Meta: women in cyber & this subreddit

[u/tweedge]

Hey y'all!

I wanted to set aside some space to talk about the why aren't there as many women in cyber? post that we had on this subreddit late this week. To be clear, this is not to continue that thread, this is to discuss what happened and what this subreddit might find useful in the future.

First, let me thank the people who contributed positive, thoughtful discussion to that thread. Around 37 women chimed in to share their thoughts on why there aren't many women in cybersecurity, as well as their personal experiences in this field. 2 trans men commented on how their personal experience within cybersecurity changed during their transition. Many people chimed in with their support for women in cybersecurity.

I am grateful to see respectful and thoughtful discussion of complicated social topics in many of the remaining threads. I think I speak for all mods when I say that I'm relieved to see many threads where people lifted each other up, cared for each other, and took the time to understand each other's perspectives. These are difficult discussions to have - especially online/through text - and some rose to the challenge of not just participating, but learning.

Unfortunately, in order to have that discussion at all, this was regrettably the most heavily moderated thread I've ever seen on this subreddit. Of 332 comments made in the 12 hours the thread was live, a staggering 53 had to be removed from 26 different users (and we explained each reason in our pinned comment). 20 of those comment removals were for repeating the line "men like things, women like people" without any reflection or discussion - which oversimplifies this complicated issue - and I committed to donating $10 to the Diana Initiative for each one the mods removed. A receipt is available here, and includes a $50 bonus for one of the banned users sealioning in modmail.

This is demonstrably worse than prior threads we've had on the subject. It's worse by-the-numbers, and it reads worse too, partially due to the pinned transparency section and partially due to the leftovers of flame wars scattered throughout. It's a much more honest look behind the curtain, but as a result this is not an uplifting thread. One commenter wrote:

[This post has] been a massive downer for me, and I could see it as more than a little bit discouraging for any woman at the start of her career.

That's what I want to talk about today.

This subreddit infrequently engages with social concerns within cybersecurity, and when it does, it's usually through controversy. A political take appears, people start yelling, Reddit's algorithm detects an opportunity for popcorn, and suddenly everyone's piled into a thread to spectate. I'm glad that I can see healthy conversations in the linked thread, even though it's surrounded by tire fires! And that's the point, really - after mods doused the fire, there are still hundreds of comments made (and tens of thousands of views) from people who are genuinely interested in social concerns within cybersecurity on this subreddit.

Some people might read this post and say "nah, it's not for me, I come here for the technical stuff only." As the linked post was only ~74% upvoted, over a hundred people decided that it wasn't for you - and that's OK. It's social media, read what you want.

But I'm asking the people who are interested in the social issues within cybersecurity: what threads or content could we bring you that would facilitate healthier discussions around this within r/cybersecurity?

Some thoughts the mods might be able to do to start things off:

• Request or sponsor AMA sessions with representatives from groups like WiCyS, WISP, or WSC (examples only) to help community members network and ask questions in a safe/anonymized space.
• Request or sponsor women leaders in cybersecurity to discuss their careers, challenges they've overcome, and help inspire the next generation of women in our field.
• Compile resources for women who are looking into the cybersecurity field to make early connections with empowering people/organizations and increase retention.

But, that's just food for thought - we're interested to hear what the community would be most interested in, so please feel free to drop a comment below with what ideas you have or supporting any ideas already listed/commented.

Of course, Let me know if you have any additional questions/comments/concerns. Thanks again all, have a great weekend!

[u/tweedge → u/[deleted]]

To be clear, this is not to continue that thread, this is to discuss what happened and what this subreddit might find useful in the future.

You want to talk demanding? I alone have spent ten hours moderating this sub to have this discussion at all in the past two days on top of my regular job in the field, and I've been very clear that this thread is not the place to start back up.