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PyCon US 2024 Recap

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Re: PyCon US 2024 Recap

#41

Post by reuven »

_ugfj wrote: post #7

This does not mention PyCon US 2024 was one of the extremely, extremely few conferences which did the right thing and had a mask mandate. > We are nice people and many of us and our fellow community members can’t attend without health and safety guidelines in place. We want PyCon US to be an event that everyone feels safe attending. PyCon US is exceptional in that we have people attending from all over the world—last…

I think we can all agree that masking is super annoying. We can also agree that if everyone were to mask 100% of the time, then we would be in a safer world, with less spread of disease.

But we all live with some level of risk. Keeping the risk level at or near zero isn't realistic, or something that most people want. We cross the street, travel in cars, etc.

I find it weird that PyCon had a mandatory masking policy, when medical conferences staffed by doctors and disease experts don't have such a policy any more. And I'm guessing that PyCon's policy was made by well-meaning people who aren't doctors or medical experts.

My suggestion -- and yes, I wrote this in my PyCon follow-up survey -- is that our masking policy follow whatever the CDC, AMA, or a similar body is doing for its conferences at the time PyCon takes place. If the experts require masking, then we should do so, also. And if they don't, then we should encourage people to mask if they need or want to, but we shouldn't force it upon everyone.

In other words: PyCon should make decisions about the conference and Python-related things. Medical decisions should be left to outside experts.

Re: PyCon US 2024 Recap

#42

Post by twixfel »

chx wrote: post #38
twixfel wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that I don't want to wear a mask. I tolerated it during the pandemic because it was an extreme situation. The pandemic is now over, so I no longer wear a mask. If that makes me selfish, then I'm OK with that. It is arguably no less selfish to force everyone else to wear a mask. I am not going to argue that point though because I don't even particularly care, I just don't want to wear a mask, that's all.

[flagged]

Idk man life feels pretty normal to me and has felt pretty normal for about 2 years now. I guess you can try and convince me to care, but I just don't. I go days or even weeks without thinking about this pandemic tbh. Feels good.

So if the wastewater is telling you something, but life is so normal, maybe the wastewater statistics don't mean what you think they mean.

Re: PyCon US 2024 Recap

#43

Post by jbmny »

yyggvbb wrote: post #24

I felt pretty disappointed going to the conference. Though it’s a pivotal and awesome time to be a Python dev and historic to remove the GIL. I found the talks to be very low information and sometimes not really relevant to the title and description of the talk. For example the “Blender integration” talk was 40 minutes with 8 minutes of blender discussion. The talk on Mocking was extremely basic and spent most of the…

I attended, and one thing I learned is that being good at giving talks is often more important than the subject matter of the talk. It's all about keeping it slow and digestible and making sure you don't lose your audience. "Computational Origami" is an example of a talk I loved because of how well it was executed, not necessarily because of the subject matter.

Re: PyCon US 2024 Recap

#44

Post by reuven »

scubbo wrote: post #15
emddudley wrote: post #4

I'm amazed at how many people she met. It was my first PyCon and I was happy with trying to chat with like 5 people. The conference was huge and very physically and socially exhausting.

Same. I love the idea of being involved in the software community, but find it intimidatingly difficult to know how to "break in". Plenty of the names dropped here are people I admire and follow on social media, but I would think myself terribly rude to introduce myself to them as I'm just an irrelevant developer.

I have something of a following (newsletters, social media), gave two talks at PyCon, and even had a booth advertising my training services. So at the risk of sounding like a total egomaniac just for responding, let me say a few things:

1. I absolutely, positively love meeting new people at PyCon, regardless of their background, level, etc. I learn new things from just about everyone I meet, and that's a huge part of the fun for me. I'm frustrated that I don't get a chance to just meet and chat with more people during the conference, and actively try to eat meals with people I don't yet know so that I can get to know them.

2. Part of the greatness of the Python community is that we realize other people, regardless of their fame, are just that -- people. They were unknown at some point, and people were nice to them. So they'll probably be nice to you, too.

3. Every community has jerks, Python included. If someone famous isn't nice to you, then just ignore them from that point on, and concentrate on the numerous nice people. It's not worth getting riled up or upset about it.

