Monday News: Reader engagement at the NYT, collective intelligence, crowdfunding hate, and Hermione v. the patriarchy
How the New York Times Measures “Love” – A transcript of the Digital Book World presentation by New York Times Director of News Analytics James Robinson, who spoke on the way the newspaper measures reader engagement. One of the more interesting aspects of this short talk is the way he admits that the paper is more familiar with its print customers than its digital readers, and how the print context continues to inform the way digital is managed.
How do you measure engagement? It does nothing for me without understanding “how” and audience engages. It is more like measuring “love.”
It is the difference between what we want our audience to do and what they want to do.
We have a ton of habits but rarely consider what these habits are. We refresh our homepage every two hours because we assume people always want fresh content. Do we know this? –Publishing Perspectives
The Secret to Smart Groups Isn’t Smart People—It’s Women – The title of this article is slightly misleading, in the sense that it’s not women, per se, who make a team more effective – it’s the skill of “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” (RME), which more women seem to have developed. And because it’s often the collective intelligence of the group as channeled through RME, women are often key to creating “smarter” groups. There’s a lot of food for questioning and thought here, not only in regard to how the different types of groups that are most effective for specific tasks, but also in regard to how men and women are conditioned to greater emotional intelligence.
Furthermore, the predictable troupe of buzzwords you would expect to correlate with successful groups—”cohesion,” “motivation,” and “satisfaction”—didn’t have much to do with effective teams, either. Instead, the single most important element of smart groups, according to the researchers, was their “average social sensitivity.” That is, the best groups were also the best at reading the non-verbal cues of their teammates. And, since women score higher on this metric of emotional intelligence, teams with more women tended to be better teams. . . .
I found these studies eye-opening for two further reasons. First, there is a growing sense that the Internet can destroy interpersonal skills, kill our emotional intelligence, and turn us into warm-blooded versions of the very robots that we fear will one day take our jobs. But these studies suggest that the rules of empathy hold both on- and offline. Emotionally sensitive people are gifted at reading between the lines, whether the literal lines are brow wrinkles or text messages. –The Atlantic
How crowdfunding helps haters profit from harassment – As crowdfunding becomes more popular, and platforms take less and less responsibility for projects launched, you see the darker side of democratization – in this case, hate campaigns financed via Patreon and other crowdfunding sites. This should, of course, be no surprise, considering the phenomena of the young men tweeting as teen girls (and making a ton of money from it), but it’s no less frustrating. Kickstarter is not free from Gamergate campaigns, either; here’s a guy who was trying to raise $10K to write a book on the “true” meaning of Gamergate.
But these mobs aren’t just about revenge, narcissism, or bigotry. With the addition of open-ended crowdfunding tools such as Patreon, Gratipay, and GoFundMe, it’s possible to turn the attention these organizers seek into funding, turning the hobby of harassment into a job. Some of the most successful have been the anti-feminist, misogynist instigators of GamerGate. –Boing Boing
If Hermione Were The Main Character In “Harry Potter” – The subtitle of this piece says it all: Hermione Granger and the Goddamn Patriarchy. Enjoy. –Buzzfeed
“And before you start, Miss Granger, this is not about sexism. It’s about ethics in magic teaching.” I die…
Bitches got work to do.
I read the Boing Boing article about crowd funding and Gamergate last week, and meh. It’s pretty slanted. I’m not a gamer, and I don’t know anyone in the industry, but one weekend, out of curiosity over the whole thing, I wasted the better part of a day reading up on it (articles, twitter feeds, blog posts). My conclusion was that both sides have now devolved into mostly vitriol, insults, threats, doxxing, and apparent harassment and swattings. *sigh* The only person in the whole bunch who comes off as relatively level-headed is the poor kid who wrote that initial blog post. Unfortunately once people get so riled up, it’s hard to get them to stop. I just hope that things settle down before someone really gets hurt or killed.
Now I have a reason to finally watfh all the Harry Potter movies.
I wanted that Hermione Granger article to be better than it was. I do think she is a really interesting and powerful character and the story from her point of view would be well worth telling, but this really isn’t that. Some great moments though – ethics in magic teaching being one of them.
@Charming Euphemism: Yeah, I agree.
