Slashdot Mirror
The Empathy Gap and Why Women Are Treated So Badly In Open Source Projects (perens.com)
Bruce Perens writes: There's no shortage of stories of horrible treatment of women in Open Source projects. But how did we get here? How did we ever get a community where a vocal minority of males behave in the most boorish, misogynistic, objectifying manner toward women? I have a theory: "It’s unfortunately the case that software development in general and Open Source communities are frequented by males who have social development issues. I once complained online about how offended I was by a news story that said many software developers were on the autism spectrum. To my embarrassment, there were many replies to my complaint by people who wrote 'no, I really am on the spectrum and I’m not alone here.'
It’s still an open issue whether males and females have built-in biases that, for example, lead fewer women to be programmers, or if such biases only develop as a response to social signals. There is more science to be done. But it’s difficult to do that sort of science because we can’t separate the individuals from the social signals they’ve grown up with. Certainly we can improve the situation for the women who would be programmers except for the social signals."
It’s still an open issue whether males and females have built-in biases that, for example, lead fewer women to be programmers, or if such biases only develop as a response to social signals. There is more science to be done. But it’s difficult to do that sort of science because we can’t separate the individuals from the social signals they’ve grown up with. Certainly we can improve the situation for the women who would be programmers except for the social signals."
This crap again?
Gender has no role in online interactions unless you make it.
We're all pixels. we have no race. no nationality. no gender. no sexuality.
I'm not sure what online community you're taking part in, that this is happening in but i suggest you leave it =)
There's no shortage of stories of horrible treatment of women in Open Source projects. Liar.
"It’s unfortunately the case that software development in general and Open Source communities are frequented by males who have social development issues"
What about the women who have "social development issues" that draw them to the field, or do they get off with a wink and a nod?
I love ya, Bruce, but this is bullshit.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Stop Editors. Stop Slashdot. Stop Dice. Stop Bruce Perens. Stop This.
Stop hazing the tech sector. Stop making us out to be hostile to women, or racists, or all white male misogynerds. We're just regular people, regular geeks. Yes we like to play D&D, and pretend we're dwarves, or warlocks, or elf-maids, but that does not make us supporters of rape culture. Yes we like to write computer programs and make geeky websites about science stuff or cat videos. But that does not makes us anti-immigrant bigots. Yes we disagree with you and politely explain our reasons why, but that does not make us harassing MRA online stalkers.
The lies and hazing have to stop. The tech sector does not have a problem with women. The media has a problem with the tech sector.
Oh come on. I would like to understand how we have brought up some folks like, to take the worst example, weev. Obviously I don't know a thing about his upbringing, but I know about the general situation, and I suggest a solution, although it would take a generation to implement.
Just what are you doing? Denying there's a problem?
Bruce Perens.
WTF is "We should try to be nice to people" such a controversial position?
Because when you state it in a way that implies all men in open source projects are not being to nice to women, it's grossly offensive.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
"It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what." -- Stephen Fry
Circumcision is child abuse.
I disagree. I don't think the open source community, or rather nerds in general have a special problem with sexism or racism or homophobia for that matter.
Society has a problem. There is a vocal minority of assholes everywhere. Including in technology.
Also there is generally a healthy dose of racism and sexism in all of us. Is it natural? I dunno. But I do believe it can really hurt people and it does cloud our judgement. We deal with it in different ways. Some recognize it, try to be educated about it and try to avoid expressing it and keep it from clouding their judgement. Some others don't even see it. Some even celebrate it.
But no matter if you see something or not. Or if you ignore it. It doesn't go away. And it doesn't help victims, if you tell them that it doesn't exist. Every time there is a story on sexism on Slashdot, most comments are either outright sexist or they deny the existence of sexism. That is the problem, IMHO.
Case in point:
http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
You're still blaming men with unspecified "social development issues", which is politically correct for now.
