[LONG_POST] [HAZ MAT ALERT] Friends,
I've been lurking around, quietly watching the debate around the m/l. WFS - India is a nice effort and I mean that without any hint of patronizing. I should add for people who do not know me, that I'm a man. Hopefully, I trust you all not to hold that against me. :-) What has attracted me enough to sign-up on the m/l is the way Satabdi, Aruna and others who have been open, helpful and welcoming in their attitude in attempting to create a virtual space where women feel free to ask questions, interact, learn and may be even contribute back if they wish so. However, the mailing list rules - http://www.wfs-india.org/node/25, have certainly left me feeling rankled. The language and the links pointed to are IMHO quite abrasive and newbie-unfriendly. They are an almost verbatim copy-paste of Glug-Cal mailing list rules (that fact is mentioned quite clearly) >From what I understand, the target segment of the effort is not only to attract women technologists (budding or otherwise), rather any woman who uses some form of technology / ICT in everyday and wishes to participate in the Commons culture. The first three links right after the first paragraph of the m/l rules are hardcore geeky documents, some of which are of questionable merit given this group's focus. I will address that in a bit, however, asking a new comer to chew them and essentially digest and adhere to them is IMHO akin to asking a would-be mountaineering enthusiast to scale the north face of Mt Everest, even before she has rappelled down a climbing wall. Coming to the question of merit of these links, women, especially in India and elsewhere are quite often snubbed as not being smart enough (compared to their male counterparts). So, while the link - "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" may have a lot of technically valid points, do we really need to point AS-IS to a document that says: a) "What we are, unapologetically, is hostile to people who seem to be unwilling to think or to do their own homework before asking questions. [...] We call people like this 'losers'" b) "If you find this attitude obnoxious, condescending, or arrogant, check your assumptions." c) "It's OK to be ignorant; it's not OK to play stupid." d) "Beware of asking the wrong question. [..] J. Random Hacker is quite likely to reply with a uselessly literal answer while thinking 'Stupid question...'" I could go on, but what is the point in delving more into this testosterone-driven muck no matter how technically valid it may seem to be! Then of course, comes the list of "DO NOT"s that take over the rest of the document. Sounds awful like a lot of quasi-legal bureaucrat-ese - forbidding and scary, rather than the message of warm welcome that this group wishes to portray. People can be taught/shown how to fish, even without giving them an 'pre-paid' slap on their wrist in assumption of their potential 'wrong-doing'. Remember the funny line from 'The Pirates of the Caribbean" - 'And thirdly, the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules.'? :-P If the folks here feel there is any merit in my post, I'll share the 'patch' which I'm drafting. I've applied old ILUG-D rule on myself :D DISCLAIMER: I often do not see eye-to-eye with A. Mani's dogma, so my non-response to Ms. Mani's posts may not be construed as being in agreement or having nothing to say. cheers -idg -- Indranil Das Gupta Phone : +91-98300-20971 Blog : http://indradg.randomink.org/blog IRC : indradg on irc://irc.freenode.net Twitter : indradg -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Please exchange editable Office documents only in ODF Format. No other format is acceptable. Support Open Standards. For a free editor supporting ODF, please visit LibreOffice - http://www.documentfoundation.org _______________________________________________ WFS-India mailing list [email protected] Message archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: To unsubscribe, please login to your account at http://www.wfs-india.org/ and unsubscribe to the WFS-India list from your account settings. -- WFS-India - http://www.wfs-india.org
