I hoped she has a blog again - but this is only about her books.
I hope we can learn from that lesson, though given the negative response I've seen to Codes of Conduct and the calling out of sexism within our industry, I can see growth being a very slow process.
I had NO idea that she had been subject to harassment, or that it was so bad (not that it can be good) that she left the industry and removed her online presence.
How incredibly sad for our industry that brilliant, helpful people are pushed out because of such behavior. And how sad that we don't stand up to such bullies more, and stop them from behaving in such terrible ways.
Thanks for mentioning this very important aspect of Sierra's work and life. Her withdrawal from the industry is a loss, and a lesson, for the rest of us.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daniellecitron/2014/04/27/the-c...
I don’t think there would be many complaints (apart from trolls) about a code of conduct that prohibits the things done to Kathy Sierra; about the only justifiable objection is that this behavior should be covered by the unwritten rules of basic civility instead.
Codes of Conduct also has a number of downsides, first and foremost the creation of more meta games.
Also, for the record:
This very site, one of the nicest forums there is, together with lobste.rs and others: none of the have stupid CoCs and they are still among the nicest sites there is.
And while I would say HN is often times civil, I've definitely seen misogynistic or otherwise demeaning comments here.
If CoC were like HN guidelines and enforced the same way I guess almost nobody worth listening to would care at all if every project had one.
Moral stances have a place.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
ALl of their guidelines have the same shape as all honor codes: they ask you not to do something that you are, in a strict legalist / absolutist sense, allowed to do.
And then they shame those who violate the rules, and the group codifies that shame in the name of "common" "decency", and those activities no longer happen here in great numbers, despite being "allowed" in the larger sense (they even preface most of the guidelines with "Please" to emphasize the voluntary nature of your choice to submit to the guidelines.)