Hello, my name is Matt R Hall. I am a student of computer engineering and German at the University of Pacific in Stockton, CA. IANAD (I Am Not A Developer), so I reserve my comments specifically to the IRC channel, where I have been present regularly since 1998 under the nickname "mhall."
I would like to offer some comments on the recent discussion turned flamewar regarding the issue of barriers to entry for women. In one of Mr. Srivastava's earlier posts documenting some problems that have happened in the channel, you probably noticed me trolling "tam," who had been accusing helix of using the "Lesbian Linux" parody distribution on the basis she was female. The approach I have taken to those who abuse the women in #debian is to attempt to parody-troll them to show them how stupid their behavior is. In that particular case, tam refused to listen. It's not a perfect world. Before just very recently, when this thread brought some much-needed attention to the issue, the channel was (in my opinion) rather poor at noticing and combatting sexist and abusive behavior. When I was first present in 1998, the channel was averaged around 350-400 users. In my opinion the membership and traffic in the channel has kept rising beyond our capacity to administrate it. Another problem that has been hurting all IRC networks is the proliferation of better and better tools to abuse channels and servers, which I think has kept us from being able to progress in other areas, such as making the social environment as healthy as it could be. Perhaps it would be good to create a group of non-operators to act as semi-official catalysts, like those mentioned in lilo's freenode guidelines. As Mr. Harris noted to Mr. Srivastava (which was then sent to this list), there are 12 operators in #debian, which means we expect each one to be present at least 2 unique hours per day, assuming the task is equally divided. In my opinion that is probably not enough for a channel with 600+ people and such extreme traffic levels, which again lends some credence to the above possibility. I think that some influential regulars working together could stand a good chance of curbing some of the abuse problems that have been known together, through means other than a raw display of force. Next, I would like to say some words to those who have been saying that Debian doesn't discriminate against women. As far as IRC goes, IT DOES. ADMIT IT ALREADY. Every day the channel is filled with trolls and flamers abusing the few female regulars who "boldly dare to frequent it." On top of that, there is a constant flow of sexist sexually suggestiv remarks (which was a deterrent mentioned in our favorite HOWTO Of The Week (TM)). Simply put, we can do better, I think we will do better thanks to the additional attention generated by this thread, and I hope we don't slide back down from the path to the pinnacle of success, because I greatly value the contribution brought by everyone to the channel, except the real trolls (not me, remember) and flamers, who can <insert choice insult here>.
