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I am female, and have run my own B2B SaaS as well as currently managing chat (as part of marketing) for another B2B SaaS. I have seen all sorts of comments lik

I am female, and have run my own B2B SaaS as well as currently managing chat (as part of marketing) for another B2B SaaS. I have seen all sorts of comments like the ones mentioned in the article, and I hate to say it, but many of them came after we got profiled in places like Hacker News (and other tech websites, too, to be fair.) One that had a referrer as a thread on Hacker News kept insisting I couldn't be a real person, and wanting me to do basic math like 2+3 "before he would talk to me." It was gross. I put my own face as an avatar on my current client's chat without thinking twice. Less than 24 hours later, my first interaction on the chat was harassment. Their product is an enterprise B2B SaaS.

vgf 9y ago
> One that had a referrer as a thread on Hacker News kept insisting I couldn't be a real person, and wanting me to do basic math like 2+3 "before he would talk to me." It was gross. I'm sorry, but I literally laughed out loud reading that one. It was gross to have to do natural language processing plus arithmetics? #metoo I hate it when people force me to do arithmetics early in the morning. So gross! Seriously though, what I do hate is when money-hungry people hijack worthwhile movements for their own monetary gain.
- dang 9y ago
  Since the parent mentioned that in the context of an overall pattern of harassing comments, you're in the wrong here. Not only have you broken this site guideline: "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize." ... you've also been just plain rude. (Edit: and by adding the "money-hungry" slur, crossing into bannable incivility.) Please don't do these things on HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - vgf 9y ago
    > Since the parent mentioned that in the context of an overall pattern of harassing comments, you're in the wrong here. That logic is pretty amazing. It's a brand new world.
tree_of_item 9y ago
> One that had a referrer as a thread on Hacker News kept insisting I couldn't be a real person, and wanting me to do basic math like 2+3 "before he would talk to me." It was gross. I'm a bit confused, is this an example of harassment? I'd be pretty sure I was talking to a bot in one of those chat popups as well.
- vgf 9y ago
  Apparently in this context it is. Basically, if I read dang correctly it is not possible to disagree, because a) she identified as being female, and b) said it was gross, c) it was mentioned in the context of abuse. I feel like HN just jumped the shark.
  - kragen 9y ago
    No, what dang said was, "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize." No reasonable person could possibly interpret this as meaning, "it is not possible to disagree, because a) she identified as being female, and b) said it was gross, c) it was mentioned in the context of abuse." You are just trolling, and I am only responding because dang's comment may not be visible to other people reading this thread.
    - vgf 9y ago
      Ok, humor me. What is the strongest plausible interpretation of: "One that had a referrer as a thread on Hacker News kept insisting I couldn't be a real person, and wanting me to do basic math like 2+3 "before he would talk to me." It was gross."? (I am not trolling. Disagreeing with your point of view is not the same thing as trolling.)
      - dang 9y ago
        A stronger plausible interpretation is that the commenter has indeed seen many instances of harassment like the ones in the OP—which was obviously her main point; that as a SaaS founder she knows about chatbots, and would have no problem with a prospective customer who just wanted to make sure a human was at the other end (obviously it would be in her business interests to engage with such a user); and that she had additional reason to believe that the person asking her "2 + 3" etc. wasn't doing so in good faith, since she wrote "kept insisting" and "it was gross". Now obviously I don't know what happened there, but the above interpretation is not only plausible, it's almost inevitable if you begin by assuming that the other person is just as smart as you are. Instead you began by being a jerk, assumed stupidity on the part of the other, and threw in additional insults. If you behave like that on Hacker News again we will ban you.

vgf 9y ago

> One that had a referrer as a thread on Hacker News kept insisting I couldn't be a real person, and wanting me to do basic math like 2+3 "before he would talk to me." It was gross. I'm sorry, but I literally laughed out loud reading that one. It was gross to have to do natural language processing plus arithmetics? #metoo I hate it when people force me to do arithmetics early in the morning. So gross! Seriously though, what I do hate is when money-hungry people hijack worthwhile movements for their own monetary gain.

dang 9y ago
Since the parent mentioned that in the context of an overall pattern of harassing comments, you're in the wrong here. Not only have you broken this site guideline: "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize." ... you've also been just plain rude. (Edit: and by adding the "money-hungry" slur, crossing into bannable incivility.) Please don't do these things on HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- vgf 9y ago
  > Since the parent mentioned that in the context of an overall pattern of harassing comments, you're in the wrong here. That logic is pretty amazing. It's a brand new world.

tree_of_item 9y ago

> One that had a referrer as a thread on Hacker News kept insisting I couldn't be a real person, and wanting me to do basic math like 2+3 "before he would talk to me." It was gross. I'm a bit confused, is this an example of harassment? I'd be pretty sure I was talking to a bot in one of those chat popups as well.

vgf 9y ago
Apparently in this context it is. Basically, if I read dang correctly it is not possible to disagree, because a) she identified as being female, and b) said it was gross, c) it was mentioned in the context of abuse. I feel like HN just jumped the shark.
- kragen 9y ago
  No, what dang said was, "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize." No reasonable person could possibly interpret this as meaning, "it is not possible to disagree, because a) she identified as being female, and b) said it was gross, c) it was mentioned in the context of abuse." You are just trolling, and I am only responding because dang's comment may not be visible to other people reading this thread.
  - vgf 9y ago
    Ok, humor me. What is the strongest plausible interpretation of: "One that had a referrer as a thread on Hacker News kept insisting I couldn't be a real person, and wanting me to do basic math like 2+3 "before he would talk to me." It was gross."? (I am not trolling. Disagreeing with your point of view is not the same thing as trolling.)
    - dang 9y ago
      A stronger plausible interpretation is that the commenter has indeed seen many instances of harassment like the ones in the OP—which was obviously her main point; that as a SaaS founder she knows about chatbots, and would have no problem with a prospective customer who just wanted to make sure a human was at the other end (obviously it would be in her business interests to engage with such a user); and that she had additional reason to believe that the person asking her "2 + 3" etc. wasn't doing so in good faith, since she wrote "kept insisting" and "it was gross". Now obviously I don't know what happened there, but the above interpretation is not only plausible, it's almost inevitable if you begin by assuming that the other person is just as smart as you are. Instead you began by being a jerk, assumed stupidity on the part of the other, and threw in additional insults. If you behave like that on Hacker News again we will ban you.