
Fork My Dongle - vor_
http://forkmydongle.com
======
pud
Considered buying it. But "fork my dongle" isn't, technically, a thing.

So I'd feel kinda like a poser wearing it -- like "look, I'm a l33t haxor!"
who got it wrong. Or like ones of those Chinese tattoos that doesn't actually
mean anything in Chinese. Or like one of those action movies with bogus
hacking scenes ("enhance!"). Or like someone wearing an Iron Maiden shirt from
Urban Outfitters who's never actually heard the band.

Sigh. Sorry be "that guy."

~~~
antidaily
Exactly. It's just a reference to an unfortunate series of events that won't
be worth explaining in a month. Make it 'Fork My Repo' and I'm a buyer.

~~~
mlent
As a woman I'd probably be afraid to wear a "Fork my Repo" shirt. I think you
can guess why. Just some food for thought...

~~~
rplnt
Why? (not why as "I don't see anything wrong" but why as "I really don't know,
please explain")

~~~
ChrisNorstrom
Fork = Fuck

Repo = Vagina

A woman walking around with a metaphoric "fuck my vagina" shirt is asking to
be hit on and told dirty jokes. It would be like a straight man going into a
gay bar with a shirt that says "My backdoor is open".

~~~
jgrahamc
How did you get vagina from repo?

------
philwelch
I _love_ this. Finally someone is treating the situation with exactly the
right tone.

Quoth PG, from "What You Can't Say":

Best of all, probably, is humor. Zealots, whatever their cause, invariably
lack a sense of humor. They can't reply in kind to jokes. They're as unhappy
on the territory of humor as a mounted knight on a skating rink. Victorian
prudishness, for example, seems to have been defeated mainly by treating it as
a joke. Likewise its reincarnation as political correctness. "I am glad that I
managed to write 'The Crucible,'" Arthur Miller wrote, "but looking back I
have often wished I'd had the temperament to do an absurd comedy, which is
what the situation deserved."

~~~
stcredzero
There's been plenty of humor by cruel people perpetrating injustices. _They_
thought it was genuinely funny at the time. Sometimes, a bit more time has to
pass before things can be laughed off.

Zealots are known for absolutist positions. An absolutist position on laughter
is as much a potential big mistake as most other absolutist positions. There's
no substitute to being aware of your surroundings and being open to others and
the moment.

~~~
philwelch
I will forever remain at a loss about how dongle jokes perpetrate injustice.
All I know is that they really got under the skin of an all-too-serious,
uptight prig, and the overreaction of that prig means it gets even deeper
under the skin of prigs everywhere. And that is always funny.

~~~
stcredzero
_> I will forever remain at a loss about how dongle jokes perpetrate
injustice._

I wasn't talking about the present situation. I have to speak out against the
notion that laughter = good. It's not. It's orthogonal. I see so many young
people use the good feeling of it to convince themselves they're doing right,
though.

 _> All I know is that they really got under the skin of an all-too-serious,
uptight prig, and the overreaction of that prig means it gets even deeper
under the skin of prigs everywhere. And that is always funny._

Nope. No bitterness or contempt there at all. Your breadth of experience is
such that you can guarantee you have a full understanding of everyone, such
that you always know perfectly who has genuine suffering and who is just
uptight and trying to control? Sounds entirely plausible and humble to me.
Sounds kinda like Santa's list.

Again, this isn't for or against Adria or the other parties, or even about
this one issue. Laughter is many things and it's often wonderful, but it isn't
a supernatural oracle of good. Taking it to be that is a pathway to madness.
It's like worshipping the feeling of being in love. And we all know _that_
never goes wrong.

~~~
philwelch
I think you're attributing opinions to me that I never expressed. I'm just
saying that poking fun is a perfectly appropriate response to this particular
absurd situation.

~~~
stcredzero
_> I think you're attributing opinions to me that I never expressed._

It was because of the "always." Seems like you meant that more as "most of the
time."

 _> I'm just saying that poking fun is a perfectly appropriate response to
this particular absurd situation._

With that, I'll entirely agree.

~~~
philwelch
Getting under the skin of prigs is always funny. I think that's a fair
statement. It might not always be socially justifiable or always be the best
response, but it's always funny.

~~~
stcredzero
Have you ever happened to find you got under the skin of someone you thought
was a prig, but then turned out to be a legitimate victim?

Reality with human beings is complicated. Pattern matching simple rules is
bound to produce a false positive. Have you always stuck around and gathered
enough data to be sure?

