I have almost never thought about the gender of a single user on this site either. That's because I assume they're a white guy like me until indicated otherwise. That's because most of the people I see in most tech spaces are white guys like me, so I'm probably right (and when I'm not it's usually because they're a Asian rather than white).
That's what it's like to be the default character model. That's not what it's like not being that.
Heck, for the longest time as a white guy in tech I thought simply treating people who aren't white guys as if they were was good enough. That only changed when I listened to a woman talk about her experience of being on the receiving end of that, with her colleagues being so comfortable treating her as "one of the boys" that they'd openly be misogynist about other women in her presence ("but you're not like them of course").
Not being the default character model sucks. Having a community with a default character model closer to your own is an improvement. Of course even better still would be not having any single default character model but "pink HN" might still be better than nothing.
The problem is that you're suggestion division, discrimination and segregation of the community based on assumptions and your own world view, to perhaps solve a problem that doesn't even exist?
Do most women feel the same way you do? Because it's their opinion that matters here. Do they feel HN is toxic? Can it be solved on the current HN? Does it REALLY need a separate website with a divided community? Would we also need a separate HN for transgenders and other minorities currently existing in the tech space?
It's an extreme solution that only fosters more discrimination in my opinion. I don't think the question merits the whole thing being flagged, but I definitely don't agree with the idea.
That's what it's like to be the default character model. That's not what it's like not being that.
Heck, for the longest time as a white guy in tech I thought simply treating people who aren't white guys as if they were was good enough. That only changed when I listened to a woman talk about her experience of being on the receiving end of that, with her colleagues being so comfortable treating her as "one of the boys" that they'd openly be misogynist about other women in her presence ("but you're not like them of course").
Not being the default character model sucks. Having a community with a default character model closer to your own is an improvement. Of course even better still would be not having any single default character model but "pink HN" might still be better than nothing.