honestly, this whole thing is a black hole that is sucking up so much of people's time - time which would otherwise be spent on making games. Enjoying games. Critiquing games. It's heartening to see more and more reasonable people making their sentiments public, even though in the case of women it almost always means another round of threats, abuse and possible doxxing. My little twitter adventure is a blip compared to the amount of shit they must get, and it only makes me admire them more for speaking out about it.