A double entendre on the word "dongle" was overheard at a Python Conference (PyCon) programmers' convention on March 17, 2013, which led to two people being fired and a denial-of-service attack.
In March 2013, at the PyCon technology conference, Adria Richards, a female participant heard two men seated nearby using the words "dongle" and "forking" in reference to the male presenter, which she perceived as a sexual joke (see sexual innuendo).
[1][2][3][4] In response to the public shaming of the developers, Internet users who were uninvolved launched a DDoS attack on the woman's employer, SendGrid, and according to an article by Jon Ronson in The New York Times Magazine, demanded her firing.
Following the incident, PyCon updated its attendee rules stating, "Public shaming can be counter-productive to building a strong community.
[1] The developer, who was offered a new job "right away", said he had not engaged with those who sent him messages of support, and had posted a short statement on Hacker News the same night after he was fired saying in part that the woman had "every right to report me to staff, and I defend her position".