tech-event-attendance-pledge/tech-event-attendance-pledge.github.io — pull request #10 by tyre (2013-10-12 17:03:30+00:00)
Title: Stop the hate.

I understand the sentiment, and the impulse, towards something like this. It's quick, it's easy, it feels good in the sense that one if fighting the good fight.

But this is not the way forward. This is not a stepping stone towards building a community of trust, understanding, and equality.

While I understand the source of the hatred, I question its output. What is the end here? Who are you fighting? When you have vanquished the Ruby community of its sexual-assault apologists, then what will you have? A community bound, not by its love for a language and the marvelous things it can build, but by a common purpose in moral crusading.

Publicly humiliating someone will solve none of your problems, will get you no closer to the end you seek. This isn't about justice or fighting a great societal force – you'd be hard pressed to point out those sexual-assault apologists in our community – it is about petty revenge.

At the end of the day, you'll have encouraged and compiled solid evidence of the unashamed vitriol within the Ruby community. That we value knee-jerk witch hunts over thoughtful solutions. That we are more interested in blowing this community to hell with fear and hate than putting in the work to make it better.

Because tweeting is easy. Amassing the many to humiliate is easy. But that's not the example with which we should lead. Not now, not ever.