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Adria Richards: ‘I’m staying safe’

venturebeat.com

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Re: Adria Richards: ‘I’m staying safe’

#41

Post by jlgreco »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #24
criley wrote: post #18

I hate the idea that she's getting death threats and insults because of her gender. That's wrong. It's not because of her gender. It's because she's a notable figure on the internet. I challenge the reader to find any notable figure online who has held a controversial position and not been the target of death threats. That is an Internet anonymity problem, not a gender problem! Women are not the only targets of anony…

Please explain how this situation would have worked if, instead of Adria, the original tweeter/picture-poster had been a white, heterosexual, Protestant man.

Protestant like baptist or something? I guess maybe they could have stirred up some outrage from the religious crowd, over some sort of perceived religious slight? But most issues these days likely to offend fundamentalist protestants are likely to offend fundamentalist catholics too... I don't really know; what are you trying to get at?

Re: Adria Richards: ‘I’m staying safe’

#42

Post by MartinCron »

orangethirty wrote: post #19

I think it would be a great resolution to the problem if all parties involved talked, apologized, and moved on. Even if no jobs are given back.

The problem isn't even with the original parties anymore, all of whom seem to be reasonable people. It's the mostly anonymous commentariat who are using the facts to support previously held intractable positions.

Re: Adria Richards: ‘I’m staying safe’

#43

Post by srdev »

misnome wrote: post #16
logjam wrote: post #5

The irrational venom and utter cowardice of those who attacked this woman and her supporters, including here on HN, shouldn't be surprising, but somehow it still is. Tech? I would have thought better of arguably among the most "rational" humans. Yet another lesson in how close to the surface very primitive emotions lie. And tech remains a cesspool of mysogyny.

Tech? On the internet, with Anonymity/Age Ranges/Trolling, why should we expect anything else? Taking everything said on the internet to heart is a very, very bad idea, especially with anything this incendiary. Every time something like this happens people act surprised. Hello, have you ever been on the internet before? I'm not defending it, just saying that it should be treated for what it is - background noise.

The problem is that simply saying that we should treat it as background noise is functionally indistinguishable from defending it. Bad behavior should be called out and discouraged.

Re: Adria Richards: ‘I’m staying safe’

#44

Post by iambvk »

KVFinn wrote: post #2

>Look, whatever “side” of this you’re one, here’s what happened: >Some guys made some guy jokes about guy stuff >A woman got offended and did something that was probably an over-reaction >Some conference organizers over-reacted >A company (PlayHaven) over-reacted >The internet (all of us, but especially Anonymous) over-reacted >Another company (SendGrid) over-reacted >I’ve been cursed and pilloried and told to go kil…

Author mentions that her action was probably an over-reaction -- which is where I stopped reading the article.

Re: Adria Richards: ‘I’m staying safe’

#45

Post by onemorepassword »

Comparing her to Kathy Sierra is insulting. Kathy Sierra was an innocent victim. Richards used her position to bully others.

Yes, the backlash is distasteful and disproportionate, but if you're the one gleefully lighting the fire you are not just the victim if you get burned yourself.

Re: Adria Richards: ‘I’m staying safe’

#46

Post by citricsquid »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #24
criley wrote: post #18

I hate the idea that she's getting death threats and insults because of her gender. That's wrong. It's not because of her gender. It's because she's a notable figure on the internet. I challenge the reader to find any notable figure online who has held a controversial position and not been the target of death threats. That is an Internet anonymity problem, not a gender problem! Women are not the only targets of anony…

Please explain how this situation would have worked if, instead of Adria, the original tweeter/picture-poster had been a white, heterosexual, Protestant man.

I'm a very generic white male with absolutely no real notability and because I have some degree of worth in a very small part of the internet I've had people threaten to drive to my apartment and beat me up because I did something they don't agree with -- they never do, but the threats happen. Entirely possible that Adria's gender or race contributed to this, but it definitely happens to white straight males too. You're looking at the wrong end, don't look at the victim, look at the aggressors: anonymity and distance is the cause. There will never be any recourse for those that threaten, so they'll do it until they're blue in the face.

Re: Adria Richards: ‘I’m staying safe’

#47

Post by [deleted] »

metajack wrote: post #36
criley wrote: post #18

I hate the idea that she's getting death threats and insults because of her gender. That's wrong. It's not because of her gender. It's because she's a notable figure on the internet. I challenge the reader to find any notable figure online who has held a controversial position and not been the target of death threats. That is an Internet anonymity problem, not a gender problem! Women are not the only targets of anony…

John Scalzi rebuts this pretty well I think: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/08/31/the-sort-of-crap-i-don...

[deleted]

Re: Adria Richards: ‘I’m staying safe’

#48

Post by aliston »

thelukester wrote: post #32

Anyone who has read up on Adria Richards' past, knows she's an attentions starved cry-baby. Can we please stop feeding her ego, and stop upvoting these posts about her. She failed miserably at her job of developer relations and has no more business in Technology. Lets move on and stop talking about her.

> she's an attention starved cry-baby

From what I've read, petty much epitomizes everything I couldn't stand about dating in San Francisco. Too many self-absorbed, uptight, ultra-feminist, unattractive weirdo girls with a chip on their shoulders...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF2rq6WaC_4

Re: Adria Richards: ‘I’m staying safe’

#49

Post by signed0 »

criley wrote: post #18

I hate the idea that she's getting death threats and insults because of her gender. That's wrong. It's not because of her gender. It's because she's a notable figure on the internet. I challenge the reader to find any notable figure online who has held a controversial position and not been the target of death threats. That is an Internet anonymity problem, not a gender problem! Women are not the only targets of anony…

And yet this article completely misses this:

> Then the internet erupted, as male developers saw one of their own attacked for something that just about every man can envision himself doing.

There were plenty of female developers that also expressed outrage, that also admitted to making similar jokes. The root cause of this entire debacle is that everything keeps being framed as a battle between all male developers vs a lone female developer.

Re: Adria Richards: ‘I’m staying safe’

#50

Post by MartinCron »

esbwhat wrote: post #34
maudineormsby wrote: post #12

Sorry, but I don't think the conference organizers overreacted. They did exactly what they were supposed to do under the CoC - they received a complaint, and addressed it discreetly. If they hadn't taken it seriously, and just said 'cool it', then they'd be guilty of not taking their own CoC seriously. And they didn't kick the guy out, or anything like that - it was basically a verbal warning, but done formally so th…

I also don't think Adria overreacted. It was a microaggression. Jokes like that foster the uncomfortable boys club environment that is so inherent to tech. Were the jokes explicitly sexist? No, but in an industry that has more than just a bad track record, stuff like that is not okay. Context matters.

I totally agree that it was a microaggression, and that microaggression is a real thing that isn't to be tolerated. I know that it's all part of a pervasively unwelcoming and alienating culture that I, as a straight white male, am also disturbed by. I get all of that.

I understand all of that and still think her reaction was out-of-scale.

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