

Dear Fellow Geeks: WTF? - kn0thing
http://alexisohanian.com/dear-fellow-geeks-what-the-fuck

======
jiggy2011
I didn't read every comment on HN about this whole fiasco, but I didn't see
any comments using words like "bitch" or "cunt". So I'm assuming that they got
downvoted pretty hard.

I've said this before, but people on "mansphere" blogs flipped out over this
whole thing, a lot harder than HN did.

Seems harsh to blame the professional software industry for everything done by
internet trolls.

Would be like me seeing troll commments posted on a car forum and saying
"damn, mechanics are such assholes".

~~~
mnicole
Exactly, the _anonymous internet_ reacted in a way unfortunately unsurprising
of them, but instead of focusing on the fact that trolls-will-troll, people
continued blaming the dev community for adding insult to injury. I'm _still_
getting replies to my response to mr-hank from accounts that were made
specifically to comment on the matter. Alex is out of place in speaking down
to the community this way; Reddit is a very large reason this place and her
Twitter account got hailstormed with assholes on this topic (and
misinformation about it) in the first place. He needs to look closer to home
before he starts telling other people how to handle the blatant sexism and
harassment in their communities.

------
astrodust
The general assertion made here, that the community is defined almost entirely
by "straight white men over the years", is wrong.

The community has been defined by one thing: People who were affluent enough
to be able to afford a computer, a connection to the internet, and on top of
all that, the time and inclination to explore and learn.

This excluded virtually everyone in low-income families due to economic
reasons. While most men and women were uninterested in personal computers
until they became affordable and the software and services available for them
was more compelling, in general terms, women seemed even less interested than
men in the early days.

The nascent personal computer and internet space had a lot more to it than
straight white men. If you were relatively affluent and had the inclination to
try, you were a part of that community. Women and non-straight, non-white men
have always been an important element of the community. It's just easy to
ignore that.

If we stopped assuming all the people in the community were like us, or more
importantly, that they were _supposed_ to be like us, we'd probably do a lot
better.

We're in an age where anyone can buy a notebook computer, I've even seen
homeless people with netbooks they could've purchased by turning in a few
thousand empty cans, and the barrier to engaging with the internet is very
low. Where the internet used to be exclusive, it's now inclusive and we should
be acting accordingly.

~~~
cellularmitosis

      "People who were affluent enough to be able to afford a computer..."
    

I'd offer the counterpoint of myself (having not written a single line of code
until my second semester of college, then going on to become a successful
developer), but I was affluent enough to afford college, so perhaps the point
isn't worth making.

~~~
astrodust
If you couldn't afford a computer, you couldn't program unless you were
extremely lucky enough to have access to an internet-connected computer that
you were free to use. Prior to the mid-1990s, these sorts of things were
extremely rare.

I'm not sure what your counter-point is. I was clear that having an
inclination was also a barrier. You didn't have, or hadn't expressed any
interest, so you weren't part of that group.

------
benatkin
It would be better for the reddit founder to remain silent than to post this.
It's an attempt to shift blame entirely to the individual users from a
centralized platform that picks and chooses its battles, and does so poorly.
Throwing around the term "open" where not appropriate doesn't help the cause
of openness online.

------
elmuchoprez
Well, I could write a huge long response to this, but it really boils down to
one question for me: When one person calls another a cunt on Twitter, what
exactly do you think I should do about that?

It's worth noting that every misogynistic, racist, sexist or threatening
comment I've seen during this whole thing has been in screen shots because
they all get downvoted or reported/removed before they cross my screen, which
seems like exactly the right response from the community at large.

------
rdouble
The dude who runs Reddit is just now noticing there's a huge crossover between
geeks and creeps?

------
mtp0101
oh no, people are mean to others sometimes ...welcome to adulthood I think
it's easy to forget that some people have real problems that don't involve
overreacting to hataz on the internet

