Years ago, I participated regularly on a semi-professional forum that was supposedly the ONLY internet forum like it for its profession and the owner bitched and moaned endlessly about how it was not really growing and so forth. And I felt I could see what the problem was.
Most of the current active members were in North America, either the US or Canada, and mostly participated during their work day, so the forum was active from something like 8 am Eastern Standard Time to 5 pm Pacific Standard Time (aka 8 am to 8 pm Eastern time). And anyone who posted outside of those hours would joke about being a loser with no life for being on a professional forum in their off hours.
I was in California at the time and a part-time college student. I have serious health issues and I am prone to insomnia and was frequently posting at odd hours and I felt absolutely certain that this meme was gatekeeping out anyone outside those time zones who would already feel like they didn't fit in because they weren't American or Canadian and would feel like the time stamp on their comment would mark them as "not belonging" and this meme would make that unavoidably obvious.
There was ONE guy in Australia who was active and I was the only American he got to talk to "live" on a regular basis because of my insomnia and posting at odd hours, but most people in other time zones just didn't show up. For whatever reason, he was not deterred by the lack of live interaction and this stupid meme, but I felt clear most people would be put off by those details.
So I actively went after that meme and intentionally tried to murder it. It eventually stopped and then shortly thereafter "coincidentally" membership generally began to rise, but especially international membership.
I got absolutely no credit for this. I'm a woman. The forum owner was a rampant misogynist with the hots for me, among other issues.
Anyway, it was crystal clear in my mind that I did a thing and then a thing happened as a consequence. FWIW, the forum had been around for more than a decade with the forum owner making the same complaints year in and year out while nothing changed.
In my mind, this meme was the small pebble at the base of a dam that needed to be dislodged in order to bring the dam down and open the flood gates.
Diversity programs tend to have a poor track record of success. Most of them are posited on a model of trying to actively "invite" people of a target demographic -- women, people of color -- to apply, to participate, etc.
Yeah, if y'all weren't racist, misogynistic pricks to begin with, you would already have women and people of color there. "Those People" do not need a SPECIAL INVITATION like they don't know all the white upper class good old boys gathering together is where the action is at monetarily and in terms of getting shit done. We just all stupid, clearly, you prejudiced jackasses.
The way to promote diversity is to remove cultural barriers gatekeeping people out and I was absolutely certain this meme was a "tiny" thing having a huge effect on making sure no one outside the time zones of North America would feel openly welcomed while the owner bitched and moaned about "Why don't they join?????"
In my experience, if you can IDENTIFY cultural barriers and remove or reduce them, the flood gates can open shockingly wide and you can suddenly find yourself facing more of an influx of people than you know how to deal with.
You do NOT generally need to do "outreach." If you got something of value to offer, people probably KNOW that. If some demographics aren't showing up, odds are high they are being gatekept out and the mechanism for that gatekeeping is likely what might be termed "dog whistles" telling them "We don't like your kind around here."
There may be OTHER things you need to resolve to make it a success, but step one is NOT "Send out a special invitation to THOSE people." It's "Stop secretly checking IDs at the door and telling them: We don't like YOUR KIND coming 'round here."
Most of the current active members were in North America, either the US or Canada, and mostly participated during their work day, so the forum was active from something like 8 am Eastern Standard Time to 5 pm Pacific Standard Time (aka 8 am to 8 pm Eastern time). And anyone who posted outside of those hours would joke about being a loser with no life for being on a professional forum in their off hours.
I was in California at the time and a part-time college student. I have serious health issues and I am prone to insomnia and was frequently posting at odd hours and I felt absolutely certain that this meme was gatekeeping out anyone outside those time zones who would already feel like they didn't fit in because they weren't American or Canadian and would feel like the time stamp on their comment would mark them as "not belonging" and this meme would make that unavoidably obvious.
There was ONE guy in Australia who was active and I was the only American he got to talk to "live" on a regular basis because of my insomnia and posting at odd hours, but most people in other time zones just didn't show up. For whatever reason, he was not deterred by the lack of live interaction and this stupid meme, but I felt clear most people would be put off by those details.
So I actively went after that meme and intentionally tried to murder it. It eventually stopped and then shortly thereafter "coincidentally" membership generally began to rise, but especially international membership.
I got absolutely no credit for this. I'm a woman. The forum owner was a rampant misogynist with the hots for me, among other issues.
Anyway, it was crystal clear in my mind that I did a thing and then a thing happened as a consequence. FWIW, the forum had been around for more than a decade with the forum owner making the same complaints year in and year out while nothing changed.
In my mind, this meme was the small pebble at the base of a dam that needed to be dislodged in order to bring the dam down and open the flood gates.
Diversity programs tend to have a poor track record of success. Most of them are posited on a model of trying to actively "invite" people of a target demographic -- women, people of color -- to apply, to participate, etc.
Yeah, if y'all weren't racist, misogynistic pricks to begin with, you would already have women and people of color there. "Those People" do not need a SPECIAL INVITATION like they don't know all the white upper class good old boys gathering together is where the action is at monetarily and in terms of getting shit done. We just all stupid, clearly, you prejudiced jackasses.
The way to promote diversity is to remove cultural barriers gatekeeping people out and I was absolutely certain this meme was a "tiny" thing having a huge effect on making sure no one outside the time zones of North America would feel openly welcomed while the owner bitched and moaned about "Why don't they join?????"
In my experience, if you can IDENTIFY cultural barriers and remove or reduce them, the flood gates can open shockingly wide and you can suddenly find yourself facing more of an influx of people than you know how to deal with.
You do NOT generally need to do "outreach." If you got something of value to offer, people probably KNOW that. If some demographics aren't showing up, odds are high they are being gatekept out and the mechanism for that gatekeeping is likely what might be termed "dog whistles" telling them "We don't like your kind around here."
There may be OTHER things you need to resolve to make it a success, but step one is NOT "Send out a special invitation to THOSE people." It's "Stop secretly checking IDs at the door and telling them: We don't like YOUR KIND coming 'round here."