[AusNOG] Sexual Harassment at AUSNOG Industry Events

[Robert Hudson]

On Mon, 1 Oct 2018 at 22:36, Noel Butler <noel.butler at ausics.net> wrote:

> This is a network operators list for discussion of network operations, not
> HR related material.
>
If you think that issues of sexual harassment and assault are purely HR
matters, you're part of the problem.

> This entire thread is outside the charter, and to continue after being
> told to stop shows complete and utter lack of respect for David and the
> others who run ausnog, or are we all going to be selective about what parts
> of the charter we think should be enforced.
>
There's plenty of discussion on these lists that isn't strictly within the
charter.  That's not an excuse.

I respect David and the people who run AusNOG - trust me, as someone who
runs an NFP representing technical people, I know of many of the pitfalls
they negotiate, and also the thanklessness of the task at times.

What have a lack of respect for is the concept of shutting down discussion
of something that occurred at an official AusNOG event, because it's
"uncomfortable" or "difficult" or "concerning" or "not in the charter" or
some such.

> I also think it was a fair call to STOP THREAD it, since serious criminal
> offence accusations have been made, and as ausnog have done in the past
> with posts that have legal potentials.
>
It would have been a fair call the ask that ongoing discussion ensured that
legal boundaries were not crossed - restricting it to no discussion of a
specific incidence, etc, but allowing a general discussion of the concepts
of how a number of people within our industry are treated (sexual
harassment and assault are one problem, discrimination of people based on a
range of factors is also rife) should have been allowed to continue.

I think that the decision to "STOP THREAD" in this case was wrong.  The
decision was clearly based on an incorrect premise - because if we all knew
that the reported behaviours was wrong, we wouldn't be seeing people within
this group (and at an AusNOG event, that's almost certainly the case)
behaving in this fashion.

> There should have been only one report made, and that should have been to
> the police so the mongrels responsible have their day in court and suffer
> the consequences of their actions. This list is not that place.
>
Sorry, I disagree.  That would, potentially, if the legal case went the
right way (and there's no guarantee of that) potentially stop one person
from acting in the fashion described.

A discussion on the list makes it clear to those (it's more than one of us,
you're delusional if you think otherwise) who feel that they have a right
to mistreat others that the rest of us (and I believe that is the vast
majority of us) will not only not support legal action being taken when
it's required, but that WE will not support this sort of behaviour within
our industry.

A discussion may also lead to solutions.

Oh - and by the way - by responding in this thread, you broke your own "you
can't respect the operators of AusNOG if you break their STOP THREAD edict"
rule.  Well done...
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ausnog.net/pipermail/ausnog/attachments/20181002/b1183062/attachment.html>