Re: PyCon US 2024 Recap

#45

Post by nmstoker »

wodenokoto wrote: post #8

Anyone know when videos are released? Right now their YouTube channel has a playlist named pycon2024 with over 100 videos hidden

I'm guessing sometime between now and next few weeks. With things like this there's usually a few last recordings with some audio to clean up etc etc.

A substantial number from PyCon US 2023 went out on 02-Jun-2023 (ie exactly a year ago today).

Re: PyCon US 2024 Recap

#46

Post by yyggvbb »

chx wrote: post #26
finolex1 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are immuno-compromised or living with someone who is, shouldn't you not be travelling thousands of miles to a large, packed conference anyway? Since masks are not 100% effective. To each their own, but I personally will not be attending PyCon next year because it was exhausting to wear a mask for 5 days straight.

So let's exclude those people from society, that's what you are saying. It's not just traveling thousands of miles, it's boarding a bus or entering any indoor space with unmasked people. And yes, that exclusion is the reality most of us face. This has echoes of how people with AIDS were considered back then.

As someone who’s disabled, yes I have accept people can’t always accommodate me.

Re: PyCon US 2024 Recap

#47

Post by scubbo »

KatiMichel wrote: post #35
scubbo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. I love the idea of being involved in the software community, but find it intimidatingly difficult to know how to "break in". Plenty of the names dropped here are people I admire and follow on social media, but I would think myself terribly rude to introduce myself to them as I'm just an irrelevant developer.

You shouldn't feel that way at all. I don't think I've ever had a bad experience meeting people at a conference. It has actually been the opposite. Many people are there to make connections (and have their own doubts as well). You might be surprised at how receptive they will be. Also, many conferences actively promote inclusion. See the "Pac Man Rule" attributed to Eric Holscher which was referenced at PyCon US. htt…

That's a lovely idea - thank you for sharing!

Re: PyCon US 2024 Recap

#48

Post by scubbo »

reuven wrote: post #44
scubbo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. I love the idea of being involved in the software community, but find it intimidatingly difficult to know how to "break in". Plenty of the names dropped here are people I admire and follow on social media, but I would think myself terribly rude to introduce myself to them as I'm just an irrelevant developer.

I have something of a following (newsletters, social media), gave two talks at PyCon, and even had a booth advertising my training services. So at the risk of sounding like a total egomaniac just for responding, let me say a few things: 1. I absolutely, positively love meeting new people at PyCon, regardless of their background, level, etc. I learn new things from just about everyone I meet, and that's a huge part of…

This is a helpful perspective, thank you!

Re: PyCon US 2024 Recap

#49

Post by ongy »

reuven wrote: post #41
_ugfj wrote: post #7

This does not mention PyCon US 2024 was one of the extremely, extremely few conferences which did the right thing and had a mask mandate. > We are nice people and many of us and our fellow community members can’t attend without health and safety guidelines in place. We want PyCon US to be an event that everyone feels safe attending. PyCon US is exceptional in that we have people attending from all over the world—last…

I think we can all agree that masking is super annoying. We can also agree that if everyone were to mask 100% of the time, then we would be in a safer world, with less spread of disease. But we all live with some level of risk. Keeping the risk level at or near zero isn't realistic, or something that most people want. We cross the street, travel in cars, etc. I find it weird that PyCon had a mandatory masking policy,…

Since you attended

how much did people actually follow the mandate? I looked through the pictures, and it seems to be ~not at all for picture/social situation, and maye 50% for general?

Re: PyCon US 2024 Recap

#50

Post by jamwil »

chx wrote: post #26
finolex1 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are immuno-compromised or living with someone who is, shouldn't you not be travelling thousands of miles to a large, packed conference anyway? Since masks are not 100% effective. To each their own, but I personally will not be attending PyCon next year because it was exhausting to wear a mask for 5 days straight.

So let's exclude those people from society, that's what you are saying. It's not just traveling thousands of miles, it's boarding a bus or entering any indoor space with unmasked people. And yes, that exclusion is the reality most of us face. This has echoes of how people with AIDS were considered back then.

But even with a mask mandate, a large conference is probably not an acceptable risk for someone in that position. Masks help, but they aren’t a complete solution, especially when folks remove them to eat and take photos.
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