DerbyCon Will Hold Its Last InfoSec Conference in September This Year (derbycon.com) 176
DerbyCon 9.0, the upcoming edition of the popular InfoSec conference in September, will be its last. From an official announcement: When we first started DerbyCon, our goal was to create a conference where we could all come together to collaborate and share as a community, but most importantly as a profession. DerbyCon 1.0 was a huge gamble for us both personally and financially, but we believed in what we were doing, and it worked. For those that don't know the history of DerbyCon, it started off inside of a pizza shop as an idea between a few friends. Our goal was to create an affordable conference that shared a lot of what we had experienced in our early days in security. The ideas of collaboration, community, and the betterment of the industry and the safety of technology were at the forefront. At the end of DerbyCon 1.0, we realized that the conference was a huge success and our dream became a reality.
[...] What we have had to deal with on the back-end the past few years is more than just running a conference and sharing with friends. The conference scene in general changed drastically and small pocket groups focus on outrage and disruption where there is no right answer (regardless of how you respond, it's wrong), instead of coming together, or making the industry better. There is a small, yet vocal group of people creating negativity, polarization, and disruption, with the primary intent of self-promotion to advance a career, for personal gain, or for more social media followers. Individuals that would have us be judge, jury, and executioner for people they have had issues with outside of the conference that has nothing to do with the conference itself.
Instead of working hard in research, being a positive force in the industry, or sharing their own unique experiences (which makes us better as a whole), they tear others down in order to promote themselves. This isn't just about DerbyCon, it is present at other conferences as well and it's getting worse each year. We've spoken with a number of conference organizers, and each year it becomes substantially more difficult to host a conference where people can come together in large group settings. It's not just conferences either. This behavior is happening all over the place on social media, in our industry, targeting people trying to do good. As a community, we add fuel to fire, attack others, and give them a platform in one massive toxic environment. We do this all in fear of repercussions from upsetting others. Until this pattern changes, it will continue to get worse.
[...] What we have had to deal with on the back-end the past few years is more than just running a conference and sharing with friends. The conference scene in general changed drastically and small pocket groups focus on outrage and disruption where there is no right answer (regardless of how you respond, it's wrong), instead of coming together, or making the industry better. There is a small, yet vocal group of people creating negativity, polarization, and disruption, with the primary intent of self-promotion to advance a career, for personal gain, or for more social media followers. Individuals that would have us be judge, jury, and executioner for people they have had issues with outside of the conference that has nothing to do with the conference itself.
Instead of working hard in research, being a positive force in the industry, or sharing their own unique experiences (which makes us better as a whole), they tear others down in order to promote themselves. This isn't just about DerbyCon, it is present at other conferences as well and it's getting worse each year. We've spoken with a number of conference organizers, and each year it becomes substantially more difficult to host a conference where people can come together in large group settings. It's not just conferences either. This behavior is happening all over the place on social media, in our industry, targeting people trying to do good. As a community, we add fuel to fire, attack others, and give them a platform in one massive toxic environment. We do this all in fear of repercussions from upsetting others. Until this pattern changes, it will continue to get worse.
Apparently over a markerboard gag (Score:5, Informative)
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Seemingly so!
https://twitter.com/DerbyCon/s... [twitter.com]
https://twitter.com/deborahlin... [twitter.com]
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It's a joke.
Get over it.
Geez, everyone is out on a permanent crusade to be perpetually offended.
If you don't like it, sure express your opinion, but you needn't try to shut down a convention, or ruin someone else's day...or even ridicule someone that finds it funny. It's their right to have different opinions and different sense of humor than you.
At some point, the conferences like this need to
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The ruination came from attitudes just like yours. There are socially malevolent individuals that reek of testosterone.... rampant dominant assholes, full of themselves, fingers in their ears, that can't tolerate the very presence of others unlike themselves.
