Leigh Honeywell
hypatia.ca · Personal blog · on HN since 2013
Leigh Honeywell, a security engineer and founder, writes about harassment in tech communities, ADHD and running a startup.
What HN saysHN commenters cite her first-person account of Jacob Appelbaum's misconduct and the Al Capone theory of sexual harassment in discussions of abuse in tech.
18HN people shared it
6linked it in comments
15stories submitted
601story points
12 months agolast shared
2013people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1He Said, They Said – First-Person Account of Jacob Appelbaum's Sexual Misconduct6 people · 14 points · first shared 2016 · 4 comments on HN
- 2The Al Capone theory of sexual harassment3 people · 11 points · first shared 2017 · 1 comments on HN
- 3My first year-ish with ADHD2 people · 3 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 4What you can do2 people · 3 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 5Bounty Launch Lessons2 people · 2 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 6My ADHD founder toolbox1 people · 455 points · first shared 2022 · 398 comments on HN
- 7No more rock stars: how to stop abuse in tech communities1 people · 102 points · first shared 2016 · 139 comments on HN
- 8But is it systemic?1 people · 5 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 9Part-time Power1 people · 2 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 10Bingo and Beyond1 people · 2 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 11Changes to Twitter's blocking behavior, and a workaround1 people · 2 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
roughly · 2023-01-18
I’m a big fan of number 2 - people who think in hierarchies tend to think things are below them - but 7 is extremely underappreciated.
If you haven’t seen it, the Al Capone theory of Sexual Harassment (<https://hypatia.ca/2017/07/18/the-al-capone-theory-of-sexual-harassmen… covers this pretty well: Someone who’ll do the wrong thing in one circumstance has already displayed the moral flexibility to convince themselves it’s OK to do the wrong thing in other circumstances. We’re none of us saints, but if you don’t have the fortitude to keep to your principles (or the principles to keep to) when the stakes are small, boy, it’s a whole lot harder to convince yourself to accept the cost of doing the right thing when the stakes are higher.
prawn · 2016-06-21
The author uses first-hand experience as a source:
https://hypatia.ca/2016/06/07/he-said-they-said/
And criticising something important as "boring" is very dismissive.
rhblake · 2016-06-09
I think the first-person stories of @hypatiadotca [0] and @violetblue [1] suggest more than that.
[0] https://hypatia.ca/2016/06/07/he-said-they-said/
[1] https://twitter.com/violetblue/status/740446500891860992 / https://twitter.com/violetblue/status/740446782505779200 / etc. (argh twitter)
knowtheory · 2016-06-08
> anonymous testimony
Okay then, how about these:
https://hypatia.ca/2016/06/07/he-said-they-said/
https://medium.com/@nickf4rr/hi-im-nick-farr-nickf4rr-35c32f13da4d
https://twitter.com/quinnnorton/status/739937558533021697
And just to make sure this tweet isn't missed... https://twitter.com/quinnnorton/status/739939420183400449
Quinn Norton:
> I do hope Jake has enough sense that trying to accuse me of being part of a vast gov conspiracy to take him down would catch in his throat.
swyx · 2021-04-27
similar stories are emerging:
- https://killnicole.github.io/statement/ (edit i see she has added it to the article itself)
- https://twitter.com/brianclapper/status/1387115214064193537?s=20
- https://twitter.com/adelbertchang/status/1387090351626723329?s=20
there seems to be some coordination here, as this came out pretty much at the same time. https://typelevel.org/blog/2021/04/27/community-safety.html
Yifan also linked to this piece on What You Can Do: https://hypatia.ca/2014/08/05/what-you-can-do/
nikcub · 2016-06-08
This is no longer Anonymous v Appelbaum - there are now, by my last count, at least six people on the record:
Tor developer Andrea Shepard to Wired[0]. Shepard again, Emerson Tan and Meridith Patterson to Gizmodo[1]. Daily Dot spoke to four witnesses, adding Tor developer Alison Macrina to the list of those on the record[2]. Nick Farr[3] and Leigh Honeywell[4]
That is without counting the numerous people who have corroborated various claims informally on Twitter or elsewhere, or statements such as those from cDc who booted him out[5]
[0] https://www.wired.com/2016/06/tor-developer-jacob-appelbaum-resigns-am…
[1] http://gizmodo.com/eyewitnesses-recount-tor-developer-jacob-appelbaum-…
[2] http://www.dailydot.com/politics/jacob-appelbaum-tor-project-suspensio…
[3] https://medium.com/@nickf4rr/hi-im-nick-farr-nickf4rr-35c32f13da4d
[4] https://hypatia.ca/2016/06/07/he-said-they-said/
[5] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2853643-Jacob-Appelbaum-CULT-o…