[wplug-plan] Problem with rude audience members at recent talks

[Bill Moran]

wplug at badgertronics.com (Mark Dalrymple) wrote:
> 
> > The only one I was aware of was the cell-phone usage.  Were there other
> > disruptions that I was unaware of?
> 
> Mainly a constant stream of comments.  Occasionally tried to launch into
> some kind of story, but the speaker had enough control of things to
> keep that from happening.
> 
> During Warren's talk, short comments "uh-huh", "yeah", "that's right"
> (which are annoying enough to start out with, but not too
> distracting), became longer and longer as time went on.  By the time I
> went over to ask him to stop, it was getting to be half Warren and
> half tangentally related comments.  All just spoken out without any
> kind of request for permission.

I aplogize, as I was guilty of making a few unauthorized comments as well.
While this doesn't seem bad on the surface, if everyone in the audience
made one or two comments, the speaker would never get to speak.

However, it seems like this is a single person being accused of causing
most of the problem.  I know this is going to be uncomfortable, but I
feel that if the problem is coming from a single point, then that point
of problem should be addressed directly.

While doing things like reminding people to shut off their cell phones
prior to a talk is a good idea, it's not the full solution.  If my phone
were to ring during a talk I would either shut it off without answering
it, or leave the room ... thus creating significantly less disruption.
Granted, that wouldn't make me right for leaving my phone on, but the
point is that if you have one IP address from Nigeria constantly attacking
your webserver, you don't filter out all traffic to port 80.

> (I'm not even thinking of any kind of bannination like with $person.
> $said_individual is just rude during the talks, not doing anything
> illegal, immoral, or threatening; and is a pleasant enough tech-savvy
> guy to chat with)

I don't see it as a major issue either.  mpop, for example, is a helpful
and well-liked member of WPLUG who has had problems being disruptive
during talks.  These problems have been mostly cleared up, mainly because
he was approached directly (IMHO).  I think a good first step would be
for someone to talk to the person causing the problme and see if he's
capable of adjusting his behaviour.

Although I don't have any problem with being reminded of the correct way
to act prior to a presentation.  We all forget sometimes.

Just my opinion.  Use at your own risk.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com