PAX East 2014: Why Internet Jerks Aren’t Going to Win, And You Can Help

Awesome!

Yes! (:

Unfortunately no one "Wins" an undefined war .

This was pretty great live, glad to see it's up for everyone to see.

I will definitely watch this, I can't let those internet jerks win

Huh, wasn't expecting this to be put up on the site. Cool.

@wolfgame: Isn't "not being an asshole to people" sort of the founding principle here? I'd like to think there can be some sort of progress, however it can be measured.

Yeah, I remember asking Patrick on Twitter, sincerely, who the audience for this panel would be. Immediately I was attacked by someone who didn't seem to care very much for Patrick, Zoe, or myself, I guess.

I'm not a public figure, but Patrick is. I blocked the dude immediately, but PATRICK is the one who chooses not to block his "haters" because you can't engage in a fruitful conversation with someone if you just ignore them. For that, he gets my utmost respect.

No one can stop the internet jerks victory

Challenge accepted.

Didn't Patrick recently lash out at that poor bastard for his clone article? It seems a bit pick and choosy around here

No one wins any war.

Good to see this went up on Giant Bomb.

oh god dont ban me again plz

Then what is it good for?

I loved this talk Patrick! Keep working on this stuff and you might win this Internet fight yet!

Someone asked about this during the Q&A, and I previously wrote a blog post about it.

Patrick and Zoe. Respect.

@patrickklepek: General consensus seemed to be that the whole "Diversity Lounge" thing that PAX put together this year was a dud. Did you get a chance to stop by?

Subjugation. Annihilation.

@patrickklepek:

I appreciate the fact that you apologised to the guy, but does that excuse it? If I was to tell someone online to throw themselves off a bridge, but then later on said "oh I didn't mean it sorry I guess", does that make it any better?

Please understand that I'm not trying to attack you personally, I understand that the language I have to use to convey a point seems aggressive, I'd just like to try to understand your thought process on the thing. I get that you apologised to the man, but as someone who has such a big influence on people online, the "army" you mentioned is much more impactful than some random child's comments on twitter

@fallen189: Yeah he wrote a post on his tumblr about how he was being kind of a dick and how he was trying to not do that. http://patrickklepek.tumblr.com/post/81715518097/the-line

EDIT: Patrick already said this, NVM

Patrick sure has become a very good public speaker. I really enjoyed his presentation.

I think the ugliest thing I've seen the Patrick-detractors say is that they wish it was Patrick and not Ryan that died. Those "duders" should be ashamed of themselves. Even if you dislike Patrick, do you have any idea how furious Ryan would be that you'd use him to attack one of his friends? It's really gross.

Of course I believe the apology is important! It shows remorse, empathy, and change. The technology we have at our fingertips--Twitter especially--plays to our worst impulses. When we respond to things emotionally with a knee-jerk reaction, it's often our worst face showing. That was an example of that, in addition to the joke-y "die in a fire" comment that's mentioned during the talk and during my TEDx presentation last year. I don't ignore my mistakes because mistakes make us human. Personally, I'm trying to tweet less and place what I say in a drafts folder more often. I don't make these kinds of mistakes with the stories I write, but every once in a while, I put my foot in my mouth when it comes to Twitter. Saying things impulsively is a huge part of that, I suspect.

Only watched Patrick's part so maybe it comes up later but I was hoping for a larger focus on what exactly do to against these kinds of things. The point kinda seemed to be, show your appreciation more but I don't really get how that is going to counteract the assholes out there. There was a whole lot showing people being awful and I don't feel that is very constructive. I guess its good that someone does talk about it though.

can't wait to watch this one after I get back from work.

Why are they "booing" at Patrick in the beginning? I missed something.

