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Anyone coming here, wondering what happened, there were two presentation which were clearly inappropriate. First one was an app called TitStare, which allows yo

Anyone coming here, wondering what happened, there were two presentation which were clearly inappropriate. First one was an app called TitStare, which allows you to view, upload, and share softcore photos of.. use your imagination. The second, circle shake, was an app to measure how fast you can jerk your wrist, upload and share your scores, accompanied by a pretty wild presentation. I think the first one must have been a joke, because titstare.com was only registered today: $ whois titstare.com ... Creation Date: 08-sep-2013 Video of the presentations @ http://valleywag.gawker.com/techcrunch-disrupt-kicks-off-with-titstare-app-and-fa-1274394925 http://valleywag.gawker.com/techcrunch-disrupt-kicks-off-wit...

radiusq 13y ago
Can we get the names of the presenters?
yogo 13y ago
Thanks for the details. I've never read an article I learned nothing from like that one. Sexism aside, these two presentations are too funny for me not to think they were done intentionally.
- david_shaw 13y ago
  > Sexism aside, these two presentations are too funny for me not to think they were done intentionally. As opposed to being done accidentally? These presentations were, of course, intended to be jokes. In fact, I'm sure they were designed to be harmless, unoffensive jokes. Who cares? Children and adults who were rightfully offended were all in the audience. TechCrunch showcasing an app designed to turn objectifying women into a social network is absolutely absurd. I'm not a woman, but I also don't think that these types of "jokes" are acceptable at any sort of conference. If you want to joke around with your friends, fine. Hell, if you want to make an app called TitStare on your own time and publish it, great--but for an all-ages industry conference to publicize it? That's wrong. I believe that the tech industry as a whole is doing great work towards being less misogynistic and being more diverse. Stunts like this at well-known events are huge road blocks towards that goal.
  - pcerioli 13y ago
    I am a woman and I found them funny, but that is my 2 cents :)
    - david_shaw 13y ago
      Sure, and I'm positive that you weren't alone. I'm not saying that they shouldn't make joke apps, but TechCrunch should not have let them take the stage.
      - calbear81 13y ago
        I'm not sure it's clear what we should discount "joke" apps as not being serious business. After all, they built a place where users upload offensive photos and allow folks to vote and share ... just like 9Gag, Reddit, and countless other legitimate, funded, businesses.
  - yogo 13y ago
    As far as it getting publicized that's on Tech Crunch. We can all blame the perpetrators but I still fail to see how this is a tech thing. News stations get phony phone calls everyday and some of them get through. To some people they are funny, while others are offended. This whole TC mishap is turning out to be a cheap attempt at making the tech industry seem misogynistic. I'll reiterate, it happens in every industry.
  - tallio 13y ago
    Male sexual desire is healthy. Heterosexual men like tits - deal with it. There's nothing "objectifying" or "misogynistic" about it. Jesus, what's wrong with you people? Is a man allowed to even look at a woman or is even that considered misogyny? I like women and no amount of buzzwords will make me ashamed of it!
    - jaredsohn 13y ago
      Reread the GP; it is not arguing with you at all. The issue is the appropriateness of such things within the professional sphere (of which a hackathon is a part.)
- polemic 13y ago
  > "Sexism aside..." Well, there's your problem.
- steveklabnik 13y ago
  Whoops, how did I end up on this stage? I've never even seen this presentation before! Must have been an accident! (of _course_ they were done intentionally.)
rfnslyr 13y ago
That was absolutely hilarious. I encourage stuff like this. Have a little fun people, nothing to apologize for. Who actually got offended?
- Shank 13y ago
  I hope you're joking. Besides the flurry of tech presenters and writers in the audience that were offended, a nine year old girl was at TechCrunch Disrupt demonstrating a product. Seeing as TCDisrupt isn't marketed as an 18+ event, it should be held to the same standards as any other public, professional gathering of individuals. Judging by TechCrunch's reaction, they wholeheartedly agree.
  - kintamanimatt 13y ago
    IMHO both apps are tacky, however, I feel the whole thing is clearly a joke that some people found funny and some didn't. In any event, I feel the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. I watched the videos and, while the Circle Shake presentation was cringeworthy, it was very mildly sexual at a conference that's aimed at adults, not children. There will have been people in the audience swearing in casual conversation too, possibly within earshot of the kid. I don't think anybody's equally upset about that though. Regarding TitStare, I feel as though tackiness has been conflated with sexism. I just cannot see how such an app is sexist, especially given the fact there are plenty of bisexual and lesbian women. Conversely, if there were an app called ManButtStare, I'm really just not sure there would be the same response. The reason I'm not offended by either of these apps is not because I'm a man (I'm not in the demographic for TitStare anyway given the fact I'm gay), but because the developers' intent didn't appear to be malicious or bad. It just seemed to be a joke that some people got offended over, but then again, I'm not sure why people think the world has to be so sterile so as to prevent people from getting offended. I'm open to being wrong.
    - chrischen 13y ago
      The straight women will still be alienated. It's not as if as long as you're not alienating some women (bi and gay) that it's fine. It also objectifies women. They're propagating the belief that women are only interesting as objects of men's sexual desires. They don't have to explicitly do something sexist or racist to have a negative effect. Sometimes negative effect can simply be achieved by inaction or mis-action (action that isn't explicitly wrong, but has overarching negative effects). The reason why you probably won't be offended by "ManButtStare" is because such a thing rarely if ever happens. You are in a male-dominated tech industry already so you don't feel alienation from that trivial instance of female-centric thinking. The problem with Titstare is it adds (in the wrong direction) to compounding attitudes of male-centric thinking and a male-centric industry, with negative consequences of alienation of straight female participants. This is a negative because there will be suboptimal appropriation of female talent into this sector due to alienation. More and more females will just end up going into fashion or art or English literature so they can join their gay, metrosexual, and non-sexist bffs. See how I stereotyped fashion as dominated by gay men? Perhaps it is, but by promoting that attitude, I probably just added a little bit there to discourage a straight guy from going into fashion even though he may be good at it. That is bad.
jaredsohn 13y ago
>I think the first one must have been a joke, because titstare.com was only registered today: How does when the domain was registered affect whether it was a joke? The hackathon took place last night through today. I think it is supposed to be a mobile app (if any code actually exists) anyway, so having a domain isn't super important.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
icambron 13y ago
Titstare, joke or not, is wildly misogynist; no debate here. Circle Shake is inappropriate for the audience and setting and everyone involved should have known better. But it's not misogynist. It's a joke about masturbation, which is a normal, healthy thing that people of both sexes generally do. Casting it as an attack on women is absurd, and gets into "women can't handle sex talk!" territory.
mhurron 13y ago
> app called TitStare, which allows you to view, upload, and share softcore photos of.. use your imagination I don't see the problem. Pornography is perfectly legal and big business.
- theorique 13y ago
  Well, yeah, but at TechCrunch Disrupt? There's a time and a place for this kind of thing and it's not at a generalist startups and software industry conference.
  - metaphorm 13y ago
    why not? The porn industry has been responsible for a lot of technological innovation on the internet. They were pioneers for electronic billing, for streaming video, for high scalability websites, and for user-uploaded content. Should we exclude all content with a sexual nature, even if there is good technology behind it?
    - theorique 13y ago
      You have a good point about the porn industry. If someone were presenting a true technical innovation that happened to be inspired by the needs of that industry, that would not be objectionable as long as the 'product' itself weren't displayed in the presentation. (e.g. this innovation in streaming video software enables 10,000 concurrent streams etc etc) Though if it were the AVN conference rather than TechCrunch, showing the product would be practically required. You, know, for demonstration purposes ...
  - angersock 13y ago
    The event is keep us abreast of the new products, as it were.
    - theorique 13y ago
      I see what you did there.
hokkos 13y ago
It is pure cringe, hard to watch without feeling embarrassed, neckbeard and brogrammers.

