Talk:Zak Smith

Abuse allegations text and sources

As the RfC is now closed with a consensus to include the allegations, I figure the next step is to come to some sort of consensus on 1) what sources pass muster, and 2) how the thing ought to be worded. The extant refs are:

• Hall, Charlie (February 20, 2019). "Dungeons & Dragons publisher scrubs contributor from handbook amid abuse allegations". Polygon. Archived from the original on February 28, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
• Arndt, Dan (15 February 2019). "New Allegations Against Zak Smith Spotlight Rampant Harassment In The RPG Industry". The Fandomentals. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
• H, Brook (15 February 2019). "Tabletop RPG Community Boycotts Zak Smith". Pop Culture Uncovered.
• "411MANIA". Wizards of the Coast Issues Statement About D&D 5E Contributor Zak Smith Following Abuse Allegations. Archived from the original on July 4, 2020. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
• Sheehan, Gavin (19 February 2019). "Dungeons & Dragons Issues a Statement on the Zak Smith Situation". Bleeding Cool News And Rumors. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
• Hoffer, Christian. "'Dungeons & Dragons' Releases Statement on Zak Smith". comicbook.com. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
• Smith, Zak (13 February 2019). "The Statement". Official Z Announcements.
• Smith, Zak (12 June 2019). "Im Suing". Official Z Announcements.
• Girdwood, Andrew (29 November 2019). "Backlisted RPG designer's defamation case forces ex-girlfriend into crowdfunding". Geek Native. Retrieved 4 July 2020.

Other proposed sources (much gratitude towards the various Wikipedians who presented these) include:

• Law360 articles
• 2020 Palgrave Macmillan book Gaming the Dynamics of Online Harassment
• 2024 UBC Press book Suing for Silence
• The recent court decision
• Gen Con statement
• Geek Native March 2021, May 2021, July 2022
• Cook, James R.G. (23 June 2021). "Zak Sabbath's Defamation Claim Allowed To Continue Against Mandy Morbid". Gale A666215749. (OCLC 405655596)

Until it was deleted, the original version of the "Sexual abuse allegations" section read as follows:

Original text

Sexual abuse allegations

Due to allegations of abuse by several women including Morbid, Wizards of the Coast announced in February 2019 they would be removing all references to Smith from the print and digital editions of Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition. Kenneth Hite, a former RPG collaborator, apologized to the women and said he would donate the proceeds from their upcoming book to a non-profit addressing domestic violence. OneBookShelf announced it would no longer work with Smith and would donate revenue generated from existing titles with Smith to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. Smith was also banned from attending Gen Con. Smith denied the accusations and filed a defamation lawsuit against Morbid.

Here's a version that keeps the same refs but condenses the section into two sentences:

Possible new text

In February 2019, due to allegations of abuse by several women including Morbid, Wizards of the Coast announced that they would be removing all references to Smith from the print and digital editions of Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition, OneBookShelf announced it would no longer work with Smith, and Smith was also banned from attending Gen Con. Smith denied the accusations and filed a defamation lawsuit against Morbid.

Honestly I would like to expand the section somewhat to cover his the rest of his RPG career - perhaps something like Smith has written for role-playing games such as Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Demon City, the Cube World series of adventures, I Am the Weapon, and Places to Go, People to Be. Several of his contributions received awards, including multiple ENnies for various Lamentations of the Flame Princess products. This could be followed with the abuse allegations.

Thoughts? NekoKatsun (nyaa) 16:02, 26 September 2025 (UTC)

The text looks fine to me. I would use Polygon and the two book sources to support the allegations, and exclude Fandomentals, Bleeding Cool and PopCulture. The court document can't be used, as it require interpretation by a secondary source. The article is no longer fully-protected, so regular editing can now resume. Isaidnoway (talk) 17:20, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

The possible new text (inlcuding the RPG career expansion) seems good. The two book sources cover that the event occured (ie. allegations were made) and Polygon is the strongest industry source for the career impact (although Bleeding Cool & ComicBook.com could also work as additional sources with the Polygon source). Has anyone accessed the Law360 articles to see how they can be used (ie. lawsuit outcomes) or should a request be made at WP:REX? Sariel Xilo (talk) 17:28, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

