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Dear Stack Exchange, Inc.

dearstackexchange.com

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Re: Dear Stack Exchange, Inc.

#331

Post by thanatropism »

pcl wrote: post #274
Traster wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's two ways of reading this. You can read it from a technical perspective and take the message of something along the lines of "Don't invest your ego into unnecessary technical questions because it'll stop you having logical and productive discussions". But if this were written today in the context of something like this SE issue you could read it as tone deaf - a trans-man/women doesn't choose to face discrimin…

I see what you mean. I guess perhaps another way of characterizing PG's advice would be to keep your identity as small as possible, but no smaller. I think it's a pretty good idea to think about how to not be a "Java programmer" or a "kitesurfer" (to pick two things that I could be identified as), since the former sets my brain up to be implicitly against, say, Kotlin or Haskell, and the latter sets my brain up to be…

Not that I expect this to become universal mores, but wisdom traditions from Buddhism to Deleuze advise us (generally speaking, blurring important distinctions) to have no core identity.

Identity can be a tool and a crutch. My feeling (as someone who identifies as human and has been hanging out/coping with the world for 3-4 decades -- a feeling, informed by a lifetime of good and bad situations) is that identity politics hurts more the identity-assertion people; the opposite faction is merely annoyed.

Re: Dear Stack Exchange, Inc.

#332

Post by [deleted] »

abstractbarista wrote: post #317
mkohlmyr wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps my reading of the situation is way off, but at the risk of making a fool of myself: My understanding is that Monica wanted to use gender neutral pronouns throughout her writing as a general case, but that this was deemed "not good enough" (or indeed hateful) in the cases where someone has chosen specific pronouns. So I suppose this is what the GP is referring to. And I can't argue that it seems like a rather…

That is what this is about? There is something wrong with the way our culture is shifting. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Monica's choice. It is literally the most pacifist choice you could make. Anyone who feels "harmed" by her choice is only harming themselves.

[deleted]

Re: Dear Stack Exchange, Inc.

#333

Post by Fnoord »

raxxorrax wrote: post #288
crooked-v wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, not everything is political Name literally anything and I will point out its political implications.

That would not constitute proof. But to humor you and me, what about cornflakes?

Cornflakes? Not very hard.

It is related to GMO (genetically modified maize), maize/corn, large (subsidized?) agriculture in US, life stock feed (which one can argue is inefficient), high fructose corn syrup.

(Took me 5 minutes to come up with that, by just reading Wikipedia.)

Re: Dear Stack Exchange, Inc.

#334

Post by Fnoord »

rogual wrote: post #287
crooked-v wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, not everything is political Name literally anything and I will point out its political implications.

Number theory!

Not sure, there must be something related to politics at the Wikipedia number theory page [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_theory

Re: Dear Stack Exchange, Inc.

#335

Post by thanatropism »

michaelt wrote: post #264
pcl wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you say that?

Some people would say that "keep your identity small" is functionally (although not in tone or spirit) the same as saying "gay men, stay in the closet" because in the absence of anything saying otherwise, people will assume you're part of the majority. Furthermore, some people would say that everyone staying in the closet is bad advice for the gay community overall, as it means the average person will only hear about…

I'm not gay, but I'm chronically mentally ill. I get (a version of, at least) the whole closet thing.

But here's the nub: the mental illness belongs to some contexts (therapist, friends, intimate relationship) and not others (trying to sell a project to a client).

The part about preferred pronouns feels a little too abstract and counterproductive. This is a personal feeling, coming from a personal interpretation of sources of wisdom. And it's not because it makes other people react in this or that way -- the point is not conquering the Other, you can't do this anyway. It's about how you set about to cope with the world and grow with it; how you deal with your own subjectivity.

Maybe I'm wrong. It's a very different minoritarian perspective.

Re: Dear Stack Exchange, Inc.

