
Only 1 in 10 Open Source contributors are women. We're going to change that - davidgerard
https://www.os4w.org/
======
dogma1138
Well apparently they will fix it by now allowing men (sorry people who do not
identify them selves as women) to sign up (ah, the irony)...

Sigh, if we are honest about this then Coraline Ada is probably not the right
person to drive this. She's been in the heart of quite a few controversies and
"flame wars" regarding quite a few social subjects: e.g. the whole GitHub code
of conduct thing as well as demanding contributions to be removed from OSS
projects because some one said something "offensive". e.g.
[https://github.com/opal/opal/issues/954](https://github.com/opal/opal/issues/954)

People like her who are quite polarizing and to be frank create the same
amount of social discord as they attempt to resolve on various issues aren't
people who can successfully drive these types of projects.

On a more technical note this whole deal seems to reek of bad startupness -
Make a site, have some vague idea of what you want, make it look very good and
sound smart and hope you'll get enough interest and attention which will yield
funding while you figure out what exactly you even want to do in the first
place.

While I can understand that solving 200000 (give or so) years of social sexual
dimorphism and role bias isn't going to be easy, having some sort of a road
map is quite important to achieve anything and vague politically correct
manifestos don't quite cut it.

And the fact that they don't really have anything besides a very SJWesuqe code
of conduct on the site and a donation button (not to mention the entire
WTFness of the "I identify as a woman" mandatory checkbox in the singup page)
doesn't really leave much room for constructive development.

------
Winterflow3r
Personally, I do not feel that 'umbrella initiatives' like this would have
helped me make my first pull req in a project unless the site plans to offer
concrete pairing and mentoring (ie someone on IRC/chat answering questions
about how to fork a repo or make a pull req).

And yes,this is just my personal experience and most likely varies from person
to person. If this intiative helps women who would not have otherwise
contributed to OSS, then more power to it!

Some great outreach efforts IMHO are: (1) Concrete instructions on how to use
version control (2) Encouraging open source communities to produce helpful and
newbie friendly 'Contributors' pages (3) Teaching new contributors how to
navigate a potentially complex and lengthy codebase (4) Not being 'RTFM' when
a newbie is struggling with a pull req (5) Having beginner friendly open
source sprints at conferences.

These will help contributors of all genders get started.

------
r3bl
Okay, I understand the goal of this project, but I _really_ don't understand
how is this project trying to solve this problem. The website is not very
helpful. I see no explanation of what this project is doing exactly.

I'm presuming that it's connecting female contributors to projects where
they'll feel welcome, but honestly, I can't think of any example where female
contributors are not welcome.

~~~
DanBC
They had a similar comment a couple of months ago.

[https://github.com/CoralineAda/opensourceforwomen.org/issues...](https://github.com/CoralineAda/opensourceforwomen.org/issues/6)

------
err4nt
The Code of Conduct says:

> "OS4W.org is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for
> everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression..."

— [https://www.os4w.org/code-of-conduct](https://www.os4w.org/code-of-conduct)

But the Signup page says:

> "This site is intended to provide a safe, welcoming space for anyone who
> identifies as a woman."

— [https://www.os4w.org/sign_up](https://www.os4w.org/sign_up)

And requires you to check a box identifying as a woman to sign up.

So which is it?

------
chrismcb
This site isn't very mobile friendly. The text follows off the screen and I
had to scroll back and forth to read it.

------
t0mbstone
Seriously... Why is something like this even needed? If you want to contribute
to open source, just do it already.

