7 ms·

Hi! I'm the creator of Leap. Glad to answer questions here.

• aiiane 9y ago
  Why exclusive to Facebook users?
  • EGreg 9y ago
    Perhaps because Facebook provides an easy and fairly reliable way to determine someone's sex. Many projects including dating sites have relied on it to do authentication for this reason.
    • aphextron 9y ago
      And it’s awful. This trend needs to stop. Facebook is an ad tracking platform, not a universal authentication scheme.
    • problems 9y ago
      I fail to see how it'd be good for this use - do they require a number of friends or something? I have 4 Facebook accounts for faking out exactly this kind of stuff, but none with any real information.
      • EGreg 9y ago
        Presumably most people are not like you and have only one account. The site can make sure you have had an account for at least a year and your sex is female. Otherwise you may want to fake it to get in. It's the most reliable "easy" way I know to determine this info. I remember an app called Lulu which did the same.
    • glorkk 9y ago
      A sizeable and growing portion of the population refuses to have any dealing with this shady corporation. Facebook is not a universal authentication platform and never will be.
      • beat 9y ago
        There isn't a universal authentication platform. Facebook is closer than most. And Facebook is strong for this in the interest of getting something out the door, to be improved later.
  • cbcowans 9y ago
    Leap members use their true identities, so when someone new joins I make sure they are a real person. I chose Facebook auth to get started, but I'm planning to add additional auth mechanisms down the road.
  • SrCodeMonkey 9y ago
    What problem are they trying to solve that can't be solved by a closed Facebook group? Do we really need another social network?
• deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
• Operyl 9y ago
  What’s the current queue look like, how long does it take for someone to get invited? How does moderation go on, what if a discourse gets way off track? There’s no perfect community, but I have high hopes here.
  • cbcowans 9y ago
    I'm glad to hear it! I look up each person who signs up for the beta to make sure they're a real person, so it depends how many people request access and how fast I go. So far discourse has not gone off track. When participants disagree they've been able to discuss their views constructively and assume the best in each other. That's something I'm most excited about. I expect there will be cases where that's not true though, so members who don't contribute in a net positive way will lose access to the community.
• TheAdamAndChe 9y ago
  I am really conflicted about this. On one hand, I think that it will provide a valuable resource for a large group of people, which is good! On the other hand, an online tech community designed solely for men would be met with hate and massive backlash. If equality is our goal, how will self-segregation help meet that goal?
  • kdelok 9y ago
    Not involved with Leap at all, but I've always felt like this sort of thing depends on how much discrimination your group is subjected to. Self-segregation like this provides a forum for constructive discussion, particularly if your group is still subject to discrimination (e.g. being undermined by the dominant group, intentionally targeted by trolls, threatened or cajoled). I don't know if it's a useful analogy, but I consider it akin to global warming being discussed by climate scientists in a totally public forum. The volume of anti-global warming sentiment and media coverage (both for and against) would completely disrupt such attempts.
  • lynnetye 9y ago
    While I understand this perspective, I also know that being a women in tech can feel incredibly lonely. Growing up, I was always comfortable being the only girl in a big group of guys. In fact, I still consider myself to be quite the tomboy. However, being the only woman in a room of 100 men at a meet-up can feel pretty isolating. (Especially when a dozen of them assume that I'm a recruiter. I'm not. I'm a web developer.) Many of my peers are the only woman on their >10-person engineering team. In my mind, Leap is a valuable resource for a not-large-enough group of people, and will hopefully contribute to growing the numbers of that group. Ps. There has already been discussion on Leap about inviting men to the community, and I'm sure it'll continue to be discussed! I don't think anyone wants to draw lines in the sand or create a "Us vs. Them" mentality. I do think everyone wants to have at least one person, one ally, in their corner though.
    • sievebrain 9y ago
      What? Of course you want to draw lines in the sand and create an us Vs them mentality. That's the entire point of the large efforts you are making to exclude men. Don't deny reality. It doesn't help you or your ever more dubious "cause". You have created an explicitly sexist community.
• seany 9y ago
  Is there going to be support for moderation transparency? Moderation bias seems to be an issue in these kinds of "closed" discussion platforms.
  • cbcowans 9y ago
    I expect moderation will evolve as the community evolves, but I don't plan to limit what people choose to talk about so long as participants treat each other with respect.
