More than a year ago, so my memory of some details is hand-wavy, there was a survey posted to Hacker News by a surgeon hoping to improve breast reconstruction surgery for his patients. It was on the front page and had been there a while but had very little engagement.
So I left a comment with some sincere, non-gushy constructive feedback -- which is what they were asking for -- and my comment wasn't especially well received, but AFTER I commented, substantial engagement happened. There ended up being 93 comments total and I think more or less the following day the surgeon posted a lengthy thank you note that began thusly:
In 2009, I left the very first comment on a front page post about The Physics of Bras. It ended up with 33 comments total, which was a lot at the time because Hacker News was much smaller at that time than it was when this surgical survey about breasts was posted.
So in the comment I deleted, I explained to the ultimately flagged-to-death hater that The Reason I commented is because I post as openly female and my past experience, such as with the bra discussion, is that if I say something, then other people in this overwhelmingly male forum will decide "It's totally okay for a bunch of men to have a serious discussion about bras and breasts and stuff like that and do so respectfully. After all, it's FOR SCIENCE. It's legit!"
The surgeon never replied to any of my comments but did say things that suggested to me he was rebutting some of my criticisms in his lengthy thank you note. He was not someone who normally participated there, so he likely had absolutely no idea that the reason he got such overwhelming support for which he was so grateful is almost certainly because I left a comment and that opened the floodgates on everyone else going "YES! Let's ALL give this guy serious feedback on breasts FOR SCIENCE!!!!"
As stated previously on this blog, it is my policy to actively avoid "flashing" the guys there and making my gender overly on their minds. But it is also my policy to refuse to be silenced on topics I care about.
So I left a comment with some sincere, non-gushy constructive feedback -- which is what they were asking for -- and my comment wasn't especially well received, but AFTER I commented, substantial engagement happened. There ended up being 93 comments total and I think more or less the following day the surgeon posted a lengthy thank you note that began thusly:
Dear HN-Community, First of all I want to thank you all very much for all this wonderful support, kind feedback and overall interest in the study. I am completely overwhelmed by the amount of responses and interest.I believe it was in response to someone who really, really did not like my comment that I left something of an explanation about my initial non-gushy comment. I no longer have the text because I deleted it in short order.
In 2009, I left the very first comment on a front page post about The Physics of Bras. It ended up with 33 comments total, which was a lot at the time because Hacker News was much smaller at that time than it was when this surgical survey about breasts was posted.
So in the comment I deleted, I explained to the ultimately flagged-to-death hater that The Reason I commented is because I post as openly female and my past experience, such as with the bra discussion, is that if I say something, then other people in this overwhelmingly male forum will decide "It's totally okay for a bunch of men to have a serious discussion about bras and breasts and stuff like that and do so respectfully. After all, it's FOR SCIENCE. It's legit!"
The surgeon never replied to any of my comments but did say things that suggested to me he was rebutting some of my criticisms in his lengthy thank you note. He was not someone who normally participated there, so he likely had absolutely no idea that the reason he got such overwhelming support for which he was so grateful is almost certainly because I left a comment and that opened the floodgates on everyone else going "YES! Let's ALL give this guy serious feedback on breasts FOR SCIENCE!!!!"
As stated previously on this blog, it is my policy to actively avoid "flashing" the guys there and making my gender overly on their minds. But it is also my policy to refuse to be silenced on topics I care about.