Non-Profit Drupal Summit 2014, in association with GLADCamp

For topical-based camps -- as parts of your camps are -- I think it's entirely appropriate to post those events into related topical-based groups. The nonprofit summit should absolutely be posted into nonprofit Drupal groups. Thus, those who find it "relevant," as you describe in a pretty condescending way, will easily be able to find it.

But it's unreasonable to post a regular camp announcement into every other location-based group on the off chance someone will be willing to travel to your camp. Groups in your state, sure, and maybe even neighboring states. (In the Pacific NW, for instance, Oregon and Washington events are often cross-posted.) But in Boston? No.

There are Drupal groups all over the world. Many of them have camps (or join together to create camps) at least once a year. If every Drupal group advertised their camp in every other Drupal group, there would be no point to having separate groups at all -- every group would be flooded by every Drupal event listing in the world. That's obviously not feasible.

Even though I live in Portland, Oregon, I'm willing to attend camps in Philadelphia (where I used to live), and so I'm a member of that group. But I don't expect to see those events pop up in the Portland group, because that would be insane. Again, consider the scale -- if every Drupal camp from every group appeared in my local group, there'd be no point to having a group calendar.

More to the point, though, is your attitude that your camp is so special, you shouldn't be bound by the community guidelines we've all collectively been living by. That others have sometimes ignored those guidelines isn't much of a defense; in fact given the number of Drupal camps around the world, the fact that it's only happened a few times shows how widely-shared those guidelines are.

I've helped organize Drupal camps in Philadelphia, I was a track chair for Drupalcon Portland, and I have a background in community organizing. I know how important it is to get the word out about an event. But consider that you're seriously turning people off by spamming groups with your events. I think it's instructive, for instance, that you didn't invite people in other groups to your event. You simply cross-posted the event, so that it appears as if it's being sponsored by all those local Drupal groups. It would have been far different if you had created a blog post that said, dear folks in Boston and Portland and Philadelphia, we're having an awesome camp and even though we're far away in San Diego Los Angeles (sorry for the mistake), we think you might be interested! That would have been charming and respectful, and I bet you would have gotten some folks (certainly just as many folks) using that method.

But simply cross-posting events shows a disrespect for people's time, not to mention disrespect for your fellow organizers.

And so again, I'm going to ask you to kindly remove the event from groups which are not anywhere nearby, not topically-related, and not involved in the planning of the event.

Micky,

I won't restate my reply comment above, but I'll summarize it quickly:

• There are hundreds of groups all over the world. If they all post events in each other's groups, it wouldn't be helpful to anyone.

• Geographically-based groups' meaning is indeed their specific location. Events happening 3,000 miles away that aren't being organized by anyone in the group are, indeed, not relevant.

• If a special invitation wants to be extended outside of the local group, I think that's great! But the way to do that is to blog about it in the other groups, not to spam them with cross-posted events.