Ashe Dryden's excellent work speaks for itself. (As opposed to evidence-free chatter on HN, which NYT says can feel like "hostile territory for women".) It's nice overhearing people in real life speak glowingly about how her voice needs to be better heard. Can't wait to get her upcoming book and use it to help build a healthy team. (http://www.ashedryden.com/)
In another thread here, Alan Kay mentions how people with great ideas tend to be burned as heretics. As she mentioned in this article, "I've gotten rape and death threats just for speaking out about this stuff."
Dryden deleted the tweet not long after posting, but see http://archive.is/GhW8N for substantiation. In all fairness, I must note that Dryden herself didn't introduce the word "blacklist"; one of her followers did that, in the course of picking up the ball and running with it. Another follower had this to say on the subject:
> I'm going through the saved list [of those who starred the "C-plus-Equality" joke Github repo] to find the Swedish and UK citizens. Already found 2. They can expect the police shortly. :3
It's the smiley, I think, that really sells it. And a little while later, this in response from yet another follower:
> Wished we were protected with hatespeech laws here in the US. uggghhh #firstammendment #isajoke
I don't claim Dryden has produced nothing of value, but I doubt I'm alone in finding it difficult to distinguish between the Dryden who's worth listening to and the Dryden whose friends and correspondents respond to satire by attempting to destroy the livelihoods of those who find it amusing.
Please read your link. Ashe says, "Below are some of the reasons many people have told me they want something like this. Note that these do not necessarily fall in line with my beliefs, but I am putting them all in one place because I hear them so frequently."
And she also mentions that, as self-defense, people who've gone through harassment and death threats necessarily have lists of abusers. This is uncontroversial.
Personally, speaking for myself, I also think it's reasonable to discuss whether it's appropriate to hire those who commit "physical violence and sexual assault in our community spaces." It can get in the way of sprints.
Private lists of toxic people are one thing. Public, crowdsourced lists of people who should not be permitted to earn a livelihood, in the industry where they have built their entire careers, are quite another.
The disclaimers of advocacy, on which you place so much weight, ring rather hollow in light of the entire rest of the post, and especially the last couple of paragraphs:
> So how does this get fixed? Truthfully, I don't know. The problem is so systemic in our communities. Fixing this is going to require buy-in from a vocal and powerful majority of people. It's going to have to mean people losing opportunities and their standing in our communities because of the things they do.
> We cannot reprimand someone for their behavior while still allowing them to enjoy the privileges of their position without sending the message that we are somehow condoning their abusive actions.
I concede that the words "We should maintain and enforce a blacklist" appear nowhere in Dryden's post. If that is the standard of evidence you require, before you'll entertain the suggestion that a blacklist is something Dryden advocates, then I see no point in our even attempting to have anything resembling a conversation.
Otherwise, consider that offenses worthy of blacklisting, as enumerated in Dryden's first paragraph, range from battery and sexual assault -- which are felonies, not merely "bad behavior", and should be prosecuted as such -- to...dismissiveness. Perhaps you consider it reasonable for someone to equate peremptory rudeness and felony. That I should find it necessary even to entertain the possibility, that anyone finds that equation reasonable, is something that scares the hell out of me.
Dryden has certainly done some work for conference inclusiveness, but as a whole she is a highly polarizing figure. She is often blatantly provocative on social media, especially Twitter. She is a hardcore postmodernist and parrots Western guilt complex sociological theories that are popular today like gospel, as well as pushing identity politics to a maximum. Such people typically tend to revel in hatred and proudly exaggerate the trolling that they've received as evidence of their victimization and righteousness.
In another thread here, Alan Kay mentions how people with great ideas tend to be burned as heretics. As she mentioned in this article, "I've gotten rape and death threats just for speaking out about this stuff."