Diversity and Startups
blog.ycombinator.com
Diversity and Startups
1–10 of 218 posts
Re: Diversity and Startups
#2> Specifically, we’d like the community to help by downvoting comments that make HN an unwelcoming place to anyone.
That's only a solution for half of the problem on Hacker News. The other half is that most submissions about gender/diversity get flagged to death very consistently, which make it difficult to have any meaningful discussion about these topics.
Re: Diversity and Startups
#3> Specifically, we’d like the community to help by downvoting comments that make HN an unwelcoming place to anyone. That's only a solution for half of the problem on Hacker News. The other half is that most submissions about gender/diversity get flagged to death very consistently, which make it difficult to have any meaningful discussion about these topics.
We have no way to tell if they're being flagged by users or setting off the automated system for detecting flamewars.
One of the problems with the topic is that essentially every Hacker News reader feels as though they're qualified to comment on the topic. This translates into massive nested threads that blow up with people arguing the same points.
I'm not convinced that discussion of these issues on Hacker News does anything to push the ball forward. I have yet to meet the person who changed their position on the subject due to an internet argument.
Re: Diversity and Startups
#4Glad the issue's being addressed, but sad that it dodges race almost completely.
Making diversity all about gender is effectively playing the topic on "easy mode." Kinda lame, honestly.
Re: Diversity and Startups
#5Will all the misogynist trolls still come out to play on this one given that it's a YC post?
Re: Diversity and Startups
#6> Specifically, we’d like the community to help by downvoting comments that make HN an unwelcoming place to anyone. That's only a solution for half of the problem on Hacker News. The other half is that most submissions about gender/diversity get flagged to death very consistently, which make it difficult to have any meaningful discussion about these topics.
I have never seen an interesting discussion on that subject where I came away being smarter or having learned something new.
On the other hand I have had such discussions suck many hours away. I understand that this is a topic very dear to many peoples hearts, but it seems like one of those things that are just not a good fit for HN.
Re: Diversity and Startups
#7> Specifically, we’d like the community to help by downvoting comments that make HN an unwelcoming place to anyone. That's only a solution for half of the problem on Hacker News. The other half is that most submissions about gender/diversity get flagged to death very consistently, which make it difficult to have any meaningful discussion about these topics.
We have no way to tell if they're being flagged by users or setting off the automated system for detecting flamewars. One of the problems with the topic is that essentially every Hacker News reader feels as though they're qualified to comment on the topic. This translates into massive nested threads that blow up with people arguing the same points. I'm not convinced that discussion of these issues on Hacker News does…
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Re: Diversity and Startups
#8> Specifically, we’d like the community to help by downvoting comments that make HN an unwelcoming place to anyone. That's only a solution for half of the problem on Hacker News. The other half is that most submissions about gender/diversity get flagged to death very consistently, which make it difficult to have any meaningful discussion about these topics.
We have no way to tell if they're being flagged by users or setting off the automated system for detecting flamewars. One of the problems with the topic is that essentially every Hacker News reader feels as though they're qualified to comment on the topic. This translates into massive nested threads that blow up with people arguing the same points. I'm not convinced that discussion of these issues on Hacker News does…
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Re: Diversity and Startups
#9> Specifically, we’d like the community to help by downvoting comments that make HN an unwelcoming place to anyone. That's only a solution for half of the problem on Hacker News. The other half is that most submissions about gender/diversity get flagged to death very consistently, which make it difficult to have any meaningful discussion about these topics.
We have no way to tell if they're being flagged by users or setting off the automated system for detecting flamewars. One of the problems with the topic is that essentially every Hacker News reader feels as though they're qualified to comment on the topic. This translates into massive nested threads that blow up with people arguing the same points. I'm not convinced that discussion of these issues on Hacker News does…
About a year ago, a friend wrote a good post about diversity in hackathons which was submitted to HN and hit #2 quickly, then dropped down to the second page in an instant: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6495950
Not many people commented on it. I believe the flame-war detector only takes significant effect when # comments > # points, which is a pretty good heuristic for a flame war that has gone out of control.
Re: Diversity and Startups
#10This was a well written post and I think it shows that sama gets it. A little bit of slope makes up for a lot of y-intercept, as a post argued a few days ago. This is also the case here. If we all push for a more equitable Silicon Valley then we can make loads of progress in a short time. The rate of progress is more important than how much behind we are.
Many of us here are idealists. We don't want to work on any product, we want to make a great product. We want to do the right things. We want to use best practices and we want to hold ourselves and others to high moral standards. To make Silicon Valley a place of equal opportunity (regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, etc) we have to fight prejudices where they exist and we have to hold each other to this high standard too.
This may come at a cost in the short term. Hiring your college buddies is easy. Building a qualified diversified team is hard. But making this extra effort is worth it. It's worth it because there is an unbelievable amount of talent out there that is excluded from SV as it exists today. It's unjust and a tremendous waste of human capital.