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Wow... How did HN become a den of self-righteous, humorless self-flagellation. Someone tried to do something funny after all the overheated rhetoric of the past

Wow... How did HN become a den of self-righteous, humorless self-flagellation. Someone tried to do something funny after all the overheated rhetoric of the past of couple of days along with introducing a clever bit of entrepreneurship in the process. Whether you'd buy the shirt or not (I won't) at least try to appreciate the initiative and cheekiness.

rmrfrmrf 14y ago
Some of us are still shellshocked after receiving numerous death threats and having our inboxes spammed with pictures of dismembered infants. Maybe waiting one fucking hot minute would be in order?
- georgeorwell 14y ago
  Hi rmrfrmrf. I went through your recent comments. By and large, they're highly inflammatory. Ease off on the vitriol and your life might get a bit easier. To be precise, these are the comments that I find inflammatory: > Because anti-woman and anti-black hate groups are trying to game HN with mass account creation and upvote spam. > SendGrid would have come out stronger from weathering the storm as a defender and promoter of women in tech. Instead, they're giving in to terrorism. Anyone feeling a sense of relief out of this situation is out of their mind. > I hope she sues the shit out of them and gets enough money to spend the rest of her life advocating for women in tech without fear of retaliation. > No, this situation is the worst thing for women in tech. I can't begin to imagine the waves of misogyny that're about to run rampant through the tech community knowing that any woman who speaks out will be fired. > Please take your special snowflakery elsewhere. > No. (without explanation) > In other words, it's OK if men do it, but not if a woman does it. (which was a complete non sequitur) > I can't even begin to explain how fallacious this argument is. (without explanation, and it wasn't fallacious) > Is it really that hard to act like a professional adult while you're at work? The simplest solution is to simply stop telling penis jokes at work. > Still unfunny and tasteless. Imagine that. > Really? All it says to me is that people in the tech field are so against a woman standing up for herself that they're actually willing to bring down the company she works for. It's disgusting. > (cont.) Will you also feel schadenfreude when they hack her bank account? > I bet he won't make the same mistake again. Perhaps we're all so used to going through the 6 month HR-slap-on-the-wrist process that we have lost touch of what it actually takes to change a person's behavior. (supporting mr-hank getting fired) > Thank you -- all of these hate-laden comments are making me lose my mind. > Since when is Twitter the same thing as a professional conference? Why are the majority of the commenters on HN completely missing the point? > She @-replied pycon staff. Compare that to the HN and Reddit communities out for Adria's head. > "We're not choosing your company because we believe in the right for men to tell dick jokes." > (cont.) I'd quickly e-mail back: "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out." > Thank you, Adria, for fighting the good fight. I hope that the voices of support for you drown out the rampant hate that you're receiving. Seems like HN turns into a complete shithole the second a woman "has the nerve to choose to be offended" or whatever bullshit these misogynist assholes peddle. > (cont.) The benefit that I always see from situations like this is that it empowers the women who, in the past, have been too nervous to call people out on their shit. Just know that you're doing amazing work and are paving the way to creating an environment of gender equality.
  - logjam 14y ago