radiusq 13y ago

Can we get the names of the presenters?

yogo 13y ago

Thanks for the details. I've never read an article I learned nothing from like that one. Sexism aside, these two presentations are too funny for me not to think they were done intentionally.

david_shaw 13y ago
> Sexism aside, these two presentations are too funny for me not to think they were done intentionally. As opposed to being done accidentally? These presentations were, of course, intended to be jokes. In fact, I'm sure they were designed to be harmless, unoffensive jokes. Who cares? Children and adults who were rightfully offended were all in the audience. TechCrunch showcasing an app designed to turn objectifying women into a social network is absolutely absurd. I'm not a woman, but I also don't think that these types of "jokes" are acceptable at any sort of conference. If you want to joke around with your friends, fine. Hell, if you want to make an app called TitStare on your own time and publish it, great--but for an all-ages industry conference to publicize it? That's wrong. I believe that the tech industry as a whole is doing great work towards being less misogynistic and being more diverse. Stunts like this at well-known events are huge road blocks towards that goal.
- pcerioli 13y ago
  I am a woman and I found them funny, but that is my 2 cents :)
  - david_shaw 13y ago
    Sure, and I'm positive that you weren't alone. I'm not saying that they shouldn't make joke apps, but TechCrunch should not have let them take the stage.
    - calbear81 13y ago
      I'm not sure it's clear what we should discount "joke" apps as not being serious business. After all, they built a place where users upload offensive photos and allow folks to vote and share ... just like 9Gag, Reddit, and countless other legitimate, funded, businesses.
- yogo 13y ago
  As far as it getting publicized that's on Tech Crunch. We can all blame the perpetrators but I still fail to see how this is a tech thing. News stations get phony phone calls everyday and some of them get through. To some people they are funny, while others are offended. This whole TC mishap is turning out to be a cheap attempt at making the tech industry seem misogynistic. I'll reiterate, it happens in every industry.
- tallio 13y ago
  Male sexual desire is healthy. Heterosexual men like tits - deal with it. There's nothing "objectifying" or "misogynistic" about it. Jesus, what's wrong with you people? Is a man allowed to even look at a woman or is even that considered misogyny? I like women and no amount of buzzwords will make me ashamed of it!
  - jaredsohn 13y ago
    Reread the GP; it is not arguing with you at all. The issue is the appropriateness of such things within the professional sphere (of which a hackathon is a part.)
polemic 13y ago
> "Sexism aside..." Well, there's your problem.
steveklabnik 13y ago
Whoops, how did I end up on this stage? I've never even seen this presentation before! Must have been an accident! (of _course_ they were done intentionally.)

rfnslyr 13y ago

That was absolutely hilarious. I encourage stuff like this. Have a little fun people, nothing to apologize for. Who actually got offended?