I like this older article on the same theme a little more (wish I could remember where I found it – maybe on the toast?) – http://globalcomment.com/in-praise-of-hermione-granger-series/
@Penny:
” My conclusion was that both sides have now devolved into mostly vitriol, insults, threats, doxxing, and apparent harassment and swattings”
If you think that ‘both sides do it’ then you’re not paying enough attention. And while no one’s been killed *yet*, a family pet has been killed in a SWATing: https://twitter.com/iglvzx/status/557241721856069632
And this is a round up of the attacks *this week* on people speaking out against Gamergate and the tactics used:
http://feministing.com/2015/01/16/things-have-happened-in-the-past-week-on-doxing-swatting-and-8chan/
I’m sure the gamergate crowd would be delighted to see you’re so bored by the whole thing and you think both sides are as bad as each other, but no, they’re really not.
“The only person in the whole bunch who comes off as relatively level-headed is the poor kid who wrote that initial blog post”
He deliberately brought the worst of the internet down on his ex-girlfriends head for cheating on him, and continued to post her personal information (where she’s been staying, etc.) after she got a restraining order. He’s done everything he can to make her life miserable, months after they broke up. I don’t see how that counts as level-headed.
@cleo:
Thanks! Harsh but funny.
I find it interesting that the crowdfunding projects that tend to be specifically anti-feminist (such as one that proposed a webseries criticizing Anita Sarkeesian) are also the ones most likely to have the project founders cut and run with the backer money. It’s almost like if you trust people who don’t want to be decent human beings with your money, they will not be decent human beings with it!
Also, as a woman-identified game dev working for a huge company, you’d better believe that this has affected us awfully — GDC is a month away and NONE of the women from our company are going (to an INDUSTRY event, not press) because we’ve had multiple incidents of sexual harassment even when things were currently not on fire, so it’s pretty much a sure thing this year and those of us tapped to go or present declined due to the increased security issues. Which… sucks, because it’s a major networking event where the best and brightest are presenting. E3 is already a bust this year as well for the women of the company because that’s a press event, which is even higher on the guaranteed-harassment level.
Please note that the company did not force this and has been nothing but supportive of people who have been harassed and assaulted — but they wanted folks to have a choice and the general consensus seems to be “we are fed up and sick of being scared for our lives because we make frigging video games”. We’ve had several women resign due to the awfulness of this all (several men as well, in disgust), had to cancel studio tours, increase security, etc. As one of the studios with the better ratios of women to men than is industry standard, it’s a huge blow.
I’ve not witnessed a single person in my sphere to attack the anonymous folks (how would they?) doing these things, beyond the occasional sarcastic “but it’s about ethics in journalism” joke — but I have gotten my own heaps of hate mail, death threats, sexual assault threats, gore pictures, etc. Because I exist, and my job is making games that are really popular, and somehow that is a threat (even though I’ve been doing this for over a decade, and have been dealing with sexist bullshit the entire time). A friend tweeted a flowchart about gamergate (“Should I make a rape threat?” -> “NO”), which was retweeted by our national news, and his phone did not stop vibrating for the rest of the day from all of the messages and emails brimming with death threats. But tell me again how there’s two sides to hate crimes, please.
Oh, and the “poor kid”? Made everything up — the site accused never reviewed her game, when they were in a relationship she hadn’t even made it yet, her game was FREE, and he had a restraining order and police reports of physically assaulting her.
But somehow, his lies have been taken as truth, even though they’ve been disproved over and over — because he’s a dude, you see, and his anger from the success of someone he abused and got away is totally justified because his manfeels are hurt. He’s still making up new lies (that are proven false within moments) and people continue to eat it up and repeat it as if it’s true. He’s still violating his restraining order, and is getting the help of the internet in doing so.
As someone who recently got out of an abusive relationship, it fucking TERRIFIES me that my ex could do the same to me, and because he’s a dude people would believe him immediately, while I’ve already been questioned as to how “real” my abuse was and told not to tell people at work or friends because he doesn’t “deserve” to be labeled a bad guy or have his career hurt. Because my accusations are whoa more damaging than his actual fucking abuse.
@Lindsay:
“Because my accusations are whoa more damaging than his actual fucking abuse.”
Yeah, how often have we heard this bullshit?
Hugs, Lindsay. Sounds like you’re have a hell of a rough time at work and in your personal life.
