Update II: Figured out who the guy on the left is. Waiting for responses from various people involved before I go any further. Lots of people not saying much.
Update: It seems we may have a case of mistaken identity, sort of, and this does not bode well for Ms. Richards. The guy who is shown looking at the camera in the photo tweeted by Adria Richards is named Alex Reid, and he works for PlayHaven. But the guy who was actually fired from the company says that Alex was not involved in the incident and that he is still with the company. Yet a petition was started up to save Alex Reid, and plenty of people online believed that the guy who was responsible for the jokes was Alex Reid. This is because Reid is the one looking at the camera, and because Ms. Richards seems to have been describing just the guy shown on the left of the picture. So Alex Reid’s name has come up because Adria Richards’ shoddy Tweetsmanship. She leveled a charge that got someone shamed and then fired, and didn’t clarify who was responsible. She roped in the two guys engaging in harmless banter and then another bystander. Every single guy in that photo would be suspect. PlayHaven is suspect as well, but perhaps they didnt’ fire anyone. I’ll leave this post up because it is evidence of just how shitty of a thing Ms. Richards has done.
The guy who was fired for his comments at PyCon about dongles and forking is named Alex Reid (LinkedIn profile and “perp” shot taken by Adria Richards) and he worked for PlayHaven, a gaming company based out of San Francisco. On its team member page, PlayHaven advertises that it is hiring and also features a series of employee photos including that of Reid. The page also provides a list of perqs which includes things like free lunch and snacks and “epic ping pong battles”. A petition has been started to help Reid get unfired.
One of Reid’s female colleagues previously wrote about harassment in the gaming industry. Reid left a comment on the post (this is how I came across his identity; the avatar had a beard). Reid wrote:
I always find the best luck in games that don’t support voice chat, make voice chat opt-in (for your team / guild / etc), or provide a completely alternative method of communication.
Not only do I not want to be harassed, I have no interest in hearing someone else get harassed. If there’s voice chat, I almost certainly mute it immediately. At best, you’re going to hear heavy breathing and snack munching.. at worst, well. I’m sure some of you have played Halo or Call of Duty.
The opposite of those is certainly Journey – a game in which your multiplayer experience is a) random, b) automatic, and c) voiceless. You’re represented by a unique symbol, as is anyone who wanders into your Journey, and the only method of communication you have available to you is a “shout” button.. which emits a brief non-verbal, genderless noise. At best, you can imitate the teacher from Peanuts at someone – “wah wah. Wah wah, wah wah” It’s impossible to troll, grief, harass, annoy, or otherwise interfere with someone else in Journey, only to accompany someone, or go your separate ways.
Is this a completely different definition of “multiplayer” than most people think of? Probably, but if most peoples’ idea of “multiplayer” is rife with pejorative yells into the headset, then perhaps we should be redefining that preconception.
Reid, whose Twitter handle is, ironically, “microwavedboy” recently retweeted a video of feminist activist Anita Sarkeesian who operates the blog Feminist Frequency at which she discusses women in gaming. Reid’s retweet and his comments on his co-worker’s blog post suggest that he is sympathetic to women’s issues in the gaming world.
Story developing. The company has not responded to requests for comment.
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I’m very pleased to see that this story is attracting attention, and that you are covering it.
In light of the fact that women seem to be happy to lie about rape as well as racist attacks can we even be sure that his attacker is not even lying?
I imagine that he has a good chance at an unfair dismissal lawsuit.
beta male pussy nerd targeted for destruction by aggro mulatto femcunt with pointless AA makework/danegeld job as a quota fill liaison between techies and company reps, because pussy nerd doesn’t give her the tingles and his mere existence reminds her of her utter societal uselessness.
does that cover it?
ps anyone else catching a strong whiff of skepchik, victim extraordinaire of awkward beta male entreaty in elevator?
pps this is all crashing to the ground soon.
Good lord, nailing it to the wall with these observations and comments.
I think you got the wrong guy. Look at this and mr-hank’s other comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5403716
“beta male pussy nerd targeted for destruction by aggro mulatto femcunt with pointless AA makework/danegeld job as a quota fill liaison between techies and company reps, because pussy nerd doesn’t give her the tingles and his mere existence reminds her of her utter societal uselessness.”
