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ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

electronconf.com

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Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#101

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

viraptor wrote: post #69

I'm disappointed in how many comments here are just kneejerk reactions. Reaching for weird comparisons, getting angry at the idea of diversity and social justice, and many others. This wasn't enforced from outside. It's the organisers who agreed: yup, that's not what we want to do ( https://twitter.com/nmsanchez/status/870811022306574336 ) Stop for a moment, think of how you'd organise a conference. Is it different?…

> Edit: Yes, there are better and worse ways to go about it. Realising too late and reverting the original list was not the best. Reaching out to / inviting diverse groups rather than fixing balance later would be better. Hope they learned and will do it better next year. Organisers which care about it from the beginning somehow manage to get a decent m/f split - both in the audience and in the speakers. (see linux.conf for a good example)

A couple other comments said that they did a blind review of the submitted papers. I can't think of a farer review process.

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#102

Post by kawsper »

legostormtroopr wrote: post #28

It seems that most people are crediting the cancellation with this tweet - https://twitter.com/fox/status/870761439094489088 "Congratulations @Github for hosting an all male conference!"

It looks like they didn't even inform the speakers https://twitter.com/framerate/status/870038985422249984

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#103

Post by huffmsa »

Normal_gaussian wrote: post #93
thrownaway114 wrote: post #68

It is really worth considering that this conference used a blind review process[1]. Subsequently, there is zero chance that the reviewer's decisions were influenced by racism or sexism. As a society, we need to consider the implications of what is going on here. In what way could this move possibly be said to be anti-racist/anti-sexist? It just isn't. If anything, abandoning your speakers because they are male/white…

Blind review followed by them selecting for diversity. They have an agenda and it hasn't got anything to do with code.

They realized they blindly selected and enjoyed topics submitted by the undiverse, and this is the discordant backlash.

"Oh God, I liked a talk by a white male! Cancel everything."

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#104

Post by mythrwy »

If population of speakers are representative of population of Electron users I fail to see the issue.

Unless the organizers think by skewing the sample they can somehow change the underlying data. (Which maybe to a very minor extent but probably not much).

Short of that they are simply damaging their own conference and thus subverting dissemination and development of their own platform.

This kind of thing is a canary IMOP. When peripheral issues (to the tech.. it's about the tech right?) subsume critical issues it ain't headed in the right direction.

But hey, I wasn't going anyway. If the tech is any indication, the Electron conference was 20X as expensive as the QT conference :)

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#105

Post by Baeocystin »

bitJericho wrote: post #100
Baeocystin wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come now. What would you say to an academic who didn't want to go to the whole of Europe, just because he saw some scary news about something that happened in Prague once? The US is a huge, multifaceted place, and like anywhere so large, you will find things both awful and wonderful. But life is a lot less chaotic than the news agencies claim. And the histrionic folks, while loud, are a lot fewer in number than the a…

That's what every American says.

I didn't live here until I was a teen, and I spent my childhood in Southeast Asia.

I've also lived for years at a time in a half-dozen other countries around the world.

So far, there's no other country I would rather live in than the USA. YMMV, and I respect that.

But please also consider that I am speaking from relevant experience.

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#106

Post by huffmsa »

namaemuta wrote: post #20

> ElectronConf is a brand new conference completely dedicated to Electron If you were completely dedicated to Electron you wouldn't postpone it, since what matters is the content, not who tells it.

Shhh logic has no power here.

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#107

Post by PrimHelios »

threeseed wrote: post #48
PrimHelios wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're pushing to have unqualified people on your board simply because they're women, your company will die. Aside from that, why strive if I know I have a good chance of getting a position even without any kind of merit? Fucking hell, I want to be seen as more than just a disabled trans woman, I want people to look at the shit I've done and say "Wow, she's really awesome, let's hire her/accept her into our colleg…

a) I never said anything about advocating for unqualified people. b) Almost all Fortune 1000+ companies are doing this today. And it's been conclusively shown to be improving the quality and strength of the board and encouraging more diverse people to join the SLTs. c) Not sure what that rant at the end has to do with anything.

>I never said anything about advocating for unqualified people.

That's what being against meritocracy means. A system based on something other than merit. If the people in charge aren't the people with the most merit, they aren't really qualified.

>Almost all Fortune 1000+ companies are doing this today

Appeal to popularity is a fallacy

> And it's been conclusively shown to be improving the quality and strength of the board and encouraging more diverse people to join the SLTs.

Do you have citations for those?

>Not sure what that rant at the end has to do with anything.

Personal reasons, mainly. Just tired of being seen as nothing but a trans person. Yeah, it's part of me, but I hate when people make that my entire personality.

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#108

Post by selllikesybok »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #86
viraptor wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to imply that being happy to be surrounded with a more gender/race diverse crowd than the typical 90s IT conference is either racist or sexist. I just don't understand that argument.

Calling something a "white sausage party" is racist and sexist, and if you said something equivalent against women or minorities on-line, you'd end up in a huge shitstorm. This assymetry is a big part of the problem.

This is a common reaction, and it started from a misunderstanding of the terms.

I recommend reading

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism

And then

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sexism

Of course, it's a complex topic, and there's a lot more great material which would help you get a better understanding.

While particularly focused on a specific type of racism in the US, includes a decent 101 on racism generally - https://medium.com/@absurdistwords/how-to-discuss-race-with-...

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#110

Post by Baeocystin »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #81
Baeocystin wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come now. What would you say to an academic who didn't want to go to the whole of Europe, just because he saw some scary news about something that happened in Prague once? The US is a huge, multifaceted place, and like anywhere so large, you will find things both awful and wonderful. But life is a lot less chaotic than the news agencies claim. And the histrionic folks, while loud, are a lot fewer in number than the a…

I second the line of thinking, but please rein in the TSA a bit. That's literally the only thing I'm scared about going to US. All the other things seem like a purely local phenomena that shouldn't be generalized to the whole 300M country. But I am scared I'll get into trouble on the border because of my HN and Facebook posts (e.g. against US drone strikes).

Yeah, there's no way I'm going to defend the TSA's methodologies. They a pain to deal with.

The good thing I'll say is that somewhere around 57 million people visited the US last year. 99.9%+ had no trouble other than long lines and the general frustration that comes with long distance travel. So your fears, while completely understandable, are also very, very unlikely to cause any actual trouble.

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