| > MikeeUSA is a troll. No, no he is not. A troll is someone who advances an exaggerated position they do not hold, for the entertainment value of watching the commotion it causes. A troll is not someone who: - creates misogynistic game content glorifying the rape and oppression of women - repeatedly creates throw-away email accounts with new names in order to ensure his hateful message is heard in forums from which he has been banned - hosts his personal website in Canada because he knows it's more difficult to shut him down across international borders - bounces all of his traffic through TOR to avoid prosecution for his behavior MikeeUSA has done all of these things. He is not a troll. He is a sad little manchild with an inferiority complex and he is a boil on the butt of humanity, but he is not a troll. Nor are people who harrass their targets at their place of work "trolls". It's very easy to dismiss inappropriate behavior as "trolling". When you dismiss harrassment as "trolling" and suggest that it should be ignored, you are part of the problem. When you blame Skud for "letting the trolls win," you are part of the problem. It's absurd and offensive for you to claim that Skud is "scaring more women away" by talking about her experience or for deciding to leave the tech industry. What scares women away from FOSS are their actual personal experiences of harrassment. You don't want women to shy away from high profile positions in the FOSS community? Worry instead about finding a solution to the problem that women who do are subjected to the kind of abuse that makes them decide it's not worth the pain to be involved in this community. |