[georgebarnett]

Given that it would be trivial to turn around and ask them not to offend, I fail to see the benefit in publicly going after these guys after the fact.

Mob justice doesn't allow the other party the ability to alter their behaviour (we don't know if asking would have worked) nor does it allow the other party to tell their side of the story.

In addition, it has a habit of causing both sides to dig their heels in and often causes more trouble.

[jjacobson]

Adria, and most women, are tired of asking people one by one not to offend. This is her asking everyone to think about what they say in public.

[zshprompt]

That is fine, but posting their picture is so wrong. She took their photo, while smiling at them. And then she captioned it: "Offenders" and put it on twitter.

This is the real issue here.

Let's for example go to your hackathon in Vegas. Lets say some asshole says something inappropriate to one of the high school girls in attendance. Do you really think that taking his photo, captioning it "pervert" and posting it to twitter is the right course of action?

[georgebarnett]

I think you would find that most minority groups (whether they be religious groups, women in tech or geeks in high school) would be tired of asking those they consider to be offending them to stop.

Under no circumstances is that a justification for taking matters into your own hands. To suggest that it is creates a negative feedback loop where both sides feel justified to take ever increasing actions against the "aggressor" (from their perspective).

[_b8r0]

Well it's a good job that only a guy and his family's life were ruined, but thank goodness she didn't have to consider the implications of shaming the offenders by asking the two guys to stop violating her moral righteousness first.

[dodyg]

Don't make sexual jokes in professional environment period. It is wrong and it is an act of hostility.

[georgebarnett]

Prior to addressing your comment I'd like to make it clear that any jokes or insults with the intention to harm are not acceptable.

To address your comment - these things are not often as clear cut as you'd make out. The real world just isn't like that. Where this particular situation gets murky is that one of the men in question has replied to the charge against him, giving his side of the story:

  I had decided forking someone's repo is a new form of flattery
  (the highest form being implementation) and we were excited
  about one of the presenters projects; a friend said "I would
  fork that guys repo" The sexual context was applied by Adria,
  and not us.

Whether you agree with his comments or not, he should have the opportunity to present his side of the story before being 'sentenced'. In this case that hasn't happened and so he's out of a job for what may have been an innocent comment taken in the wrong way by OP.

It's for these reasons that vigilantism is never a solution to these issues. It's possible that in this case a deeper divide will created between those who see the comment as trivial and those who do not. The outcome will be that the former group pays less attention to more serious issues because of what they see as "crying wolf" by some parties and the latter group becomes more emphatic on trivial issues which "never get resolved". This helps neither group and does nothing to reduce these problems in the future, a net negative for all involved.