The organizers did give up, even though borderline behavior wasn't prosecuted. They DID stop them. Misplaced criticism of "SJW"s blinds you to the values of embracing diverse viewpoints, including the loud ones, to the point where the loud ones just ove
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You act like there's something wrong with that.
Are you one of those out there that also think it is best to break down men in general, and emasculate them?
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Emasculation isn't necessary. Non-provoking civility is. Macho is tawdry. Real men don't need to diminish the dignity of others for their amusement and ego gratification. Most grow out of that stage. I did.
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These two polar ends do not cancel each other out.
There are also plainly decent individuals that are strongly and rightly repelled by either end of those poles. I didn't see a predominance of the over-estrogened, rather people trying to learn, do knowledge transfer, converse, and learn.
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Didn't say that at all. I prefer an egalitarian, non-hostile event.
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I don't watch tv, and so have no concept of what you're implying.
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What the shit? Reminds me of when the FTC lady had an issue with the girls on hacker pyramid at Defcon and I told her to STFU or leave, nobody is forcing you to be there. I had feminist hanging off every single one of my tweets for a week and calling who they thought my employer was and trying to get me fired. Don't get me wrong, I love women and I believe in equality but seriously if you don't like something, leave.
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Another thing that would have prevented you from succeeding as a female in the open source community is you being a straight white male.
Aren't most people who are successful in open source straight white males? Where are you getting your data from?
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Don't get me wrong, I love women and I believe in equality
You shouldn't have to f'ing write that... but lately I find myself making similar half baked apologies in my posts as well. The fact that you feel you need to make this clear in advance is a sign of how toxic public debate has become.
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Wouldn't surprise me. I know another conference in an entirely different area (video games) that basically killed itself trying to appease SJW-types. (It still exists, AFAIK, but it went from tickets selling out in minutes to not selling out at all.)
The problem is that you end up pissing off regular people, and the SJWs just move the goalposts. "You don't have enough women!" [add women] "Not enough minorities!" [add minorities] "You missed THESE minorities!" [add them] "Not enough LGB people." [call them ou
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Anonymous conference means I assume it is made up. Name?
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I'm not going to give them any free advertising. It was a well known video game conference (even got mentioned here a few times) that has since turned into an SJW video game conference where all the panels are on crazy things like "LGBTQIAY Identities In Video Game Protagonists" or "Trans-Identifying First Person Shooters" or whatever. They've gone from constantly growing each year to tickets being trivial to get, all because they caved to SJWs.
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Free advertising this deep in a nested conversation with ACs every other reply (and thus auto-hidden??) Unfortunately, "video game conference" produces too many results to comb through them all. Or, if you want to be oblique, try just stating a city and month. That seems sufficiently obfuscated to not give them free press, yet able to determine a unique conference.
Otherwise,my guess is you are dramatically overstating both their numbers and the quantity and type of new talks, and don't want to be checked
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That's hilarious.
The real problem in my opinion though is that they're too afraid about taking a common sense stance. We've become a cowardly lot.
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It seems like they just wanted an excuse to give it up. I mean what kind of snowflake would drop their entire conference over one complaint?
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I do love watching SJWs try and reclaim the word "snowflake" as if somehow projecting their own faults onto rational people will make them less noticeable, not more.
It's not just one complaint. It's never just one complaint. It starts with one complaint, then they drag in more and more people to echo that one complaint and just keep it snowballing until you get bombarded with junk and they drown out the reasonable people.
the fuck? (Score:3)
from the writeup I would have thought it was because people were using it to PROMOTE THEMSELVES FOR GETTING MONEY purely by fluffing up shit(and providing shit all nothing content).
instead it's of some guy writing boobies, doing the exact opposite of that? fuck this shit.
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I've done some more digging and it seems that:
- One person complained about the "boobies #metoo"
- Another person complained about it
- They eventually did something about it
- First person complained that it took them too long to do anything
That's it. No mobs, no mass complaints or twitter storms, no accusations or campaigns. It's utterly bizarre, they sound like there was a huge drama when in reality they read a couple of emails and removed a sheet of paper from a wall.
