[UbuntuWomen] Sites and site edits

[Elizabeth Krumbach]

On Sat, Mar 18, 2006 at 11:13:51PM +1030, Clytie Siddall wrote:
> Welcome, Elizabeth :)

Thank you.

> >Is the point that women are easily identified in IRC, and once they  
> >are they
> >are discriminated against? In my experience women are NOT easily  
> >identified in
> >IRC unless we want to be, many women intentionally use gender  
> >neutral nicknames
> >so people don't know their gender. In fact, even my own IRC nick  
> >"pleia2" is
> >often assumed to be male if people don't make the Leia connection.
> 
> Should we have to hide our gender, to avoid discrimination?

Of course not, but we do.

Perhaps I was unclear, I was just explaining what I have experienced, which
conflicts with the FAQ currently state. I would like to either update the FAQ
with a better example than IRC or edit the IRC example so that it reflects
reality.

> >Or is the point that not many women use IRC?
> 
> Also true.
> >
> >Or is the point that F/OSS projects often have meetings in IRC, a  
> >medium that
> >not many women communicate in, and so are somewhat shut out of  
> >these meetings?
> 
> Also true.
> >
> >All of the above?
> 
> Definitely. :)

I realize the are all true - but is this what the FAQs are getting at? If so I
can certainly rework it to reflect this in a clearer way.

> It's not so much about iRC, as it is about the channel's community. 
> When you're a member of a inclusive group, where your input is  
> valued, and behaviour is mature, you are much more likely to try a  
> mailing list, or forum, or Jabber or IRC, for the first time.

Indeed. In the FAQ IRC was simply an example.

> Everyone has limited time and energy. We're not likely to spend it  
> learning a new skill, in order to try and communicate with a group  
> that doesn't include or value us, and/or where behaviour is -- I need  
> a better word than "immature", but don't want to go into negative  
> details.

I agree. I am very familiar with the gender inbalance in IRC in particular,
currently I'm the only female IRCop on a network with 700+ users :\ The
imbalance is not so much because women aren't interested, the environment is
just hostile to women in general.

> Positively, I think if we encouraged people here to get on our IRC  
> channel, said someone would be there to help, helped set up software  
> etc., we'd probably get some takers. I got a large project using  
> Jabber once, in the same way. It really took off, with lots of people  
> trying it for the first time, and it's now used for a wide range of  
> functions. I love to see that happen. :))

Proposing an idea for the site? I would be happy to write an IRC how-to that
directs people to #ubuntu-women on freenode in xchat and irssi.

Which comes back to the meat of my question regarding the sites... would I make
this IRC how-to on the blog site? the wiki? the forum? What is our main site?

-- 
Elizabeth A. Krumbach // Lyz at PrincessLeia.com
http://www.princessleia.com
http://www.wallaceandgromit.net
http://www.13thhour.net