Brutal, Juice, brutal…But no joke with that sort of people acting that way. Have me thinking of Oberlin again.
there is a second possibility… and this is a long shot but worth considering… that this entire story is a fabrication. a ruse concocted by the mulatto, the nerd and the wardrobe, perhaps in cahoots with other stooped, shadowy nerd figures with triumphant clitorii in place of penii. motive? a false flag shrikestag fire to rouse the feminist base in its ideologically waning days, buffeted as the rancid mind disease has been lately by dark merciless forces of truth n beauty (*ahem*) who batter their ramparts unrelentingly. or maybe the motive is something as banal as giving the nerdlings an anti-”"”establishment”"” thrillboner to spruce up their softly padded, decadently plush nothingman lives.
If this guy really is a feminist “ally”, then this story just went from infuriating to freaking hilarious. Always fun to watch your opponents destroy each other.
On another topic, Michelle Rhee will not deal with the 800lb Education Disaster in DC.
@RomanCandle: Hard to say what his feelings are given that the reality of getting and keeping a job in corporate America you have to pay obeisance to PC.
“On another topic, Michelle Rhee will not deal with the 800lb Education Disaster in DC”
I almost can’t blame her. Almost.
Heh, SendGrid has been put on notice and I will strike them off my list of reputable companies.
A Developer Evangelist? Seriously, WTF is that? Some dipshit who knows nothing about code.
This is all absurd, as is the first link in your link above, GLP.
From a historical perspective alone, males of nearly all notable ethnicity have dominated the world stage in terms of rights, privileges, and power–and white, heterosexual males in particular.
The fool apparently believes in reincarnation. That’s the only way one can explain the logic. “White men had lots of power for the last few hundred years.” As if we had anything to do with it or personally benefited from it. As if Cletus in the trailer park ever benefited from it. “Colored people didn’t have lots of power the last few hundred years.” As if your local middle-class black family personally experienced slavery or anything close to it.
Maybe those guys deserve some public ridicule for their crappy ensembles. I don’t see a nattily attired gentleman among them. Probably not a clean matching pair of shoes and belt in the entire mob. This is why a fine pair of gabardines has the ladies absolutely salivating. With competition like these slobs it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.
Bullshit. Most people who work in corporate America will not be spending their free time promoting feminist bloggers just to get and keep a job. Most people even in the tech industry don’t even have a public Internet presence.
Where is the proof he even made the joke? Anyone can snap a picture of anyone and make any claim about it. She could just have easily sent out a pic saying “This guy grabbed my butt during a break” and who would have known if it was true or not.
On another note, never confess to anything under any circumstances to a boss or cop. Never.
I step out for a drink or two with my favorite bartendress and my internet acquaintances keep the right feet to the fire… this is why I love the GLP blog.
Yea the feminists are suddenly coming hard after the video game industry and I find it pathetic. So many complaints about gender and presentation of genders that it’s making me think I won’t have macho games to play anymore. God I hope not.
Oh, this shit is getting COLOSSALLY retarded. DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA.
Okay, a little background. The chairman of PyCon, Jesse Noller, is a colossal manboob, and has been for a decade. Check out his “code of conduct” for some information about how far into beta-tastic cuckold-sperm-slurping of the dominant femcunt narrative this guy has fallen:
http://jessenoller.com/blog/2012/12/7/the-code-of-conduct
… Yeah.
Also, a non-trivial amount of this drama is manufactured, directly or indirectly, by one Valerie Henson (who demands to be called ‘Valerie Aurora’, because that name is all patriarchal and whatever), daughter of one Keith Henson and Carolyn Meinel. Both of these people are chiefly famous in the non-retarded technological community for being completely useless drama whores who manufacture controversy out of thin air and remain in the center of it in order to maintain the public illusion of relevance, and their daughter is carrying on in their fine tradition. She is fond of browbeating ‘con management into submission with staged stunts, because she cannot do and has never actually done anything useful. You can see samples of Ms. Henson’s work here:
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Geek_Feminism_Wiki
and
http://valerieaurora.org/
I leave mockery, and discovery of these folks’ fellows, as an exercise for the reader.
Whenever you see this shit, scratch around. You’ll find a lot of the same names involved in it, over and over again, and most of them are hell-bent on dragging one of the last bastions of actual intellectual freedom and creativity into the Sarlacc pit of modern American cuntism, where it will be digested slowly over a thousand years as we learn new meanings for pain and suffering.