In five years time, when "social development issues" become a protected class, I'm going to remind Slashdot and your employer that you posted this.
Cheers,
Anonymous SJW
Women are about 50% of the population and the majority of college graduates. Women could easily create women-dominated computer science programs, companies, and open source projects, run according to whatever preferences they have, if they wanted to. When it comes to open source development, none of the usual barriers feminists postulate to explain underrepresentation of women in certain fields apply: if pimply maladjusted male teenagers living in their mom's basement can create open source projects, surely intelligent, educated, empathetic women can do so as well. And if women's empathetic and communication styles result in superior project performance, they'd quickly take over the open source world.
Instead, Perens seems to view women as so weak and inferior that the only way they can create open source software is under male guidance and tutelage, within male-dominated projects. Perens and people like him are the real misogynists and sexists, because he obviously deep down still believes that women are the weaker sex and need protection and help from males like him.
And the real irony behind arguments like Perens's is that on the one hand, he acknowledges deep biological differences between men and women, but then thinks that society should somehow shoe-horn and reeducate people in such a way that despite those differences, outcomes are still statistically equal in a few select areas that he happens to care about.
where the man is an evil thing and the woman is the pristine victim of the bestial male. This doesn't make man a beast or a women virginal purity.
There's no "Empathy Gap". There's a story being written and the geek is the least protected class, male, weak, strange and acts mostly alone, and this is a valuable target.
Mostly because of the generally non-nice, aggressive, "it's all your fault" way that it was put. The social issue on display here is the article's author generalising a large group of people, and collectively calling them socially underdeveloped. It's unsurprising that that gets a negative response, in much the same way as generalising all women, and calling them crap at technology gets an unsurprisingly negative response.
No, really it is. You don't need to look far for piles and piles of peer validated, long running, empirical studies showing how women get the short end of the stick in lots of social, economic, and employment situations.
I knew all of the above but the clue bat really didn't knock my personal set of teeth out until early in 2015.
I work for a small-ish nonprofit providing all kinds of IT services, but in a small outfit you end up wearing all kinds of hats. I was asked to move my office to one adjoining a large floor that's essentially free public access computers for job search.
Why? The reason that was literally told to me was "We need a male presence out there"
Nonprofit public service tends to attract a lot of female employees, so my workplace is about 95% female. (And working there almost 15 years gives you some real insights in to the dynamics of women in the workplace) Having the above told to me verbatim by the female director of our organization was eye-opening to say the least.
But not as eye opening as what I experienced in the first week in my new office.
As you might imagine from what I've said above, the staff helping job seekers on the floor are women. They're all wonderfully qualified and extremely patient. They deal with everyone off the street - From the homeless to the people shunted over from the practically un-staffed unemployment office to the old men who lost their lifetime jobs at the lumber mill that just closed and found that their pension has been raided. (They're unhappy is the point I'm trying to make)
Some people, a surprisingly large number of people, simply do not respect women. At all. Even other women.
Sometimes my job is to simply pick up my cup off coffee, walk out on to the floor, and just stand there. When things are getting out of hand, everybody calms down. Sometimes my job is to repeat exactly what my co worker said to an upset job seeker - And suddenly they believe it. Sometimes a troubled soul will come into my office (The door is always open), sit down in a chair, and vent his or her troubles. I listen and nod politely and then direct them back to the people that were helping them 10 minutes ago. (And this works!)
It's creepy. I'm just the IT guy. When I'm done doing my new job as Y chromosome holder I go back to my desk and resume testing backups and managing EC2 instances and updating the website.
Women do get treated poorly, even in 2016. Just .. Be aware.
Being labeled a "denier" doesn't strike fear in my heart. You may be correct, but I'm not going to assume you are. There is no shortage of people nowadays wringing their hands and searching for -- or inventing, if none can be found -- problems to solve, especially supposed social injustices to be corrected.
