What would

[james_davis_nicoll]

A Readercon done right look like?

Comments

[avram]

Assuming they got the harassment policy fixed to your liking, and could be relied upon to enforce it, would there be any other changes you'd want made to the convention?

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

I think they would flow naturally from that one change.

[avram]

I think it's been a decade or more since I went to Readercon, so I don't have any direct knowledge of how it's been in recent years, but Catherynne Valente wrote a couple of years back about some problems with programming that don't sound related to the harassment policy. Has any of that changed?

[rosefox]

There's a new program chair who's been taking things in a different direction.

[redbird]

Are they including "is there anyone you don't want to be on a panel with?" on the program participant forms? That wouldn't by itself prevent people like the sexist moderator, though it can reduce an individual's stress; I don't know what happens if 15 different people say they don't want to be on a panel with a specific person. (When Wiscon does this, all they ask is the names; so I could list someone who I found problematic on a previous panel, or it could be "most people don't know this, but zie and I had a bad break-up a few years back, and I don't want to be stuck in the same room with zir for that long," or anything else. There is of course no guarantee that the answer won't be "okay, leave redbird off this one, we really want to put that person she doesn't get along with on it.")

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

Yes, they do. I do not know if they do any sort of analysis on the frequency someone's name shows up in that field, though.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I daresay that if the frequency gets high, it will be noticed.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

I would hope so.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

I have really enjoyed the programming at all the Readercons I've attended.

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

The programming is great. That's what makes this Other Thing so annoying.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

I lack the necessary knowledge of Readercon to have a strong opinion, so that doesn't come under "things *I* want changed" at this time.

Right now, for me, I want my sexual integrity respected when I am at a convention, as an interim step I want to be taken seriously when I explain what is preventing that and pretty much everything else ever is an issue I'll take up when that one's in hand.

Somewhere in the last two years or so I stopped regarding having my boundaries repeatedly violated at cons as part of the membership cost, and I am never going to be able to go back there, even if I wanted to, which I do not.

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

By "back there", are you referring to all cons, or to one or more cons in particular? There are some cons (e.g. Farthing Party) where I would be astonished if one had such a problem.

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

I think she meant that she is not going to go back to a state where she accepts having her boundaries violated repeatedly as part of the experience.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Yes, thanks. I phrased that sloppily.

I have to call my participation in this thread due to Local Weather. <3.