Faster CPython at PyCon, part one

Posted May 10, 2023 20:26 UTC (Wed) by pebolle (guest, #35204)
Parent article: Faster CPython at PyCon, part one

> [I would like to thank LWN subscribers for supporting my travel to Salt Lake City for PyCon.]

You're welcome. That's why we support LWN, to cover its expenses and provide its staff with an income. That is all pretty obvious. So why did you feel the need to add this to this article?

Faster CPython at PyCon, part one

Posted May 10, 2023 21:12 UTC (Wed) by amacater (subscriber, #790) [Link] (2 responses)

Possibly this is written in this way so that it can be shown that this wasn't a cost-free attendance funded by the conference giver in return for a favourable review.

Faster CPython at PyCon, part one

Posted May 10, 2023 21:43 UTC (Wed) by pebolle (guest, #35204) [Link] (1 responses)

> Possibly this is written in this way so that it can be shown that this wasn't a cost-free attendance funded by the conference giver in return for a favourable review.

Yes, that's a murky area. I'm not sure what to think here. Is it OK for the press to accept free entrance to expensive conferences?

But the disclaimer only mentioned travel, which I think is a pretty obvious expense for LWN. Actually, I'm totally OK with whatever LWN decides to spend our contributions on. Free champagne and caviar for its staff? Fine with me.

Faster CPython at PyCon, part one

Posted May 12, 2023 5:26 UTC (Fri) by ebwb (guest, #144520) [Link]

I always feel delighted when I see it. Sometimes it's nice to have a bit of feedback from a different, perhaps atypical channel as to where my funding helps support LWN's work.

Maybe they literally mean to thank you, me, and all of us! Surely there are some conferences the individual LWN staff members wouldn't be able to attend were it not for their work, so they are expressing gratitude for the fact that we're all here making it happen for those individuals.

Faster CPython at PyCon, part one

Posted May 10, 2023 21:15 UTC (Wed) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (1 responses)

> You're welcome. That's why we support LWN, to cover its expenses and provide its staff with an income. That is all pretty obvious. So why did you feel the need to add this to this article?

It looks like it is done to distinguish it from articles written where some other entity is sponsoring the travel. As an example, https://lwn.net/Articles/637211/ has this note instead:

[I would like to thank the Linux Foundation for travel support to Boston for the summit.]

IIRC this was prompted by questions from readers before on whether sponsorship is involved and in some cases, the answer is yes.

Faster CPython at PyCon, part one

Posted May 10, 2023 21:31 UTC (Wed) by pebolle (guest, #35204) [Link]

> IRC this was prompted by questions from readers before on whether sponsorship is involved and in some cases, the answer is yes.

But apparently no sponsorship was involved. So why bother with this message here?
Otherwise every article might end with:

[I would like to thank LWN subscribers for funding the device I've written this article on and the purchase of literature I consulted while researching this article.]

Yes, we know. That's why we support you.

Faster CPython at PyCon, part one

Posted May 11, 2023 0:15 UTC (Thu) by jake (editor, #205) [Link]

> You're welcome. That's why we support LWN, to cover its expenses and provide its staff with an
> income. That is all pretty obvious. So why did you feel the need to add this to this article?

We put those on articles in part to remind others, who may not be subscribers, that it does cost money to do all of this stuff. And of course to thank folks like you.

FWIW, we do generally get free tickets to conferences, either because we are speaking or because we ask for a press pass (as with PyCon). Press passes are pretty normal for tech (and other) journalism. We presumably could not go to as many conferences without them.

jake