4 ms·

> woman who is likely the only woman to have ever spent time on the leader board of HN What?

by jb1991 6y ago

DoreenMichele 6y ago
The leader board of HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders My previous handle is Mz. It hit the leader board in October 2017. About six weeks later, I changed my handle to this one. As far as I know, I am the only member who posts as openly female who has spent time on the leader board.
- jb1991 6y ago
  Since you spend a lot of your time on this social media site and get listed as one of its frequent users, that means you can empathize with Einstein's wife?
  - DoreenMichele 6y ago
    No, that's just a thing I can relatively readily point to that gets respected here if you have male bits between your legs but gets roundly dismissed as worthless internet points if you have female bits between your legs. I can empathize with her because I was one of the top three students of my graduating class and had the highest SAT scores of my class. I was STAR student and a National Merit Scholarship winner. I was inducted into Mu Alpha Theta, a college-level math honor society, at age 16 in eleventh grade, the earliest you can be inducted. At age 15, I was state alternate for the Governor's Honors Program, a residential gifted summer enrichment program. That means only two other people outperformed me in the entire state of Georgia on a topic I sort of picked randomly out of a hat because I was a well-rounded student and didn't have any particular area of obvious strength like most candidates. But more to the point, I have a form of cystic fibrosis and I have been getting myself well for nearly two decades while the entire world calls me crazy and a teller of tall tales and a liar and throws me off of one forum after another which is why I don't cite it more often as a reason I can empathize with someone like Mileva Einstein. I much more often compare myself to Semmelweis and talk about trying hard to not end up locked up in an insane asylum and beaten to death for the crime of thinking I know something medically useful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis What I know really ought to qualify me for something like the Nobel Prize in Medicine. But I'm not holding my breath. I'm not likely to ever get any recognition for my accomplishments. The dismissive nonsense in this thread is very much the norm, unfortunately.
    - cvbcvbcvbcvbc 6y ago
      "No, that's just a thing I can relatively readily point to that gets respected here if you have male bits between your legs but gets roundly dismissed as worthless internet points if you have female bits between your legs." Sure, whenever anything you say is dismissed, it must be because you are a woman. Not because you didn't provide any evidence at all to make your case. Also, women don't have to provide evidence, I guess, they just know things and have to be believed.
      - jelliclesfarm 6y ago
        It is difficult to prove a negative. Altho it’s easier to prove a negative with specificities. Example: it’s is less difficult to prove: “there are no purple antenna sprouting aliens in farmer bob’s field” Vs “There are no aliens”
        cvbcvbcvbcvbc 6y ago
        I'm not opposed to speculating about things. Just don't claim they are facts without providing any evidence.
    - Chris2048 6y ago
      > I can relatively readily point to that gets respected here if you have male bits between your legs Can you give an example of that, b/c I for one would see anyone boasting about that as not getting a positive reaction.
      - DoreenMichele 6y ago
        Historically, it was somewhat common for men to say to each other here "You must be smart and competent because you have a lot of karma on HN." People tend to not say that about me and when I say that about myself -- "Look, this is a metric right in front you that gets used to say other people here are smart and competent" -- it generally gets ugly reactions, as occurred here. I'm trying to walk away from this discussion at this point. I haven't had enough sleep and I've been on HN over eleven years and the degree to which I still get treated like "Shut up woman, there is no sexism here!" is a point of personal aggravation and there is no good means to combat it. Ideally, someone else should be telling people "She's probably the only woman to have ever spent time on the leader board and a respected and valued member of the community" or someone else should be telling people "She kicks ass. This is a list of her accomplishments." That's generally how respected men get treated. But that's not happening and I end up feeling like I have no real choice but to defend myself at times, knowing that will also go badly and be used against me as evidence that I'm not actually important or respectable or smart and so on. That's the essence of sexism. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. There simply are no good answers for me. They don't exist and trying to find them gets a lot of abuse heaped upon me. I was openly homeless on HN for nearly six years. I remain dirt poor. I continue to get treated like I'm a loon who has no basis to claim any kind of competence at all. And if I say that is evidence of sexism, well, that's just more "evidence" I'm some crank. Anyway, I haven't had enough sleep. I have had more than I care to have of this type of conversation for today. I'm trying to walk away.
  - cutitout 6y ago
    It simply means that the comment is not merely "pure speculation", which as a comment is 100% worthless in the first place and should be the focus of anyone claiming intellectual integrity and interest in the discussion; instead of bickering about about things downstream of it.
- vmception 6y ago
  There is a leader board here and people care about it? Is there a meta hackernews where this kind of thing is discussed? I’ve been here for years and this is the strangest conversation I’ve seen, like other people are stepping out in front to let people know you’re legit because you mention your gender identity and have lots of upvotes on a leaderboard and I’m like wwwhat? Have I been using hackernews wrong?
  - cvbcvbcvbcvbc 6y ago
    Not sure people care about it, I think it was added just for fun.

