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[v1oz]

I've tried to read through the topic. But still don't get it. Was he fired for flirting with female friends using his private snapchat/twitter accounts in his free time? Is it now a thing to shame young lads for unwanted advances. I mean I could understand if he was chatting up clients or pestering fellow employees at work.

This was very public humiliation that cost him his job and probably his career - who would employ him now. I don't think see this kid as a public figure that needs to be held up to the same scrutiny as politicians or senior civil servants. He's just some random dude I never heard of before that writes articles for a gaming site.

When soccer players chat up women on social media. No one complains. They are all mature adults.

 

[BTA]

I've tried to read through the topic. But still don't get it. Was he fired for flirting with female friends using his private snapchat/twitter accounts in his free time? Is it now a thing to shame young lads for unwanted advances. I mean I could understand if he was chatting up clients or pestering fellow employees at work.

This was very public humiliation that cost him his job and probably his career - who would employ him now. I don't think see this kid as a public figure that needs to be held up to the same scrutiny as politicians or senior civil servants. He's just some random dude I never heard of before that writes articles for a gaming site.

When soccer players chat up women on social media. No one complains.

He was doing more than flirting and it was with fans as well as freelance writers and devs. His position at Polygon inherently puts him in a position of power in all three of these cases, and even if he actually was just flirting (he wasn't), that power means he should be going about this very carefully to avoid making them feel uncomfortable and to account for that power, and he sure wasn't.

(Also, he only does video, not writing. And had >80,000 Twitter followers before this came out. He's not a nobody.)

Spoiler

I'm going to go out and say it's bad for athletes and musicians to take advantage of fans too!

 

[v1oz]

I wasn't sure what he had actually done so I took a sec to look it up. Wow, what a fucking creep. I wouldn't want to be friends with him, whether the apology is sincere or not. Normal decent people don't behave this way.



from an (at the time) 18 year old fan of his



I wouldn't want my employees using their position to talk to people and do this shit. Firing is the right call.

She's an adult. She could unfollow and block him on Snapchat. If he persists report him to police for harassment. End of story.

 

[Liamc723]

She's an adult. She could unfollow and block him on Snapchat. If he persists report him to police for harassment. End of story.

Hey look, another poster victim blaming.

 

[SmiteOfHand]

She's an adult. She could unfollow and block him on Snapchat. If he persists report him to police for harassment. End of story.

You must win so many arguments in your head.

 

[Crossing Eden]

She's an adult. She could unfollow and block him on Snapchat. If he persists report him to police for harassment. End of story.

Your first mistake was not knowing the difference between unsolicited harassment/sexual advances during a mundane conversation, (and just not paying attention in general as that wasn't the worst of it), and mutual flirting between two consenting adults, your second mistake was criticizing the actions of the victim instead of the person harassing her while simultaneously empathizing with him as a result of your first mistake. What will be the third I wonder.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

She's an adult. She could unfollow and block him on Snapchat. If he persists report him to police for harassment. End of story.

Who cares? Does that magically make what he did not inappropriate?

 

[17 Seconds]

I've tried to read through the topic. But still don't get it. Was he fired for flirting with female friends using his private snapchat/twitter accounts in his free time? Is it now a thing to shame young lads for unwanted advances. I mean I could understand if he was chatting up clients or pestering fellow employees at work.

This was very public humiliation that cost him his job and probably his career - who would employ him now. I don't think see this kid as a public figure that needs to be held up to the same scrutiny as politicians or senior civil servants. He's just some random dude I never heard of before that writes articles for a gaming site.

When soccer players chat up women on social media. No one complains. They are all mature adults.

"flirting"

 

[llien]

What does "sliding into DMs" mean?

He was doing more than flirting and it was with fans as well as freelance writers and devs. His position at Polygon inherently puts him in a position of power in all three of these cases, and even if he actually was just flirting (he wasn't), that power means he should be going about this very carefully to avoid making them feel uncomfortable and to account for that power, and he sure wasn't.

Hard to disagree with this statement.

 

[Sliver]

What does "sliding into DMs" mean?

DMing someone, aka sending them a private message,

 

[Ninja Scooter]

What does "sliding into DMs" mean?

Direct messaging someone.

 

[Spirit of Jazz]

She's an adult. She could unfollow and block him on Snapchat. If he persists report him to police for harassment. End of story.

Cool that you said Nick was a "Young Lad" and a "Kid" in order to suggest his actions were an innocent mistake and that he was too young to know better. Then when referring to a victim that was significantly younger than him she's an adult who should know better.

