TechCrunch Apologizes For Not Screening Presentations

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I hate to say it but this is what happens when you fail to screen Hackathon applicants. Of the handful of idiotic things that happened on stage, this one seems to be the one that has people upset.

Today’s issues resulted from a failure to properly screen our hackathons for inappropriate content ahead of time and establish clear guidelines for these submissions. Trust us, that changed as soon as we saw what happened at our show.
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Some people need to learn lessons the hard way ... computer folks have enough stereotypes without catering to some of the baser stereotypes ... even a Hackathon is presumably a type of professional gathering and people should at least be respectful of others in such environments ... some people might term it "political correctness" but I would say it is more appropriately termed "common sense" and respect for others ;)
 
kbrickley said:
Some people need to learn lessons the hard way ... computer folks have enough stereotypes without catering to some of the baser stereotypes ... even a Hackathon is presumably a type of professional gathering and people should at least be respectful of others in such environments ... some people might term it "political correctness" but I would say it is more appropriately termed "common sense" and respect for others ;)
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Try eating more bran for breakfast.
 
sfsuphysics said:
yeah that just dumb.
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The sales pitch trying to secure funding for a prepubescent boy's hairbrained idea...or the reaction of the expo host who allowed them the microphone...or the fact the expo gave them a microphone in the first place?
 
A mildly tasteless, corny, joke presentation should not require everyone involved to kowtow at the altar of political correctness. There doesn't need to be a huge apology. Not everything is some hideous sexist conspiracy. More damage is being done to the appearance of the tech industry by the Tumblr/Twittersphere "feminist" Shame-gasm than by a couple of people who make a midly off color joke that would have been permitted on network TV sitcoms (for that matter, it could even be seen as a self-effacing male critique to the effect of "haha, don't you look like a moron if you're drooling over boobs").
 
Talk about making molehills into mountains. It was a poor attempt at humor. People need to get over themselves.

Unprofessional, yes. Funny, not really. Criminal, No. We don't need to take these guys out and stone them.
 
Xaeos said:
A mildly tasteless, corny, joke presentation should not require everyone involved to kowtow at the altar of political correctness. There doesn't need to be a huge apology. Not everything is some hideous sexist conspiracy. More damage is being done to the appearance of the tech industry by the Tumblr/Twittersphere "feminist" Shame-gasm than by a couple of people who make a midly off color joke that would have been permitted on network TV sitcoms (for that matter, it could even be seen as a self-effacing male critique to the effect of "haha, don't you look like a moron if you're drooling over boobs").
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It is all well and good if it is you and your buddies at a LAN.

If you were responsible for putting on a respected...or at least hopefully respected...event, well those clowns would get the can and never welcomed back. Working in show biz I've seen people pull that kind of crap and banned from venues for less, because it reflects incredibly badly on whomever supplied those clowns a microphone.
 
Everyone knows that a true female professional will have double mastectomy just for street cred... So surely images of titties are upsetting.
 
To me, it seems like they demonstrated a clever way to hack the Hackathon. ;)
 
Skripka said:
It is all well and good if it is you and your buddies at a LAN.

If you were responsible for putting on a respected...or at least hopefully respected...event, well those clowns would get the can and never welcomed back. Working in show biz I've seen people pull that kind of crap and banned from venues for less, because it reflects incredibly badly on whomever supplied those clowns a microphone.
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I can certainly understand that kind of measure for something dreamed up as truly offensive. If they would have created a pretend app and presentation that was focused around seeing through female conference-goers shirts, then that would have been crossing a line. However, I've seen plenty of professional conferences (outside the tech arena, my particular experience is the medical profession) where there plenty of "slightly off colour" comments that didn't incite this kind of response. The issue is the gravity and the people who are just so incredibly insulted. Would it have been better if the organizers appraised the content ahead of time? Sure. Was it a little tasteless? Sure. However, I don't believe that anyone needs to be vilified or people crying out about how this is the evil patriarchy at work through their malicious-penile mean etc...

There was even a comment on this article that the two guys involved should watch their jobs (or even, lose them), because that woman from a tech conference a little while ago who completely overreacted to a couple of guys chatting to each other about "dongles" and other funny tech terms, somewhere she could overhear (ie not a presentation) and went out of her way to such a Twitter-stink over her perceived insult that one of them was actually fired from their job! Things are getting out of hand and we need to step back from instantly firing, disavowing, kowtowing etc... every time someone even suggests that they're offended.
 
Can someone explain what are they apologizing for? The article didn't say much except "Sexism is a major problem in the tech industry" which sounds hilarious to me but I don't live in the states.
 
dgz said:
Can someone explain what are they apologizing for? The article didn't say much except "Sexism is a major problem in the tech industry" which sounds hilarious to me but I don't live in the states.
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"Sexism is a major problem in the tech industry"

Shit like this makes me want to smack every social justice boat tugger out there, I want proof of this happening where woman are actively fought against in the tech industry, and not just shit made up cause they didn't easily get a job etc

I know plenty of woman who work in the tech industry, they got the same jobs as men did for the same education they all got, all five of them never said they were persecuted etc for being female.
 
