

Show HN: We Got Your Back - jdorfman
https://github.com/jdorfman/wgyb

======
alialkhatib
A couple thoughts:

\- +1 to minimaxir's comment; this whole thing sounds creepy. Are you offering
a supportive tweet? 1-on-1 mentorship? An inside track at hiring at your
respective companies? (is that last one even legal in your jurisdiction?) The
vagueness here leads me to assume the worst. I'm sorry for being a cynic and
for pre-judging, but not much in this industry has encouraged idealism when it
comes to women in tech.

\- I read "Uber" and thought of the sexual assault from March. Arguably unfair
since that was one of your drivers, but that was my knee jerk reaction. You
make no effort to explain why you're on the list (not that anyone bothers to
explain why this list exists, see previous point), and I'm left to think
whatever pops into my head. Again, cynicism reigns.

\- Delete "harping". In fact, delete the whole line. The word connotes the
tediousness of women complaining about all the sexist shit they deal with in
Silicon Valley; it sounds like you don't really get where women are coming
from (which begs the question again: why are you doing this?).

Please try to make this more substantive. I would like to support anything
that supports gender equality and inclusiveness, but this is so vague that I
don't know what you stand for, what you offer, or what my own support would
entail.

~~~
jdorfman
"this whole thing sounds creepy." That is not the intention. Instead of
sitting on my ass wondering what I can do, I took an action. Might offend
some, might inspire others. I am in for a fight.

"I'm sorry for being a cynic and for pre-judging, but not much in this
industry has encouraged idealism when it comes to women in tech." You are
stating your opinion and I respect it. Don't be sorry.

"Are you offering a supportive tweet?" I tweet a lot: @jdorfman

"Delete "harping". In fact, delete the whole line. The word connotes the
tediousness of women complaining about all the sexist shit they deal with in
Silicon Valley; it sounds like you don't really get where women are coming
from (which begs the question again: why are you doing this?)." I Open Sourced
this for a reason. I am hardly ever right, this is how I learn about issues
that I can't understand from one point of view.

"Please try to make this more substantive. I would like to support anything
that supports gender equality and inclusiveness, but this is so vague that I
don't know what you stand for, what you offer, or what my own support would
entail." It isn't up to me, it is in the communities hands now. Fork it, make
it better & promote diversity.

~~~
alialkhatib
\- I'm sure your intentions are good, but imagine the interpretation of
someone for whom _most_ interactions of this nature are bad (or at least
unrewarding). Who says you're not some lazy pervert hoping to get lots of
women to contact him just so he can hit on them?

Again, I realize that's probably not you, but given that these kinds of people
exist, why would someone take a chance, especially considering how little work
you've put into proving your intrinsic motivation?

\- Thanks for accepting my knee jerk reaction; I expected you to (rightfully)
take more offense from it.

\- I don't think women in tech care for a tweet (it seems impersonal and empty
to me), but I could be wrong. Having your twitter handle certainly allows
people to gauge how serious you are on the whole about your views though, so I
appreciate your openness with it.

\- I'll submit a pull request to that end when I get a chance, thanks.

\- You're clearly trying to crowdsource this, but you're not scaffolding
enough. Like you said, you're _not_ sitting on your ass wondering what you can
do; so what _are_ you doing?

~~~
jdorfman
"Again, I realize that's probably not you, but given that these kinds of
people exist, why would someone take a chance, especially considering how
little work you've put into proving your intrinsic motivation?" I agree,
people are shitty. For me, I can't fake passion. I got back from OSCON, met
unbelievable engineers that were NOT white and male. So I will admit there is
a motivation, I want to work with the best and still live in my hometown of
Los Angeles.

"Thanks for accepting my knee jerk reaction; I expected you to (rightfully)
take more offense from it." You are welcome, while I don't have to agree with
you, I still must give you the same respect you have given me.

"I don't think women in tech care for a tweet (it seems impersonal and empty
to me), but I could be wrong. Having your twitter handle certainly allows
people to gauge how serious you are on the whole about your views though, so I
appreciate your openness with it." \- Sorry but you are wrong. I met plenty of
Women passionate about technology at OSCON last week that are looking for
help. This _isn 't_ a publicity stunt, this is how I feel and I am going to
fight for it using the help of the Open Source community.

"I'll submit a pull request to that end when I get a chance, thanks." Please
do! Make it your own. Just promote diversity that is all I am asking.

"You're clearly trying to crowdsource this, but you're not scaffolding enough.
Like you said, you're not sitting on your ass wondering what you can do; so
what are you doing?" \- Answering every one of your questions ;)

------
matt0perry
I don't know too many women who are "scared" of joining the tech industry. I
do know plenty who have run into the buzz-saw of social, cultural and
educational disincentives (not to mention downright ugly sexism) that render
them them either poorly-positioned or unwilling to do so.

I think your heart is in the right place with this guys, but it trivializes a
really serious problem.

+1 delete

After deleting, I suggest you (and everyone else for that matter) donate to
one or both of:

[http://www.ncwit.org/](http://www.ncwit.org/)
[http://anitaborg.org/](http://anitaborg.org/)

~~~
jdorfman
I promise you this, if I'm wrong I will donate $1,000 dollars USD to each
charity. I'm not rich by any means, so 2k would hurt. If you want I'll put it
on escrow. I will do that to show you I'm seriously passionate about this
issue.

------
minimaxir
The way this is phrased makes this seem more creepy than genuinely helpful.

~~~
jdorfman
That's the point, we have a crisis and we need to stick up for great engineers
no matter what race, religion, gender they might be.

~~~
cbeach
"We need to stick up for great engineers no matter what race, religion, gender
they might be."

Repo description: "Are you a female that is scared to join the Tech Industry?
Don't be, we got your back"

"No matter what gender they might be." As long as they're female.

~~~
jdorfman
@cbeach What are you doing besides leaving useless comments? Fork it, make it
better, "prove me wrong".

------
cbeach
"Bug: this repo is a trite, self-serving, empty platitude. Please remove it."

[https://github.com/jdorfman/wgyb/issues/2](https://github.com/jdorfman/wgyb/issues/2)

------
jdorfman
For those who think this is "self-serving" you are right. My job is to recruit
and hire the best engineers. I don't care what their background is, we need
great people to keep up with our competition.

~~~
cbeach
Perhaps try a recruitment site if you want to recruit engineers.

Engineers won't be impressed by an empty github repo, sorry.

