Continued debate of Adria Richards.

So I read a posting from the Washington Post with regards to Adria Richards...

I have to say, this is NOT like the fact of a rape victim being blamed for her own attack.

Unlike a rape victim, where the most common ploy to detract the act of rape is to make it look like the victim wanted or acted like they wanted the act...  Adria's issue was that she made an event public that cause someone to get fired from their job, and made others react in a way that I would liken to the level of Lynch Mob retribution.

Let's put this in proper perspective here.  I will admit I am a guy.  I'm a tech to.  But I don't believe lashing out at Adria for her mistake.  I will say it was the worst idea she had, but threaten her?  Attack her company to show my dissatisfaction?  No.

She did something fatally bad that cost a person a job.  She deserves proper, constructive criticism on the fact that how she handled it was not the best or proper way of handling a situation.  She involved the internet in the situation without putting it in the proper, unbiased perspective and put it in such a way that the person she implicated got the short end of the stick.

Do I think she needed to be fired from Sendgrid for her mistake?  Honestly, no.  But it doesn't do the company any good either in her situation that she represents a company with her name and like how Paul Christoforo made it difficult for the Avenger Controller group with his bad behavior, it isn't really surprising how her situation was less than ideal either given the company was under fire from the irate people.

Now what all critics should agree with, the ultimate fault is with the internet itself.  The people who follow people like Adria Richards and other people, who take on the 'lynch mob' mentality to attack people or react to a situation without all the information or handling the situation on their own...  Create the problems that we should be 'better people' about, but like humanity has proven, time and time again, we do the wrong things for the 'right reasons'.

The sad story of Adria Richards...

So, I have to say something about this, again from a 20/20 hind sight in all this...  For those checking this out, this is the beginning of the whole thing, and I am now looking at this from the tail end and reading back about it all.
What started it all:
http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/20/playhaven-developer-fired-for-making-sexual-jokes-after-sendgrids-developer-evangelist-outs-him-on-twitter/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/21/sendgrid-under-ddos-attack-after-its-developer-evangelist-complains-about-sexual-jokes-at-pycon/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/21/breaking-adria-richards-fired-by-sendgrid-for-outting-developers-on-twitter/


Adria Richards worked (past tense now) for Sendgrid, a company that recently got DDOS for her actions at a developer's convention earlier this week.  The actions that prompted this was her public condemning and outting someone for inappropriate and sexually harassment like behavior at the convention.

Now, obviously, being a guy, and one in tech...  I know there are not many women in the tech area...  I do see female developers.  I will admit there are times guys will not be the most 'couth' of things as well.  However, I feel that unfortunately Adria Richards did the wrong thing for the right reasons.
As much as there should be low tolerance for sexual harassment, over sensitivity and over reaction to such things without proper mediation can result in more extreme reactions.  And the internet is one of those places where people can take things to extreme, in this case, encourage hackers to do a Denial of Service attack against a company.

Now I won't say Adria deserves to be fired (As she was terminated most likely for what just happened), but much like Paul Christoforo...  Her public face affects the people she represents, and SendGrid's reputation has been mired to this situation because of how she decided to handle a situation that could have been handled properly.

Now, in regards to what she could have done...  The Pycon Convention superiors should have been told of this and those people should have been talked to by the people hosting the event.  While it is our duty to make such issues known, at the same time, those issues should be known through the proper channels.  Publically outting people like this only serves to make you a target and also create lynch mob effects as what happened here.

Mike Krahulik (Gabe of Penny Arcade) did out Paul Christoforo...  And more than likely, will probably be referenced for it.  But one thing to note for that situation, Gabe and the other person did try talking with the offending person before fully outing him and not only did he out him, he provided the proof straight out versus just a 'picture' and words of what he believed was said.
The sad thing of it all, for Adria's case...  She outed a person based on perception, no record of what was going on to properly put the situation in the proper, unbiased position and in the long run, created unnecessary grief for various people.  And to the credit to over-reactionism...  She has now gotten death and rape threats.

Again, I don't condone such things, even with my criticism about how she handled the situation.  And unfortunately, she lost her job much the same way Paul Christoforo did...  She did not handle the situation in the proper way and got not only one person fired from his job, and also poisoned his career in the process with questionable allegations...  She poisoned her own career for the position she was hired for... Developer relations.

At the same time...  It's time to re-review Sexual Harassment...  Ladies and Gentlemen...  While people should not tolerate unwanted or undesired sexual harassment.

The general protocol is this:

1. Politely inform said person that this is not wanted or desired.
2. If said person persists in such behavior, you inform the immediate superior of your concerns.
3. Do not take matters into your own hands, let the higher ups be responsible in dealing with it.
4. If, after trying to have the higher ups deal with it, have not dealt with the issue in a reasonable time or manner (such as said person continuing to keeps on doing it, even after being spoken too about it), you can take legal action.

In no sexual harassment section I have read or listen too, suggests making a public outting of said issues.  In fact, most of them state discretion is necessary.

There is a reason for this.  And Adria Richards has proven the case in point.  A man has now lost his job over something that has been publically announced but without proper proof or investigation.  She has lost her job because of outside retaliation that forced her company to distance itself from her in order to keep their potential clients happy.

And last thing is...  I am posting this here, not under my name for a good reason.  Some of the things I say are my opinions, and sometimes they are colorful...  But I do not want my opinions affecting my work life or my gaming life because there will always be questionable people out there who will do the death threats or make my life miserable simply because they can.