A Twitter search for “britruby” should clear it up.
Short version: they’d invited all white male speakers; people complained about it on Twitter; the organisers got disheartened and called the whole thing off.
It only just happened. From the language and timing it looks like a snap emotional decision rather than a rational one; I assume the organisers got blindsided by the negative feedback and didn’t want to deal with it any more.
It's too bad that this 'no money no conf' meme continues to dominate. You can have something more than an 'unconf' or 'barcamp'-style event, even with no or minimal sponsors, especially with a team of organizers/planners to share any overflow expenses that do not get covered by ticket prices.
Yes, I do suggest that. Perhaps not actually look at it as just 'volunteering' time, but 'organizing an event'. If there were actual profits (income-expenses), then sharing those profits with the people who made the event happen (organizers, speakers, crew, etc).
Am I just missing something here or did they seriously cancel an entire conference just because of some random dude on Twitter imagining some nonexistent racism/sexism in the speaker lineup?
He's making this up in his own mind. Who's the real discriminator here?
> Am I just missing something here or did they seriously cancel an entire conference just because of some random dude on Twitter imagining some nonexistent racism/sexism in the speaker lineup?
According to https://twitter.com/Rebeccask/status/270220165344550912 sponsors pulled out. It's not mentioned at all in TFAA though, so I'd don't know if the explanation's legit (and why they went with a non-explanation instead if it is)
They probably are the most brainwashed and obsessed with the issue, and possibly believe they are scoring points in some imaginary and self-deprecating game.
Sane people of different hues are probably doing something more interesting - reading Ruby books, writing Ruby code, or just having a life.
