How to kill a con

[james_davis_nicoll]

It’s my opinion that what really killed RF2016 was RF2011 to RF2015. During those years we failed to deal with problem behavior as it started happening. We failed at every level of our organization: we didn’t adequately staff the event to cope with our growing numbers, we didn’t work with our venue to discourage bad behavior, and we didn’t create an environment where people who wanted to solve these problems were able to. As a result, damage to both the venue and to RainFurrest’s reputation escalated yearly, and by 2016 it had reached a point that I now believe was irreversibly broken. The rest of this letter explains this opinion in detail, but that’s the summary: RainFurrest was irretrievably damaged before 2016 began, but we could not — or chose not to — see the damage.

Comments

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Because refusing to publicly admit to a problem always works.

Makes me appreciate all the hard work jvowles and the rest of the Otakon staff put in to make sure things function smoothly. Of course their con is big enough that they can hire professional security.

[jayblanc.livejournal.com]

I'm close friends with someone who was to be a GOHs for this. They weren't given advance warning of the cancelation, or any potential issues. I've also put together and moderated a panel at this con before, and there were early warning signs then. I've already written up a straighten-up-and-fly-right editorial elsewhere as part of my alter-ego as the Furry Fandom's voice of reason.

[ian wright (from livejournal.com)]

And I see the "There are no perfect solutions therefore we should do nothing" crowd is out in full force at your site. Along with the "But can you prove in a court of law that each and every incidence was directly related to the con?" group. The idea that there might be a direct link between bad behaviour and losing access to venues is lost on them.

My condolences for trying to be the voice of reason in any fandom.

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

My word, the comments on that post. Responding to the news that three attendees were hospitalized, "For all we know, three attendees had heart attacks."... /facepalm

[solarbird]

Getting ahead of it is the only way, as I was writing earlier in no uncertain terms. Katsucon is also seeing problems like Rainfurrest, and they are trying to do exactly that - I wish them the best of luck.

[krdbuni.livejournal.com]

A lot of people were caught flat-footed by the announcement, myself included. Two of my staff were actually in the new venue taking pictures and writing up a media release on how great the place looked when I got told they had to leave immediately. One person had already booked a hotel room at the base rate and had emailed us asking for help in getting backdated into a room block that was never to be.

I wish I could've given more warning to everyone. Given how little notice I got, I did about the best I could on that front.

[brownbetty]

I'm a little amazed by how weird and petty some of the damages seem.

[jayblanc.livejournal.com]

There's a contingent of people who don't understand the difference between Raunchy 80s Teen Comedy Movies and real life.

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

There's a contingent of people who think that everyone other than them was engaged in Raunchy 80s Teen Comedy Behavior while in high school, and thus feel that they have to make up for it now.

Well, guess what. Those others weren't actually doing that back then.

[ian wright (from livejournal.com)]

A strange sort of social escalation: My con story is better than yours. Since people got away with weird and petty crap at this party for years, it became the party to see how far you could push that weird and petty crap.

ETA: Captcha reads "Paint it red". Oddly appropriate.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

It's almost as though fandom is full of people with the mentality of middle schoolers.

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

Not full, but full enough for negative purposes. Elementary- and middle-school "everyone exclude [X], s/he's got cooties, ya know, [X] germs". And some of the problem people are at high-school-level for cliquishness and such.

But these discussions tend to wander into the zone of Harlan Ellison's essay "Xenogenesis". As many people dispute his assertions, most fans really are good people. Far from perfect, but basically pretty good.

[wakboth.livejournal.com]

Sadly, every fandom has more than enough of the immature idiots.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

:$s/fandom/any group of people aligned by personal interest/g

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

I attended a RF several years ago, and it was interesting, but you could see if that no one was held responsible for their actions (attendees) that it would become wilder and more Lord of the Flies at some point.

[ian wright (from livejournal.com)]

And in what I'm sure is a completely unrelated matter, I see certain people in SF fandom have no problem with someone randomly dropping trou and grinding on other con guests. I'm sure this attitude of ignoring problems until they go away will in no way come back to haunt anyone.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

The "this isn't a problem for me, therefore it shouldn't be a problem for anyone" mindset is so infuriating.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

I find the dropping trou part to be borderline. By all accounts she had boxers on underneath, so she wasn't exposing an undue amount of skin, and as weird as it is to see someone drop their pants in public, what she did is effectively no different than if she'd taken a sweatshirt off when she had a tank top underneath. I'd class that part as obnoxious attention seeking but not actually beyond the pale.

