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PHP Central Europe Conference Collapses Over Diversity Concerns

posted by martyb on Wednesday August 28 2019, @02:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the diverse-views dept.

takyon writes:

Female-free speaker list causes PHP show to collapse when diversity-oriented devs jump ship

Under the heading, "Diversity Matters!" the website for the PHP Central Europe developer conference (PHP.CE) says, "PHP Central Europe Conference is committed to creating a conference that is as inclusive as possible."

Over the weekend, organizers of the conference, which had been scheduled for October 4-6 in Dresden, Germany, ended the event evermore after two scheduled speakers issued public statements that they would not be attending this year, citing concerns about the lack of diversity.

PHP.CE on Saturday posted a note on its website, stating "The conference has been cancelled and won't be continued*. Sorry for the inconvenience."

The asterisk points to three online posts as the reason for the decision. The first, a July 17 Tweet from Karl Hughes, CTO of educational consultancy The Graide Network, chastises the conference for a speaker list made up entirely of white men.

You can see how it was in 2018, including the list of speakers, presentation schedule, and a 9m41s "after-movie".

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  • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Wednesday August 28 2019, @10:18AM (2 children)

    by stretch611 (6199) on Wednesday August 28 2019, @10:18AM (#886723)

    From the Register's comment section...

    It's an old joke now, but here goes: A decent person asks a shop owner to make a ramp for the disabled to get in. A Social Justice Warrior just attacks everyone who has working legs to penalise them, while doing nothing to help the disabled.

    My two cents...
    In the future, maybe we should just refer to speakers only by one of their internet handles... whether that is a name on their website, a twitter account name, or a Soylent News userid... That way there is no way for SJW's to be able to tell the sex, race, religion, and sexual orientation of everyone on the list and impossible to complain about it before the conference starts and people actually learn something. (ofc, they will still find something to complain about, there is no such thing as a happy SJW.)

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 28 2019, @12:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 28 2019, @12:26PM (#886746)

    SJW cancel culture can't cancel itself fast enough. OTT but funny blog commenter... [markbakeruk.net]

    You moron. You’ve ruined the chances for so many people to get together, share ideas, and learn something because of your stupid bigoted meatspace politics. You and every other puerile dumbass who thinks that a public event that anyone is welcome to attend is somehow tainted because of too many men being present is exactly why you’re universally despised and no one wants to deal with your bullshit. You can’t cancel your way to success, people are just going to say “fuck you, you utter faggot” and just have a invite-only event you can’t cancel. You’re a fucking bigot and a piece of shit, go suck a gun.

  • (Score: 2) by meustrus on Wednesday August 28 2019, @04:26PM

    by meustrus (4961) on Wednesday August 28 2019, @04:26PM (#886867)

    Sadly the internet isn't about pseudonyms anymore. Facebook killed that.

    Now we all have to use Real Names because it's the only way to be sure we aren't assholes. Not that this actually stopped assholes from using pseudonyms. No, assholes can still go by whatever name they want.

    I don't know if it's too late to go back to having a separate "internet identity". Maybe the information is too porous now. You can probably dox almost anybody without a real name.

    -

    Unfortunately, from what I remember of the screen/name era, it was pretty much assumed that everyone was a white male. "On the internet, men are men, women are men, and children are FBI agents". This might not have stood out to everybody, but everything from the humor to the definition of attractiveness to what topics were socially acceptable played against females and ethnic subcultures. Then again, everyone there was a white male, so it's possible that with today's internet demographics, pseudonymous communities might be more culturally diverse.

    --
    If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?