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"At Hack the North, volunteers approached us after receiving a report from an attendee who felt unsafe after viewing the posts on Facebook." - from the update[0

"At Hack the North, volunteers approached us after receiving a report from an attendee who felt unsafe after viewing the posts on Facebook." - from the update[0] Unfortunately if someone feels unsafe then it's escalated past a joke in poor taste. Personally I think the students should still have been allowed to participate and be barred from placing, but I wouldn't call expulsion an overreaction. [0] http://news.mlh.io/when-jokes-go-too-far-09-19-2015 http://news.mlh.io/when-jokes-go-too-far-09-19-2015

13thLetter 11y ago
"Unfortunately if someone feels unsafe then it's escalated past a joke in poor taste." What if I said that your being comfortable with people getting expelled from events over anodyne jokes made me "feel unsafe"? Is it okay for you to get thrown off HN due to my complaint? If not, why not?
megablast 11y ago
> if someone feels unsafe That is a pretty arbitrary way to measure things though.
seivan 11y ago
By your definition the schools treatment of Ahmed's bomb hoax was justified. I'm going to let you think over it one more time.
- edgyswingset 11y ago
  That's an amusing interpretation.
PhasmaFelis 11y ago
> Unfortunately if someone feels unsafe then it's escalated past a joke in poor taste. I'm happy to describe myself as a Social Justice Warrior, capital letters and all, but there has to be a limit somewhere, or anyone can screw anyone else by claiming to be offended by the color of their T-shirt. No reasonable person could have taken this as an actual threat. I could see saying "Hey, please don't make jokes like that," but going straight to kicking people out is not reasonable.
- edgyswingset 11y ago
  I agree that it's strange that someone would feel unsafe over something that's obviously a joke, but there's a decent chance said person could go to the media about that and turn it into yet another culturally insensitive tech industry thing. Better to be safe and leave a few college kids pissed off.
  - 13thLetter 11y ago
    Such a policy puts you at the mercy of every unbalanced person -- or every person with an agenda -- who wanders by. If someone was determined to create the "culturally insensitive tech industry" narrative, they are going to find something, even if they have to make it up. Anyone who genuinely believes that this clock joke was somehow malicious is not the sort of person who was concerned about facts in the first place.

13thLetter 11y ago

"Unfortunately if someone feels unsafe then it's escalated past a joke in poor taste." What if I said that your being comfortable with people getting expelled from events over anodyne jokes made me "feel unsafe"? Is it okay for you to get thrown off HN due to my complaint? If not, why not?

megablast 11y ago

> if someone feels unsafe That is a pretty arbitrary way to measure things though.

seivan 11y ago

By your definition the schools treatment of Ahmed's bomb hoax was justified. I'm going to let you think over it one more time.

edgyswingset 11y ago
That's an amusing interpretation.

PhasmaFelis 11y ago

> Unfortunately if someone feels unsafe then it's escalated past a joke in poor taste. I'm happy to describe myself as a Social Justice Warrior, capital letters and all, but there has to be a limit somewhere, or anyone can screw anyone else by claiming to be offended by the color of their T-shirt. No reasonable person could have taken this as an actual threat. I could see saying "Hey, please don't make jokes like that," but going straight to kicking people out is not reasonable.

edgyswingset 11y ago
I agree that it's strange that someone would feel unsafe over something that's obviously a joke, but there's a decent chance said person could go to the media about that and turn it into yet another culturally insensitive tech industry thing. Better to be safe and leave a few college kids pissed off.
- 13thLetter 11y ago
  Such a policy puts you at the mercy of every unbalanced person -- or every person with an agenda -- who wanders by. If someone was determined to create the "culturally insensitive tech industry" narrative, they are going to find something, even if they have to make it up. Anyone who genuinely believes that this clock joke was somehow malicious is not the sort of person who was concerned about facts in the first place.