o/` Bel Canto – Blank Sheets o/`
15 seconds of infamy on the local LUG list.
As I mentioned in yesterday evening’s entry, I have started work on the Philly Chix website, for the Philadelphia chapter of linuxchix. Well it wasnt done. Far from it! It was (still is at the time of writing this) a rough outline. And I certainly did not intend to make it public this week, let alone last night. Well, Myk was so excited about the whole thing that he pasted it in the #plug channel. Which is ok… but then someone in the channel decided to take it to the plug list! Oh no!
The first couple posts were encouraging, then we got the “*groans*” that started a flame. These guys claimed that a female only group was unacceptable (as if it’s any of their business) … some even claimed that by creating a sub group we would fragment and destroy the existing PLUG. Now there are some things you must understand about the Philadelphia area groups before I continue.
1. The PLUG group always has at least 30 members per meeting, over 200 are active on the mailing list.
2. The highest female count at a meeting? I believe it was 4, and that includes me and a woman Myk invited from his workplace.
3. There is an established “sub-group” PADS – Philadelphia Area Debian Society.
4. There are women on the PLUG list, but for the most part they do not post.
Now, do you honestly think that creating a female only chapter will hurt PLUG? If anything (as Samantha, co-coordinator pointed out) we will be more of a recruiting force. Bringing women who might have been afraid to join PLUG in the past (because of it’s male-centric additude) might be encouraged to become part of it, knowing they would not end up being the “token female” or a woman for the geeks to leer at, because us other chix will be there! But we wanted our group to (like I said) be a comfortable environment for women who might be a bit shy sharing their thoughts, views, questions and solutions with men. And come on now, do creating a new and better mencal or a cross-stitch program for linux interest men THAT much? *grins*
Why do women still feel there is such a barrier? Because there is. Recently at a PLUG meeting a woman answered a question, and the person asking it ignored her and went to the next person, who said the same thing. He finally accepted the answer. Now why on earth would this happen? Am I wrong for assuming it was because she is a woman? Similar things have happened on the list with Samantha, her answers are often ignored, even when they are correct. So there really is nothing wrong with us wanting to have our own group… And honestly I did NOT believe this would cause issues with PLUG.
So hopefully this flame on PLUG will die down soon and they will realize that a women only linux group is going to do more to help PLUG’s attendance than hinder it. MEN! Hehehehe… You know, in the end I think they are just intimidated by us because they cant get laid %D
So now that the site is basically public anyway I will post the link here:
Philly Chix – Philadelphia Area Linux Chix Chapter
Heh, unfortunately the webpage is hosted on my home connection… an entire list full of PLUG members have been killing my connection all night! Hehe. At least I wasn’t slashdotted!
It’s strange “Making waves” in a community. Especially because Philadelphia is a big city, and PLUG is a big group… and I’m so quiet and shy! Feels kinda good though! We have new female members on the list because of this post… and come on, I am proud to have a lot of traffic to a site I designed and am especially proud of %) Even if it wasnt finished!!! At least it was presentable.
Wow, what a rant!
Um, Myk and I took a walk yesterday evening… it was really nice. I will miss the trail around this apartment complex when I move… we even saw a rabbit on our walk! So cutey.
We need to go grocery shopping… i took some things out of
the shelf on the door of the ‘fridge and put them in the main part so it would look like we had food, haha. Yeah, I’m about to go grab the last two slices of bread for my lunch %)
I guess that’s it for now, need to put some more work into the phillychix site… *wanders off*