Those wondering what this was all about. Some people deliberately misrepresented a self-deprecated statement I made about Twine, in which I stated I was really interested in using it since it required no talent and developer skill to get in the door. Since I possess neither talent nor developer skill, maybe I could give it a shot. I went on for several more tweets about other programs such as RPGMaker and we talked a bit about Inkles narrative program, choose your own adventure as a concept and so on and so forth. People who should know better took the first tweet, (ignored the next 6) and posted it saying "TB BELIEVES TWINE IS FOR PEOPLE WITH NO TALENT, WHAT A SHITLORD", resulting in about 35 accounts sending pretty disgusting harassment in our direction, including some detailed directions on how to kill oneself.



It shouldn't surprise you that sociopaths who can't understand context (or wilfully lie about it to further their own agenda) would engage in such behavior. Twitter is a wonderful medium for taking people out of context, since you can post a single tweet in a chain and pretend the rest of the chain does not exist.



This is what social media has become over the last few years. It's become about callouts. Find someone you deem "problematic", create an excuse to attack said person (doesn't have to be true, frequently isn't) and off you go to enact your own twisted performance of online justice theatre. There's a reason real justice happens in a court room with a presumption of innocence and that's why this vigilante mobbing, perpetrated in the name of some vague ideology that claims to be all about making the world a better place, is not something that any sane authority on the planet makes use of. But it's convenient isn't it? Dehumanize your opponent, make them easier to attack. A classic principle of propaganda, used by tyrants and warmongers for millenia, something that's never fallen out of use even in our supposedly civilised world.



Take solice in this fact though. These people are a tiny, horrid minority. People ask me why I obsess over numbers so much. The answer is it keeps one sane. We had to block 35 accounts today for harassment, yet we will receive 1000 or more new subscribers to our channel, the thing that pays the wages, by the end of the day. Numbers show just how insignificant these vile people are. Numbers make the world look a little brighter. That's why I like numbers.



Have a good day folks and remember, if you go into a shop on boxing day, the retail staff have had it tough already, no need to make it worse.