#336

Post by test1235 »

anon12345690 wrote: post #169
kevhito wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just recently at a gender-inclusivity seminar. The speaker asked everyone in the room to give their name, but specifically asked for NOT everyone to state their [preferred?] pronouns. Why not? Apparently the speaker is currently in a community were certain transgender members feel quite strongly that stating pronouns is itself problematic and hurtful. For those of us not quite up to date on social movements, an…

this is the problem cause 99.9% of us know how to get along just fine without these weird pronoun rules theyre literally making EVERYONE work harder and waste time to not offend a single person who probably doesnt even agree with these rules

this article was posted here a while back:

https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...

I thought it was quite interesting.

Re: Dear Stack Exchange, Inc.

#337

Post by brandmeyer »

beerandt wrote: post #226
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on Monica Cellio's blogpost ( https://cellio.dreamwidth.org/2064709.html ), I think what happened is that, last year, she posted saying that she prefers, when possible, to refer to people in ways that don't require using pronouns at all. Later, this was misinterpreted to mean that she refused to use people's requested pronouns, and she was fired from her position. That might have been reasonable if she had actu…

You're giving them too much credit. She said she'd prefer not using pronouns at all. They said if she avoids using pronouns, she's just as guilty as using the wrong one. Then they fired/de-moded her based on her stated preference, assuming she would not follow the future rules. They also did this at 6 pm on a Friday. She's Jewish.

> They also did this at 6 pm on a Friday. She's Jewish.

In fairness, there really isn't a good time to fire someone. I would normally think that the end of the work week is one of the least bad times to fire someone.

Re: Dear Stack Exchange, Inc.

#338

Post by mwexler »

drusepth wrote: post #265
xibalba wrote: post #5

I suspect that the average user of SE will not care one bit about this whole drama. I do find it frustrating, puzzling, and sad how SE appears to have treated Monica Cellio. She provides an excellent summary (from her perspective) here: https://cellio.dreamwidth.org/2064709.html

As a self-described "average user of SE", I find this drama pretty similar to drama I've seen circling around the Quora "community" for the last 6 months or so: confusing. I use both SE and Quora to get answers, especially to extremely-niche questions. I understand that some people do use them for community and that people do interact and know each other on both platforms, but it's hard to understand complaints about…

One of the fascinating aspects of any user-generated-and-shared experience is that community forms. From original forums hoping to foster community to blog posts where folks live in comments to the rise of wikis and the the communities there, to the current optimization of "social networks", what makes the content good is the community who is willing to contribute to it. Just a pure "look for questions and answer them" will fail, and has over and over again, even with payment/bounties for answers, unless a community can form that takes pride in sharing knowledge, keeping things accurate, and trying to help. And once it declines, as these things can, into arguments from the louder voices, then the community suffers... and so does the quality of content moving forward.

So, without community, you wouldn't have the answers, and without the answers, folks stop asking the questions.

Re: Dear Stack Exchange, Inc.

#339

Post by NikolaeVarius »

raxxorrax wrote: post #288
crooked-v wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, not everything is political Name literally anything and I will point out its political implications.

That would not constitute proof. But to humor you and me, what about cornflakes?

I have no stake in this discussion, but man, anything to do with Corn is a minefield.

https://www.bankableinsight.com/the-politics-of-corn.html

Re: Dear Stack Exchange, Inc.

#340

Post by gwbas1c »

Yen wrote: post #232
tzfld wrote: post #222

I have read every hn submitted articles about this drama, but I still don't get what this is all about. Maybe because of my english not being the best.

I'll do my best to summarize the situation, at least as well as I understand it. When speaking in English, it often sounds awkward to repeatedly use the same proper noun in a sentence or paragraph. So, instead of repeated use of the actual noun, a pronoun is used. When referring to individual people, or to some animals, the most common pronouns to use are "he" or "she", depending on the person being talked about. Whe…

I think this is the best summary I've come across; I wish this was the highest-voted comment in this thread!

It's very easy to read, and doesn't fall into the TLDR camp. Thanks!

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