[clug] Being polite on the list - or: Geek Feminism 101

[Francis Markham]

I think Matthew Garret of gnome fame put it rather nicely at LugRadio Live
2008 (
http://viv.id.au/blog/20080723.2001/matthew-garrett-on-ally-work-and-the-linux-community/):

"My major issue with the Linux community is that the Linux community is
very, very bad at telling people that they’re being dicks. This ties in with
what Emma was saying in her presentation earlier – “Don’t be a dick.”

You would think that this would be a nice, straightforward rule for people
to follow. But of course, we’re all geeks, we’re all completely socially
inept.

The real lesson to be learnt is that when people tell you you’re being a
dick, the immediate response should not be, “No I’m not.” The immediate
response should also not be, “I’m going to set fire to your face.”
[laughter] In itself, that is an example of being a dick. And as I just said
– don’t do that.

Those of who have, at various points in your life, been told that you’re
being a dick – this is ok. It’s fine. We all understand if you’re a dick. As
long as you’re perfectly happy to try not to do that in future."

-F

2009/7/15 Paul Wayper <paulway at mabula.net>:
> Hi all,
>
> I think I ought to step in here and make a public statement about what I
(at
> least) expect from the CLUG list as far as treatment of women, minorities,
> majorities, religion, or other sensitive issues.
>
> I would like to see an attempt by everyone to be polite, especially to
> women, when posting on this list.
>
> The whole topic of sexist bias in technology has been going on for ages,
and
> the myths that surround why women are under-represented in technology, and
> especially open source groups, would occupy several episodes of
> Mythbusters[1].  If you labour under the assumption that women making up
> only 20% of the IT industry and only 3% of the Free Open Source Software
> movement is for any other reason than because it is at times blatantly
> sexist, then please feel free to rid yourself of these illusions.
> http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Geek_Feminism_Wiki is a good place to
> start.
>
> The worst thing men can do is to pretend that their behaviour doesn't
offend
> anyone.  The second-worst thing everyone do is to stand by while other
> people are being offensive and say "well, it's not really my place to
speak
> out".  It doesn't matter how clever your justification is, or how erudite
> your reasoning, if someone's taken offence at what you've said then you
> should at least apologise for that.  It is not hard to write neutrally,
and
> email gives us all time to edit and reflect on our response before sending
> it.
>
> Really, there is no topic on this list that needs to address people as men
> or women.  Any generalisation you can make about women applies equally to
a
> group of men.  We aim to be a source of Linux help and collaboration to
> everybody.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Paul
>
> [1] No doubt there'd be a few explosions in there as well to keep Jamie
> happy.
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