    Hi georgeorwell. I just went through your one comment above. You just told somebody who complained of getting death threats because of his comments here to watch how he comments so "his life might get a bit easier?" I can't imagine anything more cowardly that you could have possibly posted.
    - georgeorwell 14y ago
      I'm not sure why it's cowardly to suggest that. Could you elaborate? I thought it was good advice. If inflammatory comments are even possibly leading to death threats (and it seemed to me like they might be), it's probably a good idea to not post inflammatory comments. I mean, surely nobody wants to receive death threats. Are you saying that his/her comments are not inflammatory? My standard for cowardly posting is verbal abuse and death threats, but YMMV.
      - mercurial 14y ago
        These comments support somebody I absolutely disagree with, but two rights don't make a wrong. Just like it might not be a good idea to say something offensive to somebody else, does not mean you deserve death threats for it. It should be OK to express your support for unpopular ideas on HN, like saying Adria Richards was right or that the people prosecuting Aaron Schwartz did the right thing. On the other hand, people sending threats... To quote the original poster, "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out." You disagree with stuff? Fine. Downvote and move on, or reply to it and explain why. Don't play anonymous coward.
      - jasonlotito 14y ago
        > If inflammatory comments are even possibly leading to death threats (and it seemed to me like they might be), it's probably a good idea to not post inflammatory comments. That's 'victim blaming' and fairly inflammatory. That's not your intent. It's no different then telling women not to wear provocative clothing if they don't want to be raped (And before people suggest it, I'm not equating rape to anything here). Basically, your intent is sound (how not to receive death threats), but your approach is insulting. The result is, the persons you are talking to are more likely to dismiss what you say because, in effect, you are blaming them for the death threats. You seem to actually care about helping. I wish I could offer some direct advice about how to approach this different, but I can't think of any at the moment. I just know that this approach is confrontational, and completely in the opposite direction of which you seem to want to go.
pizza 14y ago
I'm just getting tired of it... I want to learn things when I come here, and I want to watch great conversations unfold, sometimes even participate in them, but these meme-cycles... the whole "x will get google reader'd!" thing, the fork my dongle thing, the chart.js 'scandal', all of these just senseless, tiring mass bursts of outrage that pop up everywhere are getting in the way of my goal of learning and conversing, and I'm just getting tired of it... That's my opinion, at least.
- josephagoss 14y ago
  I agree with you, but this excitement is a fundamental "thing". Its a "thing" that people chase because it adds something to their day. Bored unexciting people flock to the drama and this will always be the way. (I'm about to generalize based on my experiences) This is why I love living in Australia. I moved from the UK about 5 years ago and people here in Perth generally have more interesting lives and there is a lot less useless drama. I remember the UK as being so much drama about nothing, our lives consisted of so much rubbish in comparison. Granted I lived in a poor part of the UK. I just love this place (Perth) so much. Sometimes I tire of the drama, although sometimes I join in because i'm a little bored from studying and I disagree with what someone said. Not really sure where I was going with this. Something alone the lines of people need drama. blah blah. :) ... back to study time!
- johnward 14y ago
  Basically what you are saying is you don't want HN to turn into Reddit.

