Can't they just announce an extension and give everyone extra time? That wouldn't solve all my problems, but it would take some pressure off.
This is stupid. Just tell people the deadline is extended.
But they aren't likely to do that.
https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-everyone-can-file-an-ex...
I used Tax Slayer to file an extension, even though my income is above $66k. The UI is clunky. You'll need to estimate your taxes, though.
But thanks. I will look at it.
So, tomorrow, for anyone who is wondering. That's actually meaningful to me. I managed to pull all my records together this morning, so progress.
-- Darth Vader
I'm medically handicapped and I fell in December and hurt myself and basically spent three months in bed, not doing paid work, though I was working on other things to try to raise my income. I'm a woman, so I am barred from the old boys network. I appear to be the only woman to have ever made the leaderboard of Hacker News. No, this does not gain me entree to the old boys club. I still have essentially no professional connections here, though that may be painfully slowly changing.
I have cystic fibrosis. So does my oldest son. Both my sons are ASD. So, there's a whole lot on my plate.
I also am getting well when doctor's claim that cannot be done and that gets me called a lunatic and teller of tall tales. It doesn't lead to anything good.
I was gifted membership to Metafilter by a kind soul. That forum is full of people who like to imagine they are good people making the world a better place. They did nothing but crap on me. They were unwilling to help me figure out how to increase my income.
I've done everything in my power to solve what are supposed to be unsolvable problems and I mostly get kicked in the teeth for it.
But, hey, thanks for taking the time to make swipes at me. Really nice of you to add to my troubles while I sit here with $2 to my name trying to figure out how the hell I will eat for the rest of the month and also dealing with the IRS sword of Damocles today just to add to the fun.
I think you might think Hacker News is something that it isn't. The leaderboard isn't something anyone really looks at and this is definitely not a good place to make or manage professional connections.
Show HN
Who's Hiring
Freelancer Seeking Freelancer
Patio11 and tptacek, both members of the leaderboard, were business partners for a time, though one lives in Japan and the other in Chicago.
Etc. As Nauseum.
But they all seem to be men.
The leaderboard, inasmuch as it correlates with any elite group, probably does so more because people who are already in that group are more likely to get onto the leaderboard for a variety of reasons, not because the leaderboard offers entry to that group (whether generally or for men specifically.)
I don't think I'm at all unique in being a man who has been in the leaderboard without ever having any professional connections through HN.
There is definitely a group with professional connections that overlaps with the HN community, including the leaderboard, and there is certainly no small amount of networking that is facilitated by HN contacts with similar interests, but, even before coming considering any potential gender dynamics issues, getting into the leaderboard just isn't a ticket into anything of substance.
It is a goal of mine. And when I do the same things the men do, it doesn't get the same results. When men want to pursue something professionally, they routinely say "Email in profile." When I invite someone to take it to email, the most common outcome is they hit on me.
One guy spent some weeks talking to me and pretending to be my friend before mentioning that he was married and needed a shoulder to cry on because his marriage was in the toilet and he was hoping I would be said shoulder to cry on. I gave him about 3 more days of my time to cry on my shoulder, at which point he resumed sleeping with his wife while talking at me like we were lovers, never mind that I told him up front I was not going to be the Other Woman. I cut him loose at that point. The more I think about how he intentionally withheld his marital status, the madder and more used and lied to I feel.
There's a whole lot more backstory here that I am unwilling to comment on here. Suffice it say, I have good reason to believe that if I were male, I would have professional connections here of meaningful value.
If you don't want to use HN to make such connections, cool. But it's aggravating to be constantly told that this is an unrealistic expectation of mine when other people clearly pull it off and then also get told that my gender isn't the problem. If it's not, what is?
I don't doubt at all that you get people feigning professional interest that turn things that way, and I do think that your gender and the fact that there are sexist, and more particularly sexually exploitive, men here plays a significant role in that.
