[Jun8]

OK, I've got to say this: I went through a few pages, so I saw ~100-150 people. It seemed to me that women's pictures tend to (i) show more of the body and (ii) how to say this, had a more "flirty" look.

Now, this is my completely subjective impression. However, it seems to me that the women in such technical conferences tend to send in more glamorous shots, to perhaps cater (subconsciously) to the highly skewed gender ratio. What do you think?

As an aside, I think if you want to get more love (from HN or anywhere else) don't emphasize the "pretty girl" angle because the label "girl" is felt to be demeaning by many people and after all in your site one can select both men and women, so why not say "attractive attendee"?

EDIT: Just thought of this: If you gather a lot of data, you can post results on how speaker/panelist attractiveness affects the number of people attending a session, corrected by the effect of the topic, of course. There are many organizers, I think, who would even pay for such information.

[zachster]

Thanks for this input. It's well thought out.

Honestly, part of putting the word 'girls' in the title was to counter my last attempt at promoting my SxSW data. That one was very legitimate and professional. And in some ways, I think the data is even more valuable. But that one failed because the headline wasn't 'sexy' enough (IMO).

Whereas this one is getting some good buzz. Unfortunately, even using a demeaning term can sometimes get attention. I try not to be objectifying, but I fall short some times. Hopefully no one will be too offended.

If there's enough data, I will definitely post a recap. Stay tuned.