08-05-2015, 05:30 PM
"The conference was planned six years ago:"
The conference was indeed planned many years ago, but the deadlines for various submissions, e.g., contributed talks, splinter sessions, posters and stalls were only a few months ago, some as recently as June this year. All these deadlines were available via the IAU website. If anyone missed them, astronomer or protester, they are out of luck. They had years to prepare.
If I was a little more cynical, I might just think asking for a last-minute change to an enormous conference which took years of planning was done deliberately in order to attract attention knowing there was no chance of success.
The conference was indeed planned many years ago, but the deadlines for various submissions, e.g., contributed talks, splinter sessions, posters and stalls were only a few months ago, some as recently as June this year. All these deadlines were available via the IAU website. If anyone missed them, astronomer or protester, they are out of luck. They had years to prepare.
If I was a little more cynical, I might just think asking for a last-minute change to an enormous conference which took years of planning was done deliberately in order to attract attention knowing there was no chance of success.