I think you're half right. First the emotional part. I think you've nailed the emotional tone of whatever response the conference makes. We're friends here. We

I think you're half right. First the emotional part. I think you've nailed the emotional tone of whatever response the conference makes. We're friends here. We want you to feel safe and relaxed. Here are some things we've done to help you out if you don't feel that way. But the emotional part only works inside a logical context. It can not exist on its on. Otherwise we're just swaying wildly in the wind, responding to whatever discomfort anybody feels anywhere. That's not workable. So the question really becomes this: what is the minimal logical construct we can create in order to facilitate each of us being nice to others so that they can feel safe? Reading the comments here, surely there are a lot of folks pissed off that they disinvited Crockford. And there had to be some folks who were pissed off that he was invited in the first place. That leads us to our first rule: no matter what we do, somebody is going to be pissed off. Therefore, people being pissed off cannot be a motivating factor one way or the other. Otherwise conferences just become big battles of who can get more pissed off. How about this for a minimalist rule? If you are a conference speaker, and you are bothered by another speaker and are threatening to boycott the conference because of it, make your case in public. After all, if you're not going to show up, that's a public statement. So instead of putting all of this on the conference organizers and expecting them to sort it out, you get online and make the case yourself. You are the person who was invited to speak in public. You are the person threatening to make a public statement. You are the person causing this public furor. So go head and do that: make a public statement. Don't use somebody to do so in your behalf. That's not fair to the conference, the other speakers, or the attendees. (Or to rest of us, trying to sort through all of this to see if there's anything really there.)