Name and shame the manboobs and their femcunt masters. Insist that the people running these conventions grow some hair on their balls and tell the femcunts to go fuck themselves.
ive never been more glad to work at a company with lots of work to do and heavily restricted internet browsing. i can’t imagine what it would be like to surf the web all day and have to read about all of these fake issues.
however, somebody should do what the commenter suggested, tweet a picture of a random guy and claim he made racist comments or grabbed an ass
Well if he really is such a man-boob sack of shit my sympathy has entirely evaporated.
Reblogged this on To the Slaughter of the Gods and commented:
Update to the Victim Complex:
Chuck Ross over at GLPiggy is a much better and more thorough reporter than I, at least partly because I do not lay claim to that title. But go there and read his stuff about this ridiculous incident. It is better than anything I will write here.
From her blog:
I was born to an interracial couple in New York City.
My mother was Jewish and born in the city. My father was Black and from the South.
Shortly after my birth, my alcoholic father began beating my mother on a regular basis. My mother had a full set of dentures by age 35 because my father knocked all her teeth out. She has a scar on her forehead from the time he hit her in the head with a hammer. I saw her suffocated and choked repeatedly. I tried to help her. My youngest sister is mentally retarded due to his abuse while my mother was pregnant.
I called the police on my father for the first time at age 4.
Jewish militancy + father/male hatred + genetic maelstrom from father’s sperm = trouble!
From her blog:
Unfortunately 2006 was also the year that I experienced domestic violence again for the 2nd time in my life and it was devastating. After assaulting me, he continued to terrorize and intimidate me by defacing my car and leaving dead flowers with a creepy card under my window shield….
Because of my experiences growing up, I have triggers. This means that I’m always scanning for danger; for situations that seem like something from the past that could hurt me. When I recognize something that matches, I can overreact and feel intense fear, anger or anxiety. This is something I’ve worked on a lot. It’s much better now than 10 years ago but there are some things that send me over the edge….
Or coming back on the plane from Mexico the other weekend. The man in front of me had both the window shades open and the light was pouring in over my face. I thought to ask him if it was all right to close the shade but in the back of my mind I thought, “What if he gets mad, yells and starts attacking me when I ask?”
Dude on the right kinda looks like Seth McFarlane.
So a white guy gets to pay for a Jewish woman’s misplaced idealism and a black man’s inherent savagery. Ya gotta love multi-culturalism!
“I called the police on my father for the first time at age 4. ”
For the first time. This is where she learned the power of tattling, a uniquely female talent. And so it continues. I have seen female coworkers running to the boss so many times over trivialities that I assume it will happen in any new work scenario and do my best to avoid them. One wrong word is all it takes to send them into an indignant huff that must be assuaged by properly administered public shaming and punishment. There’s a reason I don’t have a photo of my ForeignBride in my cubicle. (And while we are at it, never keep more crap in your cube than it takes to throw in a bag and walk out in 30 seconds)
Programmers (aka “software engineers”) as a lot have low character and can’t be trusted. Self-taught or poorly trained programmers are the worst in terms of co-worker trustworthiness, generally because they are imposters and can’t walk into another job easily due to their lack of a degree. Most of the time they are coding up their job security (while emitting histrionics of heroism) and trying to get other people fired. If that offends some f the readers who fit this description, please spare us the talk about how you learned on your own and can out-code 10 university graduates. Most of your real skills involve knee-capping your coworkers like this woman attempted to do. Get a degree online if you must but get a degree.
I struggled to get away from it for this reason and am glad I did, though I still use computers every day in my work, just not involved in grandios multi-programmer development projects. My unsolicited advice for aspiring tech workers is to learn a craft that perhaps uses computers, such as accounting or oil exploration or factory automation, but don’t pursue strictly computer work.
Some time ago there was a thread on a tech website “Why the New Guy Can’t Code”, written by a typical egoistic developer claiming that these new programmers just don’t have the chops like him. Truth is these people are notorious for setting up new hires to fail by handing them crisis programming assignments while purposely witholding information necessary to get it done. They lack basic manly virtues like honesty and sportsmanship.
Who is going to hire this walking lawsuit anyway? Encorpera doesn’t need “Tehcnology Evangelists” unless it’s some diversity slot, and the competition for those is even worse than for programmers.