So, your opening sentence remains unjustified. You say there are "many stories of horrendous treatment of women," and yes, I do question that. I would rather accept that there are many stories of horrendous treatment of people, although I wouldn't even venture to say that the number of those stories is indicative of a social problem within the open source community given the huge number of participants in that community.
Being autistic (or on the spectrum somewhere) is no excuse for deliberately being a cock towards women.
I'm almost certainly autistic, I have all the possible traits of it. But I'll be fucked if I judge a woman coder over any other. Hell, if anything, the social aspects of such conditions mean that you wouldn't conform to such obvious social stereotypes and prejudices.
Nobody can stop you being a cock, overall. But being a cock towards women rather than men is just a deliberate, targeted prejudice no matter what you claim to be suffering from.
Stop conflating "autism" with certain social disorders or with racist / sexist / ageist dickheads. If anything, people like myself treat all people equally - with complete apathy.
What's with all the Bruce hate? What is wrong with discussing a "gender empathy gap", why it might exist and what we might do about it? If you disagree with his point then offer sensible counterpoints of your own, but when you insult him or his ideas you're just reinforcing his point that the tech world is full of socially challenged asshats.
I would also think that Bruce's contributions to open software would merit some reflective humility, to maybe sit back and think a bit about what he's saying. Haven't you seen misogynistic behavior online? Why do you think that exists? Are you okay with it? If not, what can be done about it?
Thank you Bruce for openly speaking your concerns and ideas. I hope we can find a way to foster a more humane and empathetic open source community.
"Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff."
- Deep Thought
I'm genuinely curious why women's standards of behavior and empathy are the norm to which we ascribe? Why do they get to set the standard definition?
Perhaps male behaviors with a lack of empathy, etc are the norms to which women need to conform?
-Styopa
Everything you said could have just as easily been said about people like Brendan Eich, who've been told "there is no place for someone with views like yours in our community." You want inclusivity? Then practice it on everything, including ideology. Until then, you are worse than people like weev because at least they admit that they reject "equality" and "inclusion" as ideals. You reject it on ideology, then someone else is free to reject it wherever they please. It really is an all-or-nothing proposition.
Bruce, please do what you can to get the word out that every instance of assholery needs to stop. It doesn't matter what the gender of the victim is - males should be no more "expected" to take abuse than females. If we stop the abuse, we stop the abuse. I agree, it starts with good parenting, but we can also apply social pressures to adults. Our movement is about means as much as, if not more so than, than ends, and this is a black eye on it. Maybe women as a group tend to be smarter about not abiding such behavior.
Most people don't like to hear that every instance of assholery needs to be countered because it requires *them* to act at every opportunity to counter injustice. This can't be delegated to a committee and if learning to behave is as required as learning to code in our community then it doesn't matter what personality types are at a disadvantage, except that they may need extra help. Other community members need to be as willing to help a newbie behave as they are to help him submit good patches. Is that comfortable in our society? No, but we're doing the evolution thing here - nobody said it was going to be easy.
And one good patch from an asshole isn't worth the loss of several more community members. If we had to make that trade, I'd take one fewer patch, on principle, but we don't have to - a vibrant community is non-zero sum.
My favorite open source communities are joyous playgrounds and rich in female contributors. I'm hesitant to post them here because /. has its share of miscreants, but get in touch if you want some follow-up. Thanks for keeping this problem at the fore.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Send your favorite women here: https://www.mindtools.com/page...
Then, send them to watch a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Then, stop the fucking WHINING!!!!
You're a guy, aren't you Bruce? WTF do you get off whining and crying all the time? "Oh, boo-hoo, men are so horrible, and they mistreat women so badly!" Seriously dude, get yourself some asstertiveness training, grow a pair, harden the fuck up, and stop SNIVELING! We really don't need the SJW's wandering aimlessly about, telling us how horrible we are. Set an example, and STFU. You gain no sympathy for your cause by sniveling. There are plenty of men who are willing to stand with the women, but you are just an embarrassment. Real men don't want to be seen in your company. Hell, real women don't want to be seen in your company. Nobody wants to be seen with a bitch.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
As a woman & part of a minority who has been in and around open source projects, video games and what not for most of her life, I am frankly flabbergasted at articles and wild accusations like these.
