There is sexism in Stack Overflow. I am not denying this. It is a fact. I have seen it. I have tried to stop it.

However, I just saw this linked to on Twitter...

http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions ... -suspended

It's a long topic and the chat transcript is there to read (all three pages of it).

The accusations of sexism here are ridiculous. As a fairly high up user of SO I've seen this myself. Both ways. I have posted answers which were then copied (or looked like it) and I have been accused of copying answers.

This is a case of the latter. A user posts an answer and then sees an edit to another persons answer that looks similar. Then accusations start flying... and flying... and flying.

It was then resolved.

Then over an hour later the same user goes back and starts throwing more accusations. It gets to the point where it begins to sound like paranoid delusions. "You obviously edited my edit history to make it look like I did something..."

Then the person who is being accused of copying is then accused of sexism?!?

Can anyone show me where charlietfl is being sexist in that transcript?

If the sexism is because the accuser (who was ranting and accusing incorrectly for hours) was suspended then again what is it based on?

OMFG! Things like this get my goat.

People seem to bring out the sexism card more and more often and there is literally no argument against it. If you try then you're just accused of being sexist.

In this case. Please, show me where the sexism from charlietfl was?


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Feeling better now are we ?

I can't decide if the original problem was due to sexism or low rep versus high rep user.
Forums tend to be cliquey and someone who is active and has high rep will most likely get preferential treatment.
that said, if she wasn't abusive to anyone, she wouldn't have deserved a ban

I don't know any of the users involved.

The initial problem seems to be an inexperienced user accusing another user of plagiarism.

There is no plagiarism. All the stuff about "not being able to see the edit history" is rubbish. Everyone can see edit history. Even if you're not logged in you can see edit history.

The person being accused points this out and explains that they could not have copied and edited that quickly even if they want to.

Regardless of the evidence the other user continues to make accusations and then decides they are being "targeted" (from another chat transcript) and brings in two friends.

The friends also explain that it is very unlikely that any copying went on and yet the accusations still continue.

The suggestion of sexism from Glyph is insulting. The person throwing accusations was out of order. After they resolved it (about 20 posts in) it stopped for an hour. Then suddenly started again by the same user throwing more accusations

The entire issue is a joke only made worse by the suggestion of sexism.

As for the suspension. It is common for mods to put a suspension in place just to stop things from progressing and getting out of hand so they can be dealt with.

The question of whether or not there is any sexism involved comes down to this... Would things be different if the accuser was male etc... I honestly believe that it never crossed the mind of the mod or anyone anyway but no. The suspension was given because she was ranting and throwing accusations of plagiarism and "sock puppetry" with no evidence and she wasn't stopping.


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Oh... The targeting is also based on the fact that she thinks she is being cheated out of an answer. Which she wasn't.

She has convinced herself that people are ganging up against her and won't accept that it isn't the case.


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Someone on the internet is wrong!!!! ZOMG we are all going to die!!!!!!



Sheesh Oliver, calm down.

Mark

It isn't the fact that someone is wrong. It's the fact that a man and a woman are disagreeing on the Internet and therefore the man must be sexist.

It has become a joke.

The only reason this got to me any more than others is that as a user of stack overflow this could have been me.

As soon as someone plays the sexism card there is no argument. If you try to argue you are also labelled as sexist.


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Well, that's [LIFTED] for a start.
If that's what you believe, then that's fine, but it is certainly not fact.

Mark

That's my observation from the past 18 months of being on the Internet.

Yes sexism exists. Yes it exists in the tech industry probably more than anywhere else. No it doesn't mean that when two people disagree and one of them is a woman that the other is sexist.

This is essentially what has happened here.

If you try to explain that then you get accused of one of several things. Which is why I tend to shut up and let it wash over me. But this was a tipping point I guess.


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The problem is the internet seems to build certainty which is not accompanied with knowledge.

People have a certainty that they are right. Therefore, their position cannot logically be argued with, for their position is right. Therefore, any argument against their position must be illogical and based on some form of prejudice. If the context of the argument is one that is seen as having some history of sexism - and coding is definitely one of those areas - and the person who believes they are right is female, the prejudice is most likely to be sexism. Therefore, by occam's razor, the person arguing with them must be sexist.

You may scoff but, like Foggy, I've seen this chain of logic pretty much overtly expressed. Hell, it's more or less the basis of Jessica Valenti's entire journalistic career.

There are plenty of examples of actual sexism in the world. Mostly against women, occasionally against men. But nevertheless, sexism is a real and common thing, it would be stupid to deny that. But the fact is you or I can disagree with a woman about an issue and it's not because we're sexist, it's just because we disagree.


People have soapboxes and bugbears. When they feel threatened or slighted, they jump on those soapboxes and shout against those bugbears. This is human nature.

I wonder if anyone has studied the amount of posts that get accepted for posters based on gender, all other criteria being equal. Or someone posting from two accounts, one obviously male, one obviously female and study the difference in behaviour. That would be interesting.

"If you can't see it now then you'll never be able to see it."

"If you can't see it it's probably because you're sexist."

"If you can't see it then you don't know what sexism is and should educate yourself."

Etc...


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I get that.

I also fail to see how privilege comes into play when someone incorrectly accuses someone else of doing something?

Are you suggesting that because she was a woman he should have said that he did copy her and let her have her way even though she was wrong?

I'm really not sure what should have changed for this not to be sexist?

Or more correctly. I'm not sure what did happen for this guy to be accused of being sexist. The guy who accused him hasn't actually said what it was either.

It would be interesting and I'm sure it would be revealing. I'm almost certain that I would get far more negative responses than I currently do.

However, that doesn't change that, in this case, she was wrong to accuse someone else of plagiarism. Or at least wrong to carry on and get to the point of ranting after she was shown evidence that there was no plagiarism.


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