Comment by dgzl | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dgzl | Hacker News Reader

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I can't really help you with networking, and I'm not the kind of person who thinks things like being high-ranked entitles you to something other than bragging rights. I certainly don't know enough about the blogging scene to help you there.

I don't see the justification in calling HN a Boy's Club either, as there are zero barriers to participate other than a computer. That term is usually used when people exclude women from the group because they are women, but nobody here knows or cares what sex you are.

I'm sorry for your situations, I really am. My mother and I used to be homeless and now she's entirely dependant on the government for survival. It's heartbreaking because as I grew older, I realized she had essentially done it to herself.

Yes, I think your attitude is a direct contributor to some of your problems. No, I don't think it's easy to have a good attitude when you're in the gutter. I wish I had more advice, but my options about these things are pretty comprehensive and this isn't the best place to dig into it.

I don't see the justification in calling HN a Boy's Club either, as there are zero barriers to participate other than a computer. That term is usually used when people exclude women from the group because they are women, but nobody here knows or cares what sex you are.

It is overwhelmingly male. There is plenty of evidence that women would like to participate more but are put off by some of what goes on here.

Yes, I think your attitude is a direct contributor to some of your problems.

Yes, this is typical. And it's maddening.

I made the leader board. That accomplishment doesn't get credited to me. But my failure to achieve my goals gets blamed on me, conveniently hand-waving away all evidence that sexism is a real problem.

Let me reiterate my original point and then try to walk away from this ridiculous debacle:

Men don't have to treat women like property. All they have to do is silently exclude them professionally, thereby making sure women have little hope of a comfortable life without marrying a man with a good income.

If men would like to stop being targeted by gold diggers and start finding lovers who want them for reasons other than their money, they should start making more of an effort to find ways to bring those barriers down.

When women can make their own money and can have sex to meet their own sexual needs, we might see frivolous accusations of rape to preserve female pretense of chastity and virtue go way down.

> I made the leader board. That accomplishment doesn't get credited to me.

I don't know if this really means anything, but: I've been here for years off and on, I had idea what the "HN leader board is". I couldn't find it by navigating through the site UI either, I had to google it to find it.

Looking at it, it's barely identifiable information. Some profiles have more identification, but many didn't. How is this even remotely close to a useful networking tool? If there's a correlation at all between "HN leaderboard status" and career success, I think that's a secondary correlation.

I think you're very wrong, and I'm going to leave it at that.

> I made the leader board. That accomplishment doesn't get credited to me.

How should such an accomplishment be credited?

I'm trying to step away from what feels like an ugly pile on.

But for the record: it's not uncommon for men on HN to say things to other men like "You've got a lot of karma on HN. You must be smart."

No one says that about me. When I comment on it, I am invariably dismissed and attacked, told I'm bragging about and obsessed with meaningless internet points, etc.

That's the essence of sexism right there: When a man does it, it counts for something. When a woman does it, it counts for nothing and she will be ROFLstomped if she dares to point out the discrepancy exists.

> I'm trying to step away from what feels like an ugly pile on.

Could be the time, identity politics and feminism has a very different form in Europe.

I seriously doubt that.

If I had to guess at a cause, I would say the recent debacle where RMS was forced to resign from two prestigious positions.

People get cranky. They feel threatened. They take it out on a convenient target, regardless of how unjust it is and never mind my track record here.

That sounds like it was intended as supportive. If I've not misread your intent: Thank you.

Anyway, really trying to just walk away from this one.

> But for the record: it's not uncommon for men on HN to say things to other men like "You've got a lot of karma on HN. You must be smart."

I've never seen that on the site personally.

How often would you say this happens? Can you offer links to it occurring?

> men would like to stop being targeted by gold diggers

> When women can make their own money and can have sex to meet their own sexual needs, we might see frivolous accusations of rape to preserve female pretense of chastity and virtue go way down.

Researchers commonly test such theories by comparing countries where earnings and minimal standards are different. The common result in gender studies is the gender equality paradox, so I would expect more gold digging and false accusations in places with more equal wages.

One theory to explain that is that when gender equality goes up you also get a corresponding increase in gender expression. If everyone earn enough money on the own then men is recognized by society as men only if they earn a lot of money. It is not enough to simply have enough money.

In order to move beyond that we would need as a society to dissociate wealth with gender identity and then we are no longer talking about minimal standards, wages or employment rates.

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