Timeline of incidents

This is a timeline of sexist incidents in geek communities including:

• Technology industry
• Free and open source software
• Gaming
• Comic Book Fandom
• Science Fiction Fandom
• ... and more

See Timeline of geek feminism for the development of geek feminism itself.

(Mary Gardiner explains the reason for this list in Why we document on the Geek Feminism blog.)

1982

• Custer's Revenge (rape simulation game) released

1988

• comp.women proposal

1989

• École Polytechnique massacre

2000

• Linux "need support" ad
• Linux Journal blowjob ad round 1
• Perl is my bitch
• Linux goth slut incident

2001

• Wives of Hackers panel
• LISA hooters girls - see Randal Schwartz
• Stonehenge OSCON parties (first reported incident)

2002

• F.I.R.S.T. Robotics groping incident (Technology industry & education)

2003

• Debconf ftp-masters talk

2004

• 2004 Debian elections
• Ubuntu Warty visual theme
• March: Debian IRC sexism
• May (and ongoing): Ubuntero gendered name

2005

• January: Lawrence Summers sexist remarks on women in science
• Debian and LinuxChix harassment by MikeeUSA begins
• (approximate date) Go Daddy's advertising begins on television, with an ad featuring Candice Michelle during the Super Bowl airing in 2005

2006

• April: Slashdot "OMG Ponies" April Fool's Day joke [1]
• August: Harlan Ellison groping Connie Willis
• September: Telsa Gwynne announces the closure of her diary and her withdrawal from Open Source, due to the unpleasant environment and online harassment among other factors.
• December: Acme::Playmate talk

2007

• January:
  • Reiser fans harrassing women at LCA2007
  • Slender PMWiki "Female syntax" thread
• March:
  • Kathy Sierra incident
• April:
  • Web2.0 Expo Spock.com lingerie model slides
• May:
  • Girls suck at Python
  • Launchpad users encouraged to use real names
  • Mary Jane laundry statue
• August:
  • "even included some wives" thread on Ubuntu Marketing
  • Linux Journal blowjob ad round 2
• October:
  • Puppy Linux death threats and massive resulting fail

2008

• January: Dragonborn Boobs in D&D. Immense internet argument! (Gaming)
• February: An Obstacle for Women in the IT Industry blog post (Technology industry)
• April:
  • Open Source Boob Project (Science Fiction Fandom))
  • Zuckerberg interview incident (Technology industry)
• May: Wiscon troll incident (Science Fiction Fandom)
• July:
  • Debian and LinuxChix harassment receives press coverage (FLOSS)
  • Planet Fedora up-skirting photo (FLOSS)
  • RubyFringe offers girlfriend daycare (FLOSS)
  • Linux Symposium 2008 closing talk (FLOSS)
  • Fat Princess (Gaming)
• November:
  • SLUG Christmas card talk (FLOSS)
  • SmellyWerewolf incident (Debian) (FLOSS)
  • Sexist joke in Diggnation Podcast (Technology industry)
  • Women in Web 2.0 comments (Technology industry)
• December: Valleywag insults Pownce founder (Technology industry)

2009

• February:
  • Adobe talk at PHP UK (Technology industry, FLOSS)
  • February 27: Scans_daily suspension (Comic Book Fandom)
  • IT Security Girl of the Year (Technology industry)
• March:
  • SLUG committee 2009 nomination dispute (FLOSS)
  • Marvel Female Products Launch (Comic Book Fandom)
  • DrupalCon Paris website
• April: CouchDB talk (FLOSS)
• May:
  • Della computers (Technology industry)
  • CeBIT booth babes (Technology industry)
• June:
  • Electronic Gaming Monthly replaced with Maxim (Gaming)
  • Flashbelt slide show (Technology industry)
• July:
  • EMACS virgins joke (FLOSS)
  • DEFCON comic strip incident (Hacker culture)
  • This IS your father's Readercon (Science Fiction Fandom)
  • Phoronix Foodstruments (FLOSS)
  • Stonehenge OSCON parties (again) (FLOSS)
  • RealmsFail and resulting Harlan Ellison backlash (Science Fiction Fandom)
  • Game Boy Bondage (Gaming))
  • EA booth babe bounty (Gaming)
• August:
  • Manthology incident (Science Fiction Fandom)
  • FSF mini-summit on Women in Free Software announcement and LWN thread (FLOSS)
  • SurveyFail (Media Fandom)
  • Sony make phones for women (Technology industry)
• September:
  • Mark Shuttleworth at Linuxcon (FLOSS)
  • (and ongoing) Geek feminism harassment by MikeeUSA
• October:
  • PepsiFail (Technology industry)
  • Marvel halloween costumes (Comic Book Fandom)
  • Yahoo! Taiwan Open Hack Day 2009 (Technology industry)
  • MXUG mailing list posts (Technology industry)
• November:
  • AmazonLISAFail (Technology industry)
  • DojoCon thongs (FLOSS)
• December:
  • Women underrepresented in Modern Science Writing (Science) [2]
  • Brightkite using hot girls as bait (Technology industry) [3] [4]
  • CrazyDomains Pamela Anderson advertisement (Technology industry)

2010

• January
  • Realms of Fantasy women's issue (SF fandom)
  • #ubuntu-women logging proposal
  • Russian commentary on Ubuntu Women leadership (FLOSS)
• February
  • Casecamp boobies incident (Technical conferences)
  • PUSH N900 pole-dancing robots
  • No women in horror [5] [6] (Fandom)
  • Boagworld incident [7]
• March
  • South By Southwest groping & harrassment [8] [9] [10] (Technical conferences)
  • Drupal.org gender discussions (FLOSS)
• April
  • NodeOne Drupal card game ad (FLOSS)
  • GenCon "Activities for the better half" icon (Roleplaying games)
• May
  • It's Time to Tell Mum campaign
• June
  • Sexual assault at Southeast LinuxFest
• August
  • Dries Drupalcon keynote reactions (FLOSS)
  • Australia Tech Ed Meter Maids (Technical conferences)
  • New Zealand Open Source Society Mailing list (FLOSS)
• November
  • Sexual assault at ApacheCon