    • Crespyl 9y ago
      It's good to hear that you don't plan on being heavy handed, but as someone interested in online communities and governance, I'd still be interested in the answer to seany's question about moderator transparency. Do you intend to have admin/moderator actions visible in some way to the users? If posts are edited or removed (by users or mods) does that get indicated in any way? Different approaches to these issues can significantly affect how a community grows, and I'm always very interested to hear how new sites choose to approach the problem.
      • cbcowans 9y ago
        Thanks for the follow up. Leap is very young and I want the community guidelines to evolve as we learn and as the community changes. To that end – I don't plan to edit other people's comments, but I could imagine deleting an offensive one. If I do intervene in a conversation, I plan to do it transparently. That likely means posting on Leap about the actions I took.
• probably_wrong 9y ago
  I'll go straight to the difficult questions: 1. I thought gender-based discrimination was illegal. How is Leap not illegal? 2. One of the main objections of "gentleman's clubs" was that their (male) members had access to important networking contacts, putting women in unequal foot in an unfair way when it came to businesses. Wouldn't Leap be unfair in the same way?
  • rev_bird 9y ago
    >Wouldn't Leap be unfair in the same way? This assumption completely disregards the measurable advantage men have in the tech community. If you have identical programs, one for a historically disenfranchised group, and one for the group that's been in power for decades, only one of those programs is shitty. edit: "Advantage" was a poor choice of words, but since it's been quoted in replies I'll leave it. I meant something more like "given the gender disparities in the tech community."
    • TheAdamAndChe 9y ago
      > This assumption completely disregards the measurable advantage men have in the tech community. There is obviously an imbalance in the industry, but can you please provide proof that this is due to an advantage that men have? > If you have identical programs, one for a historically disenfranchised group, and one for the group that's been in power for decades, only one of those programs is shitty. Why would fighting racism with racism or sexism with sexism be a productive method of correcting imbalances? Wouldn't that just fuel and maintain the disdain between groups?
      • rev_bird 9y ago
        >Why would fighting racism with racism or sexism with sexism be a productive method of correcting imbalances? Wouldn't that just fuel and maintain the disdain between groups? Is this the "all lives matter!" response to this project? It's not a crime to point out that some groups are poorly represented in an industry. Are you saying the solution to "hey, women feel isolated in the tech industry" is to say "Well, let's figure out how to include men too"? If women felt like their discussions were being treated fairly in public forums, they'd have stayed in them.
• megamindbrian2 9y ago
  Aren't you worried that someday women will be expected to do ALL the work? Both have kids, AND write the software that supports the world's economy?
• byproxy 9y ago
  I'm XY and won't be able to contribute to the community, which I have no problem with. However, I do like to read fruitful conversation (via hackernews, reddit, online comment platforms, etc.). I suppose readership would also be private and limited to women? I definitely understand why that'd be the case, but it does seem to make it more difficult for me to get a balanced perspective from platforms that are majority men.
  • allergeek 9y ago
    It would be indeed interesting to be able to make some conversations public (upon some agreement), or to start public threads, although in read-only mode for non-members. It also may give a clue to other women as to how exactly may the Leap community be beneficial for them, or what’s the culture like, before they decide if they need to join.
• fruzz 9y ago
  Thank you for doing this. I've definitely noticed a dynamic at play in male-dominated soft eng spaces online that silences women. It has to do with men's behaviour and shitty comments in those spaces. Not all men, of course, but enough men - and almost exclusively men. It's why I'm no longer on r/programming. I'm tired of having to put up with that and I'm glad you created this space. I look forward to checking it out.
  • cbcowans 9y ago
    I'm glad you like the concept and are going to check it out! Look forward to having you join.
• kdelok 9y ago
  (not for me, so I'm not sure how much I could respond to questions) Is Leap for people who are i) female, ii) identify as a woman, or iii) both? I ask because I have a few friends who are biologically female, but genderqueer (by which they mean that they don't prescribe to the cultural stuff that is usually attached to gender). Would this be suitable for them? As a more general note, since this looks to be a community that's about inclusion and addressing discrimination, it might be worth taking care not to conflate "female" and "woman".
  • cbcowans 9y ago
    Thank you for asking. iii – My goal is to create an inclusive community. I'd say Leap is suitable for your friend. I am also learning as I go, so would love feedback!
