Date: Sat, 06 Feb 1999 17:58:23 +0000 From: Mark Ovens <marko@uk.radan.com> To: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> Cc: Licia <licia@o-o.org>, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Women in FreeBSD ( was Re: Is there a reseller program?) Message-ID: <36BC82BF.9DAE2E55@uk.radan.com> References: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9902051300570.10237-100000@o-o.org> <36BB988A.48159D7B@uk.radan.com> <19990205222817.I6050@softweyr.com>
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Wes Peters wrote: > > 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. True, but then there are plenty of names where the gender is not obvious at all (except to residents of the poster's country). > 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. That should depend on the content of the message rather than the person who sent it, surely > 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, Not wishing to pass judgement on your opinions, but I can see some (all?) women reading this to consider that rather patronizing. > but in my experience > there ARE far more male jerks, morons, and madmen than female. ;^) > Got to agree with you there :-( > 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. > Yes, that's one of the great things about the international nature of the Internet, you can learn so much more than, in this case, FreeBSD. Someone recently took the time to explain the definition of "felony" and "misdemeanour" in the context of US law after a thread about spam, for example. > > > 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?" > I don't know ;-) > Wes Peters Softweyr LLC > http://www.softweyr.com/~softweyr wes@softweyr.com > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message -- Q. How many Software Engineers does it take to change a light bulb? A. None. It's a hardware problem FreeBSD - The Power To Serve http://www.freebsd.org My Webpage http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~markov _______________________________________________________________ Mark Ovens, CNC Apps Engineer, Radan Computational Ltd. Bath UK CAD/CAM solutions for Sheetmetal Working Industry mailto:marko@uk.radan.com http://www.radan.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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