jremsikjr

I'm the organizer of this conference. The stage is very flexible and has many opportunities for trap doors etc. It's honestly just a little creaky.

We've seen other benefits like folks have mentioned. It draws speakers out from behind the podium.

The theater we use is popular and we often didn't have the stage setup until 2AM the night before a 9AM start time. As organizers/hosts we couldn't be up that late.

Sometimes you come in and the stagehands at the venue read the notes about putting down the carpet and they decided to put two carpets instead of one. And the carpets are secured with gaffers tape. And you don't really see an issue with it so you leave it be.

shrug

Stuff happens.

Lis' talk is excellent though.

Thanks egiva!

You're wrong. This is something that my wife and I have spent the last 2.5 years trying to build. An inclusive event where everyone feels welcome to participate.

The post was made here specifically because HN has a reputation for being exclusive and to show, as we have in our conference(s), that with a little work you can build a successful inclusive community.

I respect your opinion and your right to stick up for HN to prevent it from being gamed. There was no compensation made of any type to encourage Wendy to write this piece.

I lifted it from a tweet describing the article from a third party but, you're right.

I'll go ahead an disagree here from Madison, WI as well. In fact, there are no less than three cool startups within a block and a half (Murfie.com, ContextClothing.com, Asthmapolis.com) of our offices. There is plenty of opportunity to land if your startup suddenly goes away.

And that doesn't even take into account the option of working remotely.

You're wrong.

Your event sounds like a great event and is likely to be interesting to HN readers. That's fantastic! Make a post and have it voted up. The issue I see is that your comment is completely unrelated to the post except for the fact that they both happen to be conferences. There is no comparison to the posted conference, likely, because it would be a difficult comparison. The two events have different topics, currency, culture, and locale. Your post is clearly intended solely to generate interest in your event.

I don't have the ability to downvote but, I would likely have done so with the opportunity. This story is sliding off the front page so, no need to delete it now.

We did do our homework and took inspiration from your blog post about putting on, either Future Ruby or Ruby Fringe, I forget which at the moment. I appreciate your concern and pointing out that conference organization is often a thankless task. We've been working on the conference for better than a year and continue to learn lessons that can only be learned in the first year.

This is not a decision we made lightly or without any contingency.

It's just as fine of a line that you have to walk with a product. We had more we wanted to do but, do we need more? At the end of the day we, as a conference, _need_ to get people together to talk and spread information.

Also, it's just the right thing to do.

To be fair you've ordered those as a developer. Non-programmer types are more likely to invert that list:

1. Finding customers 2. Building the product

Where finding the customers is something that they can be incredibly passionate about and actually affect. This is what the non-programmer worth their salt can add to a 2-3 person start-up. A skill-set aimed at focusing the pivots to those most likely to sell.

There may well be similar apps but, we didn't find anything in the amount of time it took to bootstrap a new rails app. Something we have discussed is to do just what you say and provide a lens for whatever hashtags others want to keep an eye on for themselves.

Brilliant. Similar to another comment when I first got my Prius I played with along with the metrics and still do occasionally. But, I felt like I unlocked all the rewards.

Separate player tags would be awesome and could be accomplished with fobs or sign-ins. Or perhaps you just register your high scores?

For more in-depth configuration you could include wifi access and a browser portal to set up drivers or post to your facebook wall. OK, ok it could go downhill quickly. :)

Imagine getting into your car and having it decked out as a fully operational 80's arcade console. Wood paneling, quarter slots and a big red 'Start' button.

> To me, pair programming is the only way to work.

Could've softened that up a bit, sure. I completely agree that not every problem is a nail for the hammer of pair programming. We've developed a very popular and productive pairing environment at Hashrocket.

We have found pairing to be helpful in solving difficult issues. And we have used it to enhance the design of software being written from scratch.

As for the mental breaks, some of us use the pomodoro to coordinate their break times. Others prefer to agree to breakpoints as they come.

We know pairing is not a fit for everyone, everywhere, all the time. However, if you are interested, this is how we do it, it works for us and, we hope our experience helps you.

Cheers!