 

[Budi]

Cool that you said Nick was a "Young Lad" and a "Kid" in order to suggest his actions were an innocent mistake and that he was too young to know better. Then when referring to a victim that was significantly younger than him she's an adult who should know better.

Yeah, that really stood out in the post (not that anything in it made much sense). This 26 year old kid and 18 year old adult.

 

[andymcc]

Weird to see dudes that would have rallied behind gamergate suddenly jumping to a polygon writer's defense

 

[Tagyhag]

Cool that you said Nick was a "Young Lad" and a "Kid" in order to suggest his actions were an innocent mistake and that he was too young to know better. Then when referring to a victim that was significantly younger than him she's an adult who should know better.

Hey bro, women mature faster than men, she was in the wrong here. She should have seen that he doesn't fully understand what's right and wrong in flirting.

He's barely out of the womb.

 

[BrightLightLava]

Griffin's talking about it now on the Awful Squad stream, mostly about how they can't talk about it in specifics due to legal reasons, and how the week they took off from producing videos was already planned,while acknowledging that the timing didn't make it seem that way.

 

[Kaban]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdCtUouq9G8

Link for anyone interested.

 

[BTA]

Griffin's talking about it now on the Awful Squad stream, mostly about how they can't talk about it in specifics due to legal reasons, and how the week they took off from producing videos was already planned,while acknowledging that the timing didn't make it seem that way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdCtUouq9G8

Link for anyone interested.

Thanks for the heads up; I wouldn't have gotten around to watching this for a while. It starts about a minute in, for anyone interested.

Pretty frank about how they can't say much but good to hear regardless. Just wish they'd actually said some of this in a statement and not, y'know, at the start of a PUBG stream.

 

[litigationjackson]

Thanks for the heads up; I wouldn't have gotten around to watching this for a while. It starts about a minute in, for anyone interested.

Pretty frank about how they can't say much but good to hear regardless. Just wish they'd actually said some of this in a statement and not, y'know, at the start of a PUBG stream.

I think it makes sense that they would do it a video (since that's where Nick got famous) but they totally should take that clip out and put it on its own.

 

[BTA]

I think it makes sense that they would do it a video (since that's where Nick got famous) but they totally should take that clip out and put it on its own.

Agreed. I do think it's good to have it on video (I think it's baffling that they've let there be any possibility that YouTube-only fans still have no idea what's going on in any official capacity), and obviously it was a thing said naturally, but Awful Squad isn't something everyone watches (I didn't start watching till last month and even I wouldn't have seen this anytime soon if it wasn't posted about since I'm behind on it) and it's not like they've drawn attention to it being said as part of the episode.

 

[witchedwiz]

Yup. Everyone deserves a second chance. Although I'm sure there will be people here who still want him to be miserable... because they've never made mistakes.

Poster below me, shining bright like a star.

that's the story of internet..
Everyone has never done anything wrong, man!
/s
But I agree with you..

As for the apology in itself, it's fine I guess?
Dude acted like a douche, gets the public blame, what else can you ask?

 

[RumbleHumble]

She's an adult. She could unfollow and block him on Snapchat. If he persists report him to police for harassment. End of story.

There were allegations outside mere flirting that people close to Nick and the situation verified and took action on. We're never going to see the process RE: the verification because frankly, why the fuck are we entitled to it? Never the less, the end resulted in people close to Nick who did have access to this evidence denouncing Nick instead of defending him. When Nick was given the chance to defend himself, he didn't bother.

 

[litigationjackson]

Agreed. I do think it's good to have it on video (I think it's baffling that they've let there be any possibility that YouTube-only fans still have no idea what's going on in any official capacity), and obviously it was a thing said naturally, but Awful Squad isn't something everyone watches (I didn't start watching till last month and even I wouldn't have seen this anytime soon if it wasn't posted about since I'm behind on it) and it's not like they've drawn attention to it being said as part of the episode.

I don't feel like a few minutes long clip would warrant being advertised, again I think that it being its own clip and a stand alone thing in the Cool Games Inc feed would be the best way to go. I don't watch Awful Squad either (well, I do now) so I totally agree with your statement about that.

I feel like corporate stuff keeps things like this from being properly explained or dealt with in a way anyone would want to

Spoiler

for example, where I work we had to dismiss someone partially because they lacked respect for everyone else but corporate stuff always makes you wish someone "the best in [their] future endeavors"

. It doesn't excuse this, but it's just the way things are sometimes.

They should still write what they can without breaking guidelines and put it on twitter, though.