Why you shouldn't invite Yehuda Katz to your user group meeting

I don't think so. They may not have been seasoned public speakers like Katz, so having someone outright argue with them during their presentation could have been especially unnerving.

I can think of two right off the top of my head:

1) Wait until they've finished, then pose your correction in the form of a question to them and allow them to answer. This lets them save face (since you're not outright correcting them, you're just asking for clarification), gives them the chance to correct themselves in case they just misspoke or were misunderstood, and avoids the risk of your correction of the one incorrect point overwhelming the other, presumably correct, points the speaker made.

2) When the session is over, approach the organizer of the user group and offer to make your own presentation on the subject, in which you'll give the correct information, at the next meeting. If you're concerned that people will miss the point, add a subtitle like "A Response to Presenter X" to the name of the presentation.

> If the original presenter could effectively support his position then he would not have left the stage.

In the world of actual human beings, this is not true. People are quite easily driven to the margins by bullies who are louder and more strident than they are, even if their argument is 100% correct. Lawyers even have a saying for it: "If the law is against you, bang on the facts. If the facts are against you, bang on the law. If both are against you, bang on the table."

I listen to the Javascript Jabber podcast. One talk was on Backbone. Jeremy Ashkenas was a guest, and I was really looking forward to listening to it. Yehuda was also on the call as a host.

Throughout the call Yehuda repeatedly interrupted and contradicted Jeremy. He would go off on tangents for several minutes, talking about his own work. The main host tried to re-direct the conversation but Yehuda was consistently interrupting. Apart from him not having good manners as a host, I felt like Yehuda really got in the way of my learning more about Backbone. He kind of ruined that podcast for me.

And I might not be alone. Ever since a few shows after that episode he hasn't returned to Javascript Jabber.

Sometimes people don't know how they're perceived until public reactions like these. I hope this helps him understand more about himself and how he affects others.