Feeling Badgered

[kevin_standlee]

Prior to last night's BASFA meeting, much deconstruction of the fannish train wreck that was Con-X-Treme happened. Among the foolish things the convention reportedly did was to use wristbands for admission rather than badges, and to require that every member have their photo taken, and that photo was made part of their convention membership credentials. When I expressed extreme incredulity that a convention would do what I consider such an incredibly stupid thing, jorhett (who I should make it clear neither worked on Con-X-Treme nor was even there at the con and didn't even know it was happening) told me that having a photograph as part of your membership badge -- to make it "impossible" to share badges -- was standard operating procedure at "East Coast" cons.

I said, "When did that start? I've attended Boskone, and they don't do that there."

The reply: "Boskone? Is that in Boston? Well, I meant south of New York."

I raised an eyebrow, "So Massachusetts isn't on the American East Coast?"

But I digress. I find the idea that you would have to have a photo-badge to attend a convention absurd, for many reasons, but most notably because of what it tells me about the organizers' priorities. See this posting from last year and read my article "Feeling Badgered" in Argentus #6. In that article, I set out what I consider the main criteria for a convention membership badges are, and I make ticket-to-admit the second priority, not the first.

In my opinion. photo-badges for all members sets ticket-to-admit priority to stratospheric, and everything else to insignificant. It sets off all of my hot buttons. I know that Lisa isn't the only person I know who would refuse to attend a convention that required photo-badges for all attendees. Remember, I'm someone who doesn't think you should have to show government-issued photographic ID to collect your membership if you have one of the good alternatives such as your original membership receipt or convention publications received by mail or can be personally identified by a trusted convention staff member. I detest the "your papers pliz" culture that we've become.

Note that there are certain specific applications where a photo badge is justified. I wouldn't issue them to the entire convention staff and committee, but if there are certain very sensitive areas -- in particular ones where the Treasury Office That Does Not Exist is located -- there might be some justification for a small number of photo-badges, particularly if security is being provided by paid guards who don't know who the individuals involved are.

But requiring every member of the convention to have their photo taken and that photo appear on their convention badge or other token-of-admission-to-event? Not for me.

Edit, 13:50: Clarified that the person who brought up the photo-badges issue as "routine at east coast cons" was neither associated with Con-X-Treme nor attended it. My apologies if my earlier wording implied otherwise.

Comments

[buddykat.livejournal.com]

I said, "When did that start? I've attended Boskone, and they don't do that there."

The reply: "Boskone? Is that in Boston? Well, I meant south of New York."

I raised an eyebrow, "So Massachusetts isn't on the American East Coast?

I'm curious what conventions they were talking about; the conventions I've attended on the East Coast (LunaCon, SheVaCon, and RavenCon) didn't require me to have a photo taken, and I've never heard of any on the East Coast that do require attendees to have their photo taken.

EveCon, CastleCon, BaltiCon ... DC-area Cons.

[jorhett.livejournal.com]

And PLEASE I never meant to say *every* east coast Con. And I was specifically referring to when I was there, meaning 18-24 years ago.

When I was there you could attend a Con every weekend of the year without leaving the New York->Charleston area. No, I never made it to New England Cons, nor any Atlanta Cons.

Exceptions: WeaponsCon didn't use badges at all, just wristbands, and I don't seem to remember pictures on the badges at Disclave either. I