Donald Trump did something crazy as hell today and people are still talking about this (and about Blizzard’s dealings with China as well). I love the NBA but I want them to deal with this in a way they haven’t, and am hoping this Congressional pressure will have some effect.

Periodically I see a tweet go viral and the original author eventually jumps in with “okay, muting this tweet now, bye” and I’m always in favor of it. Just go do something else. Twitter’s stupid, if you’re on it long enough you’re going to tweet something you regret, and you can’t take any of it too seriously.

I assume the Athletic’s subscriber base is overwhelmingly white and male.

VIE tanked in 98 so that’d be around the right time. I didn’t join the company till March ‘99 and game servers weren’t my department but it’s extremely possible. We ran a lot of them.

Dragging something back to neutral when one of your employees pushed it to one side isn’t taking a political stance.

So, you’re inferring a lot about my particular beliefs on this issue. Not inaccurately, necessarily - I do generally believe that if you’re not willing to speak up for the Hong Kong protesters then you’re falling on the side of the PRC by default, because it’s the entity with the power in this situation.

I’m curious: what two positions did I stake out?

I disagree, but even if we take what you’re saying as truth, then you don’t get to simultaneously prevent your employees from expressing their personal beliefs. Doing so is inherently taking a political stance for your organization.

Not that this idea is new or anything, but one more time for the people in the back: stating that you are not / don’t want to be political is very much taking a political position.

I’ve been out of the industry since 2010, but I still keep up with it. And I’ve got so many friends and acquaintances who’re still working in it. I’m glad there are people out there who still remember the GameSpy days, whether it was for matchmaking, file sharing, or the various websites!

I played a lot of Battlefield 1942 at GameSpy!

I built and launched it. October 1999. Me (“shaithis”) and my friend Dave (“Fargo”), who now works for Blizzard, and a few other folks spent that summer building it, filling it with content, and getting it ready to go. And then that fall/winter stressing the fuuuuck out trying to run it till we hired a seasoned editor.

You and me both, my friend

Hah! But no, Gawker was founded only a few months before the company I was at got acquired.

I worked for a company that essentially began this way, in the late 90s, when individual fan sites for things were still a thing. We offered free hosting on our well-known domains for enthusiast sites in exchange for running an ad banner (yes, a single one). We also ran hubs on those domains that relied extensively on…

The Master was spectacular and he was indeed great in it. Phoenix be a bit of a diva on set, but he has been churning out consistently fantastic performances for the better part of a decade. He's definitely up there of the list of "best actors without an Oscar."

Yeah, I mean ... it’s not really a “pop it on while you’re cleaning” kind of movie or anything. Some of the best movies I’ve ever seen, I’ve only ever seen once, because they are/were hard watches. But it’s still good!

Honestly not sure. I rented it on my Playstation. It was well worth the four bucks. I don’t think it’s on Netflix, but you can rent it on Prime, if that’s your thing.

Everyone who doesn’t want to watch this movie (and I’m in that group) should instead go watch Phoenix in You Were Never Really Here, where his work is quiet, understated, and absolutely spectacular. That film, which appears to be about a hit man doing a particular job but which is actually an exploration of trauma,…

Too early. It was 76 degrees yesterday. Ask me again in three or four weeks, at which point the answer will be “Fantastic.” Rhode Island has some lovely orchards.