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SendGrid Fires Employee After Firestorm Over Inappropriate Jokes 1145

tsamsoniw writes "Hoping to strike a blow against sexism in the tech industry , developer and tech evangelist Adria Richards took to Twitter to complain about two male developers swapping purportedly offensive jokes at PyCon. The decision has set into motion a chain of events that illustrate the impact a tweet or two can make in this age of social networking: One the developers and Richards have since lost their jobs, and even the chair of PyCon has been harassed for his minor role in the incident."
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SendGrid Fires Employee After Firestorm Over Inappropriate Jokes

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 21, 2013 @06:57PM (#43240551)

    I am pretty sure being a developer evangelist doesn't involve you alienating more than half of developers with your tweeting.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 21, 2013 @07:01PM (#43240575)

    I think we nerds need to get more facetime access to the rest of the world. All these "stranger danger" kids are now stranger danger adults.

    I'd say that apart from the PyCon organizers, who made the best out of a bad situation, everyone else in the story - Adria, her employers, Mr-Hank, and his employer - all made dick moves, but ... hang on, my boss wants to talk to me.

  • by Daetrin ( 576516 ) on Thursday March 21, 2013 @07:05PM (#43240625)
    *Joke about dongle*

    *drama*

    *Rocks fall, everyone gets fired*
  • Hurrah (Score:5, Funny)

    by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 ) on Thursday March 21, 2013 @07:17PM (#43240767) Homepage

    Good for her. She stood up for herself when she was threatened (triggered). What was the trigger? She saw a photo on main stage of a little girl who had been in the Young Coders workshop. She realized immediately that she had to do something or that little girl would never have the chance to learn and love programming because the ass clowns behind her would make it impossible for the little girl to do so. What did these ass clowns do? They began making sexual forking jokes. What happened after the forking joke? A dongle joke. Incredible. Just like Popeye, she "couldn't stands it no more" and took action.

    What did she do? She did what any hero would have done in her situation. She took a photo of the offending hipster males and posted it for the whole world to see. This was an outstanding, very brave effort for a woman who had just been triggered. She was applauded by the feminist blogosphere, and in the end was fired by a man in a position of power. The fucking patriarchy. Fuck them. Don't believe me, read the entire blog entry she wrote. It is all totally supported by the ideology that rules our campuses today. [butyoureagirl.com] To quote her:

    "Yesterday the future of programming was on the line and I made myself heard."

    Classic. Who can read that without a tear? Can anyone provide a place that I can donate to her legal defense fund?

  • Re:Hurrah (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sponge Bath ( 413667 ) on Thursday March 21, 2013 @07:38PM (#43241075)
    Usually people say "woosh" when a joke goes over someone's head. I'll slay "sploosh" to indicate the joke fell into the toilet and splashed your hiney.
  • Re:Really? (Score:4, Funny)

    by jimshatt ( 1002452 ) on Thursday March 21, 2013 @07:38PM (#43241081)
    Who? ME? That is so unfair!!! Just because I read your comment... Third time this week, too, you know.
  • by MightyYar ( 622222 ) on Thursday March 21, 2013 @07:51PM (#43241255)

    Burma Shave!

  • by MessageApprovalMan ( 2871053 ) on Thursday March 21, 2013 @08:47PM (#43241793)

    Our boss gave a curt ultimatum:
    "Don't make dick jokes near people who hate 'em."
        "If you act like a boor
        We will show you the door."
    (We can fire them, since we can't castrate 'em)

  • Re:Really? (Score:5, Funny)

    by drcagn ( 715012 ) on Thursday March 21, 2013 @08:53PM (#43241839) Homepage

    Better the whole world blind than just the assholes with sight.

  • by detritus. ( 46421 ) on Thursday March 21, 2013 @08:55PM (#43241857)

    There once was a dick joke that was offensive,
    It caused laughter that was extensive.
    A woman raised a stink, a man responded, "Well put it in the pink!"
    The resulting lawsuit was expensive.

  • by I'm New Around Here ( 1154723 ) on Thursday March 21, 2013 @09:08PM (#43241961)

    The term 'double ententdre' itself sounds rather dirty. In a recursive sort of way.

  • by pspahn ( 1175617 ) on Thursday March 21, 2013 @11:14PM (#43242943)
    Nine out of Ten sexist male /.ers agree... fuck this bitch.
  • by dcollins117 ( 1267462 ) on Friday March 22, 2013 @01:22AM (#43243549)

    who talks about women's c*nt sizes? tits, sure, but c*nts?

    I think it's Sarah Silverman that has a funny bit about it. I'd post a link but when I Googled "large vagina" I didn't get the results I expected.

    Or rather, I got what I expected but not what I was looking for...

  • by Dr Max ( 1696200 ) on Friday March 22, 2013 @05:53AM (#43244495)
    Hahahaha. i can see him trying to defend himself "But I am a pedagogue, just like all the other teachers". I called a kid a homosapien once in primary school and he took great offense.
  • by Geeky ( 90998 ) on Friday March 22, 2013 @06:54AM (#43244739)

    Or rather, you got what you were looking for but not what was relevant to this conversation?

  • by Time_Ngler ( 564671 ) on Friday March 22, 2013 @03:17PM (#43249993)

    What you are missing is that, as she writes in her blog post, http://butyoureagirl.com/14015/forking-and-dongle-jokes-dont-belong-at-tech-conferences/ [butyoureagirl.com] she was wearing the hero cap when she outed those attendees on twitter. When she made that joke, she was wearing the naughty girl cap. There is no hypocrisy here, since she was only playing a part of hero in the first case, which is not always would do otherwise, when her desires of what character to be changes. Just like a cop doesn't always exhibit the same behavior when he is on duty and off duty.

    Furthermore, although not perfect, Adria Richards is a much better arbitrator than the randomness of the universe. For example, if an animal was caught in a trap, the universe wouldn't do anything to prevent it from slowing starving to death. However, Adria Richards would release the animal, or at least kill it quickly with a rock (or communicate to someone about it to have it done by someone else), which is a much more compassionate outcome them leaving the animal to be judged by the randomness of the chaotic happenings in our world. Having Adria Richards judging and ruling and taking action on perceived crimes and injustice in a compassionate and from her perspective, a fair way, is better than the utter randomness and chaos of the universe, where one man can be a king, and his neighbor a beggar out of per happenstance.

    Adria Richards is not perfect, of course, but the alternative is to live as beasts.

    May Adria Richards always see you in a positive light. Adria Richards bless.

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