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It's almost certainly not just the "boobies" thing alone. In 2017, this was posted [tumblr.com] demanding that several people be disinvited from upcoming Derbycons. As the organizer said in a tweet [twitter.com], "it was a culmination of things we’ve had to deal with over the years."
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What helps you deal with stress? Boobies
#MeToo, my wife's boobs are great stress relief. And she'd never call my attention sexual assault, even if she is annoyed sometimes.
What, I'm not allowed to use that hashtag, because you made it a popular reference to sexual assault? Is that what this escalation is ultimately about? Sheesh, they're just words, quit grandstanding and get over it.
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I can't even tell difference anymore between The Onion headlines and real ones.
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This is as clear a case of manufactured outrage as there could be.
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Second pic in this tweet: https://twitter.com/deborahlindseyl/status/1048401891913334785
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Re:Apparently over a markerboard gag (Score:5, Insightful)
#metoo is a hashtag used by sexual assault victims.
No, #metoo WAS a hashtag used by sexual assault victims by the time this happen it had become a hash tag used by whiners and outright frauds.
Look at the person doing the complaining on twitter she outright stated, this incident amounted to sexual assault. It SHE who is making light of tragic things that have happened to real victims, so that she can be popular on twitter. She is the one doing real harm to the cause and you are too by defending her! Yes someone made very stupid joke in very poor taste about a serious matter. Hey I guess we'd better string anyone who has ever played cards against humanity and especially its creators up right away right? Oh no because they are 'woke' or whatever.
Bad taste though it might be it really is harmless fun. By acting like its even in the same universe of concern of what is actually "sexual assault" that is where the real trivialization is occurring. You should be assumed of yourself.
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Look at the person doing the complaining on twitter she outright stated, this incident amounted to sexual assault.
She did not say that. Obviously I can't prove a negative, so the onus is on you to provide a link to the tweet. I'm sure that someone on Reddit archived it, even if it has been deleted from Twitter.
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How about trying NOT to be in a constant state of looking to be offended?
Get the fuck over it, you should not have your whole life ruined because someone make a joke, off color, sexist, racist or not...
If it offends you, blow it off, surely you have MORE important topics that need your attention?
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Fine call me an asshole, It really don't bother me, nor should it bother anyone else.
The point is, if what I say offends you, don't get all butt-hurt about it and complain and shut a whole conference down because someone there wrote something you didn't like.
If you don't like someone's sense of humor, don't let it ruin your day, and you needn't ruin someone else day either.
Re: SJWs ruined it (Score:1)
"Social justice warrior", abbreviated "SJW", is deprecated. The new preferred term for villains such as the angry neopuritan who ruined DerbyCon is "social just-us nazi", abbreviated "nazi".
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Ha-Ha it is as if the satirical reader did not read the excerpt from the featured article where it evenly lays blam
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You can't appropriate Nazi while we literally still have real Nazis running around, to say nothing of neo-Nazis. Nice try there, sport.
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"Real Nazis?
No, they were defeated.
In 1945."
The third Reich was defeated. Plenty of Nazis ran off with their stolen art and Jew gold and settled in Argentina or Costa Rica, etc. Or went to work for the US government.
"All that's left is some dumb teenagers drawing swastikas with sharpies on bathroom walls."
There's plenty of that, but there's also organized groups of white supremacists doing stuff like infiltrating police and military organizations. Or taking the presidency...
Re: SJWs ruined it (Score:2)
"organized groups of white supremacists doing stuff like infiltrating police and military organizations"
There are no "white supremacists". Such cartoonish villains exist only in racist divide-and-conquer propaganda, and in the imaginations of people whipped into a frenzy by said propaganda.
good for them (Score:2)
Insulted (Score:4, Insightful)
You canâ(TM)t have freedom to express yourself without the freedom to cause someone to feel insulted.
