A successful GNOME event involves everyone having fun. If someone in your audience is uncomfortable with something you’ve said, you’re not doing your job. Apologize to them as soon as possible, and try to avoid the topic that triggered this for the rest of your presentation.
Is it just me or is this an absurd “guideline”?
Walk the line
In fact the guidelines as a whole are absolutely reactionary, absurd and promote groupthink. They are overwhelmingly negative. “Don’t” do this. “Avoid” this.
How about instead you suggest a set of positive guidelines for speakers in accordance with the mission statement of the GNOME Foundation and the goal of the GNOME project: to create a computing platform for use by the general public that is completely free software.
Is furthering the development of a Free Software platform the mark of a successful GNOME event? Or is “everyone having fun”?
I’d suggest a successful birthday party for your 5-year old involves “everyone having fun”. Working out a major platform where decisions moral and technical must be made? Not so much. Education, illustration, healthy (and even heated) debate seem more appropriate than “everyone having fun” as a specific checkpoint.
Not only are the existing guidelines absurd and negative, but they are also impossible to comply with, because they are so overly-PC “avoid offending anyone at any cost” that no speaker can touch on any topic – much less one with any debate or controversy – without offending someone. (And boy-o-boy there is a contingent out there determined to be offended.)
Now I’m offended!
Personally, I’m offended everytime Team Apologista tears down Free Software and promotes a company dedicated to subverting and destroying Linux. I’m offended everytime the usual suspects launch another tired barrage of fact-free personal attacks against RMS. But I do my best to argue my point of view in response, not suggest others shouldn’t be allowed to speak. By contrast, the Open Source Offenderati is eager to muzzle and exile those who disagree with them.
For extra chuckles, look at the guilty conscience-assuaging final paragraph:
Please keep in mind that the GNOME Foundation is not the right forum to debate whether someone should feel offended or not; you should simply avoid offending people even if you do not share their views. These guidelines do not constitute censorship since you have many other forums and opportunities to say whatever you wish.
The fundamental problem is that in many cases, you can not “simply avoid offending people” because people take offense – it is an action on their part, not yours. (Assuming here that one is not intentionally setting out to offend) Taking offense is virtually guaranteed when people don’t “share views”.
Black is not black, white is not white
I also love the “these guidelines do not constitute censorship” disclaimorese, like saying something makes it true. Censorship is “the suppression or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.”
By definition, then, these guidelines are indeed censorship – having other forums and opportunities does not change that fact. (There is the consideration that censorship is not necessarily a “bad thing”, but that’s not the argument being made here).
Anyway, RMS is slated to speak at an upcoming GNOME conference and the pre-FUD is already being rolled out. That’s what brought this on – expect to see more pre/during/and post speech.
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