Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1999 22:28:17 -0700 From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: Mark Ovens <marko@uk.radan.com>, Licia <licia@o-o.org> Cc: advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Women in FreeBSD ( was Re: Is there a reseller program?) Message-ID: <19990205222817.I6050@softweyr.com> In-Reply-To: <36BB988A.48159D7B@uk.radan.com>; from Mark Ovens on Sat, Feb 06, 1999 at 01:19:06AM %2B0000 References: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9902051300570.10237-100000@o-o.org> <36BB988A.48159D7B@uk.radan.com>
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On Sat, Feb 06, 1999 at 01:19:06AM +0000, Mark Ovens wrote:
>
> Err, maybe I've totally lost the plot here but can I ask a simple
> question? Since when the hell did gender come into the discussions in
> these mailing lists?
>
> I don't know about anyone else, but I never consider the gender of
> person who posts a message, or to whom I reply. I can't recall any
> sexist remarks/threads appearing here and I'm damn sure that they
> wouldn't be tolerated. The subject of these lists is FreeBSD, does
> gender, race, colour, or creed enter in to it? I think not.
Overtly, no, but issues like race and gender always come up, it's
a factor of human life. Race is less apparent than gender in many
ways; often names boil down to simple categories of "vaguely
european", "vaguely oriential", and "I have no idea." If, on the
other hand, your name is Licia, Laura, or Sue, chances are pretty
good that most males of european descent are immediately going to
leap to the conclusion the poster is female. Depending on who the
reader is, this will cause them to pay more or less attention to
the author, be more or less critical of their opinions, and more
or less patient with them. All of these also apply to those of a
different culture.
I, in general, am more interested, less critical, and more patient,
but hey, that's just me. I'm also less likely to assume a woman
is an idiot, I'd rather assume she's just an expert at something
else. I know this makes me incredibly sexist, but in my experience
there ARE far more male jerks, morons, and madmen than female. ;^)
I also try to cultivate helping relationships with people of
different cultures. I've met people over the net in Africa, Australia,
and England whom I now consider good friends, simply by answering
(or occasionally asking) a few questions. Who knows, I may someday
get the chance to share my home, or perhaps even theirs, simply for
the price of helping somebody with PPP, or DNS, or something else
that is relatively trivial for me.
> > The FAD mailing list? I would wait until it gets more traffic. Currently
> > there are only 12 subscribers, and volume is very low. So far most messages
> > are reply-less :/
>
> Well, I think it's a great idea, I've subscribed but I can't promise to
> make any worthwhile contribution for a time yet. I've subscribed in the
> hope that I can learn from others but if I feel able to contribute then
> I'll chip in.
I'd like to join, being one of those odd people who have actually
developed applications on FreeBSD, but I can't keep up with my
current email load.
Perhaps a passionate plea for more application developers would make
a good column for Daemon News? It's entirely possible that there
are many other potential developers and they just don't know about
your list yet. ;^)
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
http://www.softweyr.com/~softweyr wes@softweyr.com
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