You absolutely should not have to deal with this, and you have every reason to be upset about it. I suspect—and I want to be clear that I say this by way of explaining a pattern I've observed with this kind of targeted behavior eslewhere and how it tends to be targeted, but not at all to imply any blame on you—that the fact that you tend to be very open about circumstances of intense and urgent financial need and your hopes for professional connections on HN to alleviate that contributes to people who are inclined to they type of exploitation seeing you as a likely target.
I want to emphasize again that this is a problem with the people acting this way toward you, not with your writing.
> But it's aggravating to be constantly told that this is an unrealistic expectation of mine when other people clearly pull it off and then also get told that my gender isn't the problem. If it's not, what is?
While I think your expectations as to the general level of success at that here is too high, if I were to take as given the assumption that you are underperforming in that regard based on what would be expexted your leaderboard position and other indicia of prominence in the discussion community, and had to come up with an explanation, my first suspicion would be the fact that your professional focus seems to primarily be neither/technical nor financial nor in a hot application domain for technology, combined with the fact that you don't have a lot of money. Much of the networking at HN seems to center, as one might expect given it's connection to a tech heavy startup accelerator, to connecting people with certain professional focuses with each other and with people with money. (I don't think the attitude you've projected in the community about the issue since you got the impression that your failure to acheive what you expected was due to gender and personal animus helps, either, and there may be a bit of a vicious cycle there.)
But you could really be getting significantly disadvantaged in networking in HN because of your gender. I don't see evidence that would lead me to conclude that, true, but I think I've made the mistake of being insufficiently clear in my reaction against what has seemed to be your repeated implicit argument that your leaderboard position alone combined with your lack of success in that regard was sufficient evidence of exclusion on the basis of gender and that I've given the impression that I am dismissing the possibility that you've been disadvantaged in networking here based on gender. To the extent thst that is the case, it is my error, and I apologize.
your repeated implicit argument that your leaderboard position alone
I am clearly miscommunicating something because my point is not that my (former) position on the leaderboard alone should open doors. My point is that my (former) position on the leaderboard should stand as proxy for community esteem and since I appear to be the highest ranked woman here, why can I not achieve what I am trying to achieve similar to what men at the top of the leaderboard are achieving? The top three people on the leaderboard have very clearly established professional connections here. Why is the top ranked woman so unable to establish the same?
It is also intended in a nutshell to suggest that it looks to me like sexism is a very large factor, because if the seemingly highest ranked female member here can't get a toehold, surely no woman is getting much out of the forum professionally on par with what men are able to achieve if they so desire and set it as a goal.
I apologize if this seems argumentative. In the good news column, I did get my taxes filed for free last night and using different software that asked different questions, I am due a refund instead of owing money. However, that isn't money in hand at the moment, so I am still having a larger than usual crisis.
But I very much appreciate your comment. It is one of the meatiest comments genuinely addressing my issues in this forum that I have ever seen and I expect to find it useful.
But I also wanted to point out that I'm in the top 50 by karma and I also have made zero connections here.
In my case that's entirely my own fault.
But I can see how it would be worse if I was a woman.
I waited until just last night... so I was in a similar boat, but if for some reason I hadn't gotten them turned it, it would be on me - nobody else. You have to own your decisions, and take charge of your life - otherwise it'll just feel like a sequence of random unfortunate events... impossible to get out from under. Upon reflection, I certainly could have spent the 3 hours it took me to file my taxes back in February if I had set aside the time.
Also:
> I'm broke and can't afford the filing fee
This is for electronic filing, if you mailed them in (postmarked by today), it would cost you a postage stamp, unless you're referring to a tax software purchase (ie. HR Block, etc).
If a deadline is advertised and an assurance given that electronic filing will be available, it's reasonable for anyone to assume that they can file electronically at any time before the deadline. Clearly the IRS agrees as they've extended the deadline.
Everyone has their own reasons for conducting their affairs as they do, and you're welcome to your opinion, but it's not OK to finger-wag at someone when they're operating within the official timeframes and filing channels.
I don't have money to mail them either.
And I do everything in my power to take responsibility for my life. That's how I am getting well when it is not supposed to be possible. That gets me nothing but grief from other people. It isn't respected. It isn't supported. I'm literally called crazy for doing that.
It's seriously a no win situation here.