The two are related, if you cannot insult someone. Nearly all free speech is bound to make someone feel bad. If you say you got bad customer service, the service agent will feel bad. Nearly all speech will make somebody feel bad.
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And of course it works both ways. You can't expect people not to criticise you for something you said, even if it makes you feel bad and not want to carry on exercising your free speech any more.
Cue the whining about SJWs. (Score:1, Flamebait)
Tomorrow morning I expect most of the comments on this thread to be about how SJWs ruin everything, and Linux has gone to hell in a handbasket since they stopped letting developers swear, and how the only true communications are insults. What a brave new world!
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Tomorrow morning I expect most of the comments on this thread to be about how SJWs ruin everything
Rightfully so.
These progressives insert themselves into things others have built and destroy them with their narrow-minded extremist politics. They contribute nothing but conflict.
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Tomorrow morning I expect most of the comments on this thread to be about how SJWs ruin everything
Rightfully so.
These progressives insert themselves into things others have built and destroy them with their narrow-minded extremist politics. They contribute nothing but conflict.
Truth! I can't remember the last time I saw sliced bread, and vaccinations haven't been available for decades! Pretty soon we'll be back to rooms full of women being called "computers". We live in a hellish landscape of continuous dissent, and it is ALL caused by SJWs!
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Re: Cue the whining about SJWs. (Score:1)
And this is why... (Score:3)
...we can't have nice things.
It could be worse. (Score:2)
Radical Idea: Just Say No (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do people, especially value-neutral technically-focused people ... not just start saying: No!
No. We want to focus on our stuff and have no obligation to engage with your issues.
No. We will not ban people because you want us to.
No. You cannot have special treatment. You get the same as everyone else. Nothing more, nothing less.
No. We will not enforce your Purity Code of Conduct. Want an ethics code? Use the ACM's. Or the IEEE.
No. Your chosen group membership does not compensate for your lack of ability. Meritocracy or GTFO.
No. You have not been elected, and do not represent the community you claim to defend.
No. We will not apologise for our intrinsic attributes, whether skin color or lifestyle choices.
No. Your ideological goals will not cause your behaviour to be overlooked or forgiven. You are what you do.
And in return: You get the same freedom from our interference.
The VILENESS of some activists, both left and right, but increasingly primarily on the left,
is despicable. Bipolar, partisan, nastiness. 100% agreement or you will be purged and punished.
Instead of merely a "2 minute hate" session, they are in a continual state of ideological fervour.
And like children, they are constantly calling for Authority to bring force down on their enemies.
More rules. More control. More force. Comply or be purged.
If this is not how you want to live, it is time to start telling them: NO!
Or is this now Radical as well?
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There's no money in that though. Outrage is a massive industry now. I had a quick look on YouTube and there are already dozens of videos about this, most of them just rip-offs of other videos. Want to bet that their conference gets a big crowd funded cash injection from outraged anti-sjws now?
The only way we are going to get back to normality is to stop funding the outrage. Hopefully people will eventually get tired of it, but I don't see any signs of that. Look at the most popular stories on Slashdot over
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If I understand your position, you mean:
It is not the people who protest *everything* who are the problem,
but instead it is the people who discuss it.
This smells of the same manipulative bullsh*t as the protestors ...
"Dissent is simply not tolerated, and there can be no discussion".
Isn't that exactly the original problem?
If someone wants a "locked down" conference, then well,
should they not just go organise
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Fear. It takes courage to stand up to bullies, and not everyone has the support or the capability to do so.
Maybe I should have put this more positively: How can we help people to be able to, say no!
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Re:Radical Idea: Just Say No (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree with the degree of danger.
But this is the point. If you leave a whiteboard somewhere, it is likely that someone will write something on it.
Maybe interesting, probably not, potentially offensive.
But think what the protestor means:
Rather than rub out what someone else wrote, rather than write something themselves,
what do they do?
