I read it pretty often and have a comment history going back a number of years. Most of the time my gender isn't something that comes up. I wish I could say this place has improved in terms of how it feels to be women identified here, but I personally don't really feel like it has. It hasn't gotten worse, which is a credit to the community given how many other ways HN feels like it passed eternal September a long time ago.<p>I will note that some of the work I've done under nyms has hit the front page here and it was disheartening to see across hundreds of comments how many people just assumed whoever was behind the project was a guy. It was rare for anyone to be gender neutral and that was as radical as it got. No one assumed the author of that project was a woman.<p>Oh well.
I expect that not very many women will out themselves in response to your question, considering how much negative attention such an outing often results in.
Maybe someone should set up a comprehensive census for HN?<p>Note: I do not mean someone should set up a page long google form that asks for age and gender. I mean someone who has at least a small amount of experience with census' should set up a detailed and lengthy census which asks questions with nuance. I don't think I have the capability to do this, or I would.
It is a product/platform/community's failure if you even have to ask such a question. Remember the days when "a/s/l" used to be common like "lols" or "IMHOs" of today? Well, nobody cares about gender, age or location. But these attributes make all the difference in how one communicates, and how communities (authentic communities) are formed anywhere.
I read it every day and comment once in a while.<p>I also post links sometimes, not often.<p>For Russians - m Russian - it's clear from my name that I'm a girl. not sure about non Russians.