Unwanted sexual advances are indeed sexual harassment. That's the basic definition of the term, in fact.
Also, this wasn't on Tinder and the "send nudes" one was to a different person who stopped talking to him immediately afterward.
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Nick Robinson (Polygon) involved in sexual harassment allegations [Suspended]
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Also, this wasn't on Tinder and the "send nudes" one was to a different person who stopped talking to him immediately afterward.
Yup. And not for ice cream.
James Scott
Banned
He apparently asked a girl to come over to blow him since she was close
aGuyInaBearSuit
Member
A lot of people I like still follow JonTron even though I know they're ideologically nothing like him. Some of the Continue guys, for example, participated in anti-Trump marches and are way left socially but still follow Jon likely due to past business dealings. There's a lot of factors.
OriginalPoe
Banned
So, basically, she's repeating what most of the sensible people here are: she acted as an adult, but the context is very creepy, and just because she went one way with it doesn't mean others haven't gone the other way.
Nick.. man.. why..
I'm not saying I don't believe her, because it could have been over a phone call or something, but just wanna point out that this was one thing she didn't include screenshots of AFAIK
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
@soulspear you sound like you've got your head on straight about this, which is good. You didn't do anything wrong, and we're glad that he finally is going to (probably) face consequences for his behavior. Thank you
There was the plain as day "Come and get this Waluigi shirt" unsubtle nodding and winking, even if that specific thing wasn't shown.
Right, that was with a different girl in a different conversation. I was talking about another person.
RubberLuffy
Banned
I'm betting the one thing going through the mind of any woman indie dev he asked is "if i refuse will he try to blacklist me/my game from Polygon?", regardless of whether he would or not. No matter how much you wanna quantify it, he had power.
And that is shitty.
A shame, I enjoyed the content he did with Griffin.
And that is shitty.
A shame, I enjoyed the content he did with Griffin.
I know nothing about this guy other than that he works at Polygon, and now, that he tried to use his influence to sexually proposition people. Does he have a sizable fan base? And has he seemed like a relatively good guy up until now? Just trying to gauge how much of a "fall from grace" this is.
Just saying... it's not a leap to get from A to B there. I don't know that more people need to open up to the internet to paper over the gaps.
Hydranockz
Member
Thanks for sharing this.
I don't really have much sympathy for Nick. It's not much more different than some musician arriving in town looking for some fun for the night so they give a wink to the local fangirls. It's not a good look to use your 'stardom' like that. Bad analogy aside, Nick's been part of an industry which is at least trying to establish itself as a safe environment for women. The least he could do is treat women who admire him with an iota of respect.
OriginalPoe
Banned
I really liked him as I related to his old persona of a likable nerd who's a bit immature and goofy. Really liked him on Rev3 with Tara and Sessler.
Followed him to Polygon, discovered him and Griffin and loved all the shit they did. Nick does some great video content and is good on camera nowadays. He also gained a lot of confidence (obviously...) and that was neat to watch happen.
It's one of those things for me where I personally liked him quite a bit from videos but I guess he was still niche compared to JonTron.
Lol. Pardon me, but whenever I make a comment on the internet, there's always "that guy"
I was stating a mere fact. The guy asked if there were screenshots, someone said he apparently asked a girl for a blow job, I was saying there weren't screenshots of that. That's not my opinion, I believe the girl who said he asked that, but that's a fact.
RumbleHumble
Banned
Thanks for the post!
Righto. No worries.
OriginalPoe
Banned
Oh BTW if SoulSpear is reading this thread - thanks for that write up. You're kind of the reason this will probably get the traction it needs at this point (unless there's a lot of private discussion happening).
I wonder if this is why guys are so shy nowadays. Men are so fearful of asking women out because they're afraid of being branded as harassers. How do people say "just try asking her out, what do you have to lose" in one voice and "leave women alone!" in another?
Take the damn shot, that's what your parents did.
RumbleHumble
Banned
Apparently it's hard to ask a girl out? Tell us more about your troubles.
CannonFodder52
Member
Asking someone out is way different from asking someone for nudes.
There's a difference between saying "Hey do you wanna get coffee'" and "send nudes" or wolf whistling.
QisTopTier
XisBannedTier
Simply asking someone on a date isnt harassment
It's kinda hilarious in sad way that it's actually what the shitheads of GenitalGulf were saying they wanted to avoid but actually went after the wrong party for the wrong reasons (because that was a really shitty cover story for their harassment too).
And here we are years later on an actual scandal that is about a member of the press doing shitty things and they're all too busy stanning for the harassers.
