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Comment by tzaman | Hacker News Reader

I agree.

This was a prank gone bad. No one got hurt (apart from a few egos). Pulling sponsorship because of that is just lame.

Don't get me wrong, I have the deepest respect for women but that doesn't prevent me from pulling (even sometimes sexist) pranks on my wife. She does the same to me and we smile at each other.

I dare you, everyone that's horrified by their prank say it out loud (and mean it!):

"I have never, ever made a sexist joke before in my life. At least not a kind that would in any way offend someone"

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> This was a prank gone bad.

A prank? As in "haha, we got you!"?

> Don't get me wrong, I have the deepest respect for women but that doesn't prevent me from pulling (even sometimes sexist) pranks on my wife. She does the same to me and we smile at each other.

Your wife presumably is comfortable in the knowledge that you respect her, because she knows you well. A woman showing up at a hackathon likely hasn't known the organizers for years.

I'll smack my wife on the ass, but if I walk up to random women and do it I'm going to get the cops called on me.

prank == joke

Sorry for my poor choice of words

A prank? It was a rather bad prank. Not in just in the political correct sense but in the "comedy" sense. It's awkward and weird; it's not funny.

It's not even a prank. It's a couple of half-educated, drunken frat-boys who wanted to throw a frat party disguised as a hack-a-thon. For it to be a prank, there would have to be a punchline.

Had they hired a bunch of Chippendale's dancers to serve booze (because alcohol does wonders for your productivity) and big hairy bikers to give massages (as opposed to the girls in tight t-shirts they no doubt retained for the event,) would be a prank.

Any chance you could switch industries and, say, work in advertising or something? I don't want to share a career with you.

Why is that? Because I can't agree with big companies pulling their sponsorship because of a mistake? They apologized - which doesn't make it ok, but hey - now pretty much no one knows or cares how much effort has gone into the hackaton event. All it matters now is that they made a mistake.

So the whole industry is giving the message: Your effort is totally worthless (and unnoticed) if you make mistakes that offend someone.

> So the whole industry is giving the message: Your effort is totally worthless (and unnoticed) if you make mistakes that offend someone.

The message is "grow up and stop acting like a hormonal 13 year old".

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