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

[Bobbie Eicher]

For my part, I left the meeting ~45 minutes early because I couldn't
stand being around the group anymore by then.  I don't care to ponder
too much about what all of the visiting people were thinking by that
point.

I know directly of a few people who were extremely irritated, and
indirectly of more.

I don't think that we should draw any parallel at all between what
happened during that talk and someone just forgetting to turn his cell
phone off.  A cell phone ringing during a talk or a class or a meeting
or whatever is just something that's going to happen from time to
time.  People will forget and that's all right.  To actively engage in
a conversation on a cell phone during a talk or anything of the sort
is an entirely different matter, and extraordinarily rude.

There were also some people who appeared to feel that they knew better
than the speaker, either in the form of thinking he (for some reason)
required their very vocal approval, or insisting on suggesting a long
list of what they believed to be holes in his reasoning.  This kind of
thing is fine during some of the very informal GUM meetings where
everyone knows each other and the talk is little more than someone
leading a discussion.

In this case, however, it was a man who didn't know us well, who
speaks on this topic professionally (and does it impressively well, at
that), and who was dealing with a much larger group than is normally
involved in GUMs, and he deserved the courtesy of a little restraint.

Instead, a portion of the people in the room were out to prove that
each of them was, in fact, the smartest guy in the room.  Naturally,
what they were really proving was that they'd each entirely failed to
grasp the actual point of the presentation.

So, yes, I'll freely admit that it grated on my nerves quite a lot. 
You're not at all alone on that, Jonathan.

In fact, my nerves are apparently still a touch frayed from Saturday.

- Bobbie