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Comment by root_axis | Hacker News Reader

I'm not a woman, but I imagine that when you're a woman in a male dominated community it can create a lot of anxiety to participate in the community because women are often harassed or dismissed because of their gender or appearance. The harassers are almost always a small minority, but it only takes one persistent asshole to ruin your day and discourage you from participating. From what I can tell, the goal of this community is just to offer women a place to feel comfortable without being denigrated or receiving harassing or suggestive PMs.

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In that case wouldn't it be a better solution to aggressively remove those who harass others about personal things rather than the topic at hand instead of making a site where women specifically are treated as a special/protected class?

Well, I imagine the site was created in-part to afford the creators the freedom to moderate with respect to those goals, there's not really much they can do about the moderation strategies of sites they do not control. Regardless of an individual or community, people are often told "if you don't like it, go create your own community" and so this is what they did. At the end of the day, it's a win-win for everyone; those who may not appreciate a gender-sensitive moderation strategy will get to stay in the communities they enjoy, while those seeking a different approach now have an additional option.

> I'm not a woman, but I imagine

One of the biggest problems with male dominated communities is men imagining what women would say instead of just listening to the women in the community. I'd be interested in hearing responses to parent from actual women.

I don't agree that trying to imagine how women might feel is a problem.

I believe that's called empathy. Otherwise known as "walking a mile in someone else's shoes" and considered a healthy practice in society that might have prevent such systemic problems from developing in the first place.

The rules here are that you respond to the strongest interpretation of what somebody said, not the weakest.

Trying to imagine how women might feel isn't a problem. Posting about what you imagine woman might feel to the extent that it crowds out actual women saying how they feel (e.g. being the top response) is a problem.

> The rules here are that you respond to the strongest interpretation of what somebody said, not the weakest.

Doctor, heal thyself.

> Posting about what you imagine woman might feel to the extent that it crowds out actual women saying how they feel (e.g. being the top response) is a problem.

I don't control where my response sits, so it sounds like you're saying the problem is that I decided to speak at all. I am having a hard time reading the comment any other way than "don't express opinions about how you imagine a woman might feel".

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