[WikiEN-l] Introducing a new mailing list

[Tim Starling]

Oldak Quill wrote:
> Such a list seems to encourage a sense of difference where there isn't
> one. It will also discourage some women from contributing to the
> general discussion ("why post in two places when I can post here?").

This view, and several others like it, are discussed in depth in the
FLOSSPOLS gender report:

http://flosspols.org/deliverables/FLOSSPOLS-D16-Gender_Integrated_Report_of_Findings.pdf

On page 20:

"Some people - both men and women - interpret the mere mention of gender as
somehow 'reiterating' the 'artificial' differences between the sexes [...] "

"However, our study also found that the attitude of some of the male F/LOSS
participants towards women creates an atmosphere which can be described at
least as not women-friendly.
"Whereas most hackers see themselves as neither sexist nor hostile towards
women there is a clear distinction on how women and men perceive and
experience interaction within the F/LOSS community."

They present survey results showing that women perceive a bias in open
source communities whereas men do not. They go on to discuss why this is.
Most of their findings are framed in a way specific to open source software,
but they could easily be extended to this forum. The primary issue of
relevance to mailing lists and communication is flaming. Men are much more
tolerant of it than women. Says Susan Herring in "Gender and Power in Online
Communication":

http://rkcsi.indiana.edu/archive/CSI/WP/WP01-05B.html

"Politeness is one common means through which gender is cued in asynchronous
CMC. Women are more likely to thank, appreciate and apologize, and to be
upset by violations of politeness: they more often challenge offenders who
violate online rules of conduct (Smith et al., 1997), and predominantly
female groups may have more, and more strictly enforced, posting rules
designed to ensure the maintenance of a civil environment (Hall, 1996;
Herring, 1996a). In contrast, men generally appear to be less concerned with
politeness; they issue bald face-threatening acts such as unmitigated
criticisms and insults, violate online rules of conduct, tolerate or even
enjoy 'flaming', and tend to be more concerned about threats to freedom of
expression than with attending to others' social "face" (Herring, 1994,
1996a, 1999)."

CMC is computer-mediated communication, "asynchronous" CMC refers to
newsgroups, mailing lists, etc. as opposed to instant messaging.

Knowing all this, an optimistic man may try to change everyone's mind on the
importance of good behaviour and civility, and to create a forum where both
men and women can participate comfortably. Wikipedia itself was started with
such ideals in mind (e.g. "WikiLove"). But my experience has led me to be
more jaded.

I support Wikichix, in the hopes that it may become a platform for women to
discuss the implicit bias against them in male-dominated wikis, in a forum
where they won't be subjected to instant incredulity and attack, as they
have been in this thread. I hope that they will be able to formulate and
promote guidelines for non-discrimination, for application at mixed wikis
such as Wikipedia. In the meantime, while they're waiting for these
guidelines to be accepted by the community at large, Wikichix may be able to
expound the problem and discuss coping strategies, so that they can more
confidently participate in the present-day wiki culture.

-- Tim Starling