[FOSDEM] Beer event

[Philip Paeps]

On 2010-02-02 10:10:54 (+0100), Richard Hartmann <richih.mailinglist at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 00:05, Wouter Verhelst <wouter at debian.org> wrote:
> > It is allowed, but only if no food is served in the bar and, of course,
> > the bar owner does not forbid it otherwise. The Delirium Café does not
> > serve food (other than things like nuts etc, which the law does not apply
> > to), so the law does not forbid it.
> 
> _If_ the Fosdem organizers want to regulate such a thing, I am sure they are
> packing enough economic punch to have said bar forbid smoking during that
> night.

But only if the FOSDEM organizers want to alienate the (not insignificant)
segment of attendees who feel they should be poisoning themselves and others.

> I seem to remember a rather vivid discussion about this topic one or two
> years back.

Yes - and last year, and the year before, and every year.  Let's not have it
again please.  The horse is very dead by now.

Bottom line: FOSDEM is an open source conference, not a healthy lifestyle
conference.  While we strive to provide a healthy atmosphere conductive to the
productive exchange of technical information, we certainly can't guarantee it.
Especially not at the beer event.  By design, the beer event is somewhere
people can let their hair down.  If that involves setting fire to poisonous
plants for some people, we can't help that.

People's social inclinations are none of our business.

> Personally, I think that the smokers have the alley for the short time they
> want to smoke whereas the non-smokers have to sit in the smoke all the time.

I agree that it would be very nice if smoking attendees had the spontaneous
reflex to take their poisons outside (many do - and I appreciate it), but we
(FOSDEM) can't enforce it.  We have a conference to organize.

 - Philip

-- 
Philip Paeps                                    Please don't Cc me, I am
philip at fosdem.org                                subscribed to the list.

  Whatever can go to New York, will.