Thanks Tom for articulating how maddening it is to discover that an event from which you had hoped to learn and in which you hoped to engage turns out to be ruined by this sort of unthinking. Thanks to Sarah for bringing Tom&#39;s words to our attention.<br>
<br>By way of cheerful contrast, I share an experience wholly uplifting.<br><br>While waiting in the queue the other day for a session of the French Film Festival to start, I had a wonderful conversation with a woman who, in response to my tentative confession that the volunteer work I did was for Wikipedia, exclaimed with huge smile on her face: &quot;Wikipedia! I LOVE Wikipedia!&quot; &quot;Oh?&quot; I said. &quot;Yes, I use it every day and it has never let me down.&quot; She told me she donates every year &quot;with joy&quot; because it &quot;repays a thousandfold&quot;. When she buys lottery tickets she mentally pledges money (&quot;a lot&quot;, she emphasised) to the project if she wins. <br>
<br>She would like to be an editor when she retires but the world apparently will not let her retire yet; it keeps calling her back to work (her field is Arts Management, I think). She is 74 and fully employed. I was the first Wikipedian she had ever met and she made me feel as if I was solely responsible for some sort of miraculous gift. <br>
<br>I asked if she would like to have her image on the on the fund raiser but no, here is a real &quot;user&quot; of Wikipedia who wants to be anonymous. &quot;Anonymous, anonymous&quot;, she insisted. &quot;You know my thoughts on the matter, just think of me as your friend in the queue&quot;. And I do.<br>
<br>Whiteghost.ink<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 24 March 2012 08:40, Asaf Bartov <span dir="ltr">&lt;<a href="mailto:asaf.bartov@gmail.com">asaf.bartov@gmail.com</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr"><div><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="im">On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 11:39 AM, Sarah Stierch <span dir="ltr">&lt;<a href="mailto:sarah.stierch@gmail.com" target="_blank">sarah.stierch@gmail.com</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">


  

    
  
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    Hi everyone. I wanted to share a blog that came across my radar
    today. I&#39;ve always been one to channel my rage into action, more
    than comfortably verbally expressing myself through blogs. So, it&#39;s
    always nice when I read a blog that basically verbalizes my own
    personal frustrations and rage, and well, I didn&#39;t have to write it.
    :) <br>
    <br>
    Fellow Wikipedian, Tom Morris, wrote a wonderful blog that channeled
    his own frustrations and bluntly takes a look at sexism within the
    geek landscape and the concepts of booth babes, verbalized sexism
    and more, and all with a queer spin, something rarely expressed by
    men (queer women generally have no problem expressing these
    frustrations!). <br>
    <br>
<a href="http://blog.tommorris.org/post/19778985050/newsflash-sexism-in-geek-communities-demeans-everybody" target="_blank">http://blog.tommorris.org/post/19778985050/newsflash-sexism-in-geek-communities-demeans-everybody</a></div>


</blockquote><div><br></div></div>Nicely said, Tom!<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><div><br></div><div>  A.</div></font></span></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">-- <br>Asaf Bartov &lt;<a href="mailto:asaf.bartov@gmail.com" target="_blank">asaf.bartov@gmail.com</a>&gt;<br>

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