Comments on: Why Rails is Still a Ghetto

By: Mauro Toffanin

Mauro Toffanin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:08:32 +0000

Hi Mei,
you write that “you felt marginalized and a little scared” and I agree with you, using “sex/porn/soft-porn” as an excuse to make talks and events more attractive is sad and extremely sexist against women.

You aren’t the only woman who is fighting against these type of porn-slides during conferences, recently there was also a case during a WordCamp at Boston as reported by Adria Richards: http://butyoureagirl.com/2010/01/11/wordcamp-boston’s-ignite-session-turns-to-porn-pitch-for-votes

In the future, I hope to see more people fighting against all these type of events that objectify women. Thank you very much for your efforts about changing the community and for your amazing talks at the SCALE 8x.

p.s.: Adria Richards is moving to SF, maybe you can join forces with her or share ideas/experiences about this post’s topic.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:29:54 +0000

I know this is *really* a late comment, but why would a presenter at a developer conference feel he should need to keep people awake? Aren’t people in the audience because they’re interested in the content? I know that’s not the point of the discussion here, but I really hate when people think they need to add extra crap to make the presentation “interesting.”

By: sarahmei

sarahmei — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:19:53 +0000

*Sigh* Another one misses the point.

By: ahardison

ahardison — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:41:19 +0000

@sarahmei no offense but I doubt any of the guys there look @ you in that way so no need to be scared

By: Rolandixor

Rolandixor — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:09:07 +0000

I personally find this a bit troubling. I never saw the presentation, but what was described sounds ridiculous. It would be no less offensive to me if it were a naked guy (I’m a guy btw; and in a case like that (a naked guy(, I’d have probably walked out the room; after vomiting :S).

My point is, keep the nudity out of business type presentations. In fact, keep it out of presentations in general. Leave that for science class, if even necessary!!!

Let Open Source set a higher standard than Macrocrap’s furious the monkey boy (youtube; steve; monkey).

By: reine

reine — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:58:25 +0000

The only non sexist and “cool” slide is the number 53! AceeeeeeeeeeD!.( a seed! ). Cuddles to you all “non chauvinists pigs”. (scuz me real pigs!).

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:03:12 +0000

Come on? No pictures for the “Load Balancing” slide? He’s not edgy enough… lol

By: Piglet

Piglet — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:19:34 +0000

ANONYMOUS, thank you!! I’m so fed up with the myth of “women have never been interested in CS”. Ha! Does no one else remember when software was a female ghetto? Hardware was srs business. Software was practically for secretaries.

I’ve been in the business for 25 years, myself. Left it for a few years when I got Too Fed Up with all the macho bullshit, and came back because I just can’t stop coding.

By: Rev. Dan

Rev. Dan — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:07:29 +0000

Comments by Robert Martin at RailsConf:

“c++ is a “man’s languge” You have to have serious cahones to sling that code around… there’s testosterone running through every line of code. Java’s more of an estrogen-like language; weak, insipid, kind of language…”

What I learned from Robert Martin is that he’s a crap speaker with a major ego… like Kent Beck at RailsConf 2008. I’m glad I didn’t pay to hear horseshit like that.

Rails *IS* a goddamn ghetto. I think I’m done with that community.

By: Tina

Tina — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:35:25 +0000

A. When women constitute 25% of conference attendees porn slides will not be permitted at conferences simply due to business considerations. You can’t poke a quarter of your customers in the eye and expect them to return in a year.

B. If Ruby and Rails are widely adopted a quarter of developers will be women.

C. Women often are not early adopters for the same reason most homeless guys are guys. Women are more risk-averse and will join when it looks less like a gamble. Go to Dice.com enter keyword Java to see my point. Simply they like a dependable paycheck, maybe less of a paycheck but more of a certain paycheck.

D. Matt made a good faith attempt at amends – I believe him.