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I don't appreciate that this is being downvoted and flagged into oblivion. It's frustrating that we Hacker News citizens seem to have adopted a list of taboo to

I don't appreciate that this is being downvoted and flagged into oblivion. It's frustrating that we Hacker News citizens seem to have adopted a list of taboo topics that we aren't allowed to discuss - such as anything related to discrimination against a non-minority. I think this is an interesting discussion to have, and personally I wonder if segregating chess marginalizes the women, too. The atmosphere around this becomes that men are inherently better at chess and women need a special league with a less glamorous title. Chess isn't inherently a game where gender factors into your ability to play. The article [0] linked earlier establishes chess as a sport, which is fair, but it doesn't follow that all sports should be segregated. [0] http://www.chessblog.com/2009/10/abolish-womens-itles-ridiculous.html http://www.chessblog.com/2009/10/abolish-womens-itles-ridicu...

bencoder 11y ago
> It's frustrating that we Hacker News citizens seem to have adopted a list of taboo topics that we aren't allowed to discuss - such as anything related to discrimination against a non-minority. And yet the topic comes up repeatedly every time there is the slightest possible way to bring it up, even if it's completely unrelated to the article, like the grandparent's post. The original article had no mention of female prize or anything related to discrimination. Edit: reduced hyperbole
mikeash 11y ago
I find that sort of comment to be extremely counterproductive, because it's totally off the original topic and it seems to be the result of searching for some link to controversy and then pouncing on whatever's found. I don't really like clicking on the comments for an article about the economics of a chess tournament to find somebody whining about a prize for women players that isn't even mentioned in that article. It's just uncouth. Even if such prizes are a bad idea, there's not worth derailing the conversation, and it's rude to track down some nitpicky complaint to jump on.
- minority-one 11y ago
  How is it derailing the conversation? Are we keeping you from having your arguments in other branches of the comment section? Why should there be a section for people who want to talk about the aspects you want to talk about, but not a section for stuff I and others want to talk about? I understand you might not like to click on a chess article to find something else being discussed. Well, that happens to all of us in different ways. The way I deal with it is, I simply skip the comment branches that I don't care for.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    Attention is a finite resource, and stuff like this sucks it up like a sponge.

bencoder 11y ago

> It's frustrating that we Hacker News citizens seem to have adopted a list of taboo topics that we aren't allowed to discuss - such as anything related to discrimination against a non-minority. And yet the topic comes up repeatedly every time there is the slightest possible way to bring it up, even if it's completely unrelated to the article, like the grandparent's post. The original article had no mention of female prize or anything related to discrimination. Edit: reduced hyperbole

mikeash 11y ago

I find that sort of comment to be extremely counterproductive, because it's totally off the original topic and it seems to be the result of searching for some link to controversy and then pouncing on whatever's found. I don't really like clicking on the comments for an article about the economics of a chess tournament to find somebody whining about a prize for women players that isn't even mentioned in that article. It's just uncouth. Even if such prizes are a bad idea, there's not worth derailing the conversation, and it's rude to track down some nitpicky complaint to jump on.

minority-one 11y ago
How is it derailing the conversation? Are we keeping you from having your arguments in other branches of the comment section? Why should there be a section for people who want to talk about the aspects you want to talk about, but not a section for stuff I and others want to talk about? I understand you might not like to click on a chess article to find something else being discussed. Well, that happens to all of us in different ways. The way I deal with it is, I simply skip the comment branches that I don't care for.
- mikeash 11y ago
  Attention is a finite resource, and stuff like this sucks it up like a sponge.