> woman who is likely the only woman to have ever spent time on the leader board of HN What?

by jb1991 6y ago

> woman who is likely the only woman to have ever spent time on the leader board of HN What?

The leader board of HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders My previous handle is Mz. It hit the leader board in October 2017. About six weeks later, I changed my handle to this one. As far as I know, I am the only member who posts as openly female who has spent time on the leader board.

jb1991 6y ago
Since you spend a lot of your time on this social media site and get listed as one of its frequent users, that means you can empathize with Einstein's wife?
- DoreenMichele 6y ago
  No, that's just a thing I can relatively readily point to that gets respected here if you have male bits between your legs but gets roundly dismissed as worthless internet points if you have female bits between your legs. I can empathize with her because I was one of the top three students of my graduating class and had the highest SAT scores of my class. I was STAR student and a National Merit Scholarship winner. I was inducted into Mu Alpha Theta, a college-level math honor society, at age 16 in eleventh grade, the earliest you can be inducted. At age 15, I was state alternate for the Governor's Honors Program, a residential gifted summer enrichment program. That means only two other people outperformed me in the entire state of Georgia on a topic I sort of picked randomly out of a hat because I was a well-rounded student and didn't have any particular area of obvious strength like most candidates. But more to the point, I have a form of cystic fibrosis and I have been getting myself well for nearly two decades while the entire world calls me crazy and a teller of tall tales and a liar and throws me off of one forum after another which is why I don't cite it more often as a reason I can empathize with someone like Mileva Einstein. I much more often compare myself to Semmelweis and talk about trying hard to not end up locked up in an insane asylum and beaten to death for the crime of thinking I know something medically useful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis What I know really ought to qualify me for something like the Nobel Prize in Medicine. But I'm not holding my breath. I'm not likely to ever get any recognition for my accomplishments. The dismissive nonsense in this thread is very much the norm, unfortunately.
  - cvbcvbcvbcvbc 6y ago
    "No, that's just a thing I can relatively readily point to that gets respected here if you have male bits between your legs but gets roundly dismissed as worthless internet points if you have female bits between your legs." Sure, whenever anything you say is dismissed, it must be because you are a woman. Not because you didn't provide any evidence at all to make your case. Also, women don't have to provide evidence, I guess, they just know things and have to be believed.
    - jelliclesfarm 6y ago
      It is difficult to prove a negative. Altho it’s easier to prove a negative with specificities. Example: it’s is less difficult to prove: “there are no purple antenna sprouting aliens in farmer bob’s field” Vs “There are no aliens”
      - cvbcvbcvbcvbc 6y ago
        I'm not opposed to speculating about things. Just don't claim they are facts without providing any evidence.
  - Chris2048 6y ago
    > I can relatively readily point to that gets respected here if you have male bits between your legs Can you give an example of that, b/c I for one would see anyone boasting about that as not getting a positive reaction.
    - DoreenMichele 6y ago
      Historically, it was somewhat common for men to say to each other here "You must be smart and competent because you have a lot of karma on HN." People tend to not say that about me and when I say that about myself -- "Look, this is a metric right in front you that gets used to say other people here are smart and competent" -- it generally gets ugly reactions, as occurred here. I'm trying to walk away from this discussion at this point. I haven't had enough sleep and I've been on HN over eleven years and the degree to which I still get treated like "Shut up woman, there is no sexism here!" is a point of personal aggravation and there is no good means to combat it. Ideally, someone else should be telling people "She's probably the only woman to have ever spent time on the leader board and a respected and valued member of the community" or someone else should be telling people "She kicks ass. This is a list of her accomplishments." That's generally how respected men get treated. But that's not happening and I end up feeling like I have no real choice but to defend myself at times, knowing that will also go badly and be used against me as evidence that I'm not actually important or respectable or smart and so on. That's the essence of sexism. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. There simply are no good answers for me. They don't exist and trying to find them gets a lot of abuse heaped upon me. I was openly homeless on HN for nearly six years. I remain dirt poor. I continue to get treated like I'm a loon who has no basis to claim any kind of competence at all. And if I say that is evidence of sexism, well, that's just more "evidence" I'm some crank. Anyway, I haven't had enough sleep. I have had more than I care to have of this type of conversation for today. I'm trying to walk away.
- cutitout 6y ago
  It simply means that the comment is not merely "pure speculation", which as a comment is 100% worthless in the first place and should be the focus of anyone claiming intellectual integrity and interest in the discussion; instead of bickering about about things downstream of it.
vmception 6y ago
There is a leader board here and people care about it? Is there a meta hackernews where this kind of thing is discussed? I’ve been here for years and this is the strangest conversation I’ve seen, like other people are stepping out in front to let people know you’re legit because you mention your gender identity and have lots of upvotes on a leaderboard and I’m like wwwhat? Have I been using hackernews wrong?
- cvbcvbcvbcvbc 6y ago
  Not sure people care about it, I think it was added just for fun.