------
karenxcheng
Hi, I designed the shirt. I didn't intend for this to come off as mean
spirited. There have been overreactions on both sides of this whole mess.

We made this shirt because we believe that it's okay to laugh at potty humor
and support women in tech at the same time.

Also I do want to make it clear that we are not affiliated with Girls Who
Code, we just support their cause.

~~~
icambron
FWIW, I think it's great. One of the things that bugged me about this whole
sordid business was the crazy and untrue implication that women are too dainty
to handle off-color jokes, or that if you think they're funny, then you're
against women in tech. I think this is an appropriate and reasonable, not to
mention fun, response.

~~~
derleth
> the crazy and untrue implication that women are too dainty to handle off-
> color jokes

Which is sexist, and I can't see how others can't see how sexist it is. It is
pure, straight-up middle-class Victorian bullshit of the kind _first wave
feminists_ fought against. It's the idea that women are not naturally sexual
beings until they're corrupted by the cruder, more physical men, and the
related idea that women are naturally more pure in thought and deed than men.
This leads directly into the Madonna-Whore complex and every evil, stupid,
petty thing that flows from it.

Real humans shit. Real humans sweat. Real humans fuck, and make love, and
occasionally forget the difference between the two, and act like idiots
because of it. Real humans are strange, flawed, hormonal animals from the day
we're born to the day we die, and there are no exceptions. _Making_ exceptions
in your mind means putting the person you're making the exception _for_ into a
non-human category. It is literally dehumanizing, and, yes, I _am_ using the
word 'literally' in its literal sense.

There are no gods. There are no monsters. There are just people, however scary
and wonderful that is.

~~~
cwp
Bravo. This is one of a very, very few enlightening comments in this whole
mess.

------
etchalon
So I just bought one, but am now regretting it.

You need to make it clear "Girls Who Code" has nothing to do with this shirt.

"We intend to give the money to Girls Who Code. In the event that they do not
accept the money we'll look for another charity that supports women in tech."

While I firmly stand on the side of the poor bastard who got fired for making
a simple joke, I find it distasteful that a bunch of guys would design a shirt
making fun of the situation and then donate the money the a charity that
"supports women in tech."

If Girls Who Code actually made the design, it'd be different.

Instead, this feels mean-spirited.

~~~
Finbarr
I'm sorry you feel that way. There was really no intention to be mean
spirited. As a software engineer myself I definitely want to see more women in
tech. I've seen a lot of interest in the donglegate story over the last couple
of days and just saw an opportunity to shift focus onto a worthwhile cause.

~~~
hurfdurferson
"Male geeks are sad, fragile virgins." Hey! I'm sorry if that made you feel
uncomfortable. There was no intention to be mean spirited!

~~~
mitchty
I'm a male geek, and was a virgin too once, I'd buy that shirt just because it
makes me laugh.

People need to lighten up a little and not read so much into everything
overall.

------
chetanahuja
Wow... How did HN become a den of self-righteous, humorless self-flagellation.
Someone tried to do something funny after all the overheated rhetoric of the
past of couple of days along with introducing a clever bit of entrepreneurship
in the process. Whether you'd buy the shirt or not (I won't) at least try to
appreciate the initiative and cheekiness.

~~~
pizza
I'm just getting tired of it... I want to learn things when I come here, and I
want to watch great conversations unfold, sometimes even participate in them,
but these meme-cycles... the whole "x will get google reader'd!" thing, the
fork my dongle thing, the chart.js 'scandal', all of these just senseless,
tiring mass bursts of outrage that pop up everywhere are getting in the way of
my goal of learning and conversing, and I'm just getting tired of it...

That's my opinion, at least.

~~~
josephagoss
I agree with you, but this excitement is a fundamental "thing". Its a "thing"
that people chase because it adds something to their day. Bored unexciting
people flock to the drama and this will always be the way.

(I'm about to generalize based on my experiences) This is why I love living in
Australia. I moved from the UK about 5 years ago and people here in Perth
generally have more interesting lives and there is a lot less useless drama. I
remember the UK as being so much drama about nothing, our lives consisted of
so much rubbish in comparison. Granted I lived in a poor part of the UK. I
just love this place (Perth) so much.

Sometimes I tire of the drama, although sometimes I join in because i'm a
little bored from studying and I disagree with what someone said.

Not really sure where I was going with this. Something alone the lines of
people need drama. blah blah.

:)

... back to study time!