@peterike,
No surprise here upon reading her blog musings.
After all,doesn’t the saying go: ‘the ‘abused’ are never free ’til they become the abuser?’
(What bothers me most about this woman is the piety she claims that drawed her into action; the whole “I-would’ve-let-it-go-until-I-saw-that-girl and realized I had to act”- b.s.).
Shit like this is so avoidable if a modicum of common sense can prevail before the vanities and self-absorptions pile-up to the point of lost control…… boring ol’ shite but true, true, true.
“Jewish militancy + father/male hatred + genetic maelstrom from father’s sperm = trouble!”
Lol! I have to admit, from all the fellow biracials I know, anecdotally speaking I noticed two things: A) proportionately more b-w biracials involve one Jewish parent; and B) such religious-racial combos tend to produce more troubled offspring.
I attended a heavily jewish high-school and spent much time among jews in both my grad and undergrad environments; I like jews —- but I’m gllad I’m a goy biracial! lol!
@brett
You can have as little sympathy as you like, but this issue affects everyone regardless.
For that matter, the son of a bitch should have stood up for himself, if for no other reason than the one I cited above. This kind of thing ruins it for everyone.
For that matter, Im also pissed at his former place of work. Again, there’s more to life than just covering ones ass for “business”. Thats how you end up with “too big to fail” disasters.
It sounds like this woman has inherited her father’s personality.
Noticed something else here, with the anti semitism.
If the purpose of this thread is to permanently derail any sense of justice, then I rercommend you keep up the racist comments. In fact, while you are at it, make it clear in any subsequent formal arguments that you are not surprised that a whiny biracial Jew bitch started the problem. That way you can ABSOLUTELY make certain that this problem doesnt get solved.
I am an equal opportunity hater. I hate all races with equal passion. I hate men and women with nearly unlimited scorn and regard both Jew and gentile as equal in my contempt. Atheists and religious are both forms of maggots in my eyes. And environmental gaia wprshipping nihilists who think that animals have rights are the only group I despise more than any pther, but thats out spite.
Get over your fucking selves. Focus on the goddamn problem.
Tickletik: I feel ya bro! I hate both babies and abortion doctors with equal contempt, cause I’m an equal opportunity hater and they’re both such assholes, man! Don’t try to confuse me with no grievances!
Noticed something else here, with the anti semitism.
Associating Ms. Richards with widely understood, extremely common Jewish behavioral characteristics is not “antisemitism,” it’s just observing life.
@peterike
Observing reality is racist and sexist.
@UncleElmer:
Here is an essay on self-taught programmers by someone I like:
http://www.lambdassociates.org/blog/hackers.htm
There was also a good entry on this subject at ward’s wiki.
lara: “It sounds like this woman has inherited her father’s personality.”
Yup. The cruelest irony of all.
Let this be a lesson to gina-tingling women everywhere: don’t have kids with the first urban thug who rattles your sperm receptacle. You doom not only yourself, but your progeny.
Well, looky here. Bottom rail on top now, huh massa?
http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/21/breaking-adria-richards-fired-by-sendgrid-for-outting-developers-on-twitter/
It looks like SendGrid just fired Adria. Sometimes there is justice.
Lets hope it’s not just a rumor and that she was actually fired. Unfortunately she will now start showing up at conferences as an “expert” talking about harassment and discrimination in technology.
Fired! Lol. What an excellent development if true.
Maybe she will transform into a harassment “expert,” Reym. But she better get in quick. As Chateau Heartiste pointed out above, “this is all crashing to the ground soon.” This weird reality we live in can’t last forever, and so it won’t. This SendGrid move could be a bellwether of sorts.
Here’s PlayHaven’s press release on this issue at http://blog.playhaven.com/addressing-pycon/
————————————————————————————————————————
It has come to our attention that a topic concerning a former PlayHaven employee has generated a passionate online debate.
There are a number of inaccuracies being reported and I would like to take this opportunity to provide some clarity.
PlayHaven had an employee who was identified as making inappropriate comments at PyCon, and as a company that is dedicated to gender equality and values honorable behavior, we conducted a thorough investigation. The result of this investigation led to the unfortunate outcome of having to let this employee go. We value and protect the privacy of our employees, both past and present, and we will not comment on all the factors that contributed to our parting ways.
