I'm on the organizing committee for Steel City Ruby Conf, and I can assure you, this is not just for marketing.

Our mission for this conference is to bring more people in to the Ruby conference scene because we think it's awesome. We are doing many things to help achieve this goal, such as working to keep attendee costs down, having a 30m on/30m off schedule to have lots of time for discussion, and yes, being inclusive and making that clear by having an anti-harassment policy.

Why would anyone who hasn't been to a conference before want to attend a conference after seeing the list of incidents compiled by Geek Feminism (http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_incidents)? It certainly gives a different impression of what conferences are like than the tone we are trying to set.

We used Geek Feminism's policy (http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassmen...) pretty much verbatim, and we're also following many of their other awesome recommendations (http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassmen...). We encourage all tech conferences to do the same to promote inclusion in our communities.

I'd be happy to answer any questions either here or via email.

Thanks. This seems pretty perfect and seems like everybody is happy about this. Which is great.

I wish I could attend to this conf. But I couldn't be able to arrange air tickets for the conf :( Good Job. And looking forward for the videos or live stream.

You're very welcome!

Travel costs are definitely one of the biggest hurdles keeping people from attending conferences. Since this is our first year, we don't have any funds for this, but I'm hoping that we manage to run a small surplus so that we can offer travel grants next year.

Yes. Good luck with the conf.

It does look like they are taking a particularly strong stance. Kudos, especially for this:

"In particular, exhibitors should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualized clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualized environment."

This is cool. They should even mentioned attendees to this also.

Railsconf had a similar policy: http://railsconf2012.com/antiharassment

I think this is an excellent idea.

It is a good idea, just can't believe some poeple need to be reminded to be decent. Maybe it's just Ruby people. I haven't see this required at other language conferences.

This one applies to every O'Reilly conference: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/code-of-conduct.csp

There's also a project to make one others can use: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/index.php?title=Conference_ant...

Also, it's not "just Ruby people" who need to be reminded to act properly - that's just a group random cynics on Hacker News like to take pot shots on for some reason. The biggest stories of harassment at conferences that have done the rounds here have not tended to be about Ruby events: http://lwn.net/Articles/417952/ http://blog.valerieaurora.org/2010/11/08/its-not-just-noirin... http://blog.nerdchic.net/archives/418/

(Update: I've been notified of an intriguing page which lists "incidents" - though more generally and not just about conferences - from as far back as 1982: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_incidents )

Also seems very similar to the Code of Conduct for JSConf 2012. http://2012.jsconf.us/#/about

I don't know about other language conferences, but certainly in the past it's been needed at other developer conferences.

(It's one of the reasons projects like the Ada Initiative have been set up - http://www.techworld.com.au/article/412523/breaking_down_gen... )