PyCon Feedback and Volunteers ( Pycon disappointment)

[Mike Driscoll]

On Mar 17, 8:16 am, a... at pythoncraft.com (Aahz) wrote:
> In article <873aqp6bbq.... at physik.rwth-aachen.de>,
> Torsten Bronger  <bron... at physik.rwth-aachen.de> wrote:
>
>
>
> >Carl Banks writes:
> >> On Mar 16, 10:49 pm, Brian  Jones <bkjo... at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> On Mar 16, 8:09 pm, a... at pythoncraft.com (Aahz) wrote:
>
> >>>> If you did not like the programming this year (aside from the
> >>>> sponsor talks) and you did not participate in organizing PyCon
> >>>> or in delivering presentations, it is YOUR FAULT.  PERIOD.
> >>>> EXCLAMATION POINT!
>
> >>> I find this insulting, inexcusable, and utter nonsense. If
> >>> putting the blame for a failed experiment on the backs of the
> >>> good folks who paid good money for travel, lodging, and
> >>> registration is also an experiment, you can hereby consider it
> >>> also failed.
>
> >> He said "aside from the sponsor talks", chief.
>
> >I see no reason why the "fault" for parts of the rest being
> >sub-optimal, too, must necessarily be on the attendee's side.  (Just
> >hypothetically; I wasn't at PyCon.)
>
> Let's suppose you have a group of friends who collectively throw a party.
> They invite you to help out organizing it and putting it together, but
> you choose not to.  If you don't have a good time at the party because it
> wasn't what you wanted, I think it's fair to say it was your fault.  And
> I think exactly the same thing is true for PyCon, albeit on a much larger
> scale.
>
> It is absolutely critical to the long-term success of PyCon as a
> volunteer-run community conference that each attendee take responsibility
> for their experience.  Science fiction fandom -- the part that holds
> volunteer-run events such as Worldcon -- has lots of experience with this
> model.  It is one reason why such cons make a fuss about attendees being
> "members", compared to "purchasing a ticket" (which is what you do for a
> commercialized Star Trek con).
> --
> Aahz (a... at pythoncraft.com)           <*>        http://www.pythoncraft.com/
>
> "It is easier to optimize correct code than to correct optimized code."
> --Bill Harlan

You have a lot of good points, Aahz. I was thinking of the talks and
such as a kind of seminar learning event, not a participatory
community event. I went for two reasons:

1) To learn more Plone / Zope
2) To hang out with Python geeks

The first one I didn't really get anywhere with, but I got lots of
time with PyCon attendees, which was cool. I hope I can go next year,
make new friends and maybe present some of my own stuff.

Mike