Our local Ubuntu User Group here in Atlanta (I host and run the show) , is popular and I have 3 or 4 active women in the group. 1 of which is 100s of times more knowledgable than myself, shes the saviour of the group during server setups (our last one was an Asterix server, I had zilch experience with dealing). I , too, am quite distrubed by the idea that the "unkind" members of our community drive others of other genders, races, and even orientation into smaller segmented groups. <div>On 6/30/06, Daniel Carrera <<a href="mailto:daniel.carrera@zmsl.com">daniel.carrera@zmsl.com</a>> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> On Fri, 2006-30-06 at 10:30 -0700, Jeannie wrote: > If you haven't encountered pissing contests then you are fortunate. > However, I have. Please don't deny me MY opinions, I wont deny you > yours. So.... I suggest if you want a community and you want to > encourage women to use Linux that you don't deny feelings and > opinions. Hello Jeannie, I've sorry that you've had so much negative experiences. This seems to vary a lot from one group to another. When I first joined my local Linux users group I got shot down pretty quickly for my ignorance (trying to figure out how to use mailing lists). It made me give up on Linux communities for some time. I later found other communities that were extremely helpful and friendly. I've seen communities packed with jerks, and places where almost everyone goes out of their way to be positive. I find it impossible to generalize. The most I can say is "this group is nice" or "avoid that other group". But in any event, I'm sure that no one wants to isolate you or deny your opinions. I can see where you're coming from because I've seen groups like the ones you describe. I understand where Robin is coming from because I've seen many groups that are really positive. Cheers, Daniel. -- <a href="http://opendocumentfellowship.org">http://opendocumentfellowship.org</a> "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man tries to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on unreasonable men." -- George Bernard Shaw -- ubuntu-women mailing list <a href="mailto:ubuntu-women@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-women@lists.ubuntu.com</a> <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-women">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-women</a> </blockquote></div> -- KingBahamut <a href="http://doc.gwos.org"> http://doc.gwos.org</a> - Definitive Ubuntu Documentation "I could tell you the probability, but you wouldnt like it."