4 ms·

Organizer invents fake women speakers for DevTernity and JDKon conferences

84 points by jitl 3y ago

thebuzzsaw 3y ago
I'm trying to track down evidence of all cancellations. https://twitter.com/KevlinHenney/status/1729055140555207086 https://twitter.com/KevlinHenney/status/1729055140555207086 https://twitter.com/kelseyhightower/status/1728752713364603159 https://twitter.com/kelseyhightower/status/17287527133646031... https://twitter.com/shanselman/status/1728986396403417219 https://twitter.com/shanselman/status/1728986396403417219 https://twitter.com/ScottWlaschin/status/1729053636150604284 https://twitter.com/ScottWlaschin/status/1729053636150604284 https://twitter.com/svenpet/status/1729086904346513539 https://twitter.com/svenpet/status/1729086904346513539 https://twitter.com/ICooper/status/1729094832809971962 https://twitter.com/ICooper/status/1729094832809971962 https://twitter.com/tastapod/status/1729081069193117721 https://twitter.com/tastapod/status/1729081069193117721 https://twitter.com/sandimetz/status/1729165151004483836 https://twitter.com/sandimetz/status/1729165151004483836 https://twitter.com/samnewman/status/1729311024220692582 https://twitter.com/samnewman/status/1729311024220692582 https://www.404media.co/devternity-fake-speakers-eduard-sizovs/ https://www.404media.co/devternity-fake-speakers-eduard-sizo... > “While I was legitimately on the agenda as a speaker (I was invited to speak six months ago), at this point I’m definitely not participating,” Howard said. Found these accounts but no mention of canceling. https://twitter.com/allenholub https://twitter.com/allenholub https://twitter.com/thiagoghisi https://twitter.com/thiagoghisi https://twitter.com/davefarley77 https://twitter.com/davefarley77 https://twitter.com/romero https://twitter.com/romero And LOL. https://twitter.com/unclebobmartin https://twitter.com/unclebobmartin
mudok 3y ago
[flagged]
quercusa 3y ago
If you don't have an X account: https://nitter.net/GergelyOrosz/status/1728177708608450705 https://nitter.net/GergelyOrosz/status/1728177708608450705
- AlexandrB 3y ago
  It's such baffling UX to show just the first Tweet in a thread with no indication that others exist or that they could be accessed by creating an account. What is the purpose of this? Site just seems broken if you've never visited before. I also get a "enable notifications" modal popup when visiting the page that prevents me from even seeing the first Tweet. Just great.
- lukewrites 3y ago
  Thanks. I'm glad nitter still works, and am increasingly frustrated with people who choose to post on twitter instead of somewhere that doesn't lock down content behind a login. Muscle memory lasts a long time, but there's a reason people don't default to blogging on medium.
gustavus 3y ago
> The organizer responded, claiming he tried so hard to get women speakers but it’s… too hard. For a paid (!) conference w a price of €789 / $870 per person. Well as long as you put in the effort and tried hard, lying is perfectly morally acceptable. No system can survive for long if a breakdown of trust become endemic
quercusa 3y ago
Follow-up: https://www.404media.co/devternity-fake-speakers-eduard-sizovs/ https://www.404media.co/devternity-fake-speakers-eduard-sizo...
- wendyshu 3y ago
  He claims it was an accident but it happened in multiple years in multiple conferences?
  - pushcx 3y ago
    A bad lie. I banned him from a site for the CodingUnicorn sockpuppet 4 years ago. He's significantly expanded his sockpuppeting since.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - quangquach 3y ago
      That codingunicorn (or unicorncoding) account in Reddit was shitting on Uncle Bob 2 years ago https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/ojk66h/comment/h52530v https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/ojk66h/comment... It's strange that now Uncle Bob seems defending that person by calling out "Cancel culture".
lostmsu 3y ago
The organizer should be tried for fraud.
- darksim905 3y ago
  this seems extreme.
  - nickthegreek 3y ago
    Why is that extreme? They made fake accounts, pushed fake speakers who would "back out" every year. The only thing extreme here is the lengths in which the organizes went to repeatedly commit fraud. Do you think Microsoft thinks it was cool to say higher up at their organization would be speaking?
  - bastawhiz 3y ago
    It's misrepresenting an event that real people are paying to attend. Why wouldn't it be criminal fraud?
deadbabe 3y ago
Is anyone else curious to see how far they would have gone with this? If they can’t get women to speak I’ll volunteer for clout!
- wlonkly 3y ago
  They've done it for several years now, and the fake women have always pulled out of the conference at the last minute, so I think we already know how far they would have gone. There's another post about how the organizer has run a woman coder Instagram influencer sockpuppet/catfish for many years, too. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38439794 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38439794
  - deadbabe 3y ago
    [flagged]
wendyshu 3y ago
"There have been 1000s of events chasing the same small sub-group of female speakers.” Who would have thought, it's hard to find female coders in order to present some fantasy where there are a lot of female coders because there aren't a lot of female coders. Everything on a woman's resume is doubted because it may have been due to affirmative action. Infuriating.
- dtjb 3y ago
  "Everything on a woman's resume is doubted because it may have been due to affirmative action." Do we doubt men's resumes because they could have been a legacy admission, or hired by a buddy from school?
  - wendyshu 3y ago
    Nothing you mentioned is sex-specific
- potatosalad21 3y ago
  What's pathetic is there are lots of female coders out there, I work with many. But they don't usually self-promote that much and they aren't all young and Instagram worthy attractive like the fake speakers created by this creep so they might as well not exist.

