Discussion
I think there's a pretty annoying habit of mansplaining on the #OpenStreetMap forum. I've hadn't noticed it until now 'cause I'd never engaged in a long thread before, but damn. Men are explaining basic OSM principles to me like I haven't been a part of this project for over 4 years, linking to them multiple times too. Telling me I should read previous comments again "slowly", and insinuating that I just don't understand the topic at hand.
@cantences are you, a man, fr tryna explain mansplaining to a woman💔
@spughetti yup, it's a problem.
If you use the forum a lot, please be wary of this and don't support this habit, it makes it so much more difficult for women to participate in forum discussions.
@spughetti For what it's worth, I've read through the proposal thread plus the one that started it all, and honestly, it's an exhausting read for anyone. Partly because some folks apparently can't simply 'like' if they agree but have to restate basically the same point themselves. And not least because a couple of people get very verbose whenever they feel like their argument didn't land the first time. In my experience, though, that's not something specific to this thread or the OSM forum.
@mikill My point is more specifically about how I'm being treated as a woman versus how I see men treating each other. Never before have I seen people overexplain basic principles like automated edit guidelines to an experienced community member.
Nor is it acceptable how I've been told that I'm just throwing a tantrum, or that I need to reread "slowly", or that I need to "stop and think" before discussing my point of view.
I don't see this happening to men in OSM.
In true form man enters this thread to explain it to you. They are really that dense. It's the entitlement.
@spughetti Fair enough. I can't tell you how to feel or know what other discussions you've experienced on the OSM forum. I will say, though, that over time I've seen threads get at more heated and personal than this one, between men.
My take is just that resorting to that is usually a sign of an insecure need to be right, even when you're not able to argue your case properly.
@spughetti I literally had to stop using the forum because the culture was so toxic. And the last time I talked about it, one of the moderators started harassing me here.
@spughetti A friend just messaged me that she is getting into OSM editing, but that she read on the forum that people found her type of edits "annoying" and now she's discouraged from contributing. This is the kind of culture people are cultivating. They're scaring away contributors left and right.
She was just drawing in missing elements, nothing outlandish. I had to tell her never to browse the forum because of the toxic culture, and not to be dissuaded by assholes.
@uneabeille It genuinely sucks so much💔
@uneabeille oh yeah the OSM Forum mods are.... 🤐
Install Bonfire at Warwick
Get the full app experience
@spughetti yeah, there's some names in the forum who I just skip over reading