3

I recently deleted a competition initiated by a user on this site. I have extremely mixed feelings since:

  1. We love when users show initiative on our sites. In this case, there was a major award and it a continuation of a successful contest the previous year. That's awesome!

  2. However, the image chosen this year was not the best choice. I don't think the photo was chosen maliciously. As a standalone, there's nothing particularly offensive; it's clearly a stunt from the early days of robotics. But in the context of a caption contest, it lends itself to innuendo that we don't really want this site to be associated with. The early submissions have already veered off into creepy territory.

We hate to be grinches, but I'm shutting the contest down until a more appropriate image is found.


As an aside, diversity in the technology industry is something Stack Exchange tries to encourage. In a male-dominated industry, we need make our workplaces more comfortable for women. My previous employer encouraged women to cross-train as DBAs, for instance. I'd be curious to know how your workplace has handled the issue.

8
  • 4
    The image was a life magazine cover from about 1960. I had assumed that people would appreciate the irony. Dec 26, 2013 at 22:12
  • 1
    @ConcernedOfTunbridgeWells: Sorry to be a curmudgeon on this. I must say that part of my problem with the image was that when I searched for it... well, it didn't end well. Thanks to your comment I've tracked down the machine as MOBOT Mark II. It's pretty cool looking in a concept car sort of way. At any rate, it's impossible to predict how things will turn out before you try. ;-) Dec 26, 2013 at 22:23
  • 1
    My caption to the image was a quote from the very same time period. I am truly sorry if I have offended anyone with it. Dec 26, 2013 at 23:02
  • 2
    @MikaelEriksson - I'm not sure anyone was offended (although maybe someone complained). I think the powers that be are probably just being image conscious. Dec 27, 2013 at 0:19
  • @Mikael Eriksson: No worries. Context is everything, isn't it? Dec 27, 2013 at 13:13
  • @JonEricson - We've got an obvious favourite for the caption competition. I've edited the question; can you please undelete it and post a message to that effect on the heap? Dec 28, 2013 at 2:23
  • @ConcernedOfTunbridgeWells I could undelete it, but I think the best bet is to just repost it, do you mind doing that? Dec 29, 2013 at 15:12
  • So what happened to our winter competition? Still having it?
    – Marian
    Jan 11, 2014 at 19:58

5 Answers 5

9

Official entry.

3
6

So, shall we use this post to suggest an alternative image?

If so, here's mine:

enter image description here

:)

3

Alternatively:

enter image description here

2

I found this one at a local bookstore:

enter image description here

I, uhhh .. didn't open the book, but someone could shop doge over the digital world and it'd be so big, much data, captioned.

2

Big data in reality

enter image description here

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .