Hi Leslie, That is an awful thing too happen to you :'(
All of us are human, and all of us, myself included, have acted in ways we're not proud of.
Yep
[...] However, you are assuming that your fellow RIPE attendees are vindictive people -- instead of people who are willing to talk to the person (in this case me) who was an asshole, tell them why they were hurt, and give the asshole a chance to apologize for their behavior and try to be a better person.
This. As far as I am concerned anybody who realised they behaved like an asshole, apologised and tries to become a better person is welcome at a RIPE meeting. Anybody who doesn't (or just pretends they do, but then doesn't change their behaviour) can be shown the door as quickly physically possible. Everybody makes mistakes. What defines somebody is if/how they fix them. Cheers, Sander