Commissar SFLUFAN

I guess you could contribute to the Center for Human Rights in Iran.

In that case, a CEO that is aware of the "political" environment in which this situation occurred as the ArenaNet CEO appears to be should: (a) make a statement similar to the one that was put out regarding the expectations of community interaction and that the company will conduct an internal assessment before making a decision, (b) initiate a "cooling off" period to speak with the parties involved in order to make an informed decision that does not have the appearance of giving in to the braying mob, and (c) execute that action accordingly. All of that could easily be accomplished by the beginning of this week at the latest and would be seen as a circumspect, reasonable course of action that provides enough separation from the immediacy of the inferno.

Do you honestly expect him to say otherwise? No reasonably competent CEO would ever/should ever admit to allowing a braying mob to influence their decision making.

It's the blatant publicity-seeking nature of it, even if well-intended.

Real Madrid says Cristiano Ronaldo is leaving to join Italian club Juventus, bringing to an end a glittering nine-year spell in Spain.  Madrid says it has reached an agreement with Juventus after a request by Ronaldo.

It appears that I was somewhat prescient in my last post: The Independent Game Developers Association has called for studios to publish "transparent and well-understood guidelines for staff members" with regards to social media use. This follows the recent dismissal of two Guild Wars 2 writers by ArenaNet following a heated Twitter exchange with a partnered streamer. The IGDA blog post and the suggested questions it "expects game developers to ask, and every company should address, before chatting with players on social media" can be found here.

Perhaps, at long last, Musk is just advertising his own ego. Musk, the man who does things, is here to outdo himself, and lucky you get to be his audience. The kid-sized sub was never the point of this latest stunt. Musk just wanted to remind his fans that he’s the man who makes things happen, often with the help of technology, money, and bluster. Just like Tony Stark. Keep those fawning comparisons coming, too. Musk is very serious about about the idea of being a real-world Iron Man.

In any other commercial situation, there would be little doubt. However, in this type of environment where interaction with the nebulous entity known as "the community" (which is even more complicated by the presence of "influencers"/streamers) takes on a vital role, I think that more specific, detailed guidelines that govern the nature of that interaction (the use of official versus personal social media, self-identification as a member of the company, etc.) need to be provided to cover both the employee AND the company.

No argument from me there!

Right - we have only her side from the Polygon interview regarding the events of July 5. The ArenaNet employee handbook SHOULD have a section covering social media interaction with fans if the firm does encourage that interaction as a routine part of an employee's expected functions. This is even more important if the firm encourages an atmosphere of being "outspoken and fearless" and if "there were meetings in which executives promised us that they wanted us to speak up about the ugly things, the harmful things, and that we wouldn’t be punished for doing so..." If a firm values those things, then it must make every effort to ensure that its employees understand what the "boundaries" around those things are in a culture of engagement with the community at large. The ArenaNet CEO's statement to Polygon says "The expectation was to behave professionally and respectfully, or at least walk away." Was that expectation communicated to employees? Were there policies and procedures in place that documented what would happen if such an expectation was violated?

If that is true and she was terminated without warning/counseling from HR for her social media activities in regard to fan interaction, then that changes my perception of events entirely, especially since ArenaNet was well aware of her social media use to address the industry's anti-woman toxicity issues.

Absolutely nothing.

Kennedy might be a little far to the left there.

You don't already?

Yeah, once I heard "allies in the Outer Ring", I figured it was Lando.

I'm fine with differently shaped avatars.

Roe is D-E-D. The sooner you can accept that reality, the better to figure out how to work with what comes next.

I gotta bridge in Brooklyn dat just fell off da truck to sell ya!

All of this could have been avoided if NATO had not expanded into the former Warsaw Pact states in the 1990s.

All of them are Federalist Society/Heritage Foundation approved jurists so they are practically interchangable.

The REAL Lando is comin' back!

Which has got to be the most asinine reasoning possible for any legal decision. I am so glad I'm not in the legal profession as I'd probably have been disbarred by now for mocking my colleagues whenever they dared suggest that "precedent" is a valid argument.

Yeah, look where that got him.

My goal is quite simply this: