[codygman]

>>>>"we can welcome newcomers, women and people of color"

>> Good job, focus on YOUR visible minority statuses. Way to build bridges for everyone.

She started with newcomers. I'd argue that focusing on minorities when building bridges for everyone is more important than focusing on those that already have bridges.

I think you're largely ignoring how micro-aggressions come into play here. Also, shaming someone on twitter can only be considered bad if you think she did it knowing the outcome.

More at fault are sendgrid and the companies that fired employees over this. Also, her publicly shaming them is nothing compared to the backlash, sexism, racism, and harassment she has faced.

My initial reactions were a lot like yours, then I put myself in her shoes. I think she felt like she could make a difference by publicly shaming them and had no idea they'd encounter such harsh backlash, nor that she would encounter such backlash.

If I'm right in assuming those things, Adria Richards didn't really doing anything that bad.

[mnicole]

But that's kind of the point; she knew what she was doing and that's exactly why she did it, she just hoped that in mislabeling it a women's issue, people would be empathetic to the fact that she was shaming someone that couldn't possibly set the record straight before the internet started hacking away at him. You can't just wrap anything with a feminist bow and expect people to say "Yeah, totally justifiable to shame that nameless guy in his company t-shirt that didn't actually do anything sexist in front of thousands of people." To add insult to injury, her self-made claims of being Joan of Arc and her out-of-touch legion of supporters humiliated the guy further into needlessly apologizing more in one post than she has in a week after he lost his job over it.

Starting wars on Twitter doesn't make you a crusader, it makes you no better than most of the people insulting your willingness to use your celebrity against everyday people just trying to enjoy a conference they were there to help support, all because you couldn't just say "Come on, guys."

[precisioncoder]

Can you give the url of the post where he apologizes? I wasn't able to find it, I'm just reading through some of the drama now out of curiousity

[mnicole]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5398681

[jholman]

>>> "we can welcome newcomers, women and people of color"

>> Good job, focus on YOUR visible minority statuses. Way to build bridges for everyone.

> She started with newcomers.

Should we not worry about queer folk? Or the socially disadvantaged? Fair point about the "newcomers" notwithstanding, it doesn't count as building bridges when the only bridges you mention are the ones that would benefit yourself.

(Not that it's wrong to right wrongs that affect you personally, not at all. But combining that self-serving bias with a pretence of inclusivity is a direct route to a 100% grade on my bullshit-o-meter.)

> I think you're largely ignoring how micro-aggressions ...

> ... shaming someone on twitter ...

> ... my initial reactions were a lot like yours ...

I think you're largely ignoring the text of the comment to which you're pretending to reply. My comment, with respect to Adria, addressed only her letter. I claim that her letter was full of bullshit, both in-context and without context. I've made my own judgements about her other actions, but in fact I have not published those opinions. Maybe you'd like to post your comment as top-level, so you don't hijack the context of my comment?

> Also, her publicly shaming them is nothing compared to the backlash, sexism, racism, and harassment she has faced.

I will note that I agree with this, but consider it completely beside the point in a discussion of Adria's behaviour, especially all of the behaviour that preceded the backlash.