[sandrae]

I just finished the Javascript and JQuery course at codecademy.com three weeks ago and since then I take challenges at coderbyte.com to continue learning.

So I was very interested in your site and signed up. Here are some of my first observations and comparisons:

- codecademy.com lists lots of males and females from young to old, from different countries with all kind of professions on their Success Stories pages. I felt very welcome their site. The name of your site and the constant use of the word Kata indicate to me that your audience are young males. As a woman in my thirties I don't feel I fit on your site. It seems a bit to aggressive to me.

- The second Javascript problem description was not very good. The second problem basically says "Something is wrong - correct it". I like clearer instructions like "write a function to reverse a string".

- Compared to codecademy.com the site took longer to check my code.

- I have no problem giving my e-mail address to anybody that provides a service I want to try. I like to get the onboarding mails from codecademy.com and think they should send out more because they are motivating. So I think that it is good that you are asking for my e-mail address and I hope you make good use of it by sending me interesting stuff. If not, I just filter you with a click.

I'm going to spend some time on your site. If you want further feedback, just send me a message.

[angrycoder]

Just curious, why does the word kata turn you off because you are female?

As someone who has studied martial arts for five years, there have been plenty of female students and the vast majority of the people I study with are well into their 30s.

[dusklight]

I don't think the word "kata" by itself is masculine or aggressive but the site is called codeWARs, and they call signing up "enlisting" so ..

[onetwofiveten]

Seriously? You never noticed that the martial arts world is male dominated in a way that many women find off-putting? Sure, some women are okay with it, but that doesn't mean all women are (or should be).

[exolxe]

Thanks for the feedback Sandrae, it's helpful to hear your perspective.

We have a lot of female users on Codewars and want to make sure everyone feels welcome. The term "Kata" are what we call our challenges, it just means "form" in Japanese - it's used in calligraphy and martial arts to describe a way to practice a pattern to excellence. As for our name, it does hint at competition, though is meant as a metaphorical war on mediocrity and the status quo.

Performance-wise our site isn't going to be as fast since we run the code on our own servers (opposed to in your browser), which has lot's of advantages for better challenges/more versatility, but makes speed a little more of an issue.

I hope you do give the site a shot, and if you have any more feedback please email me: [e-mail]

[onetwofiveten]

Yeah, the word "war" hints at competition but it literally means violent conflict. I know of no association between "war" and a metaphor for self improvement. You should make that clearer if that is what you're going for. However, with "war", "kata" and "enlist" it seems pretty obvious you were going for a martial arts/warrior theme. It's kind of patronising to pretend that theme isn't there just because someone doesn't like it.

[istorical]

Just curious and trying to understand, but what about the word kata is masculine?

[VexXtreme]

I'd like to know this as well. I know many female karate practitioners and not a single one ever proposed changing the traditional Japanese nomenclature because she didn't feel "welcome" or felt "excluded" or even "offended" by it.

Here's the official explanation of what the word means:

Kata (型 or 形 literally: "form") is a Japanese word describing detailed choreographed patterns of movements practised either solo or in pairs.

[angulator]

Kata is a choreography of martial arts movements. Often these movements involve an aggressor or a theoretical aggressor.

Also, after all the site is called Code Wars, perhaps she was influenced by that as well.

[codygman]

Do you think that Kata denotes "site full of young males" because you typically only hear males saying it? It's meaning is gender neutral.

I'll admit that until signing up for a martial arts class which had women in it, I'd only heard men use the word Kata.

How could they make the site less aggressive?