I saw 2 wonderful reasons this should be continued. I miss something? Political correctness be damned, im still not changing.
 
So if staring at tits increasing heart health, everyone who is mad at this hates men and wants them to die?

Clearly, the evil misandric matriarchy is at it again in their quest to commit male genocide. I for one am disgusted and appalled that women would allow those among their number such as this to speak freely.

I guess we'll just have to ban women from tech conferences and watching tech conferences to make sure men don't get offended by such hateful misandric speech.
 
It was lame, being awesome if we were in middle school, but this weak "respect" bs is even lamer

No one will thank you for it not even the ugly shrew women
 
shiningarmor said:
It was lame, being awesome if we were in middle school, but this weak "respect" bs is even lamer

No one will thank you for it not even the ugly shrew women
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Besides, staring at tits probably is better for your health, that is, if you are mentally wired as a man

Boosting testosterone would do some limpwrists some good
 
Kuraudo said:
So if staring at tits increasing heart health, everyone who is mad at this hates men and wants them to die?

Clearly, the evil misandric matriarchy is at it again in their quest to commit male genocide. I for one am disgusted and appalled that women would allow those among their number such as this to speak freely.

I guess we'll just have to ban women from tech conferences and watching tech conferences to make sure men don't get offended by such hateful misandric speech.
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QFT... hahahaha.
 
Aluisious said:
I don't want to know anyone who would get righteously angry over this.
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Pretty much this. People say things/do I don't like all the time, but I don't start crying about it. Any reasonable adult would just suck it up and deal with it like everyone else.
 
I think they should be apologizing for getting angry over something so stupid,
 
kbrickley said:
Some people need to learn lessons the hard way ... computer folks have enough stereotypes without catering to some of the baser stereotypes ... even a Hackathon is presumably a type of professional gathering and people should at least be respectful of others in such environments ... some people might term it "political correctness" but I would say it is more appropriately termed "common sense" and respect for others ;)
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If it's politically correct, then it isn't common sense. The two are mutually exclusive, or else "politically correct" would not be a common phrase, and one with an overwhelmingly negative connotation implying(correctly) hypersensitivity.
 
Aluisious said:
I don't want to know anyone who would get righteously angry over this.
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Yep. Recall the two attendees at a tech convention that ended up being fired for making a joke about "dongles" near where a woman had been sitting. She wasn't a part of the conversation. She had, in fact, made sexual jokes on her Twitter feed just a couple of weeks beforehand. However, the outraged internet decided that people had to pay for offending others. Firings and DDOS attacks followed.

How sick are we that this kind of thing is what draws our passions? How insecure can we get?
 
Xaeos said:
There was even a comment on this article that the two guys involved should watch their jobs (or even, lose them), because that woman from a tech conference a little while ago who completely overreacted to a couple of guys chatting to each other about "dongles" and other funny tech terms, somewhere she could overhear (ie not a presentation) and went out of her way to such a Twitter-stink over her perceived insult that one of them was actually fired from their job! Things are getting out of hand and we need to step back from instantly firing, disavowing, kowtowing etc... every time someone even suggests that they're offended.
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I remember this....

That chick got fired also for being a douche

What goes around comes around as they say.
 
My heart feels healthier already due to increased blood flow. Oh, wait, *that's* not my heart...
 
Its not like they went up to the podium and said:
"What are lesbians' favorite frozen treats? Klondyke bars, duh!"
THAT would have been offensive.
I actually think a joke here and there to break up all the seriousness is a good thing. Too many people are just too high strung and need to take a chill pill, get smashed and go home with a complete stranger once in a while.
The world would be a better place.
 
Its not like they went up to the podium and said:
"What are lesbians' favorite frozen treats? Klondyke bars, duh!"
THAT would have been offensive.
I actually think a joke here and there to break up all the seriousness is a good thing. Too many people are just too high strung and need to take a chill pill, get smashed and go home with a complete stranger once in a while.
The world would be a better place.
 
Its not like they went up to the podium and said:
"What are lesbians' favorite frozen treats? Klondyke bars, duh!"
THAT would have been offensive.
I actually think a joke here and there to break up all the seriousness is a good thing. Too many people are just too high strung and need to take a chill pill, get smashed and go home with a complete stranger once in a while.
The world would be a better place.
 
114.gif
 
Leave it to men to continue to make themselves look silly in public. It's not Tech Crunch's fault for this, but there's a reason why media portrays men in the US as fat and dumb.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Leave it to men to continue to make themselves look silly in public. It's not Tech Crunch's fault for this, but there's a reason why media portrays men in the US as fat and dumb.
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So stereotypes about men are okay, but stereotypes about women are offensive and should require public apologies.

I really love the whole "protected class" society. It really shows how fucked up we have become.
 
Its funny because all the tools that keep singing this "protect women they are so hard done by" crap are the same ones that have been tripping over themselves to buy them drinks and dropping everything to "help" them on every eye flutter for the past 50 years... (or more).

DPI's .gif indeed!
 
If it had been homosexual hackers making a dickstare app, we might hear about screening, but nothing about sexism. The same is true if it were women hackers making a dickstare app. Basically only heterosexual males can be sexist.
 
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