[hackerspaces] Improve hackerspace diversity - Donate to Ada Initiative

[Randall Arnold]

I never once stated that it was a mistake to approach the organizers, so please:
no straw men.  I said I believe the final action taken was wrong in my opinion.
 I stand by that.  

Violet's account of the incident is the more believable one in my opinion
(again, I have zero involvement with either party) and one of her slides makes
her position very clear.

I abhor harassment in any form, but you won't be able to convince me that
censorship and political correctness are valid solutions.  And I don't believe
it was too late to discuss prefacing the talk with a quick disclaimer.
 Obviously there was time for a talk on censorship.

Randy

> 
>     On September 23, 2014 at 4:45 PM Kristin-Leigh Brezinski
> <okrysmastree at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>     The organizers are ultimately responsible for the way they advertise
>     and present the events at their conference, so I don't think it was a
>     mistake to bring the issue directly to them. There's a disconnect
>     between VB's description of what the talk actually is vs the way it
>     was presented in the schedule, and ideally that could have been
>     addressed rather than cancelling the talk outright, but it may have
>     been too late in the game at that point.
> 
>     On 9/23/14, Randall Arnold <randall.arnold at texrat.net> wrote:
>     > But instead of getting the talk killed outright, doesn't approaching the
>     > speaker
>     > openly and honestly to request she preface the talk with reasonable
>     > disclaimers
>     > make much more sense?
>     >
>     > I have no dog in this one so I'm being fairly objective I think when I
>     > submit
>     > that Violet was mistreated here. Fear over a provocative talk title
>     > followed by
>     > knee-jerking political correctness was not at all the answer.
>     >
>     > Randy
>     >
>     >> On September 23, 2014 at 4:13 PM Kristin-Leigh Brezinski
>     >> <okrysmastree at gmail.com> wrote:
>     >>
>     >> What was annoying about the Defcon penalty cards? I saw them as a
>     >> clever
>     >> way to bring attention to conference harassment issues and give people
>     >> a
>     >> low-stakes, humorous way to flag bad behavior.
>     >>
>     >> Re: Violet Blue, I think the whole thing got blown out of proportion,
>     >> but
>     >> really, who thought a talk titled "sex +/- drugs: known vulns and
>     >> exploits"
>     >> wouldn't raise red flags to a lot of women(/people in general)? Anyone
>     >> who
>     >> considers themselves enough of a wordsmith to play on puns like that
>     >> should be
>     >> open to criticism of the double-meanings in the terms they're invoking.
>     >>
>     >> AI isn't the only organization working on this stuff, but I very much
>     >> appreciate any organization striving to make solid anti-harassment
>     >> policies
>     >> and codes of conduct a default at professional conferences, fan
>     >> conventions,
>     >> and hacker/makerspaces. Thanks for the post, Liz - I'll definitely keep
>     >> this
>     >> in mind when I evaluate the flexibility of my budgets end of month. :)
>     >>
>     >> - Kristin-Leigh
>     >>
>     >> On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 1:08 PM, matt < matt at nycresistor.com
>     >> <mailto:matt at nycresistor.com> > wrote:
>     >>
>     >> > > Ada has been a pretty toxic member of the infosec
>     >> > > community. Their stupid harassment cards at defcon were
>     >> annoying,
>     >> > > but the violet blue incident is but one of several incidents
>     >> of
>     >> > > manufacturing drama for PR. that sort of behavior is
>     >> unacceptable
>     >> > > in our community. And as you said... ada is a small org. 2
>     >> people.
>     >> > > so i don't see the culture of ada ever changing. I'd rather
>     >> people
>     >> > > invested in the gnome outreach program for women.
>     >> >
>     >> > https://wiki.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen
>     >> >
>     >> > -matt
>     >> >
>     >> > On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 3:46 PM, Al Billings <
>     >> > albill at openbuddha.com
>     >> > <mailto:albill at openbuddha.com> > wrote:
>     >> >
>     >> > > > > Yes, the real problem that people care
>     >> > about
>     >> > > > > is that Valerie hates Violet Blue and it isn’t that
>     >> > > > > Valerie, using her role in AI, got a sex-positive talk
>     >> > by
>     >> > > > > a woman cancelled at a conference because she didn’t
>     >> > like
>     >> > > > > it. Since she still runs AI and clearly nothing has
>     >> > > > > changed, I’m not sure why you’re surprised that
>     >> > people
>     >> > > > > have a negative reaction.
>     >> > >
>     >> > >
>     >> > > On Sep 23, 2014, at 12:44 PM, Liz Henry <
>     >> > > lizhenry at gmail.com
>     >> > > <mailto:lizhenry at gmail.com> > wrote:
>     >> > >
>     >> > >
>     >> > > > > > > Ada Initiative: A small non
>     >> > > profit
>     >> > > > > > > run by two people who once pissed off Violet
>     >> > > Blue.
>     >> > > >
>     >> > > > > > >
>     >> > >
>     >> > > _______________________________________________
>     >> > > Discuss mailing list
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>     >> > > http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>     >> > >
>     >> > >
>     >> > > > >
>     >> >
>     >> > _______________________________________________
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>     >
>     >
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