Created
March 4, 2015 13:16
-
-
Save mehowte/08f7e842b393efd583a1 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Why I'm speaking at Wroc_love.rb despite their lack of Code of Conduct
This file contains bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
I'm a speaker at [Wroc_love.rb](http://www.wrocloverb.com/). | |
Personally I would prefer the place to be more inclusive But I won't | |
support bullying the organizers into making decisions against their will. | |
Making the conference (especially virtually non-profit one like | |
wroc_love.rb) is a huge amount of work And I know that because I've been | |
selecting diverse set of speakers for two Railsberry conferences before it | |
was even cool. | |
No, I don't want a cookie for that. | |
Wroc_love.rb have been doing great job so far at creating small focused | |
conference with interesting ideas, while they might have been neglecting the | |
diversity part. | |
They have a right to select the topics, speakers and themes they feel will | |
make the event great. Even if they wouldn't care about diversity (and even | |
if that's a silly idea) they have a right to do that. | |
Opposite to the infamous British Ruby Conf 2013, AFAIK wroc_love.rb team at | |
no point advertised the event as promoting diversity. For that reason I feel | |
they should not share similar fate. I feel that singling out sponsors and | |
attendees is unfair. | |
Like most of my friends I also cringed during one talk last year. The one | |
about booze giving you courage, among other weird things. The organisers | |
chose not to humiliate young misguided speaker publicly (his talk was | |
literally about how he was building up the courage for public speaches and | |
that he has a long way to go). AFAIK they did informed him in private | |
that he crossed the line and he is not welcome to share his views in | |
this way anymore. | |
Maybe they should have done more... Maybe I should have done more... | |
I feel that the speaker is the one who has to bear the weight of his/her | |
ideas and is the one who should apologise for the contents of the speech. | |
I will do that in a moment if I ever cross the line. But I'm not going to | |
force anyone to do the same thing. And I feel that considering circumstances | |
the organisers did the right thing. | |
Yes I'm aware of all privileges that come from a fact that I'm a white male | |
software developer. I feel safe at the conference, and I know that many of | |
you may not if they don't have Code of Conduct and enforce it. | |
I'm going to use that privilege to go there, share my opinions, give my | |
talk and try to make others question their own. | |
This is the constructive course of action I can contribute to the cause. | |
I will do my best to react to every aspect of inappropriate behaviour as if | |
the Code of Conduct was there, and I'm sure the organisers will do their | |
best as well. | |
If you are a sponsor, attendee or a speaker and you feel strongly about the | |
cause then fine, do what you feel is right. | |
But if you enjoyed the Wroc_love.rb but disagree with organisers, and the | |
idea of discouraging attendees, sponsors and speakers feels wrong to you, I | |
suggest you come to the conference and share your opinions there. | |
[Michal Taszycki](https://twitter.com/mehowte) |
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
lol fuck off