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Comment by bausshf | Hacker News Reader

Sounds like a conference run by incompetent people, which is usually the vibe I get from glorified "javascript users".

Definitely not a conference I'd ever attend.

A conference for technology is usually supposed to be a social gathering for people with a shared interest, not a formal conference like a business gathering.

The only thing I can't think of is that you submitted a lot of proposals and they perhaps thought it was spam, but the response they gave you they clearly knew it wasn't spam.

Perhaps they have small children's mentality and didn't like the challenge of someone with a different point of view and perhaps better knowledge; although that alone would be kind of ironic since most people go to such conferences to hear the minds of bright people.

From the information you've given, I'm unable to find a logical reason for your ban.

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They also tend to have the "you offended a random folk for the most ridiculous reason, and because we are so fragile, we will ostracize you for the rest of your life" mentality.

Don't get me wrong: harassment or aggressive behavior are not right and should not be tolerated. But on the other hand, over-cautious attitude that make any controversial comment a potential aggression is a really worrying trend today. The ridiculous cases of "code of conduct" dramas - especially on the js community - is a good demonstration.

Indeed, I was most disappointed when I looked at the Django Con Europe twitter and the first thing I saw was codes of conduct and comments about genders and bathrooms. I was wanting to read about Django.

Wow... Is there a way to live and work in tech without having to put up with all this shit ever again ? Why are those politics taking over everything.

There's not escape, every nook and cranny is getting more political these days.

Not sure why, I blame total ideologies that prescribe the personal being political.

Everything is political. Saying that you can just turn off politics is a very dumb and naive attitude.

What politics does the Django web framework subscribe to?

Author here. To clarify: as far as the organizational aspect is considered, those people are competent and top-notch. All the confs were highly professional, their experience with managing this stuff cannot be overlooked. But the social/communication layer is a bit nontransparent, in my opinion.

It could be the number of proposals. I haven't seen his Twitter, but if he mentioned being a member of the "Brendan Eich fan club" on Twitter as he did on his blog, that may have also led to his being blocked. Brendan Eich was forced out of his role as CEO of Mozilla after a few vocal employees there found out he had donated $1,000 to support an anti-gay marriage bill in California many years before he was CEO. If the people behind this conference do not like Brendan Eich because of this, perhaps the author's support of him is to blame for the ban.

The "Brendan Eich club" is actually a small inside joke, as the sign was one of the official "features" of JSConf.eu 2011, where Brendan was an invited speaker :)

Yes, but that was seven years ago, and Things Are Different Now.

(Just leafed through their twitter. I'm seeing a lot of the same clique as were involved in the node.js brouhaha last year. Is this conference really worth the fuss?)

This whole thing is a bit amusing.

So Brendan Eich invented JS, and then led Mozilla.

And being in the Brendan Eich Fan Club in 2011 probably was a positive thing and a cool thing for JS people.

Then much later, Brendan Eich donates $1000 to some political thing people strongly disagree with

So retroactively, being a fan of Brendan Eich means you are a homophobic hater and must be blocked?

I am quite sure this ain’t it :)

You understand the timeline, but the virtue-signalling mob on Twitter probably doesn't.

Eich made the donation in 2008. It became widely known in 2012, when he was still CTO. Nothing came of it until 2014, when he was promoted to CEO.

I also spoke in 2013.

For the record, I think that what happened to you over a years-old, minor donation - regardless of what it supported - was ridiculous. Whenever someone suggests that I move to the Valley because I am in the tech industry, I bring up your story as an example of why I want nothing to do with most of the people that live there.

You prefer to live where homophobia is tolerated?

He prefers to live where people actually are tolerant.

Exactly this.

Didn't that happen several years after 2011, though?

Or maybe someone misclicked. Headline is sensationalist, he could simply create a new twitter account. I don't see how this affects him attending the conference. Don't they send out email newsletters as well anyway?

Right, the ban only covers following the conference online. Which is why I mentioned the verb in the title.

But it also might be their way of saying "also pls do not attend again, we do not want ya".

If you care about the content of the conference, and/or you like to talk with some of the recurring participants, you could go to the conference next time and confront the organizers directly, since they won't let you do it online.

But in terms of feeling rejected for unknown reasons, I'd let it slide. The reactions you describe (twitter blocking, "we don't have time to answer" emails) are immature, so expecting more from them is naive.

Since they haven't said "please don't attend again", don't interpret it that way. Don't reward people for communicating this poorly. If you can buy a ticket in your name, and you want to go, go. :-)

After such juvenile behaviour, why should he give them any of his money?

Perhaps so he can network with people he cares about, and ignore them?

Do you create multiple email accounts because idiots send one to spam or do you just stop talking to them?

I'd guess not unless money was involved. Personally I'd just stop supporting them by going to the conferences and tell everyone why.

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