DConf 2019: Shepherd's Pie Edition

[Joakim]

On Sunday, 23 December 2018 at 06:54:26 UTC, Russel Winder wrote:
> On Sat, 2018-12-22 at 13:46 +0000, Joakim via 
> Digitalmars-d-announce wrote:
>> 
> […]
>> Given that this conference format is dying off, is there any 
>> explanation for why the D team wants to continue this 
>> antiquated ritual?
>> 
>> https://marco.org/2018/01/17/end-of-conference-era 
>> http://subfurther.com/blog/2018/01/15/the-final-conf-down/ 
>> https://forum.dlang.org/thread/ogrdeyojqzosvjnthpsi@forum.dlang.org
>
> […]
>
> So iOS conferences are a dying form. Maybe because iOS is a 
> dying form?

This questioning of iOS is so removed from reality that it makes 
me question if you are qualified to comment on this matter at 
all. iOS is the largest consumer software platform that is still 
growing, as it's estimated to bring in twice the revenue of 
google's Play store (that doesn't count other Android app stores, 
but they wouldn't make up the gap):

https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/16/apples-app-store-revenue-nearly-double-that-of-google-play-in-first-half-of-2018/

You could make various arguments for why they're still having 
less and less conferences, as my second link above listing them 
does. But to argue that iOS is not doing well is so ludicrous 
that it suggests you don't know much about these tech markets.

> Your evidence of the failure of the iOS community to confer is 
> not evidence of the failure of the conference in other 
> communities.

I never said they fail to confer, I said they're doing it much 
less, because the format is not relevant anymore.

> Others have cited Rust and Go. I shall cite Python, Ruby, 
> Groovy, Java, Kotlin, Clojure, Haskell, all of which have 
> thriving programming language oriented conferences all over the 
> world. Then there are the Linux conferences, GStreamer 
> conferences, conference all about specific technologies rather 
> than programming languages. And of course there is ACCU. There 
> is much more evidence that the more or less traditional 
> conference format serves a purpose for people, and are 
> remaining very successful. Many of these conferences make good 
> profits, so are commercially viable.

That's all well and good, but none of this addresses the key 
points of whether there are less tech conferences being done and 
whether they make sense in this day and age. There are still 
people riding in horse and carriage, that doesn't mean it's still 
a good idea. :)

> Thus I reject the fundamental premise of your position that the 
> conference format is dying off. It isn't. The proof is there.

Yes, the proof is there: the conference is dying. You simply 
don't want to admit it.

This seems to be a religious issue for you, with your bizzare 
assertions above, so I'll stop engaging with you now.