Shank 13y ago
I hope you're joking. Besides the flurry of tech presenters and writers in the audience that were offended, a nine year old girl was at TechCrunch Disrupt demonstrating a product. Seeing as TCDisrupt isn't marketed as an 18+ event, it should be held to the same standards as any other public, professional gathering of individuals. Judging by TechCrunch's reaction, they wholeheartedly agree.
- kintamanimatt 13y ago
  IMHO both apps are tacky, however, I feel the whole thing is clearly a joke that some people found funny and some didn't. In any event, I feel the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. I watched the videos and, while the Circle Shake presentation was cringeworthy, it was very mildly sexual at a conference that's aimed at adults, not children. There will have been people in the audience swearing in casual conversation too, possibly within earshot of the kid. I don't think anybody's equally upset about that though. Regarding TitStare, I feel as though tackiness has been conflated with sexism. I just cannot see how such an app is sexist, especially given the fact there are plenty of bisexual and lesbian women. Conversely, if there were an app called ManButtStare, I'm really just not sure there would be the same response. The reason I'm not offended by either of these apps is not because I'm a man (I'm not in the demographic for TitStare anyway given the fact I'm gay), but because the developers' intent didn't appear to be malicious or bad. It just seemed to be a joke that some people got offended over, but then again, I'm not sure why people think the world has to be so sterile so as to prevent people from getting offended. I'm open to being wrong.
  - chrischen 13y ago
    The straight women will still be alienated. It's not as if as long as you're not alienating some women (bi and gay) that it's fine. It also objectifies women. They're propagating the belief that women are only interesting as objects of men's sexual desires. They don't have to explicitly do something sexist or racist to have a negative effect. Sometimes negative effect can simply be achieved by inaction or mis-action (action that isn't explicitly wrong, but has overarching negative effects). The reason why you probably won't be offended by "ManButtStare" is because such a thing rarely if ever happens. You are in a male-dominated tech industry already so you don't feel alienation from that trivial instance of female-centric thinking. The problem with Titstare is it adds (in the wrong direction) to compounding attitudes of male-centric thinking and a male-centric industry, with negative consequences of alienation of straight female participants. This is a negative because there will be suboptimal appropriation of female talent into this sector due to alienation. More and more females will just end up going into fashion or art or English literature so they can join their gay, metrosexual, and non-sexist bffs. See how I stereotyped fashion as dominated by gay men? Perhaps it is, but by promoting that attitude, I probably just added a little bit there to discourage a straight guy from going into fashion even though he may be good at it. That is bad.

jaredsohn 13y ago

>I think the first one must have been a joke, because titstare.com was only registered today: How does when the domain was registered affect whether it was a joke? The hackathon took place last night through today. I think it is supposed to be a mobile app (if any code actually exists) anyway, so having a domain isn't super important.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

icambron 13y ago

Titstare, joke or not, is wildly misogynist; no debate here. Circle Shake is inappropriate for the audience and setting and everyone involved should have known better. But it's not misogynist. It's a joke about masturbation, which is a normal, healthy thing that people of both sexes generally do. Casting it as an attack on women is absurd, and gets into "women can't handle sex talk!" territory.

mhurron 13y ago

> app called TitStare, which allows you to view, upload, and share softcore photos of.. use your imagination I don't see the problem. Pornography is perfectly legal and big business.

theorique 13y ago
Well, yeah, but at TechCrunch Disrupt? There's a time and a place for this kind of thing and it's not at a generalist startups and software industry conference.
- metaphorm 13y ago
  why not? The porn industry has been responsible for a lot of technological innovation on the internet. They were pioneers for electronic billing, for streaming video, for high scalability websites, and for user-uploaded content. Should we exclude all content with a sexual nature, even if there is good technology behind it?
  - theorique 13y ago
    You have a good point about the porn industry. If someone were presenting a true technical innovation that happened to be inspired by the needs of that industry, that would not be objectionable as long as the 'product' itself weren't displayed in the presentation. (e.g. this innovation in streaming video software enables 10,000 concurrent streams etc etc) Though if it were the AVN conference rather than TechCrunch, showing the product would be practically required. You, know, for demonstration purposes ...
- angersock 13y ago
  The event is keep us abreast of the new products, as it were.
  - theorique 13y ago
    I see what you did there.

hokkos 13y ago

It is pure cringe, hard to watch without feeling embarrassed, neckbeard and brogrammers.