Have an upvote.<p>I agree with some of your points. It took me a very long time to conclude my gender was a factor on HN. Compared to other male dominated environments I have spent time in, my treatment here has been spectacularly good. It is one of the reasons I worked my ass off to resolve some of the problems I had here.<p>I went through a period where I was getting a helluva lot of flack, where it was clear to me that men on the leaderboard were closing ranks to shut me out. But my karma was so far below what qualifies one for the leaderboard, I was baffled by social evidence that I was &quot;prominent -- for a woman.&quot; After managing to gather objective data that fit with that fact, I handled things differently here.<p>Here is a summary, with supporting links, to the data I gathered: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;01&#x2F;some-raw-data-on-prominence-of-women-on.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;01&#x2F;some-raw-dat...</a><p>I don&#x27;t think anyone is consciously, intentionally trying to exclude women. I do think the apparent lack of women on the leaderboard is not a mere happenstance of numbers.<p>It is possible for your experiences and views to have validity and for mine to also. I have written about this issue previously. I think you and I might agree more than it seems had we not gotten off on the wrong foot. I also think you are bringing personal baggage and frustrations to the discussion that biases your interpretation of my position. You &quot;heard&quot; me accusing you of dismissing it as coincidence <i>because</i> of my gender when that wasn&#x27;t my intent. That kind of thing does wind up being a problem for women. It ends up being a kind of de facto sexism.<p>I also did not say I was held to a higher standard. That isn&#x27;t how I would frame the problem space. But, given that you are not sympathetic to my views or testimony concerning my firsthand experience, I see little point at this time in trying to figure out how to communicate more on that piece of what you said.<p>Edit:<p>FYI: You can take my continued engagement as evidence that, while I think you are wrong about a lot of things, I don&#x27;t think you are simply and intentionally being an asshole. I don&#x27;t debate people that I think are not engaging in good faith to at least some degree. I stop replying when I think it is straight up assholery.