Comment by merb
4 years ago
first, a small rant: tbf. I dislike the title. the real title is sexual harassment from Jon Pretty a leader of certain Scala Community standups.
because the current title actually sounds like it's the whole commnity, but the blog is about a specific guy.
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second I really do not understand, how other people can be so horrible. he basically abused her in a moment where she was really really desperate and I think such a thing is really really bad.
> In June, Heather noticed that I was upset at a dinner after ScalaDays. I shared with her about what happened. She warned me to stay away from Jon Pretty. And she wasn’t the only person who told me that. Even though my experience in Berlin was awful, it was difficult for me to accept that someone, who seemed like a good friend, mentor, and ally, could be so selfish, manipulative, and cruel.
It sounds like people knew about him and didn't do anything. If the community is allowing it to happen, then the community is as much at fault as the sick individual doing the abuse.
> It sounds like people knew about him and didn't do anything. If the community is allowing it to happen, then the community is as much at fault as the sick individual doing the abuse.
well around 2017-2019 I was active in scala aswell (more on the playframework side tough) and I dind't even knew about him until I read the blog. you know just because there are members from scalacenter and lightbend does not mean that the community as a whole wanted to have something to do with somebody like him. You know there are thousands of people going to ScalaDays every year, it's highly unlikely that the majority of the scala community would be happy about the guys behavior and it's also highly unlikely that the majority of people in the scala community knew about the guys behavior.
I've felt for a while now that the way the tech world talks about "the $foo community" is just fundamentally wrong. You can only have real communities as long as the number of people is small enough. Once you cross Dunbar's number, it's no longer really a community but rather a cluster of partially overlapping communities. Maybe the more accurate term would be "society" instead of "community".
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It's a bit vague. I'm not involved in the Scala community and if someone told me a story like that about someone in it I would also tell them to stay away from them.
Well I think the only problem with the title is that "harassment" is not a strong enough word.
About using the word "community", the first paragraph of the open letter explains why it's relevant:
"We, the undersigned, have become aware that, for some time, Jon Pretty has abused his position of privilege and stature within the Scala community to sexually harass and victimize women. He has used the community’s conferences to target women who are new to the Scala community, offering mentorship, access, and other forms of support, and then abusing the trust that he has established."
The community has allowed this guy to continue to be influential, so while the perpetrator is just one guy, it’s a community problem.
Relevant passages from the post
> In June, Heather noticed that I was upset at a dinner after ScalaDays. I shared with her about what happened. She warned me to stay away from Jon Pretty. And she wasn’t the only person who told me that.
> I have reported all of my experience to the ScalaCenter in 2019. I was hoping to see concrete actions, such as building a reporting mechanism, to protect minorities in the community. Unfortunately, I am not aware of such actions taken.
Statement from Jon Pretty https://twitter.com/propensive/status/1387168037908910085
"The standard you walk past is the standard you accept" applies here. When a good community permits bad actors, it is no longer a good community.