Thanks for sharing this study, Ryan -- very useful info, and as you say, rather depressing!<div><br></div><div>I think it's important to note, for those who don't use IRC -- the bit about "high traffic IRC channels" is VERY significant. I hope nobody gets the idea that simply by using IRC in a rather targeted way, that they would have an even remotely similar experience. (i.e., by joining only channels that are of particular interest, like #wikimedia-gendergap or any of the many other Wikimedia channels [1])</div>
<div><br></div><div>For example, I'm logged into IRC nearly every day, and I think I've gotten maybe one message along these lines in my *life* -- which is a lot fewer than 3.7 messages per day! There are many ways to use IRC, and spending time in very high-traffic channels is not something I think would be useful for most people to begin with.</div>
<div><br></div><div>-Pete</div><div>[[User:Peteforsyth]]</div><div><br></div><div>[1] <a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC/Channels">http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC/Channels</a></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 9:30 AM, ChaoticFluffy <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chaoticfluffy@gmail.com">chaoticfluffy@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Hmmm, interesting. I've often wondered whether I would have had a less pleasant experience fitting into the wiki(p|m)edia IRC channels if I had an obviously-gendered nick. As it is, I get maybe one random pm a month, if that, and most of those are of the vague "hi"-followed-by-silence sort. None that I can remember have ever been sexually explicit, though I think I might have gotten threats once or twice. Maybe one day I'll run my own little experiment and masquerade under a clearly-female name and see how that changes...<br>
<br>-Fluffernutter<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 2:05 AM, Ryan Kaldari <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rkaldari@wikimedia.org" target="_blank">rkaldari@wikimedia.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
I just read the following paper which describes an interesting study<br>
that was conducted regarding IRC:<br>
<a title="Open with Google Docs Viewer." href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.enre.umd.edu/content/rmeyer-assessing.pdf&embedded=true&chrome=true" target="_blank">http://www.enre.umd.edu/content/rmeyer-assessing.pdf</a><br>
<br>
The researchers created several IRC bots with different names - some<br>
female, some male, and some ambiguous. They put the bots in several high<br>
traffic IRC channels, and had them record all the private messages they<br>
received. The bots themselves were completely silent.<br>
<br>
The bots with male names received an average of 3.7 private messages per<br>
days that were sexually explicit or threatening. The bots with ambiguous<br>
names received an average of 24.9 such messages per day. The bots with<br>
female names received an average of 100 such messages per day!<br>
<br>
This is a very sad statistic, and probably goes a long way towards<br>
explaining why there aren't that many women on IRC these days.<br>
<br>
On a happier note, if you want to hang out on IRC and not get sexually<br>
harassed, you can always join #wikimedia-gendergap!<br>
<br>
Ryan Kaldari<br>
<br>
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