rmrfrmrf 14y ago

Some of us are still shellshocked after receiving numerous death threats and having our inboxes spammed with pictures of dismembered infants. Maybe waiting one fucking hot minute would be in order?

georgeorwell 14y ago
Hi rmrfrmrf. I went through your recent comments. By and large, they're highly inflammatory. Ease off on the vitriol and your life might get a bit easier. To be precise, these are the comments that I find inflammatory: > Because anti-woman and anti-black hate groups are trying to game HN with mass account creation and upvote spam. > SendGrid would have come out stronger from weathering the storm as a defender and promoter of women in tech. Instead, they're giving in to terrorism. Anyone feeling a sense of relief out of this situation is out of their mind. > I hope she sues the shit out of them and gets enough money to spend the rest of her life advocating for women in tech without fear of retaliation. > No, this situation is the worst thing for women in tech. I can't begin to imagine the waves of misogyny that're about to run rampant through the tech community knowing that any woman who speaks out will be fired. > Please take your special snowflakery elsewhere. > No. (without explanation) > In other words, it's OK if men do it, but not if a woman does it. (which was a complete non sequitur) > I can't even begin to explain how fallacious this argument is. (without explanation, and it wasn't fallacious) > Is it really that hard to act like a professional adult while you're at work? The simplest solution is to simply stop telling penis jokes at work. > Still unfunny and tasteless. Imagine that. > Really? All it says to me is that people in the tech field are so against a woman standing up for herself that they're actually willing to bring down the company she works for. It's disgusting. > (cont.) Will you also feel schadenfreude when they hack her bank account? > I bet he won't make the same mistake again. Perhaps we're all so used to going through the 6 month HR-slap-on-the-wrist process that we have lost touch of what it actually takes to change a person's behavior. (supporting mr-hank getting fired) > Thank you -- all of these hate-laden comments are making me lose my mind. > Since when is Twitter the same thing as a professional conference? Why are the majority of the commenters on HN completely missing the point? > She @-replied pycon staff. Compare that to the HN and Reddit communities out for Adria's head. > "We're not choosing your company because we believe in the right for men to tell dick jokes." > (cont.) I'd quickly e-mail back: "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out." > Thank you, Adria, for fighting the good fight. I hope that the voices of support for you drown out the rampant hate that you're receiving. Seems like HN turns into a complete shithole the second a woman "has the nerve to choose to be offended" or whatever bullshit these misogynist assholes peddle. > (cont.) The benefit that I always see from situations like this is that it empowers the women who, in the past, have been too nervous to call people out on their shit. Just know that you're doing amazing work and are paving the way to creating an environment of gender equality.
- logjam 14y ago
  Hi georgeorwell. I just went through your one comment above. You just told somebody who complained of getting death threats because of his comments here to watch how he comments so "his life might get a bit easier?" I can't imagine anything more cowardly that you could have possibly posted.
  - georgeorwell 14y ago
    I'm not sure why it's cowardly to suggest that. Could you elaborate? I thought it was good advice. If inflammatory comments are even possibly leading to death threats (and it seemed to me like they might be), it's probably a good idea to not post inflammatory comments. I mean, surely nobody wants to receive death threats. Are you saying that his/her comments are not inflammatory? My standard for cowardly posting is verbal abuse and death threats, but YMMV.
    - mercurial 14y ago
      These comments support somebody I absolutely disagree with, but two rights don't make a wrong. Just like it might not be a good idea to say something offensive to somebody else, does not mean you deserve death threats for it. It should be OK to express your support for unpopular ideas on HN, like saying Adria Richards was right or that the people prosecuting Aaron Schwartz did the right thing. On the other hand, people sending threats... To quote the original poster, "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out." You disagree with stuff? Fine. Downvote and move on, or reply to it and explain why. Don't play anonymous coward.
    - jasonlotito 14y ago
      > If inflammatory comments are even possibly leading to death threats (and it seemed to me like they might be), it's probably a good idea to not post inflammatory comments. That's 'victim blaming' and fairly inflammatory. That's not your intent. It's no different then telling women not to wear provocative clothing if they don't want to be raped (And before people suggest it, I'm not equating rape to anything here). Basically, your intent is sound (how not to receive death threats), but your approach is insulting. The result is, the persons you are talking to are more likely to dismiss what you say because, in effect, you are blaming them for the death threats. You seem to actually care about helping. I wish I could offer some direct advice about how to approach this different, but I can't think of any at the moment. I just know that this approach is confrontational, and completely in the opposite direction of which you seem to want to go.

pizza 14y ago

I'm just getting tired of it... I want to learn things when I come here, and I want to watch great conversations unfold, sometimes even participate in them, but these meme-cycles... the whole "x will get google reader'd!" thing, the fork my dongle thing, the chart.js 'scandal', all of these just senseless, tiring mass bursts of outrage that pop up everywhere are getting in the way of my goal of learning and conversing, and I'm just getting tired of it... That's my opinion, at least.

josephagoss 14y ago
I agree with you, but this excitement is a fundamental "thing". Its a "thing" that people chase because it adds something to their day. Bored unexciting people flock to the drama and this will always be the way. (I'm about to generalize based on my experiences) This is why I love living in Australia. I moved from the UK about 5 years ago and people here in Perth generally have more interesting lives and there is a lot less useless drama. I remember the UK as being so much drama about nothing, our lives consisted of so much rubbish in comparison. Granted I lived in a poor part of the UK. I just love this place (Perth) so much. Sometimes I tire of the drama, although sometimes I join in because i'm a little bored from studying and I disagree with what someone said. Not really sure where I was going with this. Something alone the lines of people need drama. blah blah. :) ... back to study time!
johnward 14y ago
Basically what you are saying is you don't want HN to turn into Reddit.