The supposition is that there is a problem 'we women' suffer at the hands of males. The reality is that there are trolls and bullies who just pick on the weak. What I have also found is that said trolls and bullies are generally rapidly expunged from tech & gaming circles as they are unpleasant to deal with.
I have always found both the video gaming and open source/tech communities to be the most pleasant and welcoming of all. Am I doing something wrong here? Am I internalising misogyny, or some such nonsense?
Please, stop making up non-existing problems. We got enough real problems as-is already, including radicalised feminists and the media harassing us female gamers and geeks for not adhering to outdated and/or ridiculous stereotypes. Now there's a target to focus on for some real research on an actual problem. I won't stop you.
Site & blog: http://www.mayaposch.com
My moods are as variable as any of the other human animals on this planet, and I'm not denying that we're making progress, but part of the problem is that, as always, the evolution of our technology outpaces our own evolution by at least an order of magnitude. We have myriad ways to not only exterminate our own species, but also myriad ways to ensure that Earth is uninhabitable for thousands of years, if not permanently. Meanwhile, a minority of the more forward-thinking pat themselves on the back for all the 'progress' we've made as a species, while on the other side of the planet there are assholes running around cutting off people's heads and literally blowing things up in an effort to turn the clock back by at least a thousand years. Or, is what you mean by 'exasperated with political debate' more localized? I can work with that, too. Both of the majority political parties in this country (the U.S., in case you're elsewhere) are utterly clueless, but this time around, the Major Offender is this Trump caveman, who, if he managed to get elected, would at the very least drag the U.S. back into the 19th Century socio-political-wise, if not out-and-out instigate World War III, and possibly destroy civilization. Assuming that is that there were enough clear-headed personnel in positions of power in our military to say "Hell, no!" and stage a coup. Discounting Trump entirely (with many thanks!), even the Democrats are pretty clueless, and while they won't get us into some world-ending conflict, they're going to wreck us in other, softer ways. In the end I'll have to get myself on some watch-list by voting for a 3rd-party candidate, just to make a statement of my utter disdain for everyone they're trotting out to us, and I'm not thrilled with the idea. Exasperated with politics? Yeah I guess you could say that -- but not as exasperated as I am with stupid humans in general. It's not a Good Thing when I regularly have to think to myself, "Hopefully it all won't go completely to Hell before I'm dead".
So how's your day going? XD XD XD
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Bruce, it is no more a problem than men being mean to other men is a problem.
All are equal. Stop with the protected victim class safe space bullshit. Women don't need you to White Knight for them. They are intelligent, powerful, and capable despite you - Not because of you.
Just what are you doing? Denying there's a problem?
Yes. I deny there is a problem. People often treat each other badly, but I have seen NO evidence that this is a specific problem in FOSS projects, or in tech in general. My personal experience has been the exact opposite. Over the years, I have managed many techs, and I have also managed many non-techs. If you think that engineers are misogynists, you should meet some salesmen. I have dealt with sexual harassment complaints about the sales dept, the shipping crew, but never once about an engineer. My experience has been that techs behave at least as well as any other group of people, and better than most. Can we do better? Sure, but so can any other group of humans, including left handed methodists, but no one singles them out for criticism.
Your suggested solution involves changing education. This is a favorite tuning knob of many would-be social engineers: diagnose a problem without a study (or with a study made to find exactly that problem, run by people with a vested interest in finding that thing). Specifically, you imply that there's something that schools can do with groups of friends, trying to define the self organizing social groups. This will require a level of policing that is absolutely ludicrous and impractical, and likely very harmful if schoolchildren are denied the ability to choose their friends. School is a tyrannical experience for many, and this plan of yours will just create even more loners, and make them more alone.
