Are we, bitcoiners good at minding our own business?

[alani123]

Arguably, the bitcoin community has received a lot of backlash for its lack of diversity. We know that people use bitcoin all over the world despite the fact that users from the USA probably dominate the userbase.  Racial or ideological diversity aren't consider the biggest issues though. What bitcoin's communities have been receiving a lot of backlash about is that there are very few female members.

What's funny though is that most of those negative remarks are made from people not involved with bitcoin. We know that there are at least some women involved with bitcoin's communities, most certainly there are more that are part of the workforce bitcoin allowed to exist. The claim that bitcoin communities can be hostile towards women is up to debate though. You'd see people in /r/buttcoin (a sub created with the sole purpose of mining comedy gold aka making fun of bitcoiners) claim that they only bitcoin community openly welcoming women is /r/girlsgonebitcoin, a subreddit dedicated to tipping females for posting NSFW pictures of themselves. But that's just /r/buttcoin.

I personally, don't think that bitcoin communities are a hostile environment for women. And that's where the question in the title comes in play. I think that gender is out of topic on most discussions here, irrelevant to most discussions that would take place in this forum. Hence, in my opinion, nobody would care if a user of this forum is male or female. And aside of that, nobody is forced to reveal his or her identity while participating in any bitcoin community. All bitcoin forums that I'm aware of respect allow users to be part of them without revealing any personal information.

But even if we were to conclude that bitcoin communities are hostile for women and being part of them without revealing their gender wasn't an option, there's still nothing stopping anyone from using the currency. That's kind of the point when using bitcoin, nearly anyone, anywhere in the world can use it without major restrictions. And finally, there's also the possibility that the whole concept of browsing online forums to discuss topics relevant to cryptocurrencies isn't equally appealing to everyone, but that's an argument for another time.

What are your thoughts on this? Are we good at minding our own business? Or are we likely to judge other members of our community based on gender? Are bitcointalk, /r/bitcoin and other relevant communities hostile towards women?

[BADecker]

Maybe I was reading too fast, but what does minding one's own business have to do with women using Bitcoin, or women participating in the forums?

Women are different, so some of them won't fit the things I say below.

One major aspect of the forums is stupid chatting. Women are practical. They might chat among themselves in "funny" ways, but where men are involved, they think a whole lot differently than if they are among women. Outside of some real information exchange, or some ideas formulation, or some problem solving, most of the forum stuff is stupid chatter among men. Most women don't think along the lines of stupid man-chatter. Why partake of something that they don't "get," especially when it is so impractical?

Bitcoin is stupid. Sure, you can buy some stuff with it. But you almost can't find a standard store in America that accepts Bitcoin at the same time that they accept fiat. Women are practical. Bitcoin is stupid.

Nobody knows the future. While fiat looks like it and the banking system will collapse in some ways, the practical thing is that fiat is being successfully used all over the place, and there are some good indicators that suggest fiat is strong. Women are practical. Bitcoin is stupid.

I guarantee you that, when fiat becomes impractical, and Bitcoin becomes the best alternative option, the women will be on top of Bitcoin en masse and in force.

[Possum577]

I think the community is mostly minding it's business.

Who are the people identifying low share of female users? I haven't seen those studies. Although I guess I'm not surprised. Does it matter if females don't use bitcoin as much as males? This isn't some social organization, it's a currency or an asset. The relevance is quite low...unless of course the community is trying to recruit more ladies, then I suggest you single Gents get on that!

[Lethn]

The only people who give a fuck about this sort of thing are pretty sad individuals who feel the need to socially engineer and micro-manage every aspect of people's lives, something I'm getting rather fucking annoyed with, more than usual lately. I grant the criticism that there really just aren't that many women in the Bitcoin community, but here's the thing, there aren't many women in engineering, in science, in industry and in management positions, however the people these politically motivated critics want to go in have to actually want to be there, you can't force somebody or pressure them to go into a career they won't like.

[Wilikon]

The bitcoin community is good at mining its own business... Bitcoin is code based. Buttcoin is butt hurt based...

Is there a community of people using $$$?

Nope. Either you have some or you don't.

As long as none of those buttcoin people are into buying bitcoins then it is their business. Our business is to be aware of people stealing bitcoins with guns in NYC and tell other bitcoiners about it, as an example. The more the merrier.


This is a 2.0 community and that includes EVERYONE I don't like... And that is the greater good.

 

[saddampbuh]

btc is avant garde internet based thing and females are not leaders and innovators, yes they will use it when it gets popular and in every store but dont expect them to join community forums and post, internet communities are not something they do in great numbers unless makeup or pregnancy forum or something specific to them, they would much rather go outside and a have man buy them things