In terms of the use of the word slut on the internet... It might matter to you, if it's your mom or your girlfriend, but why should I care if some chick out there is having sex or not? It's like the opposite of the whole men liking lesbians thing. Let's think about this, if a chick is having sex with guys, it means a guy might have a shot. If a chick is just having sex with girls? Dude, you're not getting laid in that equation. Furthermore, I find it interesting to see topics with scantily clad/nude females often throw around the term slut. That's what people are there to see, no one is clicking a thread titled "full dressed female", are they? So, it seems to me use of the term slut on the internet is often angst expressed by the poster that they are not getting laid. Not directing that at anyone in particular, just an observation.
Beyond that I find the subject of ethics in journalism to be a bit interesting. I think an ethical journalist is a rare thing. I never considered myself a journalist, I didn't even consider myself a blogger (my most active period was prior to the widespread use of the term). But, I suppose I was close enough to have people try to influence me. I once had a music group send me a plane ticket, pick me up at the airport in a limo, give me a hotel room, take me to dinner, let me go around their warehouse and pick out $500 worth of stuff, etc... (although I'd like to complain that the limo on the way back to the airport was smaller). Oh yeah, they told their fans they were sick and cancelled tour dates to do this. Why? They wanted help promoting an attempt to get their video on TRL (didn't work, MTV blacklisted it on TRL). In the long run, I severed all relationships with them, I was tired of the whole strings attached approach to the relationship and was adamant that I ran my website how I wanted to run it.
As far as sex goes, I recall one of their dancers telling me she got fired for not putting out, as I understand it, a previous webmaster once got his job because his girlfriend was sleeping with the group's manager and unsurprisingly the group is facing some sort of sexual harassment charge right now. A couple of months ago, I was put on a guest list for another fairly successful label's tour (the people running it make millions, but I think it's single digit millions per year, heh). I knew I was expected to reciprocate in some way, so I wrote a review of the show. I was writing it thinking about how far I wanted to go in terms of saying things that might piss them off. Ultimately, they ended up being unhappy with something I said, and refused to promote the review. I didn't go so far as to burn any bridges though.
I surmise that behind the scenes of the indie video game industry is a lot like the indie music scene, but with less drugs and sex. Almost everyone has ulterior motives and there's a lot that goes on that's never publicly revealed. I'm not sure I really see the point to getting that worked up over it. At a certain level, you're talking about amateurs masquerading as professionals anyway. If you want to worry about something, I'd worry more about the top people on YouTube, making millions and having professional relationships with video game companies. I'm more worried about those guys behaving ethically.
ed the organizer and then he banned me from registering.
