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Comment by capableweb | Hacker News Reader

People keep wanting to have profile pictures of their "real" selfs and talk about their private life with the same people they write code with. That didn't use to happen. Back in the day, there wasn't even any avatars, just emails! Then people started using nicknames, that was fine. And first when avatars appeared, we used images of something else. Myspace and Facebook brought up the whole "I have to be the same person I'm online as I'm in the real-life" syndrome, and now we have what you described above.

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You can still be anonymous in open source projects. My experience is that nobody cares about your background or ethnicity or (at least) wants to know about your background/ethnicity. If you're a valuable contributor you will be respected instantly. Also if you're serious about wanting to learn (and have a fairly good foundation of basic skills) you will find people willing to help you. So if you're really worried about being discriminated against, but are serious about becoming a better programmer, just stay anonymous on github.

I know this (this very account is one anonymous profile of mine) and many others know this. But bigger and bigger slice of the whole internet ecosystem is moving from "anonymous internet profiles" into "my real life profile but on the internet". Platforms are even starting to enforce that policy as well.

My comment was more an observation on how others act, rather than how I act.

Aaand back in the day before that it was US middle class guys (and some gals) working in offices.

Times change, but some problems remain.

Obviously it's not the Rust (or broader IT) community's sole responsibility to solve every kind of social ill, but it seems enough people have experienced problems that show that there's room for improvement.

Though it's not something that is a homogeneous problem. So it's unsurprising that a large part of the community just doesn't see it.

I like the idea of not bringing "irl" problems in cyberspace, but at the same time I can't help but worry that this does not address the root cause and will only perpetuate and normalize these problems. What we need is a change in the consciousness of the people, one should not think of the negative things that can occur by using their face as a an avatar, in this day and age we should not have such problems. But yes on a level meritocracy should be the goal, your code should be what matters.

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