Don't be so quick to call yourself a conspiracy theorist! It's called Market Segmentation. Related: Brand Tribalism. It's the status quo for any organization that reaches such a massive scale.
I don't know about the Verge, though, haha--I'm with you in only ever having peripherally heard of the site.
The conspiracy theory part is that people are doing it to manipulate culture as a whole, not just to drive their own traffic. It's been popular to segment political groups for quite a while, but I could almost see the GameGate/Anti-GG situation being an intentional manipulation to drive further polarization of the internet. I've seen both sides make good points only to get screamed down by mostly outsiders in the conversation.
It makes me suspicious whenever someone is loud in a community about anything negative and has not been a long-term member.
Don't be so quick to call yourself a conspiracy theorist! It's called Market Segmentation. Related: Brand Tribalism. It's the status quo for any organization that reaches such a massive scale.
I don't know about the Verge, though, haha--I'm with you in only ever having peripherally heard of the site.
The conspiracy theory part is that people are doing it to manipulate culture as a whole, not just to drive their own traffic. It's been popular to segment political groups for quite a while, but I could almost see the GameGate/Anti-GG situation being an intentional manipulation to drive further polarization of the internet. I've seen both sides make good points only to get screamed down by mostly outsiders in the conversation.
It makes me suspicious whenever someone is loud in a community about anything negative and has not been a long-term member.