Today in news that should make you ashamed to be a part of the human race...

The ever-popular South by Southwest convention was planning a panel for next year called "Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games," which was described as:

A panel from experts on online harassment in gaming and geek culture, how to combat it, how to design against it, and how to create online communities that are moving away from harassment. The panel will dive into data around abuse in larger gaming communities. One of our panelists will talk about about ways to actually develop the social aspects of games - including UI decisions and how they can influence accuracy and usage of reporting abuse. Another will dive into UX design choices to stymy harassment in social media spaces.

Sounds like a positive idea, right? Well, not if you yourself are a harasser - excuse me, I mean proponent of ethics in game journalism - which is what appears to have prompted a bunch of people to send threats of violence to SXSW, causing them to cancel the panel. From Randi Harper, who was scheduled to be on the panel along with Katherine Cross and Caroline Sinders, on Twitter:

Cross and Sinders' Twitter accounts also confirmed the cancellation. SWSW has yet to officially comment.

When you're finished detaching your face from your palm, consider letting SXSW know that this kind of response actually indicates an even greater need for such a panel, not a reason to cancel it.

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And don't read the comments.

UPDATE: SXSW has issued a statement about the cancellation, indicating that they have also canceled a planned GamerGate panel: