I'm absolutely pro-Gamergate but this pro-Gamergate Wikipedia decision is scary.

[LJ_Reloaded]

http://internet.gawker.com/wikipedia-purged-a-group-of-feminist-editors-because-of-1681463331

For nearly as long as the antifeminist culture war known as Gamergate has raged across the internet, a microcosm of the battle has taken place on Wikipedia. Should Gamergate defined as a push for ethics in gaming journalism, or a paranoid campaign against women in gaming? This week, Wikipedia's highest court made a major decision in favor of the former.

If the phrase "Wikipedia's highest court" surprises you, you're probably not alone. Theoretically, the free encyclopedia is a purely democratic operation—anyone can edit Wikipedia, after all—but there is a byzantine and largely unseen hierarchy that governs disputes among editors, culminating in a Supreme Court-style panel called the Arbitration Committee. The committee's latest decision: to punish a group of five editors who fought to maintain a Gamergate page that presented the "controversy" largely as an assault on women—that is, who fought to present Gamergate as it actually is.

Mark Bernstein, a blogger and Wikipedia editor, notes that the so-called "Five Horsemen" were not only barred from contributing to Gamergate articles, but from any articles relating to "gender or sexuality, broadly constructed." By contrast, the only pro-Gamergate users punished by the committee, Bernstein writes, were "disposable accounts created specifically for the purpose of being sanctioned."

Now I'm totally in favor of throwing the RADICAL feminist editors out of the Gamergate entry on Wikipedia (though lots of feminists are IN Gamergate!) but this shit right here never turns out well:
"A byzantine and largely unseen hierarchy that governs disputes among editors"

Nothing good can ever come of that. I'm not sure what good solution they could have taken to knock out the radical feminist lies and propaganda that infected the Gamergate entry in Wikipedia, but this was not a good solution. It's not good because secret, unaccountable hierarchies on a public wiki are inherently biased and unfair.

And then WTF is this about barring those 5 feminist editors from anything relating to "gender or sexuality, broadly constructed"? WTF does that mean? Now that shit is REALLY scary.

I admit to being a bit selfish about this: I'm afraid that one day this same secret group could take a big unfair axe to the heads of Gamergate or another group that's fighting radical feminism. But then that's the grossly negative potential consequences of unfair, secret authorities in any situation.

Gamergaters should be seeking alternatives that do not include secret unaccountable authorities overseeing Wikipedia. Be alarmed and frightened today even if it benefits your cause: because tomorrow the bell might toll for thee. And I know there's not even ONE Gamergater who hasn't got a story of shit like this happening to them. Do not cheer. Seek reform.