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A software conference that advocates for quality

(bettersoftwareconference.com)
108 points leoncaet | 10 comments | 11 Jul 25 21:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.786s | source | bottom
1. kilpikaarna ◴[12 Jul 25 06:20 UTC] No.44539789[source]▶
This thing feels pretty weird to me. I'm guessing it's an attempt at organizing some sort of european Handmade event, and trying to keep it small.

But between the sparse website, invite-only and anonymous organizers, it just feels like it's emphasizing the reactionary vibes around the Handmade/casey/jblow sphere. Like they don't want a bunch of blue-haired antifa web developers to show up and ruin everything.

Glad to see they got Sweden's own Eskil Steenberg though. Tuning in for that at least.

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2. kristoff_it ◴[12 Jul 25 06:58 UTC] No.44539951[source]▶
That's pretty much what it is, it's a reaction to an implosion that happened last year in the Handmade Network related to the Handmade Seattle conference which caused the conference organizer and the community leads to go separate ways.

https://handmade.network/blog/p/8989-separating_from_handmad...

https://handmadecities.com/news/splitting-from-handmade-netw...

3. userbinator ◴[12 Jul 25 07:45 UTC] No.44540140[source]▶
Like they don't want a bunch of blue-haired antifa web developers to show up and ruin everything.

There's a reason web developers, and the ecosystem/community around them, are the butt of many jokes. I don't think it's at all surprising that the injection of identity politics into the software industry has had a negative effect on quality.

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4. ◴[12 Jul 25 08:02 UTC] No.44540207[source]▶
5. ◴[12 Jul 25 08:24 UTC] No.44540282[source]▶
6. loktarogar ◴[12 Jul 25 09:16 UTC] No.44540568[source]▶
> I don't think it's at all surprising that the injection of identity politics into the software industry has had a negative effect on quality.

That's a pretty broad claim. This conference could be in response to a perceived negative effect on quality, but claiming that as a fact seems hard to back up to me

7. woodpanel ◴[12 Jul 25 10:44 UTC] No.44541029[source]▶
> Like they don't want a bunch of blue-haired antifa web developers to show up and ruin everything

You write this like this is a bad thing.

I just came to a conference to learn some cool new tech, but instead got lectured about my transphobia, that my database is systemic discrimination and my HDD being named „slave“ means I burn crosses in my free time, even though I have zero family relations to anything America.

I mean this screams fun right from the get go.

8. pydry ◴[12 Jul 25 11:02 UTC] No.44541120[source]▶
Ive noticed that some of these types tend to be well meaning young people (often girls) who are super excited to have scored a job doing developer outreach for $BIGTECH.

It's a clever political tactic coz a 50 year old white male middle manager at Microsoft trying to become a board member on an open source foundation would face a lot more hostility than a 20-something girl who pushes all of the diversity buttons.

It mirrors the rather successful marketing strategies for a string of movies including Ghostbusters movie and Barbie, among others. i.e. "There's a certain kind of person who doesnt like our latest corporate offering...". Who wants to be that person?

9. elcapitan ◴[12 Jul 25 11:26 UTC] No.44541249[source]▶
> Like they don't want a bunch of blue-haired antifa web developers to show up and ruin everything

This reads like "Oh some people are meeting, so this must actually be about ME".

10. hnthrow90348765 ◴[12 Jul 25 11:59 UTC] No.44541456[source]▶
>I don't think it's at all surprising that the injection of identity politics into the software industry has had a negative effect on quality.

If it had any effect, it would be negligible compared to offshoring and weak incentives.