People who insist on relitigating this from first principles every time anything in the category comes up are trolling, whether they mean to or not. Why? Because they force everyone else to either (a) cede the battlefield or (b) suffer the soul-crushing boredom of engaging an argument they don't want to have, one that is always the same and never leads anywhere but nastiness.

Here's a first principle that really does apply here: Hacker News exists for the gratification of intellectual curiosity.

There is no intellectual curiosity in this battle—only resentment and repetition, the chocolate and peanut butter of tedium. You can agree with either side ideologically, or with both, or with neither, and still know that such flamewars are off topic here, because they violate the core value of the site.

Imagine a 2x2 matrix in your head. "Angry tedium" is the quadrant we most want to avoid.

Does the conference not gratify your intellectual curiosity? That's cool; there are 29 other things on the front page that might. (Ok, 28 and a job ad.)