[ghaff]

I think that goes way beyond casual "flirting" in most people's book. Obviously people differ, signals get misread, and tolerances vary. I'm aware of one "code of conduct violation" report based on a Tshirt that made me roll my eyes--as well as the eyes of quite a few women I know. But that doesn't seem like a particular edge case as reported.

[zaroth]

Touching someone's leg is considered flirting, is it not? Honestly, I did not mean to mis-characterize it.

[ghaff]

No. I would not have said so Clearly it varies based on how well you know and your relationship with a person. But randomly in a semi-professional context?

[zaroth]

It was clearly inappropriate, that's not what I'm asking. Inappropriate flirting is a thing. If I read in a book, "she touched his leg" I would call that flirting.

I feel like there's something I'm missing because, as recounted, his actions had such a strong and lasting impact to Greer.

Maybe this Scoble dude is just a nuclear style creep and just having to sit next to him is torturous. But that seems highly unlikely. I've never met the guy! I don't recall ever hearing him speak or watching a video of him even. So...

If I'm understanding the story, 4 people at a hotel bar drinking, one touching someone's leg. And what that led to, or possibly even caused -- I think it's fair to describe it as incredibly damaging? Obviously we want to avoid people being hurt like that. So, we construct social mores and civil law to try to prevent it from happening, and punish a small subset of offenders very harshly.

I'm a little stunned by all of it.