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http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=591309 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=591309

• jacquesm 17y ago
  hm, didn't realize it was going to be a duplicate, but it is interesting because that means we can compare the change over time.
  • designtofly 17y ago
    Over time? That was 3 months ago.
  • tokenadult 17y ago
    I think I've posted the full FAQ on voluntary response polls enough times that this time I'll just provide a link. http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=194473&tstart=36420 http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=194473&tsta...
    • jacquesm 17y ago
      So, if I understand you right then because these polls are 'meaningless' we should assume the likelyhood of HN being populated by 95% females and 5% males as just as high as the reverse ? Personally - and in contradiction to the link you posted - I'm assuming that people are either not going to report in or are going to tell the truth and that the chances of lying/not reporting in are about the same across genders. With lying being very very low. I started this poll because of this http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=749514 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=749514 link posted (and dead within seconds) by a user that identified herself as a female by her name in the forum nickname. It made me wonder how many of the anonymous nicknames belonged to females because for the most part all the names that I can relate to a gender on the forum with the exception of DaniFong belong to males.
      • jlees 17y ago
        When you're a girl on the internet, you don't use an obviously girly name unless you want a certain kind of attention. Nuff said.
        • jacquesm 17y ago
          It's that bad ? Wow. Colour me naive, but that's really sad.
          • Dove 17y ago
            It depends on where you hang out. Some places are better than others, and some are even dominated by women. But in general, I agree. After a disturbing experience or two, I decided anonymity was simply easier than hassle. I suspect a lot of folks take this route. Also, gender anonymity offers an additional freedom: in an age that points out and encourages women engineers and girl gamers, I would like to succeed or fail on my own merits. Anonymity guarantees that I do. Hence, my current pseudonym, "Dove". It is believably feminine but not particularly so, and is about as non-stealth as I've ever been.
            • jacquesm 17y ago
              Well, as far as I'm concerned you're very welcome, whatever your gender. My curiosity was mainly in the ratio, not in identifying people, but I'm quite surprised at some of the developments in this thread. (in a positive way). It shouldn't require you to be stealthy to be taken serious but I fully understand. In my life at least one female programmer has had a pretty good influence on my development, here's to you Jenny Yip, wherever you are today :) I'm part of a group of people that are involved with alternative energy, one of the guys there called himself 'fungus'. Everybody assumed him to be a male in is 30's, imagine the surprise when I found out he was a 13 year old whip-smart kid. Holding his own in a community where the average age is probably around 40. If you're in that situation it's probably quite comparable to what you have to put up with. People will not give you 'full weight' because of who you are, instead of letting your creations stand on their own. For a long time I thought about how to set up an abuse free forum, and my naive idea to require people to register with their real name went out the window when I realized that this guy, who is one of the best contributors there would not have joined at all. One day...
  • chaosprophet 17y ago
    Well, so far the ratio seems to be just as skewed as it was then.