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While I agree with the thrust of your post, I also think it's misleading to view HN as a proxy for all of society. HN is not a random sample of the world's popu

While I agree with the thrust of your post, I also think it's misleading to view HN as a proxy for all of society. HN is not a random sample of the world's population, and that skews discussion in all sorts of ways. For example, HN quite clearly has more male commenters than female commenters. If we had an equal number of men and women, I suspect comments like the ones GP is referencing would be less frequent. I wish GP hadn't made their point the way they made it (if at all), but I do believe they're reacting to something real. > I don't think the solution can be to exclude subgroups. I agree, but I do think a solution is to include more subgroups. I have no advice on how to do that. But, this is in fact why I'd like to see more women in technology.

dang 4y ago
> it's misleading to view HN as a proxy for all of society I know I'm getting finicky here, but I am careful not to say that. What I say is that any view which is sufficiently represented in society as a whole is going to appear here as well. That doesn't mean it will appear in the same proportions. > If we had an equal number of men and women, I suspect comments like the ones GP is referencing would be less frequent. The point is that their frequency isn't the issue. The issue is their existence, and they will continue to exist here no matter how many more women or members of other underrepresented groups join HN (which I certainly hope they will!)