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> Men can come here, connect to other businessmen and make money if that's what they are looking for. I appear to be the only openly female member to have ever

by csomar 6y ago

> Men can come here, connect to other businessmen and make money if that's what they are looking for. I appear to be the only openly female member to have ever spent time on the leaderboard and I remain dirt poor with terrible prospects for the time being and this has been true for a lot of years. HN makes you money only if you use HN to make money. At the end of the day, Hacker News is a public forum. Some people use it to launch their startup, or get hired. Some people use it to find news. Some people do not read the articles and instead read the comments. It's up to you to use HN as you see fit as long as you are within the site guidelines. I think your confusion is stemming from the fact that HN Karma and the amount of dollars you make from HN are correlated. They are not.

DoreenMichele 6y ago
I think your confusion is stemming from the fact that HN Karma and the amount of dollars you make from HN are correlated. They are not. No, I have no such confusion. I mention my karma as shorthand for "I appear to have done the best job for figuring out how to participate as a woman here and can't turn it into adequate income though it's an explicit goal of mine." I'm well aware you have to seek to use it that way and karma score does not directly correlate with success in using it that way. I've sought to use it that way. It has not gotten satisfactory results. I have good reason to believe my gender is a factor in that failure to achieve what I would like to achieve.
- csomar 6y ago
  > I have good reason to believe my gender is a factor in that failure to achieve what I would like to achieve. This is solely your depiction and doesn't make it a truth (and I don't think it's anywhere close to being true). I also think if you keep thinking that, you are unlikely to achieve satisfactory results (and subsequently shift the blame to your gender instead of your strategy).
- seibelj 6y ago
  Just having a lot of karma doesn’t mean you “won” HN or deserve a lot of money for posting content. You could post a single time and if it connected with the right person in the right way it could lead to funding or something. If I’m reading you right you are saying that being the highest-karma woman on HN means you deserve income or payments of some sort but that makes no sense.
  - DoreenMichele 6y ago
    No, that's not at all what I'm saying.
  - atat7024 6y ago
    Huh. You having that much karma and whooshing like that is almost a perfect irony.
- Jarwain 6y ago
  Seems like something that should be easy to test, right? What are your thoughts on starting another account that appears masculine or makes no indication of gender, and seeing what happens?
  - DoreenMichele 6y ago
    That doesn't work for a long list of reasons that I get tired of trying to explain. It boils down to "If I have to actively hide my gender to make money in business, my gender is still a barrier to success." Some issues: 1. If men will only take me seriously if they think I'm a man, what happens if they arrange to meet me in person and find out I'm a woman? 2. How do I arrange to accept payment online for work while continuing to hide my gender? My name is not gender neutral. 3. Business is done on a basis of trust. How do I convince people to trust me when they find out I have been actively deceiving them wrt my identity and gender? There are other complications specific to me as an individual, but women generally will face the above issues if they try to take advice to simply hide their gender as a supposed "solution" to such problems. I've heard that kind of thing a lot -- "On the internet, no one knows you're a dog if you don't tell them" -- and it ignores a lot of critical details. You can potentially be anonymous online for purposes of engaging in discussion in a forum but if you wish to actually make money, it gets vastly more challenging to be anonymous and hide your gender.
    - atat7024 6y ago
      > my gender is still a barrier to success But it's no longer a barrier to YOUR success, and you just might, if it's what you want, have the comfort and audience in your success to spread this message more effectively. But if you feel gas-lit, and like you're yelling into the wind, finish your breath and change tactic.
    - atat7024 6y ago
      Said another way: get your foot in the door as an androgyny whoever, like most users connecting with other users on the internet do — and then do your thing from there. Genuinely: Do you want to do business with the sexists etc, anyway?

by csomar 6y ago

DoreenMichele 6y ago

I think your confusion is stemming from the fact that HN Karma and the amount of dollars you make from HN are correlated. They are not. No, I have no such confusion. I mention my karma as shorthand for "I appear to have done the best job for figuring out how to participate as a woman here and can't turn it into adequate income though it's an explicit goal of mine." I'm well aware you have to seek to use it that way and karma score does not directly correlate with success in using it that way. I've sought to use it that way. It has not gotten satisfactory results. I have good reason to believe my gender is a factor in that failure to achieve what I would like to achieve.

csomar 6y ago
> I have good reason to believe my gender is a factor in that failure to achieve what I would like to achieve. This is solely your depiction and doesn't make it a truth (and I don't think it's anywhere close to being true). I also think if you keep thinking that, you are unlikely to achieve satisfactory results (and subsequently shift the blame to your gender instead of your strategy).
seibelj 6y ago
Just having a lot of karma doesn’t mean you “won” HN or deserve a lot of money for posting content. You could post a single time and if it connected with the right person in the right way it could lead to funding or something. If I’m reading you right you are saying that being the highest-karma woman on HN means you deserve income or payments of some sort but that makes no sense.
- DoreenMichele 6y ago
  No, that's not at all what I'm saying.
- atat7024 6y ago
  Huh. You having that much karma and whooshing like that is almost a perfect irony.
Jarwain 6y ago
Seems like something that should be easy to test, right? What are your thoughts on starting another account that appears masculine or makes no indication of gender, and seeing what happens?
- DoreenMichele 6y ago
  That doesn't work for a long list of reasons that I get tired of trying to explain. It boils down to "If I have to actively hide my gender to make money in business, my gender is still a barrier to success." Some issues: 1. If men will only take me seriously if they think I'm a man, what happens if they arrange to meet me in person and find out I'm a woman? 2. How do I arrange to accept payment online for work while continuing to hide my gender? My name is not gender neutral. 3. Business is done on a basis of trust. How do I convince people to trust me when they find out I have been actively deceiving them wrt my identity and gender? There are other complications specific to me as an individual, but women generally will face the above issues if they try to take advice to simply hide their gender as a supposed "solution" to such problems. I've heard that kind of thing a lot -- "On the internet, no one knows you're a dog if you don't tell them" -- and it ignores a lot of critical details. You can potentially be anonymous online for purposes of engaging in discussion in a forum but if you wish to actually make money, it gets vastly more challenging to be anonymous and hide your gender.
  - atat7024 6y ago
    > my gender is still a barrier to success But it's no longer a barrier to YOUR success, and you just might, if it's what you want, have the comfort and audience in your success to spread this message more effectively. But if you feel gas-lit, and like you're yelling into the wind, finish your breath and change tactic.
  - atat7024 6y ago
    Said another way: get your foot in the door as an androgyny whoever, like most users connecting with other users on the internet do — and then do your thing from there. Genuinely: Do you want to do business with the sexists etc, anyway?