For this alone the guy cannot be allowed to work in the gaming media.
Huh? He didn't ask any of these women out. He went for the sexual stuff abruptly and from fans he didn't know.
TheMrPliskin
Member
Thanks for posting this and thanks to soulspear for writing it as it's a great post.
I also don't think anybody blames her for locking her account, it makes total sense given the situation.
Hydranockz
Member
Oh I dunno, you treat them like human beings and then you don't need to worry about being considered a harasser.
Luring a girl to you with a Waluigi shirt or asking her what she enjoys doing in her spare time? Tough times for men.
thanks for posting that. glad the screenshots are helping out other women who were in similar situations.
Fallout-with-swords
Banned
The thing that doesn't really feel right about the situation to me is that we don't have a lot of info on the specifics of what he did, yet the court of public opinion has ruled that he's never going to work in games again. Which depending on what he's done I would be fine with, like if he's messaging tons of girls and asking them for nudes out of the blue that's pretty creepy. And, I completely understand that we have no right to all the information as it's private to the Woman who have spoken out, but that hasn't stopped any number of game's media tweeting post mortem's and giving their takes on the situation, all under the assumption that he's very guilty, which maybe they have more info than we do, but still kind of rubs me the wrong way.
I'm not saying I don't believe the women who have spoken out either, it's incredibly difficult to come forward, especially in a situation like this where the guy has a following. The tough but I think necessary part of coming forward in a situation like this is that there needs to be some sort of evidence to corroborate the claims. This evidence definitely exists (again not saying it should be public twitter record) and I'm sure those at Polygon doing the investigation will seek that evidence out, but we and I assume those other games media people don't have that info, and it bugs me a bit. Mostly because I can imagine a situation where this guy is messaging girls thinking they are also interested, but are probably just being polite not wanting to offend a member of the press with influence.
Pretty much just a long way of saying I don't like people commenting before they have all or a reasonable amount of information. And I have a bad habit of playing devils advocate.
I'm not saying I don't believe the women who have spoken out either, it's incredibly difficult to come forward, especially in a situation like this where the guy has a following. The tough but I think necessary part of coming forward in a situation like this is that there needs to be some sort of evidence to corroborate the claims. This evidence definitely exists (again not saying it should be public twitter record) and I'm sure those at Polygon doing the investigation will seek that evidence out, but we and I assume those other games media people don't have that info, and it bugs me a bit. Mostly because I can imagine a situation where this guy is messaging girls thinking they are also interested, but are probably just being polite not wanting to offend a member of the press with influence.
Pretty much just a long way of saying I don't like people commenting before they have all or a reasonable amount of information. And I have a bad habit of playing devils advocate.
Spinosaurus
Member
If soulspear is reading this, you're brave as fuck and you did nothing wrong, so don't blame yourself!
OriginalPoe
Banned
No it isn't but I can see his viewpoint a bit here. When I was in my mid-20s, my biggest concern when flirting with women I liked was if I was doing it right... being "cool" or whatever. So, part of that to me includes "how" you do it. And I think it is possible for guys to be mislead that being "risque" and "sexy" is how to do it. And they just stumble super hard.
Then there's situations like this where guys are flat out asking girls to give them head because they're going to be in close proximity and exchanged some pleasantries on Twitter.
No offense but any relationship that started with just "send nudes" isn't going to go very far and dear god there is such a large gulf between asking someone out and asking for fap material that I don't even know why the fuck you're talking about that.
Well, if you took this red pill, you would know what he meant. I mean, our President just grabs them by...
OriginalPoe
Banned
This be shallow ice matey.
family_guy
Member
Well there are degrees to everything so a suspension isn't going to be required in all cases. Yes, HR will investigate, and they will talk to the accused, and if they decide to, the accused can go right back to work. Since I don't have the complete details, and no one else on here does either, then I'm not going to say what would be the appropriate action. My only thing is having it publicized isn't always necessary unless a crime was committed. I mean if you mess up bad at work and cost your employer to lose alot of money and time, then your boss talks to you, and maybe even your coworkers know about it, but should your work f**k up be broadcasted to thousands to millions of people? That stuff is supposed to be handled internally and privately.
I'd like to reply
I am glad you spoke up. I take your point that nothing was criminal. I think it's awesome you have explained your part in your exchange. I think it's going to do what you thought it might, and get polygon to look at who is representing them. I think your interest in tempering the response against him even as your account is flooded is admirable.
I say this as someone who has people who work for me: it's out of your responsibility and control. You did something I think wad right, but his boss(es) will be taking care of this certainly with a lot of thought and information.
