This is a problem:<p><pre><code>    “Our geek cred is constantly challenged or
    belittled,” Liz Henry, founder of feminist
    hackerspace DoubleUnion writes. “You might be
    there coding, and you want to stop for a while and
    draw in your notebook and think, but if you’re not
    staring at a black and green screen or, like,
    melding your brain with an Arduino every second,
    some dude is going to come up to you and act like
    you need his expert lessons in how to hack.”
</code></pre>
On the other hand, there is a tendency among many newbies at hobbies to be shy and self-conscious when they first go to places where the hobby is practiced in public and in groups, and they end up just observing for a while and then leaving without ever jumping in and participating, so everyone ignoring people who aren&#x27;t obviously participating would also be a problem.<p>Probably it would be best to have some formal procedure to identify and deal with newbies, such as having designated people who look for them and offer help, and asking others to let those designated people handle the new people.