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GitHub is undergoing a full-blown overhaul as execs and employees depart

businessinsider.com

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Re: GitHub is undergoing a full-blown overhaul as execs and employees depart

#171

Post by arbitraryreg »

almostApatriot1 wrote: post #128
hitekker wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes me sad. I thought you were being over the top about the racism but then I saw the slides in the article: http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56b3d2462e526543008... My first reaction is that the language of "us" vs "them", victims vs oppressors, reeks of hatred. Hatred undermines productive conversation, which undermines any attempt at building a good culture. I would have to listen to the whole presen…

Don't see what the big deal is. The slide refers to spearheading a diversity program, not the company itself. Seems intuitive to me that such a program with only white, male managers might be problematic.

That is a remarkably dishonest paraphrasing. Problematic, indeed.

Re: GitHub is undergoing a full-blown overhaul as execs and employees depart

#172

Post by morgante »

brighteyes wrote: post #169
morgante wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GitHub has, since the Horvath incident, made it pretty clear what kind of person they want to hire. And, frankly, that's fine. There are plenty of places where I, as a competent white male, can get hired and promoted without difficulty. The fact that Github isn't one of those is not a systematic problem. More power to them.

At what point does it become a systemic problem, though? Github is a major software company, and there are similar signs at other major companies, most of whom are starting down a similar path.

> At what point does it become a systemic problem, though?

When it's actually hard to get a job as a white male developer. We're very far from that point.

Re: GitHub is undergoing a full-blown overhaul as execs and employees depart

#174

Post by bsclifton »

fuck__dang wrote: post #98
teen wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

unfortuntely, bitbucket sucks. the website is slow as hell, the design is terrible, the code review features and issue tracking are awful

I mainly use(d) GitHub to have projects to show to potential employers. What could you recommend that would present well?

I'm sure folks will disagree, but I really enjoy Visual Studio Online. Free private repositories and tools (agile board, etc).

Unfortunately, GitHub is where people expect open source projects to be, so it's almost an inconvenience for contributors to be on anything other than GitHub

Re: GitHub is undergoing a full-blown overhaul as execs and employees depart

#175

Post by bitL »

cfcef wrote: post #151
bitL wrote: post #139

Seems like another instance of "let the nerds build a company and then take over"...

Should this be considered an example of entryism, or just opportunism?

It might be neither if it were the default (uncommunicated) strategy of investors...

Re: GitHub is undergoing a full-blown overhaul as execs and employees depart

#176

Post by yaakov34 »

She certainly doesn't say "only white" and she explicitly excludes white women ("some of the biggest barriers to progress"). You can make convoluted excuses for her, but it's obvious that she sees white people (of whatever gender or socioeconomic status) as essentially enemies, and doesn't want them as allies (let alone is willing to accept some of them as people with different, but valid opinions). It's not acceptable to write "we're not looking for Indian folks to lead this", and it shouldn't be if it's "white".

Also, it's definitely not just her, expressions like this have popped up in a number of mainstream places. I am definitely not imagining the various celebrations of white people "dying off", their share in the population dropping, and what have you.

Re: GitHub is undergoing a full-blown overhaul as execs and employees depart

#177

Post by jshevek »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #140
cjcole wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That categorization ("blatant racist") will sadly tend to produce an endless argument over who can and can't be racist. That's fruitless. More accurately, that statement is both anti-white and misandrist, almost by definition, by equating white plus male with damage.

> an endless argument over who can and can't be racist It blows my mind that some people really believe that only white people can be racist. It's like they completely redefined the meaning of the word "racist".

Yes, they did completely redefine the term. And they hold that their definition is the only 'correct' definition; all other definitions were a mistake and it is racist to use them.

Re: GitHub is undergoing a full-blown overhaul as execs and employees depart

#178

Post by mcardleliam »

connorshea wrote: post #92
GuiA wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And don't forget that killer quote from their internal presentation: "Some of the biggest barriers to progress are white women" When diversity initiatives become an "us vs them" discourse, everyone loses. Except for the fat cats with full wallets at the top, who have no issue with the plebe infighting as long as it's between themselves (see the not so subtly placed "this is not about socio economic class").

That's not an internal presentation, it explicitly says it's "a diversity training talk held at a different company". She works for GitHub, but we don't have any evidence GitHub explicitly endorses those views.

They are views directly related to that persons job responsibilities. So Github endorses the views by hiring the person and putting the person in a leadership role. It would be different if the views were not directly related to the persons job responsibilities and policies of the company.

Re: GitHub is undergoing a full-blown overhaul as execs and employees depart

#179

Post by Bluestrike2 »

iza wrote: post #15

> "We’re trying to build a new kind of enterprise company where the playbooks of old won’t always work" By replacing flat meritocracy and remote work with traditional top-down management? > "don't think we'll succeed teaching white, male middle managers empathy and compassion anytime soon, so let's limit their scope of damage" So the technical director and member of the social-impact team is a blatant racist.

The problem with hard pushes in the aftermath of really bad PR is that it's very easy to over-correct and wind up creating a new problem for yourself. It seems like Github is well on their way to just that with how they've implemented their diversity efforts. A lot of those quotes are truly scary, and are priming the pump for some very nasty lawsuits over hostile work environments that will only wind up creating new PR problems. And if those quotes are any indication, it's unlikely that someone is going to be able to slam on the brakes and stop things from getting further out of hand.

Re: GitHub is undergoing a full-blown overhaul as execs and employees depart

#180

Post by ktRolster »

audessuscest wrote: post #143
ktRolster wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you try writing a technical book as a woman, other women will discourage you, saying, "No one will buy a computer book written by a woman." No joke.

That's not true, this book [1] is written by a woman and got a lot of support : [1] http://www.amazon.fr/CSS-Secrets-Lea-Verou/dp/1449372635 (it's really good btw)

It's absolutely not true, and in fact the #1 book in Amazon's "Computers & Technology" category last week was written by a woman.

Despite that, it's a belief that's out there, and it prevents some women from even trying (which is bad).

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