By: Kari Sperring
Thank you! I’ve had far more experience of being harassed in fannish spaces than I like to think about, and I kept quiet for years, because, culturally, it was unacceptable to make a fuss. It’s good to...
View ArticleBy: Paul Riddell
Rose, truthfully, it’s about high time that someone stood up and pointed out that conventions should be run as businesses, for a lot of reasons, but the biggest is to have a way to get rid of people...
View ArticleBy: Michael Giltz
Thanks for publishing this piece and highlighting an issue that gets little attention but clearly touches a nerve among readers, as evinced by the comments. Changing the attitude from crime and...
View ArticleBy: Kevin J. Maroney
Rose, I absolutely agree with the need to show that science fiction fandom stands against harassment. But I have a question about one of your points here. What do you see as the advantage of a “focus...
View ArticleBy: Andrew Porter
Paul Riddell, if conventions are run as a business—not by fans, with hundreds of volunteers donating their time—then you won’t be able to afford to go to any.
View ArticleBy: Andrew Porter
Discussions of actual persons could lead to legal action. I suggest leaving names out of this discussion.
View ArticleBy: Bernard Peek
One point I haven’t seen mentioned in any of the online discussions is a legal one. Depending on the jurisdiction cons may not be able to “ban” a harasser. If the con is a public event some...
View ArticleBy: David Dyer-Bennet
I think you have a very different conception of “community” than I do, and that I understand is meant when people talk about fan groups, individual conventions, and fandom as a whole as communities....
View ArticleBy: Christine Middlemass
I am truly appalled to hear of this kind of behavior at cons. Having said that I feel Worldcon needs to make some significant changes in order to stay relevant. The excusionary fan culture allows...
View ArticleBy: Rose Fox
My understanding (and I am not a lawyer) is that since cons are membership organizations, they have the right to refuse membership to anyone for any reason. They can’t stop the person from entering the...
View ArticleBy: Kevin J. Maroney
I was thinking of making a response like that myself, except there’s the counter-example of Dragon*Con–which is a for-profit business but which attracts literally thousands of volunteers. Of course...
View ArticleBy: Paul Riddell
I don’t have problems with conventions being run by volunteers, Andy. My beef is with the number that are run with all of the professionalism of a group of seven-year-olds who want to hold a parade....
View ArticleBy: Paul Riddell
Rose, having been caught in the middle of such a situation (I was working security at a convention where a Cat Piss Man tried to confiscate what he considered illegal material from a dealer, and the...
View ArticleBy: Paul Riddell
Sadly, Christine, I don’t expect things to get better soon, if only because of the number of oldtime fans who don’t want new blood. Several friends asked me recently if I was interested in driving down...
View ArticleBy: Colleen Lindsay
As a publicity/marketing person for several large publishers specializing in pop culture, I’ve worked many genre conventions. At most of these conventions, at least one of my female booth staff members...
View ArticleBy: Bernard Peek
The SMOFs list does on occasion discuss how to bring new people into fandom. I made a proposal a few weeks ago to help do that. But it’s important not to get carried away with the idea that larger...
View ArticleBy: Kevin J. Maroney
Paul, Direct comparisons between WorldCon and Dragon*Con strike me as beside the point. Dragon*Con is at least five different conventions at once–a comics con, an anime con, a film & TV pop-culture...
View ArticleBy: Linkspam, 9/14/12 Edition — Radish Reviews
[...] What Conventions Are and Aren’t A wonderful analysis by Rose Fox on conventions as businesses and what they can do to attract and keep customers–and the customers they lose by privileging...
View ArticleBy: Ginny P
Excellent essay, thank you! One quibble: Even if one continues to think of conventions as a party for friends, throwing out someone who is harassing other guests — or starting fights, or breaking house...
View ArticleBy: Galactic Suburbia 68! « Randomly Yours, Alex
[...] discussion on conventions, creepers & safe spaces Genreville We Don’t Do That Anymore And the SF Signal [...]
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