I can definitely imagine someone objecting to being described as "a chick" instead of "a woman". However, I don't mind being described as "a dude", and I don't really understand the difference between the two.
Really, turning it into a gender/oppression/whatever issue obscures the problem -- other attendees are present for a well-known purpose, and you're there not just for some other purpose (which wouldn't necessarily be that big a deal, ex. sponsors/recruiters) but to interfere with their achieving that purpose.
It's basic male entitlement to think that women should be receptive to their advances, at any time and in any place. Having to fend off creepy, socially awkward men makes conferences and the tech field as a whole incredibly hard to be in as a woman, and as a result, computer science is dragging literally all of STEM down with its grossly imbalanced gender ratio.
I agree that disrespectful behavior should not be tolerated, but I don't believe that all expressions of romantic interest outside of dating websites and nightclubs are intrinsically disrespectful.
It's ok to go to a hackathon to meet people in general and to maintain the hope that you'll make a connection with someone you find attractive.
It's not ok to try to flirt at a hackathon with someone who is doing her darnedest to be taken seriously as a professional. You have no idea how frustrating it is to have people take more and earlier note of the fact that one has two X chromosomes than of one's intellectual abilities, especially in a nominally professional setting. And that's before we even get to dealing with actual unwanted advances.
...Yeah, that's bullshit (and offensive misandrist bullshit at that). There's nothing gender-specific, and nothing to do with "entitlement".
It's more failure to recognize that someone who's busy with something they like, probably won't enjoy being interrupted (no matter how much the topic is something you like).
It's equally depressing that otherwise intelligent people will try to argue against codes of conduct, not realizing that as white men, they have literally no say in the matter (or at least shouldn't, even though many throw around their weight and privilege in order to disrupt things). I'd think that in a community so forward-looking and forward-thinking, people would have enough sense to be on the right side of history, instead of going down with the ship clutching their confederate dollars.
...Wait, we're excluding people from discussions on the basis of race and gender now? And calling that "forward-thinking"?
Thinking that your opinion is universally relevant is simple entitlement.
If its codes of conduct for a community they are part of, they certainly do have a say (and can reasonably expected to leave the community and form their own if they are denied that say.)
MAN: But what about my right to have a say in the communities I'm a part of?
...yeah.
I was recently at MHacks as a sponsor, and our 3 top hack choices were half or more than half female. We gave shout-outs to 2 of them, and our sponsor prize to our top choice.
At final presentations, the top 14 apps were seated separately from the rest... People started to notice it was an all male group. It looked and felt wrong. There's just no way that all 14 of those teams were more worthy of stage demos, and it's not encouraging for future participation.
I do believe discrimination exists in our industry and have written about it, but I don't like to automatically assume its the default reason.
I can't seem to find a list of the top 14. Here's an article than mentions a few of them: http://t.co/DdOmmQiaLY
The ones we liked: Leaftagger (a very useful developer tool for iOS developers) http://mhacks-iv.challengepost.com/submissions/26195-leaftag...
Comfort App (not my favorite idea, but the entire process worked flawlessly, and it was very polished.) http://mhacks-iv.challengepost.com/submissions/26197-comfort
FB Crypt - I normally super-hate any sort of browser extensions at hackathons, but seamlessly PGP encrypting/decrypting Facebook Chat was a great challenge. http://mhacks-iv.challengepost.com/submissions/26314-fb-cryp...
Another trend I see is that if the hack appears sexy or innovative, even if it is not, it will go far. Android for iPhone took 2nd place... It was pitched as if an AOSP copy of Android was running on the phone, but quickly became clear it is just screen sharing like VNC. I've become a serious hackathon judging critic. YC Hacks finalist group was mostly embarrassing.
Anyway, here are the first two links:
https://medium.com/@superandomness/hackathons-are-for-hackin...
http://rubinovitz.com/post/97138278847/the-future-of-hackath...
2. Don't forget that drowsy driving (say, after staying up hacking all night) is at least as dangerous as drunk driving. (And of course drowsy hacking is just silly, for much the same reason.)
