[purp]

> You can't do anything to stop trolls online [...]

So painfully wrong. There are many things you can do, including not giving up and walking off. You just have to decide you've had enough and are willing to do hard work.

Speak out, even when it's not in your own best interest.

Support people who are targeted.

And, last but not least, don't pick pedantic points to argue while losing sight of the main issue: it absolutely stinks to be a woman in tech.

So let's fix it.

[vonklaus]

I am not trolling I am just being a realist here. I recognize that it totally sucks, and it does seem to be harder for women in certain arenas because they are targeted by trolls more heavily. That being said, this comment is wishy-washy feel good fluff, and doesn't address the real issue.

If i was being harassed online how would I employ these tactics? These are just cliche motivational phrases.

> not giving up and walking off

> had enough and are willing to do hard work

> Speak out, even when it's not in your own best interest

None of these would do anything to prevent harassment.

> Support people who are targeted.

This could mediate some of the damage caused.

> So let's fix it.

You act like it is a clogged sink.

[purp]

It's disingenuous to switch from your original context in which you, a bystander, urge listeners to believe that this is an unsolvable problem, to the context of the victim, which you aren't.

If you, the bystander, decide to take a stand rather than write this off as too hard a problem to solve, you help the victim by giving them support, and you help future victims by decreasing, however slightly, the chance that harassers will continue to believe that their behavior is tolerable.

If you, the bystander, are willing to spend time on one person who doesn't yet understand but who may be willing to think, and then to move from thought to action, your efforts gain leverage and that minuscule probability decrease becomes larger.

If you, the bystander, continue to do this, even without being a victim yourself; if you do this in places your voice can be heard; if you do this even when you gain no personal benefit, you hopefully influence the people around you to at least think deeper, and from there, to act in some way that fits with their conscience. And in doing so, you give the victims hope for a day when this isn't their norm.

It's not a clogged sink. It's also not an intractable problem.

So let's fix it.