I find you offensive, you flaming douchebag. So please apologize for existing. And don’t find any trouble with what I just said because if you do it just proves your profoundly insensitive. Asshole.

I encountered this in Martin Fowler’s blog and followed it, bemused, through the blogosphere.

First of all, the content is classic conference crap. Why would I sit in a room bored out of my mind when instead I can think of a problem I’d like to solve, download a sample and hack the solution. If I actually want to learn about CouchDB, that is what I’d do.

Now, the sheer, un-adulterated GENIUS of this presentation is that I’ve never thought Ruby had anything that spectacular - or at least I’d rather master C and assembler (honestly, repetitive programming isn’t, if you know regexes) - but now I see something that is interesting.

The presentation throws around labels for some very basic ideas every data-driven application developer has thought about.

As I peruse through trying to find the joke, and/or the source of controversy/check out the porn, I discover these and want to do some actual learning on the subject.

It’s effective viral (or would it be, “kamikaze”) marketing.

It also makes me want to stop being such a lurker and blog myself.

An interesting angle you touched on that I haven’t seen elsewhere is that the presentation is as much a statement about the presenter as it is about how he might judge the members of the audience (perhaps the source of the uncomfortable exposure conference goers may have experienced).

He is also presenting a package solution (pun not intended, but not entirely maligned either) - I want an evolving set of tools with a competent facility for communicating problem archetypes and potential solutions. Essentially I want a community defined by it’s ideas.

As I try and juxtapose this presentation into the idea of a community, I basically get, “use couchDB and get laid.” A compelling message indeed. ‘Twere only it not so laughable.

But then again, I grew up with VCR, saw my first hardcore porno at age 9 (later than some of my peers) and have been bombasted with the irony of popular feminism all my life.

This whole argument is very tired and old school.

Yet here I am posting. Dunno why, thar be keeps to raid.

Definitely the idea of Rails not being taken seriously doesn’t matter much to me, but that can be separated from the weirdness of using such charged imagery.

right, but if you were there, surrounded by a sea of men that you don’t know and that suddenly become very aware of your presence because of the sexual jokes of the presenter, then you would have had a completely different experience. ok, perhaps you are the type of woman that can take anything, but why not consider also those who are more sensitive and vulnerable than you?

As for how this problem relates to the slides: If men were all of a sudden showing interest in a profession/hobby that for decades had only been a female area of expertise/interest, you can be sure that females wouldn’t change their way of doing things to accommodate the general comfort level of men. In this case, I think Matt is used to acting a certain way and presenting a certain way and didn’t give more than a quick thought as to how a female might perceive his joke. I think this could have happened to anyone.

I do think that the leaders of the community should be making an effort to do some damage control by making statements about how they encourage women to be a part of the community and that they hope this won’t turn them away.