A general comment, likely grounded more in my own frustration and :<p>When did we become so concerned with awesome vacation getaways with code happening and less with, you know, programming?<p>I think it's awesome that there are people who have the free money/time/resources/independence to go spend 12 weeks hacking in the tropics, but unless we see some baller results I can't help but shake the feeling this is an experience for trendy kids and not for the hardworking, overweight, overscheduled neckbeard.<p>I hope you folks are able to publicize a bunch of cool stuff that comes out of this! That might give it a bit more street cred.
I've always been uncomfortable about the idea of addressing imbalance by focusing and targeting ONLY the minority. I like your analysis and process of reworking your site to be more appealing to everyone. In fact, I think I'll apply now :D
Do one thing and do it well. This is a motto for more than UNIX in my opinion.<p>Are you hacking or are you retreating and obtaining social justice? Because meanwhile, real hackers are really hacking and they generally don't care about gender ratio nor group retreats to Costa Rica.<p>Don't think this is a dig just at this conference either. I get irate when I see fireman in uniform out collecting for charity and things like cowboy or biker churches. Fireman should be fighting fires. Churches shouldn't have anything to do with cowboys nor bikers (not a church attender...just something personally annoying I noticed).<p>Separate your concerns and you won't lose sight of the proper function of each component. Just my opinion. Others may feel differently.
<i>Harassment includes verbal comments that reinforce social structures of domination related to gender, gender identity and >expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.</i><p>And who gets to determine if I'm doing any of these things?
The conference organizers? If I attend this conference, how
can they assure me that I won't be at the mercy of conference
attendees that suddenly decide I'm harassing them simply because
I say something within their vicinity they disagree with a la
Adria Richards?<p>Although I guess Richards would have been taken to task for
"harassing photography". Although by that point it would have been
too late anyway.<p>The problem with these speech codes is that they're just as easily
used as a way to silence and shame people who's views differ
from those of organizations like geekfeminism (i.e. not radfem).<p>You don't have to be a feminist to treat women respectfully.