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I haven't had any problems, but, I don't hang out in rooms where
perhaps things might happen or certain types might hang out (i.e.
#Wikipedia-en, where I have seen some really sexist and gross things
said.) - and I go by my real name (SarahStierch). <br>
<br>
When I was younger and used IRC (in the early 1990's) I used the
username "Grrrl" and did get a numerous amount of sexual DM's, from
what I can remember, and that was during a time when BBSes and "the
internet" was even more male dominated than it is (dial up and
fidonet anyone?), and hanging out in alternative community rooms
often led to people seeking some pretty obnoxious things (i.e.
hanging out in the goth room meant "normal" guys coming in looking
to "do hot goth girls".). I remember being a teenager hacking free
accounts on AOL and oh god, sometimes it was just out of control and
I'd have to literally cease having gender specific names. <br>
<br>
The report put the bots in generic rooms like #teens and #wow (for
World of Warcraft) - and it doesn't surprise me that the bots would
get bombarded with horny IRC dudes. <br>
<br>
I still think the fact that Wikimedia relies on IRC as it's "main
chat service" is rather archaic. (But I don't have a more brilliant
idea, yet.)<br>
<br>
-Sarah<br>
<br>
On 12/14/11 12:30 PM, ChaoticFluffy wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAASTqKpBXiZAASaOU9kF2_YSJoBLtec_rGwP8T5RYv4cPZ6avg@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">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<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 2:05 AM, Ryan
Kaldari <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:rkaldari@wikimedia.org">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 moz-do-not-send="true" 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>
_______________________________________________<br>
Gendergap mailing list<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org">Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap"
target="_blank">https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap</a><br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<br>
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<pre wrap="">_______________________________________________
Gendergap mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org">Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap">https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Sarah Stierch Consulting<br>
--<br>
Historical, cultural, new media & artistic research &
advising.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.sarahstierch.com">http://www.sarahstierch.com</a></div>
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