Appeal to authority. Demand enforcement. Insist that *everything* has to be controlled
lest someone do *anything* which *anyone* could find "offensive". Or disrepectful.
Or somehow in breach of someone's perception of the currently fashionable convention.
For example: Draw a bird? Offensive to 1950s Maoists. A Blue flower? Nazi.
A yellow ribbon? Militarist.
In fact drawing *anything* could be taken as offensive against the Differently Abled,
for example the Blind.
There are no more boundaries. No compromise. People want to exercise power over you
and they *will* find a reason, an excuse or a crack somewhere.
If someone doesn't like something written on the white board, then bloody well rub it out.
Let's stop pandering to the Drama merchants.
Just say NO.
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It's called TTP (Time to penis) (Score:4, Insightful)
> But this is the point. If you leave a whiteboard somewhere, it is likely that someone will write something on it. Maybe interesting, probably not, potentially offensive.
If you invite people to write / draw whatever, some idiot will draw a penis. How long it takes before someone draws a penis in different situations is a measurable quantity known as TTP, time to penis.
An area for further study is TTPE, time to penis erasure. This is how long after the penis is drawn until some reasonable person comes by and erases it.
Recently we've been seeing an inversion. TTPE is sometimes higher (longer time) than TTSJW, meaning a whack job has the opportunity to see it and go insane prior to a reasonable person erasing it.
Re:It's called TTP (Time to penis) (Score:4, Insightful)
Thank you!
Instead of Time-to-first-crate, we now have a new metric:
TTP:TTPE
I am so tempted to put a camera and a whiteboard somewhere,
and start collecting the data!
Applied Statistics.
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To be or not to be.
If we run away from these bullies, they not only win this one, they keep winning until everything is disrupted.
Which is their goal.
They have the power we give them.
If I was an employer and someone called me asking to fire an employee for something they said or did,
which was not illegal, then I would tell them to "Fet Gucked".
If I was an organiser, I would laugh in their faces.
If a customer, and they tried this versus a supplier, again, "Guck Off" is the most valid response.
A colleague? I
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Insufficient, since the mob are quite willing to punish you as a facilitator or enabler,
if you do not join in the condemnation. "Silence signals support".
Keeping your head down, is no longer a valid strategy.
And keeping your professional life away from your private, is EXACTLY what
the agitators are refusing to do!
They are witch-hunting, and in the absence of sufficient "perps", they are
quite willing to burn anyone for their own amusement.
No Means "No Thanks", not playing.
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You seem to be an example of this.
Are you really saying that anyone who fails to pander to the slightest complaint,
about anything, is equivalent to a sexual harasser or a racist?
You equate the organisers of a tech congress, with sexist racists,
unless they police public whiteboards? Really? Really, Really?
Remember, they *did* wipe the board when it was pointed out!
Which the complainer could easily have just done herself.
Or do you believe that women are somehow disadvantaged when it comes to wiping whiteboard
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Yup. You are one of them.
1. Conflation and false equivalency:
"In the Past there was an injustice. Unless you agree with me,
you defend the Past Injustice, and are thus an EVIL person."
2. SJW Dystopia?
You mean that for example, technical conferences will be cancelled,
due to the OUTRAGE of someone writing BOOBIES on a public whiteboard?
THIS *is* what is
I agree! (Score:2)
I agree!
In fact, I agree so strongly that I intend to protest about it, and be mollified by nothing!!
DerbyCon (Score:2)
The Conference for Horses.
Was my first thought.
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At least Dave had the Balls to address it. (Score:1)
The whole Derby team was lovingly supported by swaths of well meaning and inclusive companies and groups, yes mainly comprised of men. This doesn't make it's core culture this patriarchal blanket of abuse and oppression against women or minorities.
Never in the 8 years that I have attended or the 20+ years on the scene with many of these people did I play a party to or see oppressive white male-centric behavior keep others out.If behaviors kept people out it was because they chose to be offended and to that
Drunken party - drunken behavior (Score:1)