It's also amazing to see how thoroughly socially awkward people are chased down and vilified. Finding one of the few places that socially awkward or autism spectrum people are able to spend their time helping society (in some cases for free, and in most cases for less compensation than they WOULD get, outside of it) and trying to find the correct combinations of matches to set their house on fire, all sacrifices for whatever Diversity-God is currently venerated in social engineering circles.
As the pressure increases, they'll eventually figure out what's going on. Within 10 years, I fear you'll be seeing forks of projects along political lines.
That will be the end result of diagnosing a problem where none exists, prescribing solutions where the term is meaningless, and ultimately vilifying and excluding contributors who don't toe the politically correct line. More divisiveness for no gain.
Asshollery has a strong positive correlation to the Y chromosome and testosterone.
Sorry, as someone who knows/has known literally thousands of women in my lifetime, I call "bullshit".
You're actually claiming that the presence of a Y chromosome is a predictor for "assholishness"?
I doubt you could even define "assholishness" (or "asshollery" or whatever) to any degree of accuracy. One person's "assholishness" is another person's perfectly acceptable behavior, so that's a fail. It's like defining pornography, which ends up coming down to some subjective value judgement.
So, in short, you're wrong, and you should stop spreading this nonsense- it just makes you out to be an asshole.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I understand your intention, but I would urge you to change your mindset to focus less on stereotypes and more on behavior.
I often find this kind of study/summary to be of the greatest irony.
Person complains men are insensitive or make assumptions about women, which is a great irony because that just making an insensitive assumptions about men.
Let me try another example.
You are trying to point out problems within a group. Yet, you have chosen the word 'male' to represent this group.
Suppose we wish to talk about problems in urban Detroit (gangs, single motherhood...)
Would you state the problem in any way as:
Black people are prone to violence and broken families?
No, because that would be so insensitive. You'd probably call that person a bigot.
You'd have to make it more specific. People in poverty, certain urban centers, certain historical background...
I was born in Apartheid South Africa. I know a little more about racial grouping. I also see the reverse now where the groupings and power plays have shifted. It's always tempting, but if you want to be better than a bigot, you have to check yourself and not fall into 'my tribe' thinking.
Now this is always a tricky area as how do you talk about systemic problems without 'grouping' people.
Well as I say, take two minutes and make sure you've tried your best to narrow your group as much as possible. You might not get it perfect, but at least you made the effort and can offend fewer people AND be more accurate.
It's almost pointless to talk about 'black' people as that is such a large group. Neil Degrass Tyson is black. Condoleeza Rice is black. One of the best IOS programmers I know is black. These people bare no resemblance to the image people have when they talk about 'black problems' perpetuated by both bigots and SJW. There are upscale blacks. There are ghetto blacks and every other subgrouping in between.
It's just as pointless to talk about 'white' people. There are rich white folk and downright poor ghetto white folks. You can for example talk about 'white privilege' but you better be careful about it. Tell some poor white kid from a broken home that he has 'white privilege'. Do you have any idea how harmful that is to that person?
Now ponder your choice of groups. You chose to group humans into two of the biggest groups possible. Male and Female.
And you make grand stereotypes about both, lumping in everyone. You insult anyone who identifies with either being male or female. You insult the female who prefers direct talk or believes she should fight the fight. You insult the male who prefers social grace.
Did it ever occur to you that many men get turned off by poor social behavior?
Perhaps the issue is less that of men vs women, but of people who lack social grace.
I would also imagine with all the tools available in the open source world, it might be interesting to find out why other open source cultures haven't developed. Or maybe they have? I haven't studied it. I'm generally just a deep user, as opposed to an active contributor, but I generally find people quite helpful. There are some assholes, but I've also had some very good conversations and help from a lot of people. Every open source project is started by someone.
Basically, take two minutes.
