Has the interwebz become a more friendly place for women?

[Pine]

I remember Touch and I discussed it once, that having more female presence in staff could help conflict resolution in moderation as it seemed people reacted better to disciplinary action from females due to their more assertive approach to things and that it would help level the general misogyny online.

What do you think? When compared to, say... 5 years ago. Would you say the internet has become a more friendly place to those people who identify themselves as female? I remember online forums before online forums started to decay, were very aggressive towards women posting on them. And RM forums were no exception.

But seeing how now, at least as far as I can see here, there's an increasing number of females involved in RM and their importance and general acceptance, is it fair to say this aspect has improved? Has YOUR experience as a female changed noticeable? Are you still afraid of being stereotyped?

 

[Celianna]

Beware, your post miiiight just get locked, depending on the posts. It would also probably help if you stopped referring to them as a biological female specimen, and just call them women instead.

The RM scene is still predominantly composed of men, I think it's 3/4 men last time we had a poll here. However, due to the amount of staff members we've obtained over the past few years, staff is now mostly composed of women (I'm counting active forum staff), which really helped in keeping things a much friendlier place for them. This has not been done deliberately, of course

We now have much stricter rules, and come down on anyone using any kind of insulting language towards another member, and it's really paid off. We have a much nicer community than when we first started out (I can still remember all the times I've been called out as a "*****" back then).

Of course, this is just RMW, I can't speak for the rest of the internet, which still has a lot of issue with harassment. The more a community is moderated, the safer and friendlier its members feel.
 

 

[Sharm]

I haven't noticed a difference.  The way I see it, it depends on where you hang out and what type of group it is.  Some places are even more toxic if you're female then they used to be, some are friendlier, some haven't changed at all.  I just hang out where my being female isn't a problem and avoid the places where I'd have to deal with that sort of garbage.  I've never had a problem finding those places.

 

[nio kasgami]

I am with Celiania here 

and ouch a tricky  subject you took here

for my opinion I think this not so much reduce ...they still have a lots of women who get harrased and insult on the internet.

if we took example of a certain site I will not name here

but yes this decrease slowly but I think a lots of website still insult the women in a ways.

this like in the real world...we don't approve the women get  insulted but still they have a lots of women who get harrassed and insulted ...

I think it's would took some other generations before...the womens gets respect by the mens and stop being discriminate...

but after it's suposition I don't have stats of how many women get harrassed per day haha

 

[Ms Littlefish]

It hasn't really changed. It just depends on where you go.

 

This is a very nice community and my gender has been an absolute non-factor here. As Celianna mentioned, the more you can hold people accountable for their actions, the more that even those types will follow rules. It removes a layer of that privacy that gave them the megaphone to air their idiocy.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

I think it strongly just depends on where on the internet.

I like to think that around here, things work out well, mostly because of great staff and good policy, as well as an actual strong presence of women on the staff (which honestly happened by coincidence, they just happened to be amazing members). I've been on other forums that also have similar moderation and culture.

Usually anywhere that is a fairly moderated place can be outwardly women friendly, unless the moderation policies are ass.

BUT, even on here we get the occasional report of creepy PMs and have to deal with it. Which sucks and is one of the few things we have to moderate that actually, legitimately makes me angry.

Now, outside of places where the culture and moderation are similar to what we have... the internet can be a hostile place. And people will be targeted for tons of reasons, one of which is just being a woman. Its easy to forget those places exist when you spend most of your internet time hanging out on places with good culture and moderation. But then I read the comments on an article somewhere else and it all floods back to me that people on the internet are terrible.

 

[Athryl]

I agree with Ms Littlefish and Sharm. It's all about where you go. I've not had any issues here and it's the only place I really hangout for RPG maker stuff. Being a total hobbyist I probably am less exposed to any gender-based criticism anyway in the rpg maker community.

I play online games and sure if you let them know you're a female (stating it or by using voice chat) it can be an issue, but not very often in the games I play, or perhaps moreso with the people I play with. But even when I was in highschool (gasp, over 10 years ago) I moderated a relatively popular forum and never had any issues based on my gender despite it definitely being a mostly male community. 

 

[Celianna]

@Touch: Don't read youtube/yahoo answers/blog comments, and your life will be much better off.

It is indeed all about where you go. Go to a place where there are lots of women, it's going to be much friendlier to them than a community where there's really only guys. Especially young boys from the ages of 10-12, I've seen them say the crudest words to other people, words they do not even know the meaning of.