Sorry if i got all boss like here, but I'm quite inspired to make the point that there is nothing wrong with what you've done, you shouldn't feel responsible for anything nick had done or polygon decides to do now. Besides, there is a decent chance you will need to take care of yourself for a bit if the ggers come.
Sure, if you live in South Dakota. Among modern society, you ask the girl for a coffee when you're trying to get married and when you're only trying to fool around you ask for nudes.
I wonder what he was angling for among random strangers on the internet? Surely he wasn't sleeping around, that'd be uncouth.
Asking someone to coffee or dinner is not the same as randomly requesting nudes out of nowhere. There's a pretty blatant distinction.
bruh. you just had a first hand account posted from one the women speaking up about it who had provided your oh-so-precious evidence earlier.
I'm curious about what you guys think in the broader context of influencers. If a youtuber/popular personality uses their influence to obtain sexual favors, is that okay? Can they assume that any interaction they engage in is not affected by their status?
Obviously this situation is worse because of the age difference but I just wanted to ask because it seems to me that celebrity worship can lead to those types of situations.
Obviously this situation is worse because of the age difference but I just wanted to ask because it seems to me that celebrity worship can lead to those types of situations.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Good lord.....
Did my dad ask my mom to send him nudes? I'll have to confirm but I don't think that's how it went down.
nickinerdface
Banned
he slid into the dms of girls following him because they were fans, knowing they'd definitely respond. he also seemed to talk to girls much younger than he is (even allegedly someone underage), which also raises red flags for me. this isn't about someone being bad at flirting. it's about using his professional status to talk to girls, and how he made these conversations sexual (talking about shirts originally in both instances we've seen) out of nowhere. he wasn't scouring tinder asking for nudes (which would be poor taste regardless). he was using his professional twitter account to do it instead. he knew his status would get girls to reply to him and if they became uncomfortable, he knew they couldn't speak out because he had an army of twitter followers and this type of shit is exactly what would happen.
why is this so difficult to understand lol
also it's irrelevant if he messaged girls who have lewd twitters or not
nevermind
why is this so difficult to understand lol
also it's irrelevant if he messaged girls who have lewd twitters or not
nevermind
OriginalPoe
Banned
I am not gonna jump on your for this because honestly I don't know, you could be right.
I'm "old" when it comes to modern dating. Never used Tinder. Never used internet dating sites. Who fucking knows if me asking some mid 20s woman to coffee would result in "what the fuck are you 80?"
Guess that's on me. Still, you can't argue Nick was a bit aggressive going from talking about a girl's day to hinting she is horny for him. Or offering a girl a shirt, then sending an "optical illusion" that says "send nudes."
Hydranockz
Member
Every girl he messaged could have totally loved the attention. Doesn't change the shitty behaviour on his part.
You can sleep easy my friend, there is.
Trust me, it's not all that aggressive. I live in the city, that's equivalent to a vase and flowers.
Regarding the "power relationship"... I'll buy that when she's underage. Or when Nick is famous. But Pewdie he is not and at that time he was only barely an internet personality. She was regularly communicating with a large group of anonymous followers about what she was into sexually, I really don't think she was going to hold anything back from him that she wasn't from literal strangers.
Thanks for speaking up, @SoulSpear, if you're reading this- none of this was your fault and I appreciate you saying more.
This, and as always I'll also bring up freelancers. For them it's not even just "will they blacklist my game" it's "will they blacklist me from being able to work here".
So I'll be honest here: I'm a pretty shy person, with anxiety. I'm definitely overly careful with my wording when messaging people (though I should say this applies to anything, not just women). I've definitely not talked to or asked out people I probably could have without incident as a result; it is admittedly probably the main reason I'm single.
But I also know that if I did take those steps, and talk or ask someone out, I know how to do it without being a fucking creep. Even if things get awkward, I know how to apologize or take a step back.
If you're only able to not talk or barrel over boundaries, with nothing in between, that's a problem.
This, and as always I'll also bring up freelancers. For them it's not even just "will they blacklist my game" it's "will they blacklist me from being able to work here".
So I'll be honest here: I'm a pretty shy person, with anxiety. I'm definitely overly careful with my wording when messaging people (though I should say this applies to anything, not just women). I've definitely not talked to or asked out people I probably could have without incident as a result; it is admittedly probably the main reason I'm single.
But I also know that if I did take those steps, and talk or ask someone out, I know how to do it without being a fucking creep. Even if things get awkward, I know how to apologize or take a step back.
If you're only able to not talk or barrel over boundaries, with nothing in between, that's a problem.
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