Two further points to make.

By Tim Colwill on September 9, 2014 at 1:17 pm

I posted this article following two weeks in which high-profile female developers and critics were subjected to violent threats from an angry minority of gamers. These types of threats are not welcome on games.on.net, and while passionately argued, the position outlined in the article was a straightforward extension of our acceptable use policy.

I’d like to thank those of you who have expressed their support for the article and for my stand. Today, however, there are two points I would like to address.

Firstly, I made the decision to disable comments on the article in question. This is not in keeping with the policies of iiNet, or of games.on.net, and indeed it was the first time in five years of writing for the site that I have disabled comments on an article.

In my judgement as editor, I believed that the comments would quickly devolve into argument. Seeing such arguments on our site does nothing but hurt our image and turn away visitors. I was anxious to avoid this, and I was also anxious to avoid accusations of posting “flamebait”, of simply posting a controversial article simply to benefit from the traffic that comes from visitors having an intense argument.

Nevertheless, I recognise that public debate and engagement is welcomed by both iiNet and games.on.net, and I apologise for closing comments on this article. We will be reviewing our commenting policy in the coming days and weeks to ensure that we can maintain the levels of debate and engagement you expect, while working hard to stand up for the equality and decency we believe is so important in gaming.

Secondly, my conduct on my Twitter account has always been passionate and personal, and uses a level of language that breaches iiNet social media policy, and has no place in a professional environment. I apologise for my conduct on Twitter, and to any readers of games.on.net or iiNet Group customers who have taken offence at that conduct.

In the interest of transparency and accountability, I will be posting our complete editorial policy in the coming days.

Thanks again to all of our readers and customers for your overwhelming support.

Tim Colwill

Editor-in-Chief

games.on.net