Just a Question from a man

[ikt]

Why does everything have to be only offensive or not offensive? That is a false dichotomy. Forget about offense. You don't have to get caught up in the term of offense or offensive. Mark chose certain words to express a point and better words could have been chosen that would be less exclusive. Has Mark committed a grave offense? Should he be locked up in prison? Is he a chauvinist pig? No, no, and no.

Does that mean nothing could be suggested for him to change in his speeches to better include those who are usually excluded in FOSS communities? Again, no.

I don't really care what offends you or doesn't offend you. I do care if Mark can express the same point in a more inclusive way that he consider doing so.

I understand what you're saying but I don't think you're addressing what I am trying to figure out, could he have been more inclusive? yes, is this worthy of 10 front pages calling for him to say sorry to all the people he offended, multiple OMGWTF blog and twitter posts.. ? where is the offense, what is to say sorry for, sorry I was not inclusive enough?

The thing that saddens me the most is that a large number of blog posts have shown people to be more immature than I imagined, and jono bacon who I thought was supposed to be this horrible sexist guy ends up making a fantastic post.

http://www.jonobacon.org/2009/09/30/...-conversation/

I am tired of seemingly only ever reading about the topic of women in Open Source within the context of a conflict scenario which typically spawns a spat over whether specific behaviour is deemed offensive or not. It feels like the topic has become very one-dimensional.

heh

[alienclone]

this entire thread is pointless.

[oldos2er]

The thing I find most distressing about Mr Shuttleworth's comments is how at odds they are with the "humanity toward others" theme. Perhaps I was naive to take that theme at face value.

[lyndaj70]

The thing I find most distressing about Mr Shuttleworth's comments is how at odds they are with the "humanity toward others" theme. Perhaps I was naive to take that theme at face value.

I wasn't crazy about his comments either

When I first started working on computers I got cussed by irate males thinking a woman couldn't know squat about computers. You deal with it.

I've been tinkering with Linux since 1999. Dived in headfirst without a net lol! Been with Ubuntu since 2004. Last I looked I was a girl

Perhaps the image of gender disparity is because it is so easy to be asexual here.. I posted a thread asking about how many women were on the forums and was surprised at the response - and some guys shocked that some of their buddies were female! Perhaps Mr. Shuttleworth doesn't realise how many of us females there are here

Peace!

[aysiu]

When I first started working on computers I got cussed by irate males thinking a woman couldn't know squat about computers. You deal with it.

Yes, you do deal with it. You shouldn't have to, though, especially with someone who touts his distro as being about humanity toward others.

[oldos2er]

I've been tinkering with Linux since 1999. Dived in headfirst without a net lol! Been with Ubuntu since 2004. Last I looked I was a girl

Yeah. I was an OS/2 user for 12 (!) years; the fact that I was female kind of got lost in the shuffle of the OS wars. Guess I'm used to being seen as an outsider.

Thanks for your post.

[ikt]

When I first started working on computers I got cussed by irate males thinking a woman couldn't know squat about computers. You deal with it.

You got insulted by angry males, because they thought a woman couldn't know anything about computers?

That's hilarious. Ah, the brains of 15 year old basement virgins.

[offgridguy]

this entire thread is pointless.

Hmmmm, but then with a name like offgridguy.....

[Bucky Ball]

I know this is nearly a year old but wanted to add my thoughts re. this from another man and staff member.

... I find it hard to tell if a person on the message boards are female or male.

I think that is a good thing and don't think it should be a concern. A forum user is a forum user. Period. We are all human, that is pretty much a given, and I tend to leave it at that. Don't really think about gender, have never really tried to guess one way or the other as not bothered one way or the other when it comes to support.

Some users, and particularly other staff, I've had interactions with for ages and have no idea of their gender. I do know, though, that there are users and staff of both sexes hanging about here that are more knowledgable than I would ever aspire to be in some areas (most, actually).

I also actively attempt to dissuade things like 'Hey guys' and 'Can you guys help with this'. Assumption, and I think there should be a more definite forum wide policy on this. (It has been discussed amongst staff on and off since I've been a staff member but nothing's ever been set in stone).

Nice to visit Ubuntu Women and, to be honest, I had no idea this sub-forum existed after haunting the forum for five years or more.