Even if the seemingly off the hip percent of one tenth is an accurate measure, one would have to read it in context of other off-topic conversations, as I'm sure degrading a sex or gender is not project related. How often does a conversation include political references? Attacks on unrelated attributes? I don't frequently participate in these discussions, but I'm guessing it might contribute to a tenth of conversation (hopefully a very liberal estimate). So, that only moves the trivially small to 1 in 100.
But now consider authorship. Is it the case where one or two guys saying a sexist thing with some frequency is polluting our imaginary stat up to.1%, or is the case most guys inject random sexism without being particularly aware of it? The later would indicate a culture unaware of the oppression it perpetuates. This is the concern of the article's author. And, if it is the case, it would obviously implicate more community members. As such, the frequency of the comments is irrelevant as long as a significant number of the guys communicating have at least one sexist exchange without, as has been emphasized, regret or apology. That is, one sexist post without apology from a significant number is enough to build a hostile environment. In this way, whether it is.1% or 10% of the conversation, a large percent of those communicating have reviled themselves to be in line with the hegemonic discourse of western sexism.
Also, juxtaposing this.1% to the very small number of women is a confusing argument against the problem of sexism in FOSS communities. Would one not infer that if there were more women the.1% sexist comments would be higher. And, is the low number of women participants not evidence that the community is in some way hostile to their participation?
Slashdot Mirror
Even if the seemingly off the hip percent of one tenth is an accurate measure, one would have to read it in context of other off-topic conversations, as I'm sure degrading a sex or gender is not project related. How often does a conversation include political references? Attacks on unrelated attributes? I don't frequently participate in these discussions, but I'm guessing it might contribute to a tenth of conversation (hopefully a very liberal estimate). So, that only moves the trivially small to 1 in 100. But now consider authorship. Is it the case where one or two guys saying a sexist thing with some frequency is polluting our imaginary stat up to .1%, or is the case most guys inject random sexism without being particularly aware of it? The later would indicate a culture unaware of the oppression it perpetuates. This is the concern of the article's author. And, if it is the case, it would obviously implicate more community members. As such, the frequency of the comments is irrelevant as long as a significant number of the guys communicating have at least one sexist exchange without, as has been emphasized, regret or apology. That is, one sexist post without apology from a significant number is enough to build a hostile environment. In this way, whether it is .1% or 10% of the conversation, a large percent of those communicating have reviled themselves to be in line with the hegemonic discourse of western sexism.
Also, juxtaposing this .1% to the very small number of women is a confusing argument against the problem of sexism in FOSS communities. Would one not infer that if there were more women the .1% sexist comments would be higher. And, is the low number of women participants not evidence that the community is in some way hostile to their participation?