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by DoreenMichele 2791 days ago
Historically, surveys on HN actually put membership here as high as 98% male.

There was evidence that was an exaggeration and it has likely improved, though I haven't seen a survey recently. But, yes, HN is very male dominated.
1 comments
pbhjpbhj 2791 days ago
Link? Any that have made an attempt to corroborate the findings?
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DoreenMichele 2791 days ago
Not a survey per se, but the only thing I can readily find:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5074151

I privately kept data for a time. Some of that data was lost at some point. I very carefully published some of my data on a previous blog that I recently took offline.

This is from memory. This handle is less than a year old, but I've been here over 9 years. Back in the day, members sometimes posted surveys casually. I saw several of them over time.

Edit:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4041382

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pbhjpbhj 2790 days ago
That 'edit' survey of n=3 -- under some notion of average, the average HNer is a non-binary transgender 30yo.
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DoreenMichele 2789 days ago
It was posted because it has a link to an actual poll so you can see what one looks like if you want to try to search the site yourself. I've searched. I did so when I answered the question. I've done so on other occasions. I can't find the polls I remember seeing. I don't know what I am doing wrong.

It also has a blurb by me from several years ago:

According to previous polls, most people here are male and in their 20's or 30's.

So that's fresher testimony that corresponds to my current recollection.

That's the best I can do. I wish I could find the data I remember seeing. I can't. I've repeatedly tried, to no avail.

Perhaps I should just keep my mouth shut henceforth rather than commenting that "I've been here 9+ years. There have been polls in the past. This is what I remember."

Because it consistently feels like it gets me nothing but push back rather than being some kind of meaningful, useful contribution to the conversation indicating that someone who has paid an excess of attention to such data over the years to try to sort their own relationship to the site has concluded that, yea, verily, your impression that there sure are a lot of men here seems accurate to me.

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