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Comment by cognivore | Hacker News Reader

So, this has to be said.

These fucktards are the people representing our profession on NPR. NPR doesn't run stories about the other apps presented at TechCrunch Disrupt. The public won't here about that, or really, much of the cool tech that goes on. They'll hear about this, and that's what they'll remember.

Why the hell doesn't someone go up on that stage and kick those idiots off? Who's the goddamn moderator that is in charge and standing their watching this go on, instead of walking up, killing the power, and getting them an escort from the building.

I don't want to be an apologist for my profession, nor my passion. Right now, I am, so it's up to us to put this shit down. Start now.

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The moderators and many people in the room found the presentations funny. It wasn't until later when they tried explaining their behaviour to their mothers that they even began to understand the problems with what occurred.

I find this to be the most shocking thing of all.

It should be noted that the two moderators issued a "what the hell were you thinking?" statement and apology immediately after the hack was presented.

And the second guy still presented after the first got that reaction? Wow.

Blogs have been mixing the order of events around. the correct order is:

Circle Shake -> Titstare -> Pre-scheduled break -> Apology

It wasn't immediate, otherwise both Titstare and Circle Shake wouldn't have been able to present.

And it was clear- they reacted after they saw the reaction on Twitter. Not after they saw the presentations themselves. If you had those opinions all along how could you stand on a stage and say "up next, Titstare" without even blinking?

See other reply for order-of-events.

Apparently per their Facebook apology, Titstare entered under a different name, with the Titstare name first being seen in the slide deck.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/09/how-avoid-...

It is a pretty simple rule of media: whoever the most controversial[1] member of your community is will be its representative as far as the media is concerned as long as the media is not part of that community. Which communities the media is a member in changes from media provider to media provider. No mainstream media is a member of the tech community.

1) for some definition of controversial including depraved, out-there, insulting-to-community-members, and click generating

Exactly. Everyone's going to spin this as being about women lacking the institutional power men have, but actually it's the other way around: it's a story not because of the merits of the issue but because feminist groups have far more influence over the media and people's perceptions than the tech industry.

This is fairly obvious if you compare the media potrayal of this and how they handle the institutional bigotry problems within feminism. In particular, feminism has a really substantial transphobia problem, including prominent activists publicly outing trans women with photos and full addresses, passing laws designed to deny them access to rape counselling, contacting their doctors to pressure them into denying medical treatment... Anyone who isn't OK with this is shunned by more influential feminists, and the media has fairly consistently sided with the transphobes and against those who point out these issues, even if they'd normally oppose similar transphobia.

Basically, if someone can use a significant chunk of the media to tell everyone how powerless they are, you ought to think about the contradiction before believing them.

They had moderators who apparently decided this didn't need stopping. The problem, unfortunately, is bigger than you think.

That said, I agree. I don't want to have to apologize for my profession.

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