Girls involved on IRC

AshleighJane · none Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 40

I was asked this question this evening,

no offense at all but its strange to me to see a girl involved in irc servers and stuff discussed on searchirc.com

so I replied to the guy with just a simple answer,

Its a good forum for debate, and learning from others.

So how do other girls feel with the above question? also do you think that men that read our messages and points of views/opinions appreciate our imput/learn from us?

Be interesting to hear from guys too.

Thanx,

Jane X X

katsklaw · Posted: Sep 30, 2004 9:11pm Post subject:

As a man I think he's sexist to think that a "girl" can't have an intelligent IRC related conversation in the same fashion as a man.

Horizon · Posted: Oct 01, 2004 12:14am Post subject:

The internet has always been ( according to statisitics) more used by men then women according to specific surveys. With that in mind I think there it's a common mistake for men to make generic assumptions about women especially in the tech industry. I know a few women off the top of my head that can code with the best of them. Not to mention drink me under the table Razz

. I think everyone here agree's ( I know I do ) we need more women on IRC not to mention in the tech industry.

Alex

Rob_ · Idler Joined: 13 Dec 2003 Posts: 309

Mary · SearchIRC Admin Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 696

When I first signed on IRC I didn't know any better and used my email id as my nick. I never changed it. I found a nice home in a large tech help channel, and I learned early on that people who came in for help would pay attention to what I said, follow my advice, and even come back when they needed additional help... if they assumed my nick was Mr Egit. If I showed my gender in any way, I became invisible. I would answer their question in the channel and they would ignore me and start up a discussion with one of the male ops. It was so bad the other ops (who accepted me just fine, btw) kept my "secret". Don't get me wrong, we didn't pretend I was male - we just didn't tell anyone I was female.

Jason used to come into the channel once in a while to harass the ops - test out his flood scripts and bots on poor hapless me. We had known each other casually for about 18 months when he found out I was starting a network and having problems with services. He came over and volunteered to help. I remember our first conversation quite well - "You're a WOMAN?!"

I don't think you can generalize how men will accept you... some acted threatened, others were downright thrilled to see women involved with IRC. Mostly they were just surprised.

magpie · Idler Joined: 18 Jan 2004 Posts: 453 Location: Essex, UK

I don't think the user was implying that members of the female sex that use IRC are incapable of intelligent thought and conversation, more he was surprised that they were actually using IRC at all. If I've misinterpreted the quote I apologise. Certainly on QuakeNet I rarely come across members of the opposite sex, mainly kids messing around.

In my experience the number of women taking Computer related subjects at school or University has generally been a hell of a lot lower than the number of men taking those same subjects, which is presumably why people are surprised when they come across a woman on IRC. This isn't to say I think only men are capable of using a Computer, in fact I think quite the opposite, but I believe it is due to the lack of experience of coming across a woman using a Computer (to do things other than rudimentary tasks) that people are so surprised when they do come across one.

Incidentally, of the few women I've talked to online, I've always found their conversation to be stimulating. Mr. Egit included.

katsklaw · Posted: Oct 01, 2004 12:39pm Post subject:

That's very odd .. I've always been around just as many women on IRC as men as far as I can remember. Maybe it's the channels I frequent. It could also be the fact that don't care about a persons gender and very very rarely ask.

magpie · Idler Joined: 18 Jan 2004 Posts: 453 Location: Essex, UK

Quite probably. The majority of the channels I'm in are staff-related (the majority of QuakeNet staff being male), my old clan channel and the odd programming/ircd type one.

DeadNotBuried · none Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 43

i'm with katsklaw on this one, i've always been around networks where there are as many females as males, and quite often more females than males

codemastr · Idler Joined: 05 Feb 2004 Posts: 345

Heh, mostly guys where I go. But then again, there aren't very many women hanging out in programming channels and stuff like that! In my school, there are about 300 computer science students. There are 15 women, it's not exactly a fun male to female ratio...

null · none Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 24

My channel (which used to be chatroom for a major neopets help website), surprisingly enough, only has about 4 regular female chatters. That is out of about 20 or so other regulars.

[DiMENSiON] · Eleet Joined: 06 Sep 2003 Posts: 670

Where i chat at there is very few female chatters, there needs to be more around a 1:1 ratio would be nice. In addition i would like to see more female IRCops and some female owned networks, imo i think women are far better at managing people than men so i think it would only do irc good if there where more female opers and netadmins!

AshleighJane · none Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 40

[DiMENSiON] · Eleet Joined: 06 Sep 2003 Posts: 670

I see what you mean, although in all walks of life i have seen women be far better at managing than men, that's just what i have seen though.

garethnelsonuk · none Joined: 03 Oct 2004 Posts: 16

all i have to say on this topic:
my wife seems to be an expert at keeping the peace in IRC channels when acting as an op and in PR stuff (finding new users, handling complaints etc)
for some reason i do all the technical work while she does the "social" stuff.

yay for stereotypes!!!

i have met one women on IRC who ran windows boxes for her IRCD. but it's mainly a male-dominated thing. (look up "labelling theory" sometime if you've studied sociology)