Check your groupings.
Even if you go in depth with nuance in the research, check your summary. Just do the black test. Change the 'bad' group to 'black' and see how it reads.
How does this read to you Bruce:
How did we ever get a community where a vocal minority of males behave in the most boorish, misogynistic, objectifying manner toward women?
How did we ever get a community where a vocal minority of blacks behave in the most boorish, misogynistic, objectifying manner toward women?
Even masked with the words minority, it still stings doesn't it? No matter how your phrase it, it stings a little doesn't it.
So for someone complaining about insensitive men ... you might want to check yourself.
I have an idea for starters. How about, to start, that all sexual abuse and harassment will be considered strictly unacceptable?
How about for starters, we define clearly what does (and doesn't) constitute "sexual abuse and harassment?" Because in the United States, both are already considered not only social unacceptable, but also illegal.
The problem isn't in getting people to agree to the premise that "all sexual abuse and harassment will be considered strictly unacceptable." The problem is that SJW's would redefine both of those terms so broadly as to include almost all social interactions between men and women.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Asshollery has a strong positive correlation to the Y chromosome and testosterone.
Sorry, as someone who knows/has known literally thousands of women in my lifetime, I call "bullshit".
Beat me to it.
A male tends to be more aggressive by virtue of the extra testosterone we carry around, but that in no way is a marker for being a jerk. Women do just as well in the jerk department as do males.
This matter ain't a-goin nowhere until we realize this is a people issue.
Having friends and co-workers who are successful people who happen to be female, I've gotten few of the now pervasive "Men are fucking assholes" from any of them.
In fact, while they have met men who are assholes, to a woman they declare the man an asshole - not men .
What is universal among their experience is that a lot of the resistance and discouragement they get is from other women. Which sadly enough has caused several of them to associate almost totally with male cohorts, in large part because they got tired of the "Who did she lay to get that job?" comments from other women.
And heaven help the poor woman if she is also attractive!. Two of these women (disclaimer - one is my wife) are pretty attractive, and there are plenty of women who simply hate you for that. My wife, who is also tall and slender, has had women come up to her in the street tellng her they hate her for her looks, and the other woman, a fine engineer, is also a fitness buff and remarkably beautiful as well - has taken so much guff from the other women at work that she's one of the ones I noted, avoid other women now. And why not? The men at work treated her as an equal even if they appreciated her beauty at the same time. And woe onto anyone who disrespects her.
All of which led me to conclude that there are men who are jerks. All of this led me to conclude that there are women who are jerks as well.
But here we are, in this dysfunctional state where there is no fault but men's fault, where whatever any woman says is the unaasailble truth.
But here's the thing. There is a definite gender ratio difference in male/female in IT. Does this mean that all men or all men in IT are jerks? If so, in the field of veterinary medicine, which is almost exclusivley female now, does it then follow that all women or all women in veterinary field are jerks? Does it mean that there is some aspect of gender that attracts mostly males to IT? Some aspect of gender that attracts overwhemingly females to veterinary medicine?
Thes questions make some folks very uncomfortable. And anyone who tries to tapdance some bullshit that female veternarians are saints and men all dropped out of the field because they are assholes is displaying grade A assholeism themselves.
Do we want to actually solve the problem if there is one? Blaming all problems on men is like a person looking for their lost keys under a streetlamp where the light is good, rather than in an unlit area, where they knew they actually lost them.
If we want to fix this problem - if it is a problem based on discrimination or maltreatment, it must be acknowledged that it is not simply a male problem.
Because to ignore that simply won't fix the issue - it just won't.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Are you still in school? If so you are in for a bit of a shock when you enter the workforce.
