Rarst

So here is my perspective as non–drinker (by choice, not necessity) who had been through multiple WordCamp afterparties in multiple countries by now.

There are aspects of this which are easy to improve, but there are also those that are very hard to improve. It’s not a binary decision to have or not have alcohol at the party overall.

First let’s focus (for a change) on someone who doesn’t drink. In my case I still need to drink something for basic reasons (stay hydrated and caffeinated) and social reasons (why-don’t-you-have-anything-in-your-hands). It just needs to have no alcohol in it.

And that is surprisingly crappy requirement at any typical party. Drinkers are bar people. They know their typical options and typical alternatives they can get in a typical bar setting. I don’t and super loud and crowded party is a really bad place to have a conversation with very busy bartender about what my options are.

End result — my staple afterparty drink is cola, which I won’t even willingly drink outside of one. This is not a kind of drink to remember evening fondly for.

You want less drinking? Offer interesting and obviously available beverages for starters! I saw quite a few articles around recommending that, but yet to attend a WordCamp that did this.

Now about people that do drink.

There must be smarter and more elaborate definition for it, but I came to refer to what happens to people when they drink as “slipping”. They start to deviate from their “normal” state to a variable degree, more often than not in unpleasant ways.

This is not an on/off switch. There is a great amount of variables here, including specific party environment, but also person’s habits, health, mood, and where they are on a scale from infrequent to alcoholic drinkers.

I witnessed some people drinking quite actively and keeping perfect composure with barely a hint of “slipping” at the wildest afterparties I’ve been to.

I witnessed other people getting shitfaced and “slipping” into states that made them emotionally and physically unpleasant to be around at the calmest afterparties I’ve been to.

Because there are great many variables I don’t think it’s realistic to foolproof the party formula against the latter. Even limiting or excluding alcohol entirely won’t stop a person set on a course to get drunk (they will procure alcohol from elsewhere or fracture away a group to head elsewhere).

So I guess my tl;dr is this — many of WordCamp afterparties are rather simplistically aimed at drinkers, since more people drink than not and planning a party like that takes less effort and decisions.

It is not realistic to drop alcohol out of equation, but making more effort than that for more inclusive and interesting parties would be a good thing.

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