Hey, we're hiring and stuff!

Oh! Collusion!

Holy lord what has this thread turned into? Jeff hired the best people for the job. They just happen to be white dudes. It is not a big deal. If it were a woman or someone not white who were most qualified for the job, I'm sure they would have gotten it. People who make a big deal about these things are half of the damn problem.

So, Jeff just threw y'all a bone and uploaded a mega-super-duper early podcast.

The ebb and flow of this thread is such that I'm surprised it hasn't collapsed in on itself and been locked by now.

https://twitter.com/DanRyckert/status/483780659148627968

ITS HAPPENING. AND A BOMBCAST. LET'S CLOSE THIS FILTHY THREAD DOWN.

Podcast is up. Guess who is on it.

The madness is over. Welcome to the site Dan and Jason.

Peace in our time!

Tears of joy. Phew this madness is over. Shut this thread down.

That's a wrap. Pack it up. Shut it down. Smoke em if you got em.

Rejoice!!

NEW BLOOD NEW BLOOD FIRST BLOOD NEW BLOOD

So... now that we know...

What does everyone hate about the new guys?

/jk

At long last, our national nightmare is over!

Evidently you're not allowed to hire the best people for the job if those people are white males. That's insensitive and does not support diversity!

Funny how the best people for the job always seems to be white dudes.

@mb: You sound kinda like a jerk for a mod.

This was a fun thread guys. Got kinda rough near the end, what with all the arguing, but until then it was super fun going into tinfoil hat/detective mode with you all. Congrats to Dan and Jason. Couldn't be more stoked. The new era of Giant Bomb is here.

You should probably carefully read the forum rules before you continue down that path...ill-advised, duder.

I think they're still arguing.

Anyways, good luck to Dan and Jason. Kick some ass.

Was that really necessary? Come on, man. There's no reason to mock us.

I'm excited about the new hires, but I do think diversifying things would have been cool to see. Still, I imagine the new guys will at least bring different game preferences and interests. I hope that will help freshen things up a bit and make things even better.

I figured if anyone was safe from the endless bleeting of the PC Brigade it'd be Dan Ryckert. I mean, in spite of the fact that he's white, a man, and (presumably) straight, I was positive that these assholes would see that he's a funny guy, that he fits in around here like Michael Jackson's hand down a toddler's pants, and that, really, he's a great choice for the kind of shenanigans that Giant Bomb gets up to.

I'm glad that I've been proven wrong! Thank you PC Brigade for showing me that no matter how funny, charming, or talented you are, if you're white, straight, and a man, you should not get a job. Even if, for all parties involved, it sounds like a really good idea.

It seems so.. dehumanizing to just talk about people in cold demographic terms. Dan Ryckert is not "white dude." He's Dan Ryckert. With a list of credentials, history, and experiences exclusive to Dan Ryckert. Hired, not because he's "white dude," but because he's Dan Ryckert.

We can all argue whether or not we like him later on (I'm excited about him being on board, personally!) but he absolutely is well qualified and due to his past friendship with the crew, fits perfectly with the vision of what kind of content the site wanted to create from the very beginning.

@truthtellah: You're making a fuss about nothing. They hired the best people for the job, there is nothing more to it. Just let them do their jobs/hiring.

That's a pretty dumb misrepresentation of what people are unhappy about. No one is saying Dan and Jason aren't qualified and that they won't work well on the site. From what I've seen (heard, technically) of Dan on the Powerbombcast he seems like a cool guy, but you're treating 'diversity' and 'qualifications' as though they're two ends of the same axis which is supremely fucked up.

e: To be extra blatantly clear, no one is saying that Jeff is some racist, sexist monster for doing this. He's a great guy and I'm sure he made his choices based on who he thought would work best. I haven't even seen anyone angry about this, just kinda sad because this is the same sort of thing that happens all the time.

I can understand you not appreciating how he objected to your comment, but you have to admit your mockery of those interested in diversity is on a similarly ill-advised path. Mod or not, we are all beholden to the rules of conduct.

Let's just be cool to one another, sit down for some boneless chicken wings, and bask in the bright glow of these new hires.

This guy gets it.

Just stop with the diversity argumentation already. Both sides have some valid points, but obviously neither of them wants to give way, so it's completely pointless and thus pretty much just a bad way to welcome Dan and Jason.

What's done is done anyway.

Seriously. As someone who is not white, I always want to see more diversity. But I think Dan is absolutely perfect for this position and that is more important to me than the diversity issue. And seriously, there is not much diversity in game journalism, period. Suddenly targeting GB for this is not fair. Kotaku has just one dude of ethnicity (evan), as does polygon (Samit) . IGN as far as I know has no dudes of ethnicity ( I may be wrong) .

