it isn't good, any way you slice it. This started out as a bad decision, and once it was made there was no good way out of it. The internet, as has been said, is always very; reactions get multiplied and amplified and re-echoed. What looks like a mob is just one individual after another adding their reaction to a list.

But there have been very many reported incidents in sf circles lately of women being harassed, and pressure has been put on con committees to adopt a clear policy on preventing such incidents. This was utterly foreseeable and avoidable, and nobody much comes out of it very well.