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Comment by needacig | Hacker News Reader

To those saying, "Why is this necessary? This isn't fair!", Well, here's your answer: http://xkcd.com/385/ (XKCD nailed it, as usual.)

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And here's my answer: Are you a girl?

We are on the internet, I can't see you, I have no idea who you are.

Why does that matter?

EDIT: Oh, do you mean that women should hide the fact that they are women online when contributing to OSS? I imagine many do.

I think what dwild is after is that online identities don't always have a gender attached to them, whether it be intentional or not.

If the gender is not apparent, then there's no real way to discriminate is there?

This especially goes for HN. I have no idea who is man and who isn't, as most use some sort of username/alias instead of their real name.

If the gender is not apparent, then there is no way to discriminate. I'm not sure what this has to do with the main article though. Many people like to connect their online accounts to their real identity (and thus gender), especially their GitHub accounts. Some don't. Is the suggestion that if women don't want to be discriminated against, they should hide their identities?

Yes, they do. Or use gender-neutral names or non-de-plumes.

Exactly. Show me the code. Doesn't matter if you're black, white, yellow, brown, male, female, genetically-engineered dolphin.

If the code's good and you can advocate for it - great.

If it sucks - it won't be used.

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