You can see a repost of one of the Law360 articles. Morbidthoughts (talk) 02:30, 30 September 2025 (UTC)

This seems like an improvement and a reasonable place to start. We can always add the Law360 stuff later. I'd also substitute the academic sources for the primary sources cited in this version. MrOllie (talk) 14:22, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

• Yeah, that looks like a good start to me. --Aquillion (talk) 03:28, 30 September 2025 (UTC)
• You should implement it NekoKatsun. Morbidthoughts (talk) 22:23, 6 October 2025 (UTC)

  Thank you (and thanks to everyone for the input)! The allegations had been restored; I added the RPG authorship and tweaked the grammar a little in the allegations themselves. NekoKatsun (nyaa) 01:18, 7 October 2025 (UTC)

References

Why is a statement of fact that he's Jewish controversial Edit request 27 December 2025

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Description of suggested change:

Smith has openly shared on public forums that he's Jewish (see refs above), clearly wanting the public to know. This fact is backed up by his multiple public tweets. It’s up to the readers to decide whether his Jewish background influences his art—it definitely does, especially when it touches on themes like degenerative art and moral panic.

Diff:

−

Smith was born in 1976 in Syracuse, New York.[1] His father, Howard Jay Smith, is a writer and former television executive.[2]

+

Smith was born in 1976 in Syracuse, New York.[1] Smith has stated that he is Jewish. His father, Howard Jay Smith, is a writer and former television executive.[2]

~2025-43337-41 (talk) 15:39, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

As @BusterD said, this is a controversial edit request and cannot be made since you aren't extended-confirmed. Children Will Listen (🐄 talk, 🫘 contribs) 15:45, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

Per WP:PROPORTION, so what? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 16:23, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

EC discussion

@Gråbergs Gråa Sång, ChildrenWillListen, and BusterD: This could be included in the personal life section as an WP:ABOUTSELF/WP:BLPSELFPUB statement. I'm not seeing why this would be a WP:PROPORTION issue in that subsection. Sariel Xilo (talk) 17:30, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

I don't think Zak Smith's ethnicity/religion is important in any way. Also see Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)/Archive 223 § Should we have an essay or something on "Jew tagging"? for further discussion and perspectives. Children Will Listen (🐄 talk, 🫘 contribs) 17:41, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

I remember that village pump discussion. While I don't have time to get into the weeds on the broader implications of it, I think this comment (which ends with "we should be very hesitant to treat the question of Jewish representation any different than any other ethnicity in terms of how we shape and apply our policies") makes a lot of sense. If others strongly feel that this isn't an WP:ABOUTSELF statement or there's a policy reason to not include it, I'm fine with that. Sariel Xilo (talk) 18:18, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

It's ABOUTSELF-fine, IMO it fails PROPORTION just the same. If no secondary source cares, why should we? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 21:01, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

I'm with Gråbergs Gråa Sång on this. No independent sources have been put forward that mention his Jewish background, so it doesn't merit inclusion even in the Personal life section. If there are independent reliable sources mentioning it, it might be a different matter. Yngvadottir (talk) 23:50, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

• In response to the (now blocked) OP, the addition is only controversial because Zak Smith's obvious and relentless autobiographical puppetry behaviors have rendered EVERY request by non-ECP editors controversial. This is quite out of the hands of local editors. Look at the last five edit requests: November 25, a passing identified sockpuppet requests we remove a section which cites the subject's previous bad behavior; on 11/30 another long-dormant account uses nine of their 15 total edits to request we add newer released products to his catalog without any citation; 12/8 a temporary account asks us to radically alter the same section which cites the subject's previous bad behavior; 12/27 a temporary account asks us to add ethnicity with only old twitter posts as proof; later the same day a connected (now blocked) temporary account asks why such addition would be controversial. Remember, Zak wrote this entire article, they've managed it for 20 years. They obviously have a hard time letting go; hence the socking continues. It is the actions of Zak's many puppets which make EVERY non-ECP request controversial. This is not about content of any sort; it is entirely about Zak's continued puppetry. BusterD (talk) 09:43, 28 December 2025 (UTC)

