Monica Berkowitz
Jul 30, 2017 · 2 min read

Kyle, thank you for sharing your experience of this situation. I did take note on how my reaction spurred a “hurt” reaction in you. It was not my intention to imply that an entire community of people are misogynists based on the action of a couple of people. But, as we are all human, it just goes to show that feelings of hurt and sensitivity are not mutually exclusive to either gender. I apologize that my hurt caused yours. I hope we can stop that cycle.

I have to say that I am encouraged by the dialogue that is now open in the Slack channel. As I posted there, I feel very positive about the overall constructive response to the issue that the incident served to highlight and expressed my desire to remain a part of the community and become even more involved. I would not feel this way if I thought that the group was not full of plenty of people worth knowing. Awkward situations lead to stronger communities when addressed head on, so I hope you agree and feel that we will be better of because of it.

As for the content of my post, you are partially correct. I did post that I would receive $100 as a referral bonus from 21.co should anyone want to use their service. That part of the post was the in spirit of full-disclosure and not to solicit any money from anybody in the Slack channel. Also, this was not brought to my attention as the/an issue (until just now in your post) so I did not include that in the article because I did not think it relevant. The accusation of “marketing” came long after the moderator had decided to delete my post, as well as after my post was accused of being a scam. I can see how my disclosure of that piece could read as solicitation, but only should one dismissed the post before reading it for what it was — someone trying to engage with a resource she thought would be of possible value or interest to a group she has yet to find her way with.

    Monica Berkowitz

    Written by

    Design + Frontend Dev @ bloc.io | astrologer | cat lady | class-clown | evolving human