Now rubbing on some stranger who's sitting next to you, OTOH, should be an insta-ban, no room for discussion.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

Except that in context, dropping trou clearly meant "look what I can get away with;" look at the trou-dropper's reaction to getting asked not to, calling people "rat" and so forth. Enabling that behavior for years is what made the actual harassment possible.

[ian wright (from livejournal.com)]

Yeah. The first time it happened was the time to crack down on it. After that it sounds like it became her party schtick; "See what I can do!" And then things escalated from there.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

I've seen a lot of people who say something similar. After removing her pants, she was wearing as much as someone in shorts.

To me, removing pants has a lot of connotations. It's not about how much skin is showing, per se, it's about a sexual more that's pretty heavily enforced. Taking off your pants, showing your underwear, is a private act that requires consent.

If Rosen was male, I think it might be intuitively clearer. Removing a sweatshirt is socially acceptable, but removing pants isn't. I don't want to see strangers' underwear, regardless of how concealing/revealing it might be.

I think Rosen's actions later, humping Mark and making faces at him, further indicates that this was not a harmless act. Rosen hadn't gotten too warm, she wanted to upset societal norms. Or sexually harass someone.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I was trying to articulate my response, but you said it first and better. This. Thanks.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

"I don't understand why my taxes are being wasted on education and health care! I'm young, have no children, and have no health problems, and I work hard for my money and it is mine."

[scentofviolets.livejournal.com]

This is the part I don't get. My parents were never 'liberal' (neither am I for that matter), but one of the big lessons my very coservative, very Catholic mother impressed on me froma very early age was to be polite, courteous, and reapectful. So, for example, when my daughter scolded me for using the word 'Oriental', I didn't say that everybody used that word as a non-offensive descriptor when I was growing up. Nor did I explain that Asian ever took offense at the term when I used it, or that some of my best buds are Asians, etc.

Instead, I did what my mama taught me to do: I apologized, said I was a clueless idiot (no surprise to my daughter, I'm sure), promised to stop using that word as a referrant, and thanked her for the heads-up.

IOW, I behaved in a very culturally conservative way. What I'm taking a great many words to say is that these people seem to be Galtian Slan types as opposed to true reactionaries. The worst of both worlds.

[(Anonymous)]

Um, what event are you referring?

(I'm clearly more clued-out than I thought I was. A link would be appreciated. Or a quick summary.)

[ian wright (from livejournal.com)]

Links are here: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/5570406.html

Read Mark Oshiro's description of his experiences at ConQuest 46. I tried to copy and paste but for whatever reason it doesn't work.

[(Anonymous)]

Um, wow.

The more I read of cons, the less desire I have to go to one.


(Thanks for the reference, BTW.)

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Another con I've been to seems to have flatlined: Duckon.

[rosefox]

This is so sad.

[dronon.livejournal.com]

Furries as a group place a high value on social inclusion, so there's a reluctance to point out and act upon negative behaviour. This results in a mix of some folks being extremely responsible, while others are willing to let almost anything slide.

What makes this particularly sting is that it's actually the second con that furry fandom's lost in the last six months, the other being an outdoor event called Oklacon (https://www.flayrah.com/6238/oklacon-canceled-2015-more-likely-permanently).

A couple of the east-coast furry cons, particularly Anthrocon (~6300 people) have supplemented their con security with the Dorsai Irregulars for many years. They've done a really good job, and use it as an opportunity to test/train new recruits. One of them spoke up (https://www.flayrah.com/6441/opinion-hotel-management-doesnt-care-what-your-fursona#comment-65453) in regards to the Rainfurrest situation.

[magedragonfire.livejournal.com]

Furrydom's inclusiveness, as it were, is somewhat like an extreme version of the Geek Social Fallacies at play, yeah. Same factors at work, and very often people will go out of their way to circle the wagons and defend awful, awful people just because they are 'one of us' or because they produce cool things.

There's a lot of missing stairs in this fandom, to say the least.

[sciencepeppery.livejournal.com]

Thats brilliant

SPAM

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

And you are an oxygen thief.