    • sievebrain 9y ago
      Again! Your goal is not to create an inclusive community. Your goal is to create an exclusive community. Look, if want to create a female only website then go for it. But you have to own your actions. You can't exclude half the population then claim you care about inclusion. That is rank hypocrisy bordering on the delusional - you are doing the exact opposite of what you claim.
      • dang 9y ago
        I warned you once in this thread already (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16161338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16161338), but you've managed to break yet another HN site guideline with this comment, the one that reads as follows: Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Obviously Cadran was talking about making Leap inclusive within the scope of being a forum for women—that's what the question was about. You don't have to agree with any particular view to see that, it just takes basic respect. If you can't or won't abide by the rules here, please stop commenting until you can.
        • 9y ago
• Sephr 9y ago
  Do you allow intersex people to join Leap?
• msla 9y ago
  How does your site cater to the nonbinary and trans communities? Does the fact you apparently require participation in Facebook to register signal that you agree with Facebook's policy of outing trans and gender-non-conforming individuals in the enforcement of its "real name" policy? (Not to imply that's anywhere near the only problem with Facebook's "real name" policy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_real-name_policy_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_real-name_policy_cont... )
• scarmig 9y ago
  Hi Cadran! I'm a male identified person, and I think Leap's a great idea. A couple questions: 1) If someone put you on the spot and asked you to pigeonhole Leap, would you say it's intended to be a Hacker News for women? 2) Has there been any discussion of a observer/lurker status for men? 3) Do participants primarily shift their time spent on other (open?) tech/social forums towards Leap, or do they increase their total amount of time spent on forums to make space for it?
  • cbcowans 9y ago
    1. Nope! HN is for everyone. Leap has its own unique UI and culture. 2. We haven't discussed a view only public mode in any depth. The idea of eventually allowing men to join has come up on Leap. No idea if that will happen though. 3. I don't survey users about that so I can't say with any accuracy. I also expect it depends on the person.
• tbv 9y ago
  Can you support alternate forms of identity verification? I'd like to join, but I don't have a Facebook account.
  • cbcowans 9y ago
    Not yet, but I plan to in the future.
    • sn 9y ago
      Here are some ideas: lobste.rs has a invite system where a person who invites someone may potentially be kicked if the person they invite is a problem. See https://lobste.rs/about#invitations https://lobste.rs/about#invitations Organize a booth or representative at women-focused tech events like FFC or GHC, or have events/meetups for Leap members to meet face-to-face where prospective members are also invited. The invite system would make this easier to implement.
• booleandilemma 9y ago
  Hi, Are transgender females allowed?
  • antisthenes 9y ago
    Why would the answer to this ever be no? If you identify as female, you should obviously be allowed.
• chaostheory 9y ago
  Overall I feel that this is a good idea. When it comes to harassment, people tend to keep it quiet for various reasons, among them fear and embarrassment. While things have changed for the better recently, any venue that helps people speak up about their experience is a good thing. Of course like everything else, there are trade offs, especially when this community is female only... While as a male I was aware of the existence of gender discrimination and harassment, I did not realize how ignorant I was of the subject and how terrible the situation was, until I read Susan Fowler's account at Uber. It was a paradigm change for me. How will Leap mitigate from potentially becoming a closed echo chamber? i.e. will this limit needed but hard discussions between the sexes? How does Leap prevent that?
• sukhadatkeereo 9y ago
  Is there a way to join Leap for people who don't use facebook?
  • cbcowans 9y ago
    Not yet but I am planning to add other auth mechanisms in the future. If you send me a note at leap at ycombinator dot com I will let you know when I do. Thanks and sorry for that!
• purefunction 9y ago
  I'd like to join but I refuse to use Facebook. Please add a different option. Thanks :)
  • cbcowans 9y ago
    Thank you for the feedback!
• msla 9y ago
  I notice you refuse to answer questions regarding trans and gender-non-conforming people in general. Is your community trans-exclusionary?
• msla 9y ago
  I have a question you might answer: Given the disparity in different races being able to participate, will any special consideration be given to people of color in this group?
• gravypod 9y ago
  What would happen if a man lied to gain access to the community, became a respected member of the community, and was eventually discovered to be a man? Would that person be banned from the forum?