

Neckbeard Republic - bite-sized python screencasts - talmirza
https://www.neckbeardrepublic.com/?

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cjbprime
I wish this project had a different name; just another way to tell women that
they don't belong as programmers.

~~~
unconed
Women form into geek groups all the time... geek girls this, linuxchix that,
and nobody objects. In fact, studies have shown women have an in-group bias
where women like women more than men like men, so it's inevitable they will
stick together: <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15491274>

But as soon as a guy sets up a podcast with a self-deprecating title that
references his own gender, it's a signal that women don't belong? C'mon.

All the numbers I've seen show that, contrary to commercial IT, the ratio of
female to male participation in volunteer-based open source is minuscule. As
in, the norm is 1-5%, and it maybe goes up to 10% after years of advocacy, in
a successful project, e.g.: <http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/58218>

Arguably the most successful open source project, i.e. Linux, is run by a
self-admitted asshole who chews out contributors in ways that would rally a
never-seen before army of White Knights if it were ever directed at a woman.
Linux is successful either despite or because of it, and nobody particularly
seems to mind.

After a decade of goading women into joining open source, very little has
actually changed. Most of the women I know in open source got involved through
their job rather than a hobby, and I think this reflects the growing
importance of open source over commercial software more than anything else.

The horribly sexist incidents in the community ("perform like a pr0n star")
were always the exception, not the norm. The only thing that's changed is that
now there is a hypersensitivity over anything that might be deemed offensive,
as opposed to a "boys will be boys" shrug, and the loudmouths are favored over
the people who just want to get things done.

Focusing on gendered references like beards is missing the point entirely. I
think the only way women will ever make up a significant chunk of open source
contributors is if hobbyist open source stops being relevant. Most
technically-inclined women simply don't seem to be interested in working by
themselves for the heck of it, they care much more about doing it in a safe
and friendly group setting, for a well-defined external purpose. Hence, a huge
chunk of programming culture will be male dominated, and it's pointless to be
ashamed of that. Even though women are welcome to join the party, it was
mostly men that built the internet.

------
ninetax
I've really enjoyed the PyCoders Weekly newsletter curated by Mahdi, so I'm
looking forward to trying this out.

~~~
googletron
thanks!!

