I highly agree and support both Jono Bacon and Melissa Draper with their recent posts concerning discrimination in the community.
I left a comment on Melissa’s blog today and I very much mean everything I said. I had my eyes closed, I will admit it at the blatent discrimination that has gone in the community. I know the one form I constantly see is the use of the terms noob and newb which references a beginner at anything as a newbie. I myself find that a little disrespective and it reminds me of the days a lot of us use to tell others to RTFM.
As a community we need to rise against this, we don’t need separation, we need equality. The greater the standards and the greater the collaboration between everyone will only result in better application, and most importantly, a greater way of life in the Open Source community. We can all come together to say Microsoft this, DRM that, yet some of us tend to voice ignorance and disrespect to our own members. Age, race, religion, sex, or amount of knowledge, we are all one in this community. If you can’t live with it, I suggest you either 1) grow up, or 2) get on with life and leave the open source community, there is no room for you here!