Adria Richards, PyCon, and How We All Lost

For the life of me I cannot fathom why PlayHaven went to the extreme step of firing the dev in question.

What he did was certainly wrong, but certainly not a firable offense. A stern warning from HR would've sufficed.

Also, I don't understand the hate and DDoS directed towards SendGrid. I think if any, PlayHaven should've been subject of it and pressured to reinstate the dev in question.

SendGrid should've been pressured to warn her, not fire her like it happened.

We commit mistakes every once in a while, and losing your job is a big punishment. It's like getting your car seized by the government for speeding 10% over the speed limit.

Unfortunately the outcome is that a message is sent that DDoS works to get people that the internet mob doesn't like fired, and that a part of the male tech community is wielding that power.

What if parts of the female tech community retaliate with a DDoS against SendGrid now?

Looks like the male privilege extends to having the resources to perform DDoS.

Amanda Blum apparently has a history of animosity with Adria Richards, while at the same time she also isn't one of those who would stick their fingers in their ears and say there isn't sexism in tech. That makes this post pretty interesting.

I think a lot of people (myself included) spoke out against Adria Richards because of her bullshit - not because she was a woman.

One can argue against what she did and not be a "mysoginist man-privelaged pig". (<--- I've seen women write that against people who spoke against Adria Richards)

"Because of my experiences growing up, I have triggers. This means that I’m always scanning for danger; for situations that seem like something from the past that could hurt me. When I recognize something that matches, I can overreact and feel intense fear, anger or anxiety. This is something I’ve worked on a lot. It’s much better now than 10 years ago but there are some things that send me over the edge."

http://butyoureagirl.com/13871/success-against-the-odds-fill...

(site is currently down, may need to view cache)

I'm surprised nobody has picked up on this yet.

I know many other communities and industries these actions Adra did would made her banned (forever) for much less things.