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To those saying, "Why is this necessary? This isn't fair!", Well, here's your answer: http://xkcd.com/385/ (XKCD nailed it, as usual.)
And here's my answer: Are you a girl? We are on the internet, I can't see you, I have no idea who you are.
EDIT: Oh, do you mean that women should hide the fact that they are women online when contributing to OSS? I imagine many do.
You know this makes me sick. Time and time again, articles pop up here on HN talking about some organization trying to promote and encourage women in technology and the comments explode with privileged boys whining about about how "it's not fair" You know what's not fair? A Teacher telling a 12 year old girl that she needs a backup plan because girls getting an engineering degree, well, that's hard. Getting one from…
We are on the internet, most of the time we have no idea which genre you are. Any women will get the same treatment as a men. I understand the issue in "real life" and it must be really awful to have to live that. However the internet should be considered safe for them and for me this action just give them a reason to doubt that they are accepted here too. Giving them the opportunity to hide their code doesn't solve any issue, it just create more issue. We could easily take any argument agaisn't code folding or commit rebase in version control and they would fit perfectly here.
You can't solve anything by hiding it.
EDIT:
Do you think that by removing every girl in engineering classrooms and giving them a private teacher that would help too? It's the same on the internet. Show them that they can be accepted, not that they should be separated.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To quote another story on the front page: ... that’s what happens when we hold events for women in IT when there aren’t that many women in this industry – we tend to broaden the definition of women in IT. The software industry exists to write software, and ideally it's good software. We're not here to engender happy feelings about bad code. If you're worried about immature people non-constructively mocking your code,…
There are an estimated 9-12% women in the field of programming. Are you saying that 90% of the female population has no balls? Or is it more likely that due the systemic method of education, girls don't get interested in programming because by the time they are taught it, the boys are in the computer lab making a ruckus and they'd rather go socialize elsewhere. I speak with teachers at primary schools who get girls a…
No. The major hurdles to becoming a programmer are crossed long before it becomes time to put code in a github repository.
> Or is it more likely that due the systemic method of education, girls don't get interested in programming because by the time they are taught it, the boys are in the computer lab making a ruckus and they'd rather go socialize elsewhere.
Given that there aren't any well-considered studies that show fundamental non-socially-caused cognitive differences between men and women, and that behavior seems to be entirely mutable and culturally-driven, then the fact that "they'd rather go socialize elsewhere" is likely the result of considerable cultural programming outside the immediate realm of putting code into a machine.
Of course, it's not that simple -- yours is a broad and inaccurate generalization of what girls want in school, and of how boys behave in school. Personally speaking, I didn't want to spend any time in the computer lab either, because the only people in there were super-nerds playing video games for hours.
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It's fine you think that. I think that hundreds of girls don't really care about that initial help, will get some seriously good programming done, release some fantastic code and not read your comment at all except with a passing glance at someone who feels slighted for something that doesn't affect him at all.
> ... except with a passing glance at someone who feels slighted for something that doesn't affect him at all. If the Ada Initiative didn't affect the rest of the industry at all, then they wouldn't be considered effective at their mission. Whether or not you agree with the way they approach their mission is another question.
Or you know, use BitBucket that offers free private repositories for everyone and anyone.
I think you're missing the point.
I get how this group may feel hesitant to post something in the open source world, but so was I, and I'm a guy.
Here's an analogy that maybe fits: Consider you meet someone that's afraid of flying. Do you say "come with me, I'll show you its safe" or do you say "here's a bunch of train and bus passes"
For those crying sexism, go take a look at the amount of women in the business, now THAT's what sexism looks like.
That's not every woman, but a very big chunk that I witnessed.
Our school began participating with various groups to secure funds to help encourage women to come into the CS, MIS, or SE programs. I can count on my hands how many additional women joined. Nowhere near enough to call the effort a success. More women chose the classical major choices instead of the various computer fields, even if they didn't show a lowered cost of attendance. Why?
Through it all, I'd have to blame the culture. You don't fix the problem by throwing money at it. You fix it by showing that Penny is just as comfortable around computers as Sheldon is to Theoretical Physics. A field doesn't have to be stylish, and a playing with a computer doesn't have to make you a nerd.
I assure you there's no concerted force working to eschew women from the sciences. If the culture fits and is likened by its followers, I'm sure the numbers will grow to equal measure of the men. If you start from the root, you can fix many of the problems we see today.
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And here's my answer: Are you a girl? We are on the internet, I can't see you, I have no idea who you are.
Why does that matter? EDIT: Oh, do you mean that women should hide the fact that they are women online when contributing to OSS? I imagine many do.
If the gender is not apparent, then there's no real way to discriminate is there?
This especially goes for HN. I have no idea who is man and who isn't, as most use some sort of username/alias instead of their real name.
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My statement isn't actually supporting either side of this thread either, just pointing out that their behaviour seems quite consistent with the things HN has vocally defended with all the zeal of a college freshman who has just discovered "Atlas Shrugged."
And again, there's the belief that someone should have the legal right to perform an action, regardless of whether or not that action is reprehensible. Ex: You should have the legal right to believe that all green-skinned humans are inferior to blue-skinned humans. But that belief makes you a jerk and I will judge you for it.
But we should confuse how you or I feel with the aggregate behaviour of HN in toto. My observation is that as a herd, HN approves of the legality, morality, and sanity of businesses, especially tech startups, making unconstrained choices that may appear "discriminatory" to others.
To those saying, "Why is this necessary? This isn't fair!", Well, here's your answer: http://xkcd.com/385/ (XKCD nailed it, as usual.)
And here's my answer: Are you a girl? We are on the internet, I can't see you, I have no idea who you are.
If the code's good and you can advocate for it - great.
If it sucks - it won't be used.