I'll say it again. I do not care who you are, independent thought and the networks YOU build are more important than any TAG #GamerGate 1/ — The Timeless One (@The_TimelessOne) March 13, 2015

Tags are tools and nothing more. The only group is the one you build. Your friends, your allies, your comrades. #Gamergate 2/ — The Timeless One (@The_TimelessOne) March 13, 2015

the "chaos" people criticize #gamergate of is a result of tens of independent networks and thousands of ind. minds using a good tool 3/3 — The Timeless One (@The_TimelessOne) March 13, 2015

I recently tweeted this little rant amidst a rather fierce (and still ongoing) controversy among a number of #gamergate related networks. I want to expand on this idea. I think it’s quite important.

Here is what it boils down to: #GamerGate as a hashtag is not the most important thing that has come out of the greater controversy it refers to. Your networks are. There is no leaving or joining #GamerGate because it is not a group. It is not a club. It is a tool that helped the ideas espoused by thousands and thousands of anons reach virality. #GamerGate should not be your “tribe,” even if it helped you make a bunch of friends, allies, and more. It, as a tag, is infinitely less important than those networks, than those trust relationships, than those friendships.

Defend #GamerGate as a tool, bust people when they misportray it as a “hate group” or even a group at all, and by god show off the great things that were accomplished using the tag. But remember it was the individuals and sub-groups within that actually did all those things. Yes, it was you, it was your friends, it was your network of trust that drove those charities to the top, that trended those other tags.

I realize that I am essentially claiming that the best thing to come out of #GamerGate was the power of friendship, but hear me out: You and your allies are bigger, better, and more important than a hashtag.

I will be the first to admit that I have had an incredible time and met a ton of wonderful people in #GamerGate and it is tempting to attribute those good things to the tag. But that is a disservice to each and every person I respect. The tag was used to bring us together, of course, but the tag itself has been used a vast variety of people, including trolls, opportunists, “aGGros,” and racists, so it is important to see it and understand it for exactly what it is, and give credit to the correct sources: our incredible networks of allies.

Take a look at this old image of retweet connections:

#GamerGate isn’t one network; its a hundred, each with thousands of members, often overlapping into other networks. #GamerGate as a tag has been especially successful because it was and is a very effective meme. A leaderless focus pushed people to diversify and to remember than anyone could become a “leader” of their own segment of the tag. A focus on anonymity made everyone cautious (and maybe sometimes too cautious) of “e-fame,” and also helped promote an “ideas before ego” general mentality.

These ideas are becoming popular because the tag helped spread them, but it is we who are implementing them. In the end it will not be “#GamerGate the collective whole of everyone who has ever used the tag” that changes the industry, it will be these networks of people you trust, love, game, and share with.

These networks WILL outlive the tag, make no mistake. There will come a day when the tag will become irrelevant or useless, but your friends and allies will not, nor will the powerful ideas that made #GamerGate successful. Should you desire it, you and your friends might just fire up your keyboards, cameras, and microphones for another revolt years from now and find yourself in some familiar company.

Don’t panic about infighting. Don’t censor legitimate criticism because of “solidarity.” Build your network of trust with care, and choose your allies well. Don’t tolerate assholes just because they agree with you politically. Trust in the power of your ideas and in the power of the friends you have met.

That is why the fire is still rising. That is why #GamerGate is still going strong. That is why we have so much damn fun and laugh so hard.

Keep it up, friends, and give credit to whom it is really due, not just to a hashtag.