Twitter Drama Threatens Star Wars Blogosphere Safe Space
The last year has been a period of peace for the Star Wars “Blogosphere” due in large part to the Clickbait Accord of 2016. If you recall, the agreement laid out a series of ethical journalistic practices, which all bloggers swore to uphold. Each would give credit where credit was due, and no one would engage in any more Slapfests or public humiliations against another member of the alliance. Twitter was declared a safe space, where blogs were encouraged to like, comment and retweet one another’s stories in an effort to promote a healthy collaborative environment. We’re sad to report, the accord may be over as a controversial editorial has threatened to undo the inspirational efforts of the last year. More after the jump.
Following the posting of an SWNN editorial by John Hoey, referencing MSW’s latest rumor regarding a certain piece of jewelry worn by the elder Skywalker, SWNN was quickly called out on Twitter by a Star Wars fan going by the moniker Aeimnestos for not crediting Jason Ward, Editor-in-chief of our cousin site MSW. Aeimnestos was shot down by SWNN author and staff member Chad Stevens and asked him to move on as though not crediting Ward wasn’t a big deal. Aeimnestos was offended by Stevens’ words and called him liar.
At that point, SWNN Editor-in-chief, Viral Hide stepped in. He informed Aeimnestos that he is wrong because they ALWAYS credit other sites for their work and asked Aeimnestos to unfollow SWNN on Twitter if he believes SWNN to be “unrighteous”. Following this, Ward himself joined the discussion. He implored Viral Hide to ask Stevens why he is “such a little bitch” and it only escalated from there.
Hide assured Ward that he did ask why Stevens was a little bitch, but was confused why Aeimnestos was even saying they didn’t credit MSW in the first place. Ward then said to Hide that he was not there to make Hide feel better about his staff or teach them how to do their jobs correctly. Hide thinks all the effort went down the drain. It is not clear what Hide is referring to here, but he then adds that he tried. Ward then told Hide to try harder. Hide then went on to say that he did and tried to explain to Ward but claims Ward acts like it’s nothing.
A Star Wars fan by the name of Billy Vega threw his two cents in saying that credit should be given to MSW for the editorial, not SWNN stating on Twitter that credit is ALWAYS given where it is due. Hide then defended himself saying that they are not trying to steal credit for MSW’s article and told Vega that he was ridiculous and didn’t know how the internet worked.
The author of the editorial, John Hoey finally made an appearance to defend himself. Hoey apologized to Ward and stated that it was not his intent to not credit him for the story and that Viral Hide had added in a link to MSW to credit them for the original rumor. Ward did not accept the apology and said everyone always makes it out to be SWNN vs MSW but he doesn’t even care about this whole situation. Hide then stepped up and said that’s why they corrected the error in the first place.
Then longtime SWNN antagonist/apologist Noah Outlaw appeared out of nowhere, and trashed SWNN for having an awful staff. Hide was quick to the punch and assured Outlaw that everything was fine and his staff does the best they can to report and write better than just copy and pasting news from other sites. From there the whole conversation just fizzled out, most likely heading to a private message between Ward and Hide like it should have been in the first place.
As fellow bloggers, we’re saddened by the potential backlash from this explosive exchange. It does all parties involved a huge disservice as both SWNN and MSW are great outlets for Star Wars news. They’re each pioneers in the space, who have flourished in the post-Disney era thanks to insightful stories, reviews and wonderful podcasts. We sincerely hope cooler heads prevail, so Twitter can once again be a safe space for Star Wars bloggers of all race, color, and gender.
Godspeed, gentlemen.
–The FSW staff and family.
