Women and TLUG - a personal rant

[Renata Rocha]

I was going to suggest that we implement a timer with a silly picture,
so every time a heckler interrupts the presenter, they (the presenter)
can activate the timer in the screen, counting for how long the
presentation has been interrupted due to heckling. It's a way to deal
with it with a little of humour and will also make hecklers
uncomfortable. Suggested silly pictures could be any current internet
meme.

(come on, we can write that in 5 languages in 5 minutes...)

Renata Rocha
http://renata.org


On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 12:37 PM, John Moniz <john.moniz-rieW9WUcm8FFJ04o6PK0Fg at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 01/15/2014 09:31 PM, James Knott wrote:
>>
>> William Park wrote:
>>>
>>> Come on, guys.  This bitching about TLUG meeting is strange to me and
>>> counter productive as group.  People come to the meeting because they
>>> want to learning something, and people don't come to the meeting because
>>> they have nothing to learn.  Heckling and harassment are side issues.
>>> -
>>
>> I find it very annoying when the heckling interrupts the presentation,
>> sometimes to the point where the presenter is sidetracked to the point
>> that the presentation is a waste of my time.  I have to come in from
>> Mississauga and I want to hear the presentation, not someone's
>> interrupting.
>> --
>> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
>> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
>> How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists
>>
>>
> Speaking up at times of disruptions really works. Some speakers have the
> skill to handle such disruptions (heckling is not really the right word, I
> don't think), but most do not and should not have to possess that skill.
>
> At the old NewTLUG meetings (which I attended frequently right from the very
> first one to the time they ended) some of the same disturbers from the TLUG
> meetings were also there for a time, causing many, many interruptions. It
> became a waste of a trip and time spent at the meeting. Someone spoke up
> (name is not important) and basically told the clique, who liked to sit
> together as a group, that we were here to listen to THAT presenter and if
> they wished to provide their own input to the subject, we would likely
> attend their presentation as well.
>
> The interruptions stopped, not only for the rest of the current
> presentation, but also for most future presentations. NewTLUG meetings
> became a pleasure to attend. An unwanted side effect was that the hecklers
> stopped coming to the meetings. They were welcome there, but better they
> leave than me - that was my thought anyway. They were clearly there for the
> wrong reasons.
>
> Speaking up works very well!
>
> John.
>
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
> How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists