- Joined
- Jun 27, 2014
I don't have much time now, and I'm out for a few days; but a quick note:
"Cold, hard, unbiased, and unabashed" data can be very very difficulty, even in hard sciences like physics. Data on its own is rarely useful; it needs interpretation, comparison, context, etc. and this is where is bias sneaks in... We should definitely *try*, be the way.
The biggest source of RW's bias came because people didn't realize what was happening until it's too late: It's how it always goes.
One or two individuals with a certain ideology get in the door, typically despite a lack of qualifications and more often than not because of the say-so of a friend; once in position, they then proceed to appoint their friends to positions of authority, and unless otherwise stopped they'll proceed to use their newfound power aggressively to turn the site into their own personal clubhouse.
In short order, a site that had nothing to do with something now is all about that something; a blog covering confirmed rapists in the furry fandom suddenly becomes a shrieking hotbed where its mods can bitch about cis people, a site that was discussing matters relevant to the Atheist community now suddenly becomes embroiled in discussions on how we need to force misogynists out of atheism; video game coverage suddenly gets infested with people who hate video games, and sites like yours and Wikipedia wind up with ideologues trying to turn them into yet one more attack platform.
It's played out time and time again.
Vade did it, Ryulong did it, Brianna Wu's done it, and it's endemic on internet by now. Being aware of it and knowing how it happens is your best defense against it.