The dark side of open source conferences [LWN.net]

The dark side of open source conferences

Posted Dec 1, 2010 22:26 UTC (Wed) by bfields (subscriber, #19510)
In reply to: The dark side of open source conferences by dlang
Parent article: The dark side of open source conferences

To possibly over-explain: yes, of course you're correct, the explicit message was "please, conference attendees only at the party", and the intention was no doubt to say just that, but funnier.

The humor depended on the contrast of that explicit message with the implication that what many of us were *really* there for was to pick up chicks on the way to the party.

And, sure, that could be kinda harmlessly funny if a) the genders involved weren't always the same, and b) we didn't get variations on that same thing every year, and c) the conference was more balanced between men and women, and d) we all knew everyone there could be counted on to take that implication as just the setup for a joke and not any suggestion of expected or even remotely condoned behavior. Etc., etc.

As things are, yeah, it's likely to come across as "OLS is for men, women go home", intended or not.

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The dark side of open source conferences

Posted Dec 7, 2010 16:22 UTC (Tue) by charlieb (subscriber, #23340) [Link]

> The humor depended on the contrast of that explicit message with
> the implication that what many of us were *really* there for was
> to pick up chicks on the way to the party.

I don't think so. I think the humor depended on knowing what happened at the *previous* OLS party. Someone associated with the venue, and not associated with OLS, invited a handful of "friends" - who were provocatively dressed, perfumed, stillettoed, etc, etc.

I have no doubt that this is what was being referred to by the OLS organiser, and that Valerie was not aware of that background. I don't think she would have taken offense if she had been aware of that back-story.