Destructoid / IndieGoGo Scam Controversy

Ironically, the fund drive that's statement was to "save a life" as resulted in a life hanging in the balance.

Or coincidentally... Futurama confused those words for me.

@Net: Oh, I see. Fair enough, it's their policies.

So the writer should be punished because someone is using suicide as blackmail?

Blackmail for what? Where are you getting this from?

...Yeah, nobody is blackmailing anyone.

The Writer had no good reason to be fired. He should be re-hired, since he did his job just fine. For the women, I certainly hope things get better for her regardless. I don't really like seeing anyone be forced into a rough life because of a mistake like this.

Thats just what I heard, that the person was using "Or I'll kill myself!" as a sort of defense for this.

Well, considering he apparently broke their rules twice, it seems perfectly fair to me. He's being paid by them, so if he can't abide by their rules it's his fault.

I think they suspended him because shit just got heavy and they're unsure of how to tackle this. That's why they're considering the option of firing him but not executing it. Because they know they need more time to make a clear judgement.

On a side note, after just remembering the Swartz incident, I now feel a bit more sorry for Chloe and hope she recovers.

I really think he should have just paid for the surgery out of his own pocket. If you want to do it I don't care, but don't use other people to pay for it. If I were to pretend I was dying just so I could buy a new car or a new house, people are going to be pissed off because that's not what they paid for. Nobody paid for him to get that surgery. They paid for him so he would live longer.

Or told the truth to get the money. If people were okay with that, fine. The problem was lying to get the money, specifically. Even though she never got any(which is probably why she won't be paying anyone else money besides obviously the people for the surgery), it really hurt the poor girl's reputation.

Seriously? A few things.

A) It is incredibly offense to refer to a trans woman with male pronouns.

B) Nobody can pay for SRS out of their pockets. It is extremely expensive, the same as many other major operations. That's why we have insurance.

C) Provided they are legitimately diagnosed once they go through counseling and go through the proper channels, I think the universal health care plan should cover transitioning. Luckily this is already provided in several jurisdictions.

edited 18th May '13 11:39:04 AM by CassidyTheDevil

i agree

Regardless, Indie Gogo and Kickstarter are not for charities.

I know plenty of transmen (FTM's) who have asked for donations for top surgery. The biggest price is outing themselves as trans.

Welp, guess I better ask the mods to update the thread name; dude got fired, even after Chloe herself said he did nothing wrong. Time to put Destructoid on the same tier as Kotaku and never read any articles from there ever again.

I never read anything from there to begin with.

From what I've read there was definitely some blackmail going on. It pretty much covers why he was so emotionally reckless in his tweets.

Well that, and apparently he's gay himself, so getting attacked by other LGBT people must've felt extremely shitty for him.

Which is too bad. But yes, a name change would be needed. Although at this point, I'm not seeing much worth discussion. It was bad for both of them, he did not deserved to be fired, Chloe was in the wrong for attempting Fraud. The best thing to do is re-hire him, and let Chloe move on with her life without being chastised.

I actually have to agree with Irene on this one. It's not really all that black and white, but one may have to wonder if Destructoid did the right thing here. Remember, suicide is not a great way to basically blackmail with, and the right course of action Destructoid had to take was calling the police because of a high suicide risk, which is what a certain radio station in the Netherlands actually did when they accidentally got a suicider on the phone, live, on air.

And before you ask, yes, you should call the police in those cases, they're more competent in helping such people, and know instances where they could get better help with their problems.

edited 18th May '13 3:38:36 PM by GaryCXJk

He's not fired yet. He's still employed, but suspended. Unless that updated post in the OP was lying.

Kev-O, could you cite this supposed situation of him officially being fired, please?

Also, here's a roundtable discussion with Chloe and Allistair that's surprisingly civil and should provide some insight with the whole situation.

Now that's something good to see. Hopefully this will douse the flames.

Moderator request: He wasn't fired, nor was he nailed for Exposing the scam. Can we change the title?

edited 19th May '13 10:37:37 PM by stevebat

Title's been neutralized. Sufficient?

It looks perfect, Willbyr. Thanks.