@garrett FOSDEM High Command has long been lazy-mode addicted to the free venue that it gets, and permits that to perpetuate a number of other negatives for attendees & would-be attendees (starting with the unbelievable overcrowding). I see this as just another symptom of that core problem.
I mean, I get it. As a recurring conf organizer myself, a free venue is a massive boon, perhaps even the biggest one imaginable. But everything else is sloppy because of that and audiences shoulder the pain.
@n8 (And by masks, I mean actual effective respirators, such as N95, K-N95, FFP2, and so on. Not cloth things or doctor's paper masks.)
They could also reduce the # of seats per room and have people spread out, but FOSDEM would never do that.
(At FOSDEM, it's hard enough to get people to not sit on the ends and make room for others. And they take pride in having rooms packed fuller than fire codes allow, with even the aisles packed full of standing-room-only.)
@garrett@n8 Last year was the first time I went to FOSDEM but I have to say they did their best to limit the amount of people in the rooms I went to, even going as far as to remove people from a room after they were accidentally let in.
Even before COVID, FOSDEM was known as a superspreader event. People "joked" about the "FOSDEM Flu" every year, and so many caught it.
When you host a lot of people from around the world and pack them together during the height of flu, cold, and (now) COVID season, right after the holidays... of course people will be sick.
Other conferences took measures. Some others even moved their date to the summer (DevConf.cz) as a result.
FOSDEM just does a libertarian "YOLO" and spreads sickness.
@luis_in_brief Ah, I was thinking "you're on your own, everyone should control it themselves", as seen by their last point on the page: "Encouraging ventilation of developer rooms".
...which is something the event organizer needs to do; people attending cannot do that themselves on their own. But they're hands off, doing nothing, and "encouraging" (whatever that means) people to take it upon themselves to get something done.
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