Monday, July 16, 2012

Wall of Creeps

Lately there's been a lot of conversation about how to curb creepy behavior at Defcon. Last year women and goons had "red" and "yellow" cards that they gave to guys who were acting like asses. This plan backfired, as the cards became sought-after swag leading to high demand. The idea was floated this year and has been nearly universally shot down as ineffective, counter-productive and immature.

I propose a different tact - a Wall of Creeps. Creeps - men, women or otherwise - would have their photo on a physical or virtual wall, outing them. The idea is that public shame would act as a deterrent to keep people who are clearly over the line, more under control without forcing conformity. This tactic removes the incentive (scarcity and perceived exclusivity of the cards) and mixes in a strong social disincentive. It won't stop all acts of creephood, but should help cut down on the truly aberrant behavior.

The photo would be a mug shot taken by a goon, which means somebody has to be creepy enough to get dragged to a goon and have the goon stop what they're doing long enough to take the photo. That reduces false positives. Also there should be some criterion for redemption, such as a donation to a cause or a handwritten note or whatever else would make the offendee forgive. Maybe a TTL or a minimum sentence too. After 3 infractions though the creep's photo would be posted for the rest of the con.

Con-goers would be invited to heckle and deride offenders for as long as their face is up there, but not physical violence, doxing, harassment, or generally being a creep/ass, etc. The board could also be used for party organizers to blacklist certain people, etc. I'd love to hear feedback - what do you think?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wait, now the Goons are doing this?

No thanks, we do this without photo's and a wall every year. No reason to slow down the process of removing these bottom feeders.

bw said...

You're right, the Goons are generally pretty good at bouncing the folks who go too far. This is just an alternative, not a replacement for taking more or less severe actions.