Having seen the harm that "a few anti-social people" can do to a convention, I don't think I agree. The problem here is that it requires the people involved to be tactful and diplomatic, and fans are notoriously lacking in such characteristics. And even if the people from the convention are among those rare fans capable of being diplomatic, the people they're trying to talk to may well take the attitude of "I can do anything I want, anytime, anywhere, and you have no right whatsoever to limit my freedom for any conceivable reason! I paid for my ticket and it's your job to serve me!"
I don't exaggerate that much, really, given that I've encountered people with that attitude, most notoriously at one of ConJose's feedback sessions.
Nobody forces you to attend a convention. If the convention's policies aren't to your liking, then you probably shouldn't join it. Conversely, if I'm organizing a convention, I think I can refuse to admit someone who refuses to abide by what I consider reasonable rules of conduct. (Yes, there are certain classes of such discrimination that are wrong and/or illegal, and I'm not talking about any of them here.)
Mind you, I'm probably a hopeless old fossil here, since the conventions drawing the most number of people are things like anime cons, which, even when fan-run, seem to take the "show" and "ticket" approach, and most of their attendees do seem to be me to be ticket-buyers who expect entertainment for their admission ticket than convention members joining a community. (The latter was why I started attending SF conventions.)
FWIW, I always use my real name. But I'm sympathetic to folks who have their own reasons to not want to do the same.
And so am I, as I said in that article. What I'm saying is that you can't really make a bright-line distinction here. I've worked on too many conventions to think that one-size-fits-all, no exceptions, is likely to work in this area. But fans detest shades of gray, I'm afraid.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Hmmm
Date: 2007-03-13 04:31 pm (UTC)I don't exaggerate that much, really, given that I've encountered people with that attitude, most notoriously at one of ConJose's feedback sessions.
Nobody forces you to attend a convention. If the convention's policies aren't to your liking, then you probably shouldn't join it. Conversely, if I'm organizing a convention, I think I can refuse to admit someone who refuses to abide by what I consider reasonable rules of conduct. (Yes, there are certain classes of such discrimination that are wrong and/or illegal, and I'm not talking about any of them here.)
Mind you, I'm probably a hopeless old fossil here, since the conventions drawing the most number of people are things like anime cons, which, even when fan-run, seem to take the "show" and "ticket" approach, and most of their attendees do seem to be me to be ticket-buyers who expect entertainment for their admission ticket than convention members joining a community. (The latter was why I started attending SF conventions.)
And so am I, as I said in that article. What I'm saying is that you can't really make a bright-line distinction here. I've worked on too many conventions to think that one-size-fits-all, no exceptions, is likely to work in this area. But fans detest shades of gray, I'm afraid.