I still get random friend invites, or people try to flirt with me whenever I play League of Legends. I don't say a word, they just judge by my name that I'm a girl.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

@ Athryl I play a lot of online games, too. Depends on the community around the game as well. But, Oh God. I used to play a lot of League of Legends. Pre-made 5's only (if you value your sanity at all) and for the love of God, please don't mention girls. And people want built in voice chat for that game. Nope. Nope. So much nope. Mute. Mute them all.

 

[Celianna]

You. We should play some League together.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

I literally don't play any online games because I find that a high enough percent of people who play online games are terrible human beings and I invariably find them all.

(That and I can't stand when a game dictates my schedule to me, which when you play with other people is a thing that happens.)

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Many of the online games I play, I love very much, but it's definitely the people that make me say, "Yeah, that's enough game today."

I understand many of these games are very competitive, but why? Why are they so angry!?

Sigh deeply, say a curse word amongst yourself, and move on. 

 

[Celianna]

Yeah they have a ****ty community, especially in MOBA games where you have to work in teams to win. It's always someone else's fault if you lose, never your own. And they deserve to be met with a barrage of insults for making you lose the game.

You realize it's really bad when you notice in one game, you had fun, because everyone shut up and didn't say a word.

 

[Banquo]

It depends on where you look. In some places there is hardly any moderation, because of the sheer number of users. In other places, the mods themselves can be very umcomfortable people, unwilling to help you out with anything, mostly in very small withdrawn forums. It's also a reason why I rarely try out online multiplayer (althought I've been pleasently surprised a few times before).

Compared to other communities I've been on before, this is definitely the most friendly and best moderated, without exaggerating. I'm haven't been here for long, but it is a comfortable place to hang around, and I'm sure others feel this way, too.

 

[Athryl]

Oh yes I've heard of the LoL community. It was never a game I was interested in, so I've never experienced it firsthand but word spreads for sure.  There are definitely some games out there just the reputation of the game (not necessarily towards women, just anything they can pick on) keeps me away from. 

 

[Touchfuzzy]

 Its easy to forget those places exist when you spend most of your internet time hanging out on places with good culture and moderation.

I just want to like, stress this some more. Because I think its a trap that is super easy to fall into. I've fallen into it myself.

I mean, I'm a pretty insular person. In that, I don't go out much, and I tend to stick to places where I'm comfortable. I've built a nice little bubble away from the outside world. I live in the Southeastern US, but I live in a notoriously liberal college town. I go out only rarely, and usually for specific activities that are based around a specific activity that has a strong presence of men and women in my area (board games).

Online, I usually stick to a few sites, such as here, a major board game community, and a few other small, well moderated sites.

And its so easy to start thinking: Why are people complaining about X, I never see it? And not even for the reason that people normally say, where its easy to just miss things that don't target you, but because you are never even in the places it happens. You can be as observant as you want and only ever see minor minor things if you have insulated yourself out of toxic environments.

So every time you start thinking "Well, X group doesn't face any troubles I've seen, why are they whining so much" make sure that its not that you have insulated yourself so far into good communities, that you just miss it. Because it can be so so so easy to fall into that trap.

 

[Vox Novus]

@Touch: Don't read youtube/yahoo answers/blog comments, and your life will be much better off.

Agreed, want a way to suck the life out of you do this!

It definitely depends on where you look on the internet, I was initially surprised when I first joined how relatively well this site was compared to others. For example on Gamespot I was reading an article relating to the character design of Cidney from the upcoming FF XV (This was some time ago of course back when the demo was first out). The vast majority of the comments targeted women for being too feminist or overly sensitive about the character design (something rather revealing in nature).

They refused to see the fact the problem wasn't necessarily with what the character was wearing if it would make sense. The character is a mechanic and it doesn't make sense to be dressed in something that would leave her body exposed so much to potential scrapes and oil spills, etc while working on a vehicle. The character's entire dialogue in the demo segment of the game is filled with borderline suggestive euphemisms; it doesn't really highlight the fact that hey, she is a highly skilled mechanic; intelligent and capable of performing a task that apparently 4-men can't do. 

 

[EternalShadow]

I don't even bother with a lot of livestream chats anymore (Twitch, etc) because they are the worst when it comes to this sort of thing. Some places however, have improved in their tolerance of women, but the problem is moreso in certain websites.

I.e: it has moved away from being "everywhere" to being in a more condensed section of the internet, but that section is still quite large.

 

[Banquo]

Perhaps it's my imagination, but have women become more present on the internet? I feel like there are more female blogger, youtubers and gamers, compared to 5 years ago.

 

[captainproton]

Once I started venturing beyond my little bubble of Elfwood and a handful of web comics, I was frankly shocked by the level of hate out there.  I was especially disgusted by a lot of things I saw written by gamers--who, until then, I had regarded as a pretty enlightened and egalitarian group.