This employee was not Alex Reid, who is still with the company and a valued employee.
We believe in the importance of discussing sensitive topics such as gender and conduct and we hope to move forward with a civil dialogue based on the facts.
In that spirit, I would personally like to hear your thoughts and concerns.
Email me at ceo@playhaven.com. I will do my best to respond and encourage an active and civil dialogue.
This story had a very interesting and hopeful ending. Adria Richards seems like an entitled narcissist, who had become used to deference as a moral authority through her impeccable credentials as a diversity goddess: black, Jewish, and female.
Her hubris finally attracted both the solidarity of techies behind one of their own, and the more organized elements of Anonymous. They brought down her and her company’s servers with DDOS attacks, and slaughtered her in any comment forum they could find.
It ought to be pretty clear that not only does the anonymous tech world detest feminists, it is also quite capable of protecting its domain against hostile intruders.
No one ever told Adria Richards that she was at best only an tolerated guest in the world of tech, and she could either play by male rules and contribute, or get lost. Hopefully other feminists in tech will get a similar message.
You know what? I was thinking this morning that, if anyone should get fired, it would be Adria. I mean, as a “developer evangelist”, does part of her outreach to developers involved getting them fired? You’ve got to be kidding me. The way she did it (not even speaking to them before ratting them out) was a total bitch move, and all the follow-up drama suggests a pretty unhinged personality. Despite all this, it would surprise me if she really was fired, as I don’t think many companies have the stomach to flout the PC mafia.
Instead of making feminist war on tough, aggressive savages like her father, Adria decided to go after hypercivilised, pencil necked nerds who make dongle jokes. This weak ass bullying behaviour is so integral to feminism it must be part of the curriculum.
Tickletik – I am an equal opportunity hater. Are all people equally worthy of being hated ? What a stupid thing to say – always put forward by conformist chickens trying to masquerade as free-thinking eagles.
You just can’t make this stuff up:
http://images.4chan.org/b/src/1363855246630.png
“Focus on the goddamn problem.”
Agreed. Anybody who is 1/2 black or more is a problem. Stay away from them.
If mz. Richardson was actually fired, I predict a huuuuuge lawsuit in her future…. And ironically more money than she could’ve earned as a woman in tech
Reid not Richardson dang multitasking….
Is that Commander Riker?
She’s definitely fired, at least for now.
http://amandablumwords.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/3/
Figured out who the guy on the left is.
It’s either Bevis or Butthead. I get them confused.
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Classic case of Borderline Personality Disorder. She has some delusions of grandeur; she describes herself as Joan of Arc fighting for the future of women in IT. She has a history of being offended by sexism. She attacks these fellows deceitfully and viciously, feigns victim-hood, then uses excuses like her “trigger point was reached” and she exploded “like Popeye – I can’t stands no more!”. In these excuses, she is blaming her aggressive actions on the victims of her attack. Like George Zimmerman, she sees herself as a hero, fighting against something she is actively keeping an eye out for, and she sees it everywhere she looks.
If you analyze her blog on this incident, it is actually disturbing.
She’s apparently trying to convince herself that there were sexual innuendos and not just some misperceived statements that she was hearing. :
“The stuff about the dongles wasn’t even logical and as a self professed nerd, that bothered me. Dongles are intended to be small and unobtrusive. They’re intended for network connectivity and to service as physical licence keys for software. I’d consulted in the past with an automotive shop that needed data recovery and technical support. I know what PCMCIA dongles look like”
In truth, Dongle size is an issue, really big dongles are annoying, because they are easy to bump, they are a terrible form factor addition on the side edge of a laptop. And we haven’t even heard what was allegedly said about dongles.
“I was going to let it go. It had been a long week. A long month. I’d been on the road since mid February attending and speaking at conferences. PyCon was my 5th and final conference before heading home.
I know it’s important to pick my battles.
I know I don’t have to be a hero in every situation.
Sometimes I just want to go to a conference and be a geek.
But…
like Popeye, I couldn’t “stands it no more” because of what happened –”
in other words, what they did normally didn’t warrant her reaction, but because of “something special”, she justifies taking actions that wouldn’t otherwise be justifiable, but she decided to “be a hero”… once again George Zimmerman…
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