The WSFS Must Be Crazy

[kevin_standlee]

I have to conclude that the way in which the World Science Fiction Society is organized is so utterly insane that to a significant number of people, they simply cannot believe that it really exists that way. The way they would set up WSFS is as a small, close corporation controlled by at most three or five people, and they certainly wouldn't let the attendees (a.k.a. "marks") have anything at all to do with the governance of the convention. And of course, the Board would decide where to hold Worldcons, keep all of the money, sign ten-year deals with convention centers, and otherwise engage in sensible economies of scale.

Because the "Worldcon Must Change to Suit Me!" crowd would never set up such a crazy situation as the members actually deciding what to do themselves (members obviously being too stupid to make up their own minds for themselves), they have great difficulty believing that anyone else ever did it that way. Thus there must be a Ruling Cabal (call them the "Secret Masters of Fandom") who really run things, so you just have to find those people and subvert them.

Alternatively, if you really are so stupid to have set up an organization whose mere members get to decide how things are run and where their conventions should be held, then those 4000-5000 people should just go away and never come back and give their property to Someone Else who can Do Things Right, which in this case means throwing away all of the things that those 4-5K people enjoy doing and Doing Something Else because a different, larger group like doing them.

There is nothing wrong with Anime Expo having 50K anime fans enjoying themselves, or ComicCon having >100K enjoying themselves, or for that matter Comiket having something like a quarter-million people as I recall. Why do so many people want the World Science Fiction Convention, which primarily (but not exclusively) celebrates written science fiction and fantasy, not comics, anime, movies, television, ballroom dancing, baseball, trains, regency-style dancing, costuming, or any of a number of different popular activities to die right this second to validate their own personal hobby entertainment preference? Why do they, to quote someone who recently Got It, want to "appropriate the cultural identity of thousands"?

Worldcon is a club. It's a club with between four and five thousand members, but it's a club, and it's run very similarly to how a club of only about two hundred people — the approximate attendance of the first Worldcon — might be run if organized by a group of opinionated know-it-alls who trust nobody but themselves to run things. And the members, on the whole, like it that way. Yes, the club might eventually go out of business when nobody shows up for their meetings, but until then, what is so wrong with the members running their club the way they want to run their club for the benefit of the other members of the club?

Comments

[nojay.livejournal.com]

Comiket is not really a convention, it's sort of off to one side of the Venn diagram that encompasses SF conventions, Comicons, media conventions, Dragon*Con etc. Last one I was at in 2008 had a total attendance of 550,000 over three days but most attendees only went for one day (like me). 95% of Comiket is for "circles" (fan groups) to sell doujinshi (amateur manga usually pornographic in nature based around popular commercial mangas and anime series), there are some commercial booths for publishers, game companies and such and there is a cosplay (costume play) area and that's about it. No panels or discussions and definitely no awards ceremonies. Then again entry is free.

Now you did it

[garyomaha.livejournal.com]

Hey! Why can't WSFS celebrate trains?
(...grinning, running, and ducking...)

[lindadee.livejournal.com]

What set you off today? You know there are people in this world who aren't happy unless they're complaining.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to rationalize all of this. I keep coming back to the Cricket War Robots in one of the Hitchhiker books. When they get outside of their dust cloud they find there's a universe out there and decide it's got to go. I'm feeling like a lot of internet puppies (to coin a phrase :)) got on line, started creating fandom (for the first time obviously) and were really surprised to find there were already people there doing it and had been for a long time and doing it without any regard for the new kids.

The thing is, a physical convention can be a frightening and intimidating place, especially if you don't know many people. No physical event actually owes a duty of care to anybody to be welcoming, even if you could work out what that means. It's fairly scary going into something for the first time when you don't know people and imposing yourself on a bunch of new people. In the old days you'd probably do your first conventions with a college or university or local SF group and avoid that. If your only access to fandom is online then turning up at a smaller convention where there's a much lower probability of even vaguely knowing people is going to be potentially terrifying.

Still, the thing is, in my experience of social and work events, the probability of a successful event goes up with smaller events. I'm not sure large events are a panacea, unless it's purely as a way to ensure you can go with people you know.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Even before the stroke I had sworn never to set foot in the mega-events like Dragon*Con and SDCC. For the simple reason that they really seem to be passive events where much of you time is spent waiting to be possibly seated st one of the hot events. I had a friend who went to SDCC this year specifically to see the Metallica panel about Through The Never, their new film. He waited seven hours in line, had crap seats, then found that the line for Metallica's show that even had already been closed off. Now, having some pretty severe mobility and balance issues, I'm not voluntarily going into crush like that.

[solarbird]

Should I talk about the difference between "gate" and "membership" attendance numbers?

Meh.

Really, I think it mostly comes down to an implicit assertion that "you can't call yourself worldcon if you aren't biggest."