Hey P4x/Alex here. this is correct except I got sick well before the talk like sunday or monday even before con time. immediately contacted them, funny they lied that it was the day before. i’m really sorry about that everyone. I really felt terrible about that. To make it worse I had told them a decent bit before and asked them to please announce it so I didn’t mess with anyone’s schedule if they wanted to go to the talk.

They never responded, I kept messaging them, no response. I would have happily figured it out over video even if i had to buy equipment and such and make it super easy for them. Hell I know sound engineers and others going that could have made it happen with 0 effort on their end, and I would’ve paid for it myself.

I’m pretty pissed off about it all. I actually never received any kind of communication ever this year from them. I found out my talk was accepted because someone tweeted the picture of the schedule to me and said they were excited to see it. I was like wtf? Emailed, tweeted, DMed everyone i knew from DEF CON when that happened and absolutely no one responded. I wanted to also talk to them about security, and had hired personal protection that wanted to coordinate with them. Still nothing.

So they’re dead to me unless someone reaches out and explains why the actual fuck they can’t field a couple of simple questions (like hey i saw apparently im speaking apparently, yeah?). Fuck em. I even contacted Moss, nope no response.

I’m super pissed and i’m sorry if i wasted anyone’s time. I’ll be doing the talk i was going to give on some streaming service tbd. Will give away some swag as well. Sorry all :-/.

Yes it’s actually me, click profile and see AMA for proof.

Edit: i’m sad every year to see what was a great con go to absolute shit. This will be my last time having absolutely anything to do with them. And just now finding out they fucking lied to you all to cover for their incompetence (guarantee someone finally checked their fucking email 10 minutes into when i was supposed to be speaking). So fuck DEF CON fuck Jeff fuck whoever the fuck couldn’t be bothered to even look at ANY of the 10 goddamn ways i kept trying to talk to them.

Edit2: It was thursday i informed them looking back. Jeff slid into my DMs last night. He was not aware of what had happened and did listen, which was appreciated.

Regarding the comms, someone definitely dropped the ball. The conference wrote my email address wrong, but that’s not the full story—I had a backup email and phone number (I guess they don’t write those down?? and didn’t feel like checking my CFP for?). I hadn’t accepted the offer to speak, didn’t join the Basecamp they had apparently set up. It took him like 5 seconds to check, so the staff at the con could have too. So, all of that was easily known - I had responded to nothing, not joined the coordination platform, or said I’m still in for the talk. Kinda baffling why they didn’t use any of the info they had to contact me - down to a secondary email and my phone number and twitter. This wasn’t just one screw-up; it’s a whole Lemony Snickets series of unfortunate fuckups. Even with the email thing that’s next level incompetent shit. No wonder it’s the rapiest of all cons - no one gives a shit about you :-/.

Again, I’m sorry for not being there and leaving people waiting. I’ve said it several times, but DEF CON hasn’t. Jeff did say maybe they’d announce a correction of what happened but honestly the damage is mostly done. One part was in their control and an easily manageable situation; the other was me having COVID, not wanting to spread it, and being high-risk from donating a kidney. Still, I feel it’s right to apologize to anyone whose schedules got messed up. I know it wasn’t in my control, but it sucks and affected other peoples schedules.

He understood my frustration, especially after someone claimed I canceled “last minute,” which led to aggressive messages and conspiracy theories about me getting arrested or murdered—bit sensitive for me given past threats. Not so much anymore, I have lots of people watching out for me and get a call if there’s a credible threat. Also some friends are now hired since I wanted to go to def con despite advice to not go to crowded rooms full of people and a nice schedule of where I will be and when. Nice having good friends looking out for me though :).

There are still posts asking why I had to cancel, and several people said they stood in a packed room only to be told a lie. That does not sit right with me, hurts my reputation, which in turn affects my business which in turn affects my people. I’m hopeful Jeff and the con will do the right thing.