Blizzard Web Engineer Calls for #GamerGate Employment Blacklist

Blizzard Web Engineer Matt Schnee yesterday called for an employment blacklist of GamerGaters on Twitter.

Via @Rischerion:

I wonder if we can somehow turn the #ggautoblocker list into an employment blacklist, like a credit report or criminal background check…

— Terrible Ideas! (@Rischerion) November 17, 2014

Initial reaction wasn’t entirely against the idea, but suggested that such an idea would be unfortunate for “jerks” who may change for the better:

It’s an interesting idea, but I think most of these people are young & possibly redeemable with time & distance. @Rischerion

— Retorts as a Service (@freebsdgirl) November 18, 2014

@Rischerion @freebsdgirl it’s an interesting idea, but there are serious legal consequences with moving forward.

— Jet Dillo (@jetdillo) November 18, 2014

Later, as the Tweet became shared more widely, GamerGaters began countering the call.

@Rischerion Creating a blacklist for people with different opinions, i’m sure that would work out great!

— Rederoin (@rederoinn) November 18, 2014

@Rischerion Well employment blackballing isn’t illegal or anything right? oh wait it definitely IS! This tweet can serve as future evidence.

— Glen Compton (@GlenCompton) November 18, 2014

Realizing that what he’d said was wrong, Schnee went on to post multiple times about what his initial intention had been. While it might have been easy to shake it away as a joke, he instead held to it being a genuine, if misguided opinion.

I’m sorry. Seriously. I wanted to promote a healthy discussion and get some ideas out, good and bad, that we can discuss to improve things

— Terrible Ideas! (@Rischerion) November 18, 2014

This community is my life- that it’s been getting poisonous ON BOTH SIDES makes me ill. Makes me not want to be a gamer anymore.

— Terrible Ideas! (@Rischerion) November 18, 2014

I, like Mike, want to do everything I can to keep gaming as a strong, awesome, collaborative place, filled with fun and win.

— Terrible Ideas! (@Rischerion) November 18, 2014

I promise that that’s my goal. I’m human, I’ll stumble, I’ll say dumb shit, but I will 100% own up to my mistakes.

— Terrible Ideas! (@Rischerion) November 18, 2014

I made an extremely bad tweet. It was my own opinion, and within minutes- long before it got picked up- that idea was shot down as terribad

— Terrible Ideas! (@Rischerion) November 18, 2014

But I said it. And I regret it. We can do better. I can do better. And if you’ll work with me, we can all do better 🙂

— Terrible Ideas! (@Rischerion) November 18, 2014

Twitter is a places for silly ideas to be discussed and abandoned. We had a discussion, and a terrible thought got shot down like it should

— Terrible Ideas! (@Rischerion) November 18, 2014