Firing was over-reaction

But my overarching reaction to this incident, and others like it, is to quote the Fidonet slogan, now nearly three decades old:

Be ye not overly annoying...
nor *too easily annoyed*.

Certainly there are some people who fail on the first point.

But it's pretty clear that there are also people who are, in my best friend's lyrical phrasing, "spring-loaded to the pissed off position", thus failing rather theatrically at the second.

Just as the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the target for the Internet and the content thereon cannot reasonably be limited to that which is considered Suitable for Children by the Most Conservative Observer, interpersonal behavior cannot reasonably be limited that hard either -- there will *always* be someone who can contrive to be offended by any single thing you or I say. People will always game the system, no matter what the rules are; anyone who's a parent understands this.

Zero tolerance has been proven pretty effectively not to work in education; it's not going to work in public conference rules, either.

If you want to interview NFL players in the locker room, you really do have to take on the possibility that you're gonna see some nudity.

Certainly, there are people who go beyond the pale.

But the pale isn't anywhere near a sotto-voce quip about a "dongle", from a different row, not directed at you. If I were the fired gent from the other row, you can be certain that I'd be investigating civil action against Adria Richards.