Re: [guadec-list] Terms and conditions for registration

[Dave Neary <dneary gnome org>]

Hi,

Germán Póo-Caamaño wrote:
>> I'm OK with a two-class society where people who pay more get a little
>> more and people who pay nothing get a little less. Events cost money,
>> and we have to pay for them somehow. I don't want to encourage people to
>> think of the code they write or time they spend as payment for stuff
>> they get off the foundation. This would be a Very Bad Thing.
> 
> It is wrong to assume that somebody goes for free if he or she does not
> pay a registration fee.  Any person must spend at least €300-€400 to
> attend to GUADEC.

What is wrong is to consider that the GNOME Foundation owes any GNOME
developers free entry to the conference. As I said, these things cost
money, and must be paid for, and we also want to pay for hackfests and
sysadmins and executive directors and travel subsidies...

What you said is exactly right - for a core contributor, a financial
inability to come should not be a barrier to attendance. But when I see
people employed by companies to work on GNOME saying that they can't
afford a €100 registration fee, I get upset. When I see people who can
clearly afford €100 to register (or €250 for a pro registration that
they could expense to their employer) paying nothing, and getting the
same conference experience as I get paying €100, I get very upset. And
when I see people who have never made a substantial contribution to
GNOME apply for, and obtain, travel subsidies to attend, that makes me
really, really upset.

Upset enough to pay for the €0 option rather than subsidise people who
could afford to pay a little themselves.

> If you add people outside of EU, that must have an extra insurance
> (€100), some of them requires visa (€100-€200), several contributors are
> students and does not have any income, some of them works as volunteers
> in their extra time, so some of them or have to ask for vacation in
> their jobs or permission without earn any salary.

We have done a lot to ensure that we can subsidise travel and
accommodation costs for those who need that. And this is also why I've
been pushing for a very low cost (maybe free) accommodation option where
we can house people who can't afford a hotel room.

> If you still think they want a fee pass because they "only" write code,

<snip>

Germán, let's make sure we understand each other.

Koen talked about not wanting to have a different conference pack for
people who pay 0, €100 or €250, so as not to undervalue "people who have
written 30,000 lines of code".

What I'm saying is that no matter how much code you've written, you
should not feel *entitled* to anything. You haven't *earned* anything
off the GNOME Foundation. The foundation operates (or at least, should
operate) as a social state - from each according to their means, to each
according to their needs. If you're attending on your own and can afford
to pay €100 as a conference fee, then do so - and you'll get a nice
t-shirt & mug for your trouble. If you're attending on behalf of your
employer & can expense the conference fee, pay the top amount (which is
pretty cheap as conferences go). You also get the t-shirt & mug, and
attendance to a pros-only evening reception.

That's all I'm saying, is that when it comes to the financial outlay &
security of the conference, I think there should be a registration fee,
which should be waived generously. But the default option should
definitely be "pay the fee".

> I do prefer a more positive message for those contributors who can pay
> the fee instead speaking about two-class society which sound negative
> for those who can not afford it.

Yes! The positive message is: You're helping GNOME and getting something
that you wouldn't otherwise get! Like FOSDEM.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
dneary gnome org