@patrickklepek:

That's cool, I respect that. I agree that Twitter is making us say a lot of things we really regret. I naturally can't understand what it's like to have a proportionate amount of people slinging yang your way, so it's difficult to empathise in an objective manner, but I appreciate the fact you replied with a thoughtful response. It's a shame that a panel like this has to be made really, because it shows that they've already "won" in a sense, but yeah.

I think that while twitter is a useful tool, it's also very detrimental. It's a shame that the video game industry as a whole is mired by these incredible toxic communities, and that a lot of children nowadays are growing up where this instant gratification and access to people is so predominant. I teach in a school where I have 8 year old students who play a lot of video games online and I shudder to think about some of then things they must hear on a day to day basis.

@fallen189:

I reckon the lesson has to be something relatively simple. Learn from what one's mistakes, realize what one's power (the ability to call a cavalry of fans, inadvertently or intentionally, due to one's notoriety) can be used for exactly what you're intending to stop, so on an so forth. I personally like what Patrick tries to do, but it's obvious at times that his openness to respond to the most vile commenters brings out some unnecessary snark and calls to battle from his supporters. You can't control what other people do, but the callout of the 2048 dev was the sort of thing that should have never happened because of what he did. That said, Patrick pulled back and realized what he did was wrong.

It's always gonna wind up being a 'learn from your mistakes' situation, and at least Patrick is doing that.

Now we only need Vbombs Panel!

Aaaawwww I totally want a badge!

@orange_pork:

Absolutely nothing.

Awesome, wanted to see this!

I did get a chance to attend this talk, and I also got a chance to tell Patrick on a random chance meeting at PAX that I thought it was very good, but I just wanted to reiterate that I really liked it - this was actually my favorite of all the panels I attended this weekend. Patrick and Zoe outlined the problem really well, analyzed it thoughtfully, and offered practical solutions to making the internet a better place. So often panels tend to be "lets just talk about this thing" and end up feeling a little aimless, but this felt really cohesive and well thought out and productive. Awesome job!

Glad to see this up. I think sometimes Patrick is over sensitive but I don't disagree with his points

The internet will forever have jerks on it. If your site/community explicitly doesn't allow it, then you'll have a more filtered version. It's not just going to vanish.

I agree with what Patrick is doing, I just don't think the result is going to be there outside of a subset of the video game industry. Also the bullies on the other end can be to blame as well. Bullying is apparent on any community, even the ones against bullying!

Terrific talk guys, really enjoyed it!

Gonna share this with a few folks.

@tr0n: Not boos, 'Scooooops!' :)

Sure some people will always be jerks, and they'll probably do it very loudly. A lot more people will be quietly supportive and helpful though and I totally agree that it would do everyone a lot of good to try and turn the volume up on them.

Thanks for putting this out there Patrick. The internet can really be a strange, wonderful thing and I'm glad you're out there looking to make it better for everyone.

I've heard Patrick talk about this stuff before and I still believe that what he says is totally valid, but I found myself really appreciating Zoe's portion of this panel as well...Great job to the both of them. Awesome talk :D !

Loved this panel. Really happy to have been there and hope to see more like this next year.

Zoe actually spends a great deal of time in her part outlining exactly what you're looking for. It is well worth watching.

@industryapologist: "it's cool your dad is dead" is sure some grade A criticism. I'm pretty sure Ebert said that once

@industryapologist: Oh, ok, so you would call this sort of thing criticism? [link]

Edit: apparently I can't link this link. Possibly content filters? Paraphrased here, from Patrick's tumblr:

"You're a fucking insufferable [racial slur] and I wish you would die."

What sort of criticism would you call it? I am curious, because it is unfamiliar to me. Constructive criticism doesn't usually have racial epithets, as far as I recall. Would you call it expert criticism? Quality criticism?

Absolutely nothing, say it again.

Literally couldn't take my eyes off it. Really great and interesting stuff. Don't know if I can be that good force on the internets though, I'm too cynical about trolls. All I think is "well, they probably live miserable lifes anyways, let's not engage"... it's bad, I know.