We have a similar dialog going on among the power users at Quora. The trouble women were having really escalated when the first influx of general users showed up.
It got to the point where many of them were going to leave.
All of us had a discussion, and Quora had a discussion in private with the women.
The ban hammer came down on a surprisingly large number of users. And it still comes down.
Most of us men, who participated in this, got to understand a lot. Due to the nature of that site, and that we have real life meetup events, many women felt it OK to just share with us, no filters.
And I was stunned. Thought I had some idea, and just didn't. Of course, now I do.
Honestly, that these stronger women were able to experience that, share it with others including men and continue on in seemingly normal ways is kind of amazing to me.
If more people were able to have these kinds of conversations, I suspect social norms would start to shift quickly, as would actions to remedy the problem.
Not that we don't have actions now. We do. People are supporting others who need it and we are beginning to speak out more and discuss it more.
But that ban hammer session was notable. A lot of the community got the message right away.
1) The absolute, lowest, background radiation level, of men hassling women.
2) Even despite that, demonstrably worse that what men get.
This is not the norm. This is what's still left when the volume of a woman's public presence is dialled down to infinitesimal above zero. Normal is way worse.
Kongregate most caters to the flash gaming, 12 year old male audience. To draw anything about online "culture" is hardly representative.
There is no way they're on the same level. The worst recruiter I've had to handle is way easier than the tamest of harassers. It's not about frequency in the slightest.
For the record, this is what the grandparent said that got him hell-banned:
"According to the article, the author received one unwanted message every 50 days. How is it "cognitive dissonance" or "denial" to describe pressing delete every 50 days as a minor problem?
Note that in a typical 2 week period, I probably get more than 36 recruiter spams. Could you concretely explain what you feel is being denied?"
You might disagree with it, but it's hard to see how it is beyond the pale of polite discourse.
It's difficult for me take your "deeply uncomfortable" seriously when you haven't taken any trouble to find out whether what you're saying is true. It's not like it's hard.
Edit: Also, it's disingenuous to quote that out of context to make it seem like comparing sexual harrassment to recruiter spam is completely innocuous, when everybody, including the person making that comparison, knows damn well how provocative it is.
I see the direction that hacker news is going. Whether by mod or by algorithm, it ain't pretty.
In the latest episode—this one—we learn that you're adding concern trolling to your repertoire. Your mention in another context of how this terribly-concerning "new direction" that HN is taking would never have happened under the author of "What You Can't Say" is especially rich, given that PG would have (and, as I recall, did) ban your ass hands down the fastest of any of us. It's I who have consistently been the moderator most hesitant to do that (Exhibit A, the present discussion), oh and I've been doing this job for years already, so maybe find something else to "concern" about?
You really got me with the "professional management" though.
1. Anyone with showdead turned on who'd like a glimpse of what I mean by "serial ideological trolling" is invited to peruse this eugenicist tidbit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7447575. There's a lot more where that came from.
It's basically just Internet trolls registering Twitter accounts behind proxies and saying the edgiest things they can think of to stir the pot.
This is misogynist male supremacist terrorism. Twittering threats of violent sexual assault is like phoning in bomb threats - even if you don't have any explosives, the communication itself is an attack.
High profile accounts could opt in to this moderation for tweets that @them or DM them.or whatever.
Two points:
1) Except when it isn't. 2) Isn't that enough? What are we, robots? It's true that some people might be able to treat the two things the same and not be affected, but they're a tiny minority. Harm is harm, even if you think that everyone should have thicker skin.
Just curious, because it looks like you're trying to be more transparent and I applaud that.
I don't understand your question about retroactiveness; can you explain?
White people determining what constitutes white privilege leads to white people conveniently missing their own blind spots.
Similarly: How come we see requests for devs to go out and ask females what their experiences and comfort are on online, but we don't the same for blacks and Muslims* ?
Originally, third wave feminism addressed this, pointing out addressing only female inequalities was unfair, but they've been getingt shouted down over the last decade.
Black people are receiving tons of death threats, at least one of them followed up by an actual death [3]:
[1] http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/dr-phillip-goudeaux-sacrame...
[2] http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/02/black_hillary_support...
[3] http://withintheblackcommunity.blogspot.com/2013/01/blax-new...
[4] http://aapov.blogspot.com/2010/07/freepointes-african-americ...
"I'm not racist; I have black friends."
So you assume I'm white and doing this? That's an incredible assumption when you don't know anything about me personally.
Let me spell it out for you - Just because some women happen to identify with the GooberGater movement doesn't mean that GooberGate is not, at the very LEAST, misogynistic in tone. If you can't understand that then there's nothing that anyone here can do for you.
Go back to /r/KotakuInAction. And tell the moderators there that they may want to drop their association with /r/dickgirls and /r/breakfemanazis
I see a lot of denial in here, people rooting around for reasons to think that there isn't a serious fucking problem with intimidation and psychological violence taking place on the net. I see a lot of cognitive dissonance, and that's sad, that's not a scientific mindset. You all need to get out of your comfort zone.
I'm a straight white male software developer, I don't need to care about this for any reason other than a life that doesn't have truth and fairness as a cause isn't worth living. I encourage you all to calm down, reach out, and really understand what it's like on the other side.