------
pravda
As a man, let me state that the phrase _Fork My Dongle_ makes me a wee bit
uncomfortable.

~~~
clubhi
Yeah... It sounds like a man on man joke to me...

~~~
Emouri
Sounds like getting stabbed in the dongle to me :)

------
andrewkreid
I am uncomfortable with the implied support for out of date hardware copy
protection practices.

~~~
logn
What is this the 70's? Of course we need protection.

Ok, would this comment be appropriate in the workplace? Vote up/down.

------
tzs
Speaking of dongles in a funny context, Googling for dongle jokes turned up
this pretty funny comedy sketch from a show on the BBC where dongles play a
small part:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI>

------
zethraeus
Seems a little mean spirited - even if for a good cause and all.

~~~
kaonashi
In fact, that seems to be the entire point: to be mean spirited and obviate
any responsibility by claiming to support a charity.

~~~
Finbarr
There was really no intention to be mean spirited. The idea was just to shift
the focus onto something relevant. Girls Who Code is a great cause. There's no
need to buy a shirt to donate.

~~~
kaonashi
Shift the focus by putting the original tasteless remarks that started the
whole ordeal on a t-shirt?

Sorry, but I'm skeptical.

~~~
Finbarr
AFAIK we haven't quoted the original remarks and the phrase on the shirt is a
nonsensical paraphrase of what was said. Part of the intention was to
neutralize the words. Really, it's just a bit of fun and the best outcome
would be to raise some money for women in tech.

~~~
taligent

       Really, it's just a bit of fun and the best outcome would be to raise some money for women in tech.
    

Yes. You're doing a wonderful thing to advance the cause of women in
technology.

I am sure women will be out in droves dying to buy this shirt.

------
citizenkeys
I am considering linking to this on ycuniverse.com because it uses
TeeSpring.com. However, the shirt doesn't seem available in ladies' sizes.
Given the cause, I would think you'd want to make the shirt available in
ladies' sizes. Can you enable that option?

~~~
Finbarr
Oh I'm sorry about that. I thought that Teespring would give users the option
to select whichever size they wanted. I'm creating a new page for a women
specific shirt size.

~~~
Finbarr
I created a campaign for a women's shirt. Will add a link to the site in a
moment: <http://teespring.com/forkmydonglew>

~~~
citizenkeys
If you could somehow merge the two campaigns, then you'd be able to reach your
goal faster. I know the Watsi.org campaign somehow offered both regular and
ladies' sizes ( <http://teespring.com/hntees> ). There wasn't a way to add the
ladies' sizes to the original campaign?

~~~
Finbarr
Great idea! We were able to do this - both campaigns now on one page!

------
trhtrsh
Labelling one "Women's" and the other "Men's" is incredibly sexist,
stereotypic, demeaning, and body-dismorphic.

~~~
Finbarr
There was originally only one shirt that was not identified as male or female.
One of your fellow commenters asked if there was a female version of the shirt
available, hence the inclusion of a shirt with that description. The "men's"
shirt is a standard American Apparel cut. The "women's" shirt was described as
such by teespring and seems to have been designed for a smaller framed human.
Women should feel free to order the "men's" shirt and vice versa.

~~~
MrScruff
I took trhtrsh's comment as sarcasm. If not then I think people have
officially lost their minds and we may need to reboot the internet.

~~~
stcredzero
So long as Nimoy has a cameo, the majority should be fine with it.

------
niggler
I'm surprised no one pointed out the fact that marsupials actually have
bifurcated genitalia.

~~~
clubhi
Those marsupials have it all...

------
DannoHung
Fuck anyone who buys this. Adria did a real mean thing in response to some
juvenile jokes, but this is the real fucking problem and if someone got shamed
for _this_ , they'd deserve it.

~~~
josephagoss
Get shamed for this? Sometimes I feel I live in a different world to the
people in this forum.

Even my feminist friends would have no problem with this stuff, its all a bit
funny.

What did Linus say? "I like offending people, because I think people who get
offended should be offended"

I like that quote, why? Because some people get offended too easily which
makes everyone's life a little harder.

I think maybe Adria wanted to be the center of attention, and she was on a
"Joan of Arc" mission which is a little self-involved. Wouldn't you agree?

At the end of the day, it was a joke, you people in the tech community need to
lighten up, everyone is so serious here. You should come to Australia and have
some fun, although you will probably get offended.

~~~
MrScruff
Brit here. I've been watching the events unfolding over the last week with
increasing incredulity. I have to say the reaction to this t-shirt is taking
things to another level.

