![](https://seccdn.libravatar.org/avatar/4b2168f40dbb8ed92e40bfe17a2fa3ef.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
On 18/05/11 07:12, Per Jessen wrote:
Jos Poortvliet wrote:
On 2011-05-12 Jim wrote:
It surprises me how much discussion this simple question has caused, because it's not like no other conference has never thought of this or addressed it before.
Or not addressed in fact. (because it was never a problem).
Maybe the organizers could talk to someone involved in the BrainShare conferences, as I'm sure they've addressed this at some point in the past.
I have been attending various conferences for about twenty years - IBM SHARE/GUIDE mostly, OOPSLA on occasion, internal corporate conferences more often. None of those have had an "anti-harassment policy", simply (AFAICT) because they expect attendees to be behaving professionally and with decorum. (Anstand). Perhaps that is the most interesting thing about this debate - our community manager does clearly NOT expect that.
Calling attention to the fact that having a good atmosphere matters has led at LCA to a great atmosphere and I am surprised and annoyed that so many people have been argueing so much against my proposal.
Don't be annoyed, be thankful that your community consists of people who care enough to argue. In my opinion, your proposal is causing a problem because it tries to address an issue that does not, as far as we know, exist. You have so far neglected to argue why you deem this policy to be necessary.
Please read http://lwn.net/Articles/417952/ if you have not already done
so. Jos linked to it from his blog (I forget whether it was mentioned
explicitly in this thread or not). There may not have been problems at
previous openSUSE conferences (I certainly hope not!) but there *have*
been problems at an assortment of other open source conferences in the past.
A statement like "we don't tolerate harassment" does not necessarily
imply that anyone *expects* harassment - surely most people are
generally decent, right? - but it lets everyone know (especially those
who have had bad experiences at other conferences), that there is
awareness of the potential for problems and a willingness to take a
stand against them should they manifest.
(Note: I'm not arguing here for or against the current form or content
of the policy, just trying to demonstrate the general utility of having
one.)
Regards,
Tim
--
Tim Serong