  The CUs have figured this out already, but yes, through off-wiki evidence I can attest that the Jewish edit requests were asked by a certain member of the Slacker13 sock/meatfarm. The book edit request is also probably related, but there's no smoking-gun evidence I'm able to access. Children Will Listen (🐄 talk, 🫘 contribs) 15:37, 28 December 2025 (UTC)

For the interested, Wikipedia:Village_pump_(miscellaneous)#What's_wrong_with_being_Jewish?. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 22:41, 28 December 2025 (UTC)

Not surprisingly, the thread was started by an IP contributor who has since been blocked by an uninvolved admin. BusterD (talk) 07:14, 29 December 2025 (UTC)

Unless there is something more to the purported background I don't see that it adds anything.

A while ago, a editor who had been editing some BLPs on Australian far-right figures to soften the content of their articles, decided they were going to edit Nick McKenzie just to add a sentence stating that they are a jew. No other context. It immediately stood out to me what the game was and I removed it. It was only a while later, that upon doing some reading, I came to understand that there was a bit of a story to his background and that it was significant to understanding him as a person. At that point I added material about the subjects ethnicity back in. While a wee bit different here, I think the same idea stands, that unless it adds to our understanding of the subject, then why would we want to add it? If all we would say is 'X is a jew', then I don't see a reason for inclusion. WP:V does not guarantee inclusion. TarnishedPath^talk 07:51, 29 December 2025 (UTC)

Yes, this is basically what we should be asking. Is there a story to the background that informs his life and work. Andre🚐 20:28, 29 December 2025 (UTC)

Updates to lawsuit per RFC

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Trying to update the results of the lawsuit, per the most recent RFC (Option 2, with update on lawsuit outcome). Here are the links:

https://torontosun.com/news/provincial/divorced-porn-stars-bring-defamation-lawsuit-to-ontario-court-of-appeal

https://familyllb.com/2025/10/09/after-separation-why-defaming-your-ex-can-land-you-in-court/

https://artillerymag.com/at-home-in-the-chaos/

https://theweeklyfootnote.com/2025/11/26/what-is-it-like-to-be-painted-by-zak-smith/

Will attempt again unless there is good reason for not updating with current information? Coffeeurbanite (talk) 22:38, 11 September 2026 (UTC)

All four sources have flaws and should not be considered WP:RSes. Both artillerymag and theweeklyfootnote are art review profile articles written by his local colleagues that at most fall under WP:RSOPINION. Further Zak Smith was a columnist for artillery, a fact that was hidden right around the time the last brigading happened. The familyllb is a blog by a law firm. The Toronto Sun is a tabloid newspaper disputed at RSN and is written by an opinion columnist, Michele Mandel; hence her name in the actual header title. Morbidthoughts (talk) 23:07, 11 September 2026 (UTC)

Also note WP:PROXYING and ARCA Morbidthoughts (talk) 23:22, 11 September 2026 (UTC)

@NekoKatsun, Isaidnoway, Sariel Xilo, ChildrenWillListen, Gråbergs Gråa Sång, Yngvadottir, BusterD, TarnishedPath, and AndreJustAndre: Pinging EC talk page participants in the past year for feedback. There is also the ARCA request above on extending the ECR to consider. Morbidthoughts (talk) 22:20, 15 September 2026 (UTC)

Also @Aquillion and MrOllie: Morbidthoughts (talk) 22:35, 15 September 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Appeal update

Hi folks. Arbcom is still dealing with ongoing Zak Smith related disruption, as I'm sure you've surmised from SFR's block. You're more than welcome to continue viewing newly created accounts intervening in this topic area with great suspicion. But the sources listed above do contain at least a kernel of verifiable information, namely that the Court of Appeal for Ontario has dismissed the appeal and awarded (limited) damages to Zak Smith: . How you handle this or anything else in the article is up to you, but please keep the spirit of our BLP policies in mind while you do it: the possibility of harm to living subjects must always be considered when exercising editorial judgment. A tabloid alleging a sex scandal and a tabloid reporting on the specific, verifiable details of a court case are obviously operating in different registers when it comes to BLPs. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 01:58, 16 September 2026 (UTC)