84 points by jitl 3y ago

I'm trying to track down evidence of all cancellations. https://twitter.com/KevlinHenney/status/1729055140555207086 https://twitter.com/KevlinHenney/status/1729055140555207086 https://twitter.com/kelseyhightower/status/1728752713364603159 https://twitter.com/kelseyhightower/status/17287527133646031... https://twitter.com/shanselman/status/1728986396403417219 https://twitter.com/shanselman/status/1728986396403417219 https://twitter.com/ScottWlaschin/status/1729053636150604284 https://twitter.com/ScottWlaschin/status/1729053636150604284 https://twitter.com/svenpet/status/1729086904346513539 https://twitter.com/svenpet/status/1729086904346513539 https://twitter.com/ICooper/status/1729094832809971962 https://twitter.com/ICooper/status/1729094832809971962 https://twitter.com/tastapod/status/1729081069193117721 https://twitter.com/tastapod/status/1729081069193117721 https://twitter.com/sandimetz/status/1729165151004483836 https://twitter.com/sandimetz/status/1729165151004483836 https://twitter.com/samnewman/status/1729311024220692582 https://twitter.com/samnewman/status/1729311024220692582 https://www.404media.co/devternity-fake-speakers-eduard-sizovs/ https://www.404media.co/devternity-fake-speakers-eduard-sizo... > “While I was legitimately on the agenda as a speaker (I was invited to speak six months ago), at this point I’m definitely not participating,” Howard said. Found these accounts but no mention of canceling. https://twitter.com/allenholub https://twitter.com/allenholub https://twitter.com/thiagoghisi https://twitter.com/thiagoghisi https://twitter.com/davefarley77 https://twitter.com/davefarley77 https://twitter.com/romero https://twitter.com/romero And LOL. https://twitter.com/unclebobmartin https://twitter.com/unclebobmartin

mudok 3y ago

[flagged]

quercusa 3y ago

If you don't have an X account: https://nitter.net/GergelyOrosz/status/1728177708608450705 https://nitter.net/GergelyOrosz/status/1728177708608450705

AlexandrB 3y ago
It's such baffling UX to show just the first Tweet in a thread with no indication that others exist or that they could be accessed by creating an account. What is the purpose of this? Site just seems broken if you've never visited before. I also get a "enable notifications" modal popup when visiting the page that prevents me from even seeing the first Tweet. Just great.
lukewrites 3y ago
Thanks. I'm glad nitter still works, and am increasingly frustrated with people who choose to post on twitter instead of somewhere that doesn't lock down content behind a login. Muscle memory lasts a long time, but there's a reason people don't default to blogging on medium.

gustavus 3y ago

> The organizer responded, claiming he tried so hard to get women speakers but it’s… too hard. For a paid (!) conference w a price of €789 / $870 per person. Well as long as you put in the effort and tried hard, lying is perfectly morally acceptable. No system can survive for long if a breakdown of trust become endemic

quercusa 3y ago

Follow-up: https://www.404media.co/devternity-fake-speakers-eduard-sizovs/ https://www.404media.co/devternity-fake-speakers-eduard-sizo...

wendyshu 3y ago
He claims it was an accident but it happened in multiple years in multiple conferences?
- pushcx 3y ago
  A bad lie. I banned him from a site for the CodingUnicorn sockpuppet 4 years ago. He's significantly expanded his sockpuppeting since.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - quangquach 3y ago
    That codingunicorn (or unicorncoding) account in Reddit was shitting on Uncle Bob 2 years ago https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/ojk66h/comment/h52530v https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/ojk66h/comment... It's strange that now Uncle Bob seems defending that person by calling out "Cancel culture".

lostmsu 3y ago

The organizer should be tried for fraud.

darksim905 3y ago
this seems extreme.
- nickthegreek 3y ago
  Why is that extreme? They made fake accounts, pushed fake speakers who would "back out" every year. The only thing extreme here is the lengths in which the organizes went to repeatedly commit fraud. Do you think Microsoft thinks it was cool to say higher up at their organization would be speaking?
- bastawhiz 3y ago
  It's misrepresenting an event that real people are paying to attend. Why wouldn't it be criminal fraud?

deadbabe 3y ago

Is anyone else curious to see how far they would have gone with this? If they can’t get women to speak I’ll volunteer for clout!

wlonkly 3y ago
They've done it for several years now, and the fake women have always pulled out of the conference at the last minute, so I think we already know how far they would have gone. There's another post about how the organizer has run a woman coder Instagram influencer sockpuppet/catfish for many years, too. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38439794 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38439794
- deadbabe 3y ago
  [flagged]

wendyshu 3y ago

"There have been 1000s of events chasing the same small sub-group of female speakers.” Who would have thought, it's hard to find female coders in order to present some fantasy where there are a lot of female coders because there aren't a lot of female coders. Everything on a woman's resume is doubted because it may have been due to affirmative action. Infuriating.

dtjb 3y ago
"Everything on a woman's resume is doubted because it may have been due to affirmative action." Do we doubt men's resumes because they could have been a legacy admission, or hired by a buddy from school?
- wendyshu 3y ago
  Nothing you mentioned is sex-specific
potatosalad21 3y ago
What's pathetic is there are lots of female coders out there, I work with many. But they don't usually self-promote that much and they aren't all young and Instagram worthy attractive like the fake speakers created by this creep so they might as well not exist.