What Do I Need To Know Before Using The Site?

The primary rule here is don't be a jerk. Everyone is expected to treat one another with respect as well as to respect the site, its features, and the various members of staff and moderators who help run it.

I agree with you, but still think this a conversation worth having. Perhaps with more tactful, less personal/reductive language, but still worth having nonetheless.

Excited for the future of GB, but the handiling of this whole thing is a little weird now. It's obvious Dan was always the hire, which makes this entire topic pointless. No one applying ever had a shot, it was a ruse.

Brian Crescente is white? :P

I mean, that guy is scum anyway and I avoid his writing like the plague, but seriously.

Hah. What "sides?" Everyone here agrees with each other. That's the funniest part.

Finally, the truth is out. Bet Jeff had some fun watching us speculate.

I don't really see me or anyone else making much of a "fuss" about anything. Some people have said they wish the choice added a bit more diversity to the staff. Well, that's their opinion they're entitled to. We like different folks, and that's why we're all excited that there are new people on staff. They bring their own perspectives and energy to the site. Race or gender are just factors within that added diversity.

I'd have enjoyed seeing a more apparent shift in diversity, but hey, it was their choice. Dan and Jason do still bring their own unique differences to the site. If Jeff and the guys say they are the best people for it, I'm cool with seeing how they do. I hope they add their own spin to the Giant Bomb mix. :)

@truthtellah: I'm actually a lady. Which I guess is why all of this...yeah....not fun.

Sweet veiled threats, especially after breaking the forum rules yourself - "Everyone is expected to treat one another with respect as well as to respect the site, its features, and the various members of staff and moderators who help run it." It's messed up to put down people asking questions of "diversity".

You guys do realize that "diversity" doesn't have to be race, gender, or sexuality, right? It could also be "somebody who doesn't dismiss JRPGs, anime, and a lot of stuff that comes out of Japan outright."

I don't think making sarcastic remarks about sensitive race issues and then publicly making vague threats to the people who call you out on it is great/friendly behavior.

Anyway, I squealed like a little girl when Dan spoke on the bombcast. The trolling made it so much better.

I hope you don't mean to imply that this was anything other than a policy thing most likely mandated by CBSi?

This is how corporations work. They find who they want to hire, make a show of having an "open position" and then quietly slot their scalp into place. It's just business, man, there's no need for salt.

It would have been but we don't like to close staff-created threads unless completely necessary.

It's also entirely possible that Dan wasn't looking until the position was posted- unless Jeff comes right out and says "Ha ha, it was Dan all along you suckers!" we'll never know and anything here is pure conjecture.

Sorry about that. I seemed to remember that you were, but I fell back into the general "he" out of expedience. I'll try to remember better next time.

Though, as you said, that kind of "male as default" is itself part of the issue. I would have liked to see a woman added to the staff, but, well, I'm willing to give these guys a shot and see why they're considered the best for the positions. After Patrick's discussion of diversity in the E3 streams this year and bringing up the "rolodex" phenomena of passive discrimination, I hope he'll perhaps talk a bit about these choices, as well.

@video_game_king: Yeah, Dan probably ain't gonna be talking up JRPGs, but at least we finally have someone on the main SF podcast who doesn't constantly shit on modern television.

If someone were to start a new topic welcoming the new guys to the fold, maybe we could put all this behind us and finally move forward. I just hope the welcome topic isn't turned into some kind of platform to argue about Giant Bomb's hiring decisions or toss out a bunch of backhanded insults against the new guys. Anyone new is going to have a big enough uphill battle as it is just getting acclimated to everything.

I've actually brought that up a few times! :D

It's what people often get excited about when they see new people. The point being, they bring their own -different- contribution to the mix. Taste is a difference along with race and gender. That sentiment is reflected within desires for greater diversity to a site we enjoy.

And that's why I joked with @hailinel a bit how great it would be if they hired a woman who enjoyed JRPGs and anime. ha. How wild would that be? Really mix things up a bit.

Does this mean GameInformer is doomed? That would blow.

So happy to finally have the new hires in the office. I miss Vinny so much, so fucking much, but he's not really gone, and the new guys will rock it. So here's to a new chapter for my favorite website. Huzzah!

Just out of curiosity, how many of you guys are actually of a visible minority? As someone who is, all this talk is getting really stupid. This is a gaming personality site and not the UN. I'm sure we all came here for their editorial chop, videos and not whether a person is X or Y. I would rather have them hire someone who they are comfortable with and not because they need to fill a quota.