The plural of "anecdote" is not "data"

Super-extra-gold-star-of-the-day goes to Empress in Yellow over at Kotaku, a gaming site, for responding to this:

haydenaurian at 03:12 PM on 09/20/08

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The last time I was online playing XBOX360 there was a woman playing online with us and nobody in the room called her a "cunt", "bitch" or anything else. So this claim of widespread sexism in gaming is about half bullshit. If anything, the ones claiming sexism and talkin shit about men might just have some sexist issues themselves.

with this:

EmpressInYellow at 03:22 PM on 09/20/08

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Connectedness Index: 0

@haydenaurian: The plural of "anecdote" is not "data".

I love all of the defensiveness here, too. "Well, -I- don't behave in a misogynist fashion, so clearly it never happens!" or "How dare this article claim that all male gamers are misogynists?" (Protip: It doesn't).

Here's a hint: Saying, "Hey, there are still some deeply-entrenched misogynist attitudes in certain sectors of the gaming industry" does not mean that you, personally, are being called a misogynist. It does not mean that your hobby is being threatened. It is not making a value judgment about you as a person. This kind of knee-jerk reaction that occurs ANY TIME some potentially controversial subject is discussed RE: the gaming industry is exactly the sort of nonsense that ends up helping to -perpetuate- these stereotypes.