On Wed, Apr 17, 2002 at 12:16:52AM +1000, Dane wrote: > I struggle with the notion that so many people who theoretically have such > great intellect fail miserably in understanding the notion of sarcasm or > hyperbole.
Except that it wasn't funny. Incidentally, if you find something funny that offends others, does that mean that they have no right to be offended? > Perhaps its not comments like mine (which are wholly indicative of exactly > what sort of person I am, of course) which necessitate groups like LC. > Perhaps its an excessive inferiority complex. > > Do you even remember what you are so incensed about? Now that's definitely not funny. Just because you don't feel threatened by male-dominated environments, doesn't mean all women don't feel threatened either. Stupid comments like "excessive inferiority complex" only serve to reinforce that SLUG is not a welcoming environment for women. I can see that; why can't you? Just because you think it doesn't make sense doesn't mean it doesn't happen and doesn't make sense to other people. I wish that SLUG was completely newbie-friendly, and unintimidating to everybody. By everybody I mean women, curious Windows users, 72-year-old grandmas, everybody. Now I don't speak for the whole of SLUG or the committe, but I think most people would agree that appealing to a broad audience can only be a good thing. I realise that degree of accessibility is not easy, but there are some obvious things that don't help. Telling people that they are stupid, which you have essentially just done, doesn't help. > Did I offend your sensibilities as a woman? I apologise. This was never my > intent. What is your intent? > Do I regret my "childish" and "immature" comments? Not for a second. > > Maybe, just maybe, it's not me who needs to grow up. Saying that you never intended to offend someone, then telling them to "grow up" and suggesting they have an excessive inferiority complex is a bit contradictory. And here's another contradiction for you: the more you insist that you are "right", the more likely it is that some women will not want to be part of SLUG, even though if you are right, that shouldn't happen. Can you see why? This problem people have with LinuxChix seems as silly to me as if people started talking about "Seperatist Debians", just because there is a Debian-SIG. If you are merely trolling, please stop. Posts like yours damage SLUG, by scaring away potential members (in this case, women). Some will choose to be part of SLUG anyway, but I fear that the perceived attitude of SLUG towards women is going to suffer long-term harm because of the posts of a few individuals. -Andrew. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
