There is an issue in the world that we see crop up in the Information Security/Cyber Security field, gatekeeping. We tend to equate it with making it more difficult to get a job, harder for people to break into the industry, and of course expecting people to just know things. The world of IT/IS we pick on end users for not knowing behind their backs pretty regularly. How do we know that they are not trying to learn though? How does it make someone who is just learning feel when you treat them like an idiot?
I’m not going to lie here, I’ve been guilty of picking on people at times. We all are guilty, especially when one claims to be an expert when they are not. There is also a number of people who are on the autism spectrum or have other issues that make them awkward and just want to fit in, or overly excited when learning something and it works. This has happened to me in the IT/IS field, but most recently outside of it, and let me share this outside instance since maybe it will make things a bit more relatable and be a better moment to learn from for all of us.
One of my hobbies is trains, big and small. I got back into this hobby thanks to my son, who started loving trains when he wasn’t even a year old. It prompted me to get out my old HO scale trains and get them running again, along with buying some new ones. This isn’t my first time being involved in the world of model railroading/toy trains, but the last time I was into it, I was a kid. I drifted away from it when my frailly moved to a bigger house right before 7th grade, and we stopped setting up the trains during the winter because of space required for them. Up until then we had set up my trains and my grandfather’s pre-WWII standard gauge sets for the winter time.
Getting back to present day, when my father passed away he was getting ready to get my grandfather’s (mother’s side) trains up and running again. As my son hit his 2nd birthday I found out about local train shows, and found some people there who took a look at these train engines and said they were in pretty good shape and I should be able to run them with a little work. They gave me a list of things to check and do and I went at it. I got those up and running in the spring of 2019, 4 months before my mother passed away. She was happy that she got to see them run again.
During this process I became a huge fan of a specific standard gauge train set that the Lionel corporation made called The Blue Comet. I would check online from time to time, and always see it well out of my price range. Recently, I was able to purchase this train set through an auction at a reasonable price for me. The problem with the auction houses is they grade on cosmetics and do not guarantee the engines are in working order. This engine sort of worked, and had a partially busted wheel on it. I did what seemed like, and over has been a good idea which is to post in a Facebook group about Tinplate Trains that I am a part of, since I could not find any actual instructions for repairing/rehabbing the motor. A few pictures and some threads, and I had pulled the motor apart, cleaned it up, fixed the issues which were causing it to only partially work, and started to put it back together. I thought I had done a good job, and was waiting on some parts that I had ordered which I need before putting the motor back into the engine shell, so I took a video of the motor running with the wheels on it and posted it to the group (I also posted the video to my twitter timeline since I put some of my train stuff there).
The response in the Facebook group were going along great from Good Job to issues some saw with the wheels wobbling too much and a squealing sound. Most of the comments included advice on how to go about correcting these issues. Then Today (5/21/21) I got this comment:
Now to be fair, I was proud and when I made the video I thought it was running beautifully. I did use that terminology. On the original post that this comment was made I had thanked the group that had been giving me advice on fixing the motor. Never in the video did I claim to be an expert. In other comments which had mentioned issues they saw I thanked them for seeing the problems and asked for advice. One person even has been messaging with me, wanting to help me learn. Even with the advice in the later half, seeing this comment first thing in the morning today made my heart sink a bit, but also got me angry, so I responded to this person with:
The only other comments to this critic was calling him out for gatekeeping from one of the people who has been giving me advice as I have been going along. The thought of just giving up on doing this had crossed my mind when I initially read the comment ripping on me, but I decided more people have been encouraging, and I want to be able to teach my son, so I am not going to quit.
The moral of the story is that one small snarky comment without understanding can be a huge gatekeeping moment in any field. Sharing information, and helping to teach each other, no matter the level we are, is the way to a more secure future. There is a time and place for snark/teasing especially once you know someone, but realize what damage it can do to someone’s aspirations and mental health if done poorly or at the wrong time.
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