I’ll try to respond to everyone. Apologies if I miss something:
@Rachel: I don’t buy the “don’t criticize someone because someone else might get angry at that person” approach to speech. I think that effectively silences any criticism of anyone anytime publicly. And where has he posted her personal information after that initial post–which BTW did not contain personal information other than their chat logs? I haven’t seen it. Maybe I missed it; I certainly didn’t read everything out there, and I do tend to avoid places like 4chan and 8chan (so I’m just seeing screenshots posted by others from those sites).
@Lindsay: “I’ve not witnessed a single person in my sphere to attack the anonymous folks” — Most of what I’ve seen that I would call the harassment, threats, doxxing, etc, occurred on Twitter with the hate flowing both directions. Which is wrong. That kind of behavior, I mean. I don’t support any of it. Period. And I think all true threats and harassment should be reported to the police so they can deal with it,
“Made everything up — the site accused never reviewed her game, when they were in a relationship she hadn’t even made it yet,…” — There’s nothing in that blog post about her game or any review. That was something that someone else ran with later on.
“he had a restraining order and police reports of physically assaulting her.” — The only police reports I read had nothing about physical assault in them. And the restraining order was granted after only listening to one side of the story. I also haven’t seen anywhere that he has posted more of her personal information (or any information really) about since that. Have I missed something?
“I’ve already been questioned as to how “real” my abuse was and told not to tell people at work or friends because he doesn’t “deserve” to be labeled a bad guy or have his career hurt.” — I’m very sorry to hear about your abuse. I hope you are able to work through things and somehow put this behind you. I’m going to say the following very gently, not to offend you, and I hope you will consider it: the thing that you are upset about here–being questioned about your abuse and told to keep silent–is exactly what many people are saying to this 25-year-old man; he is being told that he should not have posted this publicly because Ms. Quinn doesn’t deserve to be labeled a bad person and it could hurt her career.
I don’t know why people have been so quick to dismiss his claims, even with the screen shots posted to show some of the interactions. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Is it because he’s a guy? Is it because of who he has was in a relationship with? I don’t know. It’s a thorny issue with no clear answers.
In closing, lest anyone think I am defending certain actions, I will reiterate that threats, harassment, doxxing, etc., are all wrong and dangerous and should not be tolerated.
@Ann Somerville:
Thanks, Ann. The double standard is frustrating as hell. It’s been an interesting year for sure, but between all the nonsense I had two more games released with excellent reviews AND sales (the latter of which was lacking last game!), I’m watching huge strides being taken throughout the industry regarding representation, inclusion and diversity, and the crap folks identifying as women have been dealing with for years finally coming to light. It’s making a difference, and that’s a great thing.
Also, we put on a demonstration/interactive art piece that was absolutely incredible, first time I’ve worked on a game that was released and canceled on the same night (or as a co-worker put it, “Launch party and wrap party in one!”). Getting to see people play the games I make — and especially having FUN doing it — is the absolute best part of my job.
I love the people I work with. I love the industry I’m in. I love that I get to do talks with kids of all ages. The passion of everyone involved is tremendous, and I wouldn’t want to do anything else. People who want to take that away from me because of my gender… that’s just messed up.
(Trying to check the swearing because it seems to get snagged by the spam filter, heh)
@Penny:
I can’t tell if you’re trolling at this point, but you might consider reading this:
http://idledillettante.com/2014/12/06/eron-gjoni-hateful-boyfriend/
but I don’t believe you are arguing in good faith here. Especially as you carefully didn’t reply to my comment at all.
I smell troll. It’s kind of like a cross between a shiny copper piece of money and dog poop.
@Jody W.: Yeah, anyone who could call Eron Gjoni ‘a poor boy’, when he’s actually *proud* of the chaos he’s made from his very much ex-girlfriend’s life, is either a troll or severely incapable of reading comprehension.
The latter option is easily disproved. So….
@Lindsay:
I’m so sorry to hear of your abuse, both personal, and the abuse that you and your female coworkers have suffered professionally. I hatehateHATE that you feel unsafe at industry conventions. I’m a gamer, and your post pinged my radar. My 9 year old daughter loves to play games, and has expressed interest in learning how to make them. I will move heaven and earth with my bare hands in order to create a more welcoming environment for her.
Would you mind sharing your studio’s efforts? I think you can email me privately if you don’t feel you can share publicly. I would like to support you, and my household buys a lot of games.