My only theory is that this is the puritanical aspect of the US we always hear
about. In the UK double-entendre's are so ingrained into our society that I
can't imagine someone being offended by this.

~~~
mogrim
I get the same impression, someone gets uptight about a bit of juvenile sexual
humour, and complains. All seems a bit Victorian and silly to me, but then I'm
not from the US and I've not got any major hang ups about the human body. Male
or female.

------
geelen
Wow. Did you guys miss the point or what.

------
nicedongle
Forking is Funny! We have another option: <https://teespring.com/DongleGate>

~~~
nbouscal
I find this one to be much more amusing, and also isn't somewhat inaccurate
like the other. Good stuff.

------
eksith
And this, folks, is how you make lemonade. Though I'm a bit cautious as to
what percentage of the proceeds are actually going toward the cause as I'm
weary of another product already being sold with a dubious cost benefit.
Cookies.

------
jpxxx
Is purchasing said T-shirt explicitly financially supporting Girls Who Code?

~~~
drucken
Good point.

 _Dongle is a funny word. Buy this shirt and support Girls who Code. 100% of
profits will be donated to charity._

I suppose that "charity" could be clarified a little better.

~~~
Finbarr
We intend to give the money to Girls Who Code. In the event that they do not
accept the money we'll look for another charity that supports women in tech.

------
DigitalSea
Wonderful idea out of an unfortunately bad and highly public situation. I'll
buy this for the charity aspect, but doubt I would wear it though. I feel bad
for the guy who lost his job because of this situation who has a wife and 3
kids to support. Supporting Girls Who Code is a noble cause, but I'd love to
see some support for the guy who lost his job and has a family. The fact
nobody seems to care about that part in this fiasco, that doesn't sit well
with me.

------
Yver
Gonna end up in debacle, like that "Enhance your PHPness" tshirt.

------
tgrass
Good to know this on the FrontPage of HN. I was wondering how the community
could say, "hey, we heard some women are offended by sexually implicit humor,
and we think a professional environment should be sexualized,so we're just
going to let it all hang out and if you care at all, go fork yourself."

</sarc>

------
SideburnsOfDoom
I am totally failing to see how this helps resolve this whole mess. Seems like
it's just making matters worse.

~~~
joezydeco
Agree. And it just lacks class. As much as I understand the situation that
created this shirt, this isn't the way to advance to a usable solution.

------
iagomr
Taking advantage of an inoffensive joke to start a battle for feminism is very
hypocrite if I might say. Sexual harassment is not hearing a dirty joke in
someone's private conversation! What should actual victims of sexual abuse
think about such drama queens?

------
charlieok
Funny, given all the insanity of the past week, that this hasn't caused much
of a stir in all the years github has been around:

<http://shop.github.com/products/fork-you-shirt-mens-medium>

I also remember having a laugh over their “fork queue” feature, which has
since been spring-cleaned.

<https://github.com/blog/270-the-fork-queue>

------
zw123456
<http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/dongle/>
<http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dongle>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongle> interesting to see the various origins
and definitions.

------
happywolf
I want to say the following even if I will be down-voted to negative
infinitum:

This case is just fucked up. Two guys exchanged some silly benign jokes. Is it
silly? Yes. Childish? Yes. But, harmful? Detrimental to younger generation of
coders? Excuse me, I am totally against sexual-harassment in any form, but I
won't regard that conversation between friends as one. Having someone fired
over this is way off IMHO.

------
datums
Let's not make this OK. How is this supporting anything ? It was offensive and
still is.

Here is why some males think it's a funny word.

Slang; see penis. Often used to describe a large penis, it can also be used to
describe a "average-sized" one or a small one.

~~~
Frostbeard
A childish sense of humour is not the exclusive domain of men, fwiw.

~~~
datums
You're right. That was a broad stroke.

------
clavalle
Can I be the first to say...the situation is over?

Please, can we get back to technology and the business of technology and leave
the drama behind?

This t-shirt is silly. It represents and extension of a moment in time I'd
rather not waste cycles remembering.

------
guilt
<https://github.com/guilt/nicedongle>

Everyone is welcome to Fork this repo without getting offended.

------
mattbarrie
Entrepreneurship 101

------
drucken
I love the idea and who it sponsors. Own it!

------
koala_advert
Can someone please tell me what this whole "mess" is? Apparently I've
completely missed whatever happened.

------
tiziano88
Context?

