> There is no right not to have your picture taken and publicized when you are in a public area.
There is in more civilised countries than the US.
> But the men she humiliated are hardly innocent victims.
One of them made a stupid little joke about "big dongles", which is a total trifle (and no, joking about "big dongles" isn't sexist by itself). The fact that such a big deal is being made of it tells more about the pathetic prudery of american society than about those two guys.
Conferences may be more trouble than they are worth
Posted Mar 24, 2013 17:15 UTC (Sun) by marcH (subscriber, #57642)
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> The fact that such a big deal is being made of it tells more about the pathetic prudery of american society than about those two guys.
While I don't agree with everything HelloWorld said I can't resist reminding that the US has one the highest crime rate in the world and about 0.5% of its population behind bars: very few of them with a white skin.
To me these issues sound important enough not to waste any time or energy or electrons on futile things like increasing the chances of little girls to work in IT (assuming working in IT is a good thing at all)
Maybe some minorities have a "web presence" problem...
Conferences may be more trouble than they are worth
Posted Mar 24, 2013 20:21 UTC (Sun) by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784)
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To me these issues sound important enough not to waste any time or energy or electrons on futile things like increasing the chances of little girls to work in IT (assuming working in IT is a good thing at all)
The polite thing I have to say here is: Activism effort is not fungible.
Conferences may be more trouble than they are worth
Posted Mar 25, 2013 8:17 UTC (Mon) by marcH (subscriber, #57642)
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> Activism effort is not fungible.
Existing activism effort hardly is. On the other hand, putting things in perspective can possibly change the mind of people not involved yet, affect fund raising, etc.
Conferences may be more trouble than they are worth
Posted Mar 24, 2013 23:45 UTC (Sun) by sjj (subscriber, #2020)
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I don't really understand what you're trying to say here. I choose to be charitable and think "futile things like increasing the chances of little girls to work in IT" is some kind of misapplied sarcasm. Little girls or little boys seldom work in IT - adult women and men do. Are you referring to women in IT as "little girls"? Because if that's what you think, here's my advice: get a clue and grow up.
Your post sounds to me like you reached into your Bag of Derailment Arguments and pulled out paragraphs at random. In order: what is the relevance of American crime rate and incarceration statistics (which are appalling) to this discussion? Second graf, see above. Third graf is gibberish. And just in case some young up and coming sysadmins are still reading this thread: please don't take BOFH stories as professional advice (yes, I've had to make this point to people in my career, and I've had people from outside of IT/Operations come to me and tell me they think it's great they don't have to be afraid of talking to our department anymore). You don't want to be That Guy.
Conferences may be more trouble than they are worth
Posted Mar 25, 2013 9:48 UTC (Mon) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784)
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Are you referring to women in IT as "little girls"?
I think it's obvious that they were not, especially from the broader context of the discussion. I recommend not looking for offence at every opportunity, instead giving people the benefit of the doubt even if you don't agree with their general position.
Conferences may be more trouble than they are worth
Posted Mar 26, 2013 0:16 UTC (Tue) by nix (subscriber, #2304)
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Curious. I read precisely the opposite from context than do you. Do you really think anyone is arguing that six-year-old children of any gender should work in IT?! Talk about straw women...
Conferences may be more trouble than they are worth
Posted Mar 26, 2013 0:51 UTC (Tue) by marcH (subscriber, #57642)
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> Do you really think anyone is arguing that six-year-old children of any gender should work in IT?!
(I wonder where you got the "six-year-old" part from)
Conferences may be more trouble than they are worth
Posted Mar 26, 2013 12:14 UTC (Tue) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784)
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Did you reply to the wrong post here? No-one was arguing that six-year-old children should work in IT. The encouragement of little girls and boys to become interested in computers (and one day in the future perhaps work in IT) was a theme at PyCon US, especially as they had tutorials for children and gave out Raspberry Pis to everyone. That's the wider context, not what the Internet mob had to say about it afterwards.
Conferences may be more trouble than they are worth
Posted Mar 25, 2013 10:06 UTC (Mon) by micka (subscriber, #38720)
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I think (but can be sure that) "little girls" was refering to the alleged cause of Adria Richards' snapping.
Conferences may be more trouble than they are worth
Posted Mar 24, 2013 23:22 UTC (Sun) by sjj (subscriber, #2020)
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Excuse me, but how does bringing out the broad brush about American society bring "something new to say and demonstrate the highest level of respect for others" (as the Grumpy Editor asked) in this discussion?
There may indeed be more civilized countries than the US. You may think that "the pathetic prudery of american society" is to blame. But the fact is that the conference we're presumably talking about here was held in Santa Clara, California, which is part of the US. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" has been part of Western civilization since at least 390 CE.
St. Augustine said it pretty well: When I go to Rome, I fast on Saturday, but here [Milan] I do not. Do you also follow the custom of whatever church you attend, if you do not want to give or receive scandal.
Conferences may be more trouble than they are worth
Posted Mar 25, 2013 1:16 UTC (Mon) by HelloWorld (guest, #56129)
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> Excuse me, but how does bringing out the broad brush about American society bring "something new to say and demonstrate the highest level of respect for others" (as the Grumpy Editor asked) in this discussion?
I don't think anyone brought up the point before that the problem may not be the developer who made a dirty joke but society's attitude towards it. I should have phrased it differently, but I still think it's a valid point to make.
Conferences may be more trouble than they are worth
Posted Mar 25, 2013 12:03 UTC (Mon) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784)
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I wonder how all this will affect the tendency of various people in the different Python communities to use Monty Python references in their materials. Making references to Romans, particularly visiting dignitaries, might be more trouble than it's worth.
Conferences may be more trouble than they are worth
Posted Mar 26, 2013 0:19 UTC (Tue) by nix (subscriber, #2304)
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I dunno. Adria *is* a plausibly Latinate name, heck very close to that of at least one notable emperor. (I can't help noticing the social context of names here. The whole personality of said emperor seems to shift if you modernize his name by removing the first letter: Emperor Adrian...)