

O'Reilly to adopt anti-harrassment Code of Conduct for Oscon - jdp23
http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/07/sexual-harassment-at-technical.html

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mkn
I'm all about anti-harassment guidelines, but the following is just as
offensive as harassment:

 _I’d like to borrow a line from the Flickr Community Guidelines, which use
the term Creepiness as follows: "You know that guy. Don’t be that guy." If we
hear that you are that guy, we will investigate, and you may be asked to
leave._

That's not a clear guideline, and it's sexist, to boot. Consider:

 _We all know that prudish woman. Don't be that prudish woman._

That wouldn't fly, and for the same very good reasons that their guidelines
need more work. They need first to remove the gender language, since unwanted
advances and inappropriate behavior can come from either side, and second to
spell out clearly what is prohibited, since that is the only way the rules can
be fairly applied.

~~~
diolpah
mkn, it is rarely a good idea to question the thought police. Prepare to be
informed about how your male privilege invalidates any point you make.

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suprgeek
It is a sad state of affairs that Tech conferences are now having to institute
acceptable behavior guidelines.

Looking at some of the Past events, I suspect that at least some of this
behavior is because some of the presenters want to be seen as "edgy". They
will throw up a provocative image or make a sexist or borderline
racist/Offensive comment to depict how much of a rebel they are.

Does this really add to the Technical weight or clarity of their talk?
Personally speaking, I would never work with anybody who did this - no matter
if they were a 10X productive super rockstar who invents new languages on the
side.

~~~
diolpah
"Personally speaking, I would never work with anybody who did this - no matter
if they were a 10X productive super rockstar who invents new languages on the
side."

Thank you for volunteering to help those of us who prefer to hire on merit.
More for us.

~~~
pyre
So as long as someone is a 'rockstar' coder, it doesn't matter if he/she
destroys the morale for the rest of your employees?

<sarcasm> I guess it's just their loss. They should feel privileged to be
working with <rockstar coder>! </sarcasm>

~~~
rimantas
If a slide with bikini-clad women with laptops can destroy your teem's morale
you have a bigger problems to worry about.

~~~
pyre
My take-away is that the 'rockstar coder' feels the need to be offensive to
impress others with his/her edgy-ness. The idea that people who do these
things at conferences, would never do them anywhere else, is a little naive.
The 'slide with a bikini-clad woman' is more likely a symptom, than a self-
contained aberration.

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shubber
Much as I'm glad to see something along these lines, I'm a little taken aback
that it took this long to publish. Even the original post refers to "last
Oscon," and O'Reilly runs a lot of conferences. Last Oscon wasn't the first
time "something happened."

~~~
kscaldef
This OSCON is the first (that I know of) where speakers started withdrawing
their talks over the lack of a policy.

~~~
pyre
That somehow seems worse. It took community pressure from _the speakers_ to
get O'Reilly to have some sort of a policy against
harassment/stalking/offensive behavior?

~~~
dfxm12
I get your point, and I understand why this happened, but before recent
events, O'Reilly's viewpoint was probably: Why would O'Reilly think it needs
to have policies outlawing unprofessional and possibly illegal behavior in a
professional conference?

~~~
jimwise
Yes -- one could argue this opens the door for other bad behavior at OSCon,
since it's not on the (new) list of things not to do.

That's the problem with putting these things in writing -- the more rules you
write down, the stronger the impression that whatever's _not_ on the list
_isn't_ against the rules.

~~~
pyre

      > one could argue this opens the door for other bad
      > behavior at OSCon
    

It's already been happening though. It's not like leaving it out of writing
preventing incidents from happening.

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tzs
I hope their rules will apply to both men and women. There is sometimes a
tendency to overlook when women harass men.

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lhnn
I can easily see innocent and benevolent dark humor being overreacted to with
all this buzz about 'awareness' at conferences. Ironically sexist though it
is, simply saying "don't be that guy" should be the extent of the
conversation.

This says to me, "There are people ready to be offended at your talk. Walk on
eggshells."

