9 ms·
What do you not get from, say, Hacker News or StackOverflow that you're trying to fill with WomenMake? Genuine question, not a snark.
by blowski 7y ago
What do you not get from, say, Hacker News or StackOverflow that you're trying to fill with WomenMake? Genuine question, not a snark.
- xeromal 7y agoI'll give you an example that I personally deal with. I have a Tesla Model S and I use the /r/teslamotors subreddit daily. Ever since the Model 3 came out, a HUGE majority of users are Model 3 owners and they drown out any specific discussion on the Model S or X. Any time I ask a question on the daily thread, I get answers from people who don't really know what they're talking about in regards to specifics of my car. I can't easily ask if anyone's had this issue with their S like mine because 1 out of every 100 user owns an S and all the Model 3 discussion drowns us out. Having a community specifically targeting a small sect of people can be a great thing. They feel like they'll get answers from people just like them.
- edm0nd 7y agobut isn't that exactly how reddit works? Model S owners need to populate something like /r/TeslaModelS and then your issues are solved.
- therealdrag0 7y agoSounds like the implication is HackerNews shouldn't be a website, it should just be a subreddit.
- blowski 7y agoI find the difference between Reddit and HN is the quality of moderation. HN is fantastic at removing the low-value stuff like memes, "me too", snarky comments, etc. As a result, the signal-to-noise ratio is much higher, and it doesn't need loads of subreddits.
- xeromal 7y agoYup, that's the beauty of not hosting on reddit or HN. You can control your own destiny.
- krapp 7y agoThere are plenty of technical and expert subreddits which police low-value comments just as well as HN. It's simply not the case that Hacker News, with its one or maybe two moderators, does a better job of moderation than every single subreddit.
- xeromal 7y agoAnd that's what this person did until they got big enough to warrant their own site. They have plenty of Patreon support so what's the problem?
- pezo1919 7y agoNo one said there is any problem.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- mariedm 7y agoJust the fact that StackOverflow have been accused of not being inclusive at all is enough to create something else. They also have moderation issues. I’m trying to keep a high quality standard on Women Make, just like dang and sctb here with the moderation. Also, like I said in another comment, women tend to promote themselves/put themselves in front of others much less. The idea of Women Make is really to show them they can and they should. So basically it’s giving women confidence, and the specific support they don’t necessarily get from other places.
- uncle_j 7y ago> Just the fact that StackOverflow have been accused of not being inclusive at all. Can you clarify this? Anyone can sign up with an account and the whole thing is meritocratic.
- root_axis 7y agoIt's easy for me to imagine the desire for a community where moderation is attuned to the common types of harassment that women face in online tech communities.
- theptip 7y agoTake a look at the level of conversation that's being had in this thread; most of the posts read to me as good-natured curiosity at the level of "please explain to me why there is a need for this community". Some are a touch confused/defensive and think the site might be sexist in some way. And there are some openly positive and supportive posts too. Now put yourself in the shoes of a woman in tech/entrepreneurship/makerdom. Would you rather hang out in a community where everyone fundamentally understands the challenges you face daily, or one where you have to explain the basic premise of your daily challenges when you initiate a conversation about them? (Or rather, would you prefer to hang out in both, or just the latter, since it's not really an either/or.) Now I'm sure there is some selection bias in the posts in this thread (i.e. they don't reflect the distribution of opinions of HN viewers), but that's kind of the point; the selection bias for posting filters the other way in communities like womenmake.
- pezo1919 7y agoWait, is not that a bit recursive thought? To me it is a bit like: - Why? - Because you asked why. Edit: - Because you don't know "fundamentally" why
- lordCarbonFiber 7y agoTo put more concretely, I've observed, especaily among tech circles, the tendency to assume "if the system works for me, it must work for everyone". I'd propose that that kind of mindset is what is what drives a lot of the negative reactions in this thread. It's the kind of mindset that drives thoughts like "we;re not hiring many women it must be [their abilities | the funnel | ~biology~ | etc]" never "maybe our process isn't set up well". There;s value in having a space where you don't have to start every conversation explaining your struggles from first principles (very clearly given the user count the community has a need for this kind of space, so the "why is this needed" question feels spurious). My thoughts from the uncomfortably unique prospective of a trans woman in tech; I can only speak for why I find these sorts of spaces valuable.
- pezo1919 7y ago