I attempted to sign up a long time ago, when the only authentication was through FB, which I don't have. So, the email address is in your system but I'm not a member. I cannot sign in or up. Is this something you can fix? I would contact you directly for support.

Yes, please email us [email protected]!

Congratulations! Do you have a policy regarding non-binary or genderqueer people? And are there any steps you're planning to take to keep your community free of TERF transphobia? I'm curious about building a gender-based community in 2019.

I've used leap for a while and have seen multiple posts from people wanting to learn how to be more inclusive towards trans people, but absolutely nothing that appears to push any sort of transphobia. Remember this is a forum for professionals. Every professional knows that preaching homophobia, racism, transphobia or whatever is wildly inappropriate and uncivil behavior.

I suppose it's something that would get addressed if a problem arises. But for now, why bother creating a whole plan to solve a problem that doesn't actually exist?

It's not transphobic to question whether a women-only organization should include transwomen. It's a legitimately hard question with no 100% correct answer. You have to deal with the possibility of people who identify as female according to their own standards, which you might consider dishonest or confused.

Step off it, mate.

There is a correct answer: People who call themselves women are women. Simple as that.

You're not the arbiter of Gender.

So Trump can be the first female president... if he wants?

Sure. Trump's an abhorrent human being but that doesn't stop me from respecting their gender identity.

I don't go around misgendering people I don't like because I don't like them. That's shit.

Well let's agree to disagree. To me, "man" and "women" mean sex (i.e. biologically male or female human), not gender.

> Do you have a policy regarding non-binary or genderqueer people?

According to the sign-up pitch that appears shortly after you start reading an AMA there: "Elpha is for anyone who identifies as a woman and/or non-binary."

Thank you for the answer!

Woah! Even after so long on HN, I'm surprised by multiple downvotes for even a question that merely implies an interest in inclusivity for non-cis people.

There is little that can be gleaned from voting, especially early on. It's just plain noisy and you don't know what someone is objecting to.

> Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Agree to disagree in this case, wherein I believe two or more people's gestures do communicate something real regardless of the eventual balancing out. Thanks for the reminder.

> It's just plain noisy and you don't know what someone is objecting to.

Then why does it rate limit the poster who might have spurred a discussion and wants to find out? They can't even post anymore until hours after the discussion died down even though little can be gleaned from the reason anyone downvoted them? There is some conflicting logic going around

It could be your use of the term TERF which is pretty loaded and has been associated with calls for violence against women.

Calling people you disagree with “radical” isn’t just a question.

Hi Cadran, congrats on Elpha and this new birth! I'm Marie and I also created a place to support women in this industry, Women Make. I was wondering, why did you change the name?

Thank you, Marie!

We landed on Elpha by riffing on the word alpha and the notion that we want to create a place where women come first. We combined alpha with the French word for she (“Elle”) to create ellepha and then shortened it to elpha from there.

Did you have any concerns over brand confusion with Elfa, the shelving system owned by the Container Store, which markets itself heavily to women (and yes, I see the rich irony in that :) ).

Ha, we chose the name Elpha by riffing on the word alpha and the idea that we wanted to create a place where women come first. We combined alpha with the French word for she (“Elle”) to create ellepha. We shortened it to elpha from there. Plus, the .com was available. :)

Funny, I'm actually French! Nice name anyway :)

Congrats and good luck!

Two questions:

Would it be helpful for women in tech in Brazil? (wondering if I should refer it to my colleagues here)

Is it for profit or non-profit organization now?

Thank you! And yes, many of our members are based outside of the US, and we'd love to have more international members to broaden the perspective and discussion topics.

And we're a for-profit company. :)

This looks to be a really great resource. I'm curious to know what your business plan is; I'm very interested in how to make a community platform like this sustainable without compromising user privacy. This is especially important when the community is focused on disadvantaged or minority groups, and I'm always on the lookout for the Right Answer. Have you written on this topic before?

Really good point and question! We don't have all the answers and it's something we're actively thinking about. Our goal is to focus on providing access and opportunities and use that as our guiding light. I think especially as members of those underrepresented groups, it makes it a bit easier to reason about what kind of products members will feel comfortable with. We are building for ourselves after all!

Congrats Cadran!

Thank you!

FYI, the link in your profile to http://elpha.com/invitations/join-hn does not appear to be working.

thank you! It should be: http://elpha.com/invite/join-hn

Just fixed it.

That page says "Hi there! Join, the springboard for women to excel in tech." It's probably supposed to say "Join Elpha, the..."

oop! Thanks for noticing. Fixing that now!