Worldcons & Entitlement Culture

[kevin_standlee]

As I expected, L.A.con IV will not have convention-provided internet service because the amounts the hotels and convention center want to charge for it are absurdly expensive. I should be, but am not, astonished at the people who have complained that the convention should do it anyway, who have said, "But [fill in local convention name here] held somewhere else has free access; that means you should, to," or assume that the L.A.con IV committee only just now noticed the situation.

Internet access has been one of many, many things the committee has been chasing down. Despite what some people may think, I expect it was not the most important thing. In fact, there were a lot of more important things. I know from my own experience that one of the hard parts about chairing is having to pick between multiple things when you'd like to have them all. You can't always get everything you want. Deal with it, folks! If you need internet access that badly, you can buy it yourself from the hotel or convention center. Would you really be happy to see your membership go up by enough to cover the cost of "free" internet service?

Some things are more important at a Worldcon than free internet service. Holding the Hugo Awards or the Masquerade, for instance.

Comments

[bovil.livejournal.com]

The "how many dollars per member" is a difficult number to calculate, and a meaningless one at that; it depends entirely on what rate the member got. A $5 hike for an at-the-door member might just have meant a $2 hike for a voter converting at the early-bird rate.

I find the "where do my membership dollars go?" pie chart (major budget areas' percentages) to be an excellent tool when somebody asks why membership costs so much, or why the convention isn't spending money on something they're obsessed with. It's still a bit of voodoo, but it's more meaningful. When the tech budget is a huge wedge, but it's pointed out that nearly 2/3 of the convention will be watching the masquerade and the hugos, it makes sense. When the facilities cost is a huge wedge, and people see how well the space is being used (assuming it's not being used badly) they get it.

The whiners and crackpots will still complain. The fans who are first seeing what a con budget is like will counteract the crackpots to some extent.