BASS STATION

I wasn’t going to say anything about the @WIRED article that was recently posted—I usually try to stay out of these things. But after reading it, I’ve been left with some serious concerns that I just can’t ignore. The article effectively doxes three people in the scene and describes someone engaging in behavior that could have killed them—without any effort to contact community staff or moderators, or even acknowledge how dangerous that situation was. It claims those people requested anonymity, yet fails to provide functional anonymity. Listing someone's age, job, location, and niche VR event affiliation makes them identifiable. This kind of half-anonymity puts vulnerable people at real risk—especially when those people are already marginalized, stigmatized, or could face consequences for what’s shared. That’s not just a sloppy oversight. It borders on exploitation. Let me be very clear: no community I’m involved with would ever allow someone to remain awake and using substances for longer than 24 hours without serious concern and intervention. It makes me incredibly upset to see that someone was not only permitted to engage in such extreme behavior, but had that behavior published without any attempt to protect or help them. That is not OK. That is not acceptable behavior in any community. And Mattha Busby should never have allowed it to be presented the way it was. I am genuinely concerned for the safety of “O’Rourke,” and I would like to know their VRChat username so we can keep an eye out and ensure they’re not attending events while engaging in harmful or dangerous behaviors. No one should have to carry the weight of watching someone self-destruct in real time—especially when that suffering is turned into an article. Mattha, I am absolutely disgusted by your choices here. You didn’t just put people at risk—you risked someone’s life for the sake of your own career. How dare you undermine the safety of our scene on so many levels at once. From this point on, I’ll be making sure you are not welcome at any event I’m involved in. You had a responsibility to report what you witnessed to community staff or authorities—not to glorify it. And then to write about it in this tone? It blows my mind how little empathy or foresight went into this. You can write a critical article without endangering lives. You should know that. I will be reaching out to those affected and doing my part to help keep this scene safe from people who show such disregard for health, safety, and trust. And to anyone who read the article: please understand that the kind of behavior described is not normalized here. It is not welcome, and we do not encourage it. Finally, to WIRED: consider this seriously—because at this point, I genuinely believe that an AI would have shown more care than your journalist did. At the very least, an AI wouldn’t have doxed people.