Even before Bruce wrote this timely article, I wondered whether more women in open source might be a cause or an effect of better moderation. My brief time working with the late Telsa Gwynn at GUADEC 2003 suggested that moderation was one of her under-appreciated roles. But she was attacked by the misogynistic mob (AKA the open source community.) Were it not for Telsa's thick skin and an overdeveloped sense of forgiveness, none of us would have benefited from her work. Many other women and others outside of a particularly narrow age/race/religion/gender profile have experienced similar when attempting to contribute and most gave up. We tolerate Linus's rantings and ignore that only timing and humility separated Linus from countless other early *nix hackers. We tolerate Gangolf Jobb's racist license and Trumpish rantings because he is a good coder. My family and remote team members met at GUADEC Istanbul where a very well-known opensource developer spewed misogynistic rantings that embarrassed and offended me, projected a terrible impression of Christians and Euro/American society to my global team who were experiencing western society for the first time. He came very near to inspiring at least one person to push him into the Bosporus. Why does this happen? Part of it is the same reason Whitney Houston and other rock , movie and sports superstars are bat shit insane. Society should be a counterbalance to the Id, but when we worship people as superstars, there is no counterbalance and Id rules. The defence mechanism takes over when the inner demons unleashed by bad decisions are externalized, possibly as police brutality. Similar forces were at play when Hans Reiser became our OJ Simpson.
In the past that role of moderation was performed by a central government (e.g. the FCC), a tight group of highly educated individuals, a class/caste system. Twitter and Facebook use something close to a democracy but the S/N ratio can quickly fall to the level of CB radio, AOL and usenet. The more sophisticated merit-based moderation system used by Slashdot, some opensource projects and creative sites such as worth1000 works well, at least above a certain threshold. But these systems must be designed to prevent individuals or small groups from becoming immune to criticism. Within government legal frameworks the censor or impeachment is a mechanism for moderation. We could do something within opensource communities where an individual's ethics could taint their contributions. Each of us would be able to choose whether we want to contribute or use ethically-tainted patches.
Back in the 1980s when I may have been the last male to wirewrap a PDP-11 core memory board, a friend commented, "Did you ever notice that men in the comp-sci program are (80s equivalent of "Meh") but the women are brilliant?" Yes, I did notice that. But whatever happened to Karen Norwood, Maureen T, Kathy Christiansen, Norah K, and the sole woman in our Physics program?
This is where overloading the == operator comes in. Equality is an overloaded word. Here in Ireland, the word was a slogan for LBGT marriage rights which passed referendum with an overwhelming majority. But the word "equality" doesn't apply to gender, race, religion or immigration issues here. But do we really want women to become equal to 20-something males who live in their parent's basement who have the moral and emotional depth of comic book and video game heros? I don't. Let's take the best woman have to offer and not try to force them into our broken mold.
Most of this was sent to me by a 3rd party with a sharper gaze than I....if I didn't know better, I'd think Bruce's account had been hacked and is now being used by a clever troll. Sadly, that does not seem to be the case.
Here are a few things Bruce has said that people might find interesting:
Bruce Perens: I'll tell you another secret then. Open Source was a mistake. I am not a Freetard any longer.
I know that there's a good chance that some folks will not believe this was a quote from him, but it was. Others might suggest that it is taken out of context, but it isn't, and I'll cite it here:
This is the relevant link. (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=8501517&cid=51150923)
And then there's this:
Bruce Perens: Yes, I would take your gun. I hope to do so someday.
And, again, a citation for those who would insist on evidence. (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=8501517&cid=51147449)
Note: None of that is edited, taken out of context, or reworded. It's all easily verified by simply clicking the provided links and looking at what he's written. There are multiple comments that may be of interest.
Bruce, basically, has used the FOSS community as a springboard and now has decided to abandon them, claim he doesn't believe in them, and now uses the term as a derogatory phrase - "freetard" a pejorative.
In other words, he's basically pulled a great troll and is now in the process of abusing the people that he used to get the small measure of fame that he does have.
I've admired Bruce's commentary in the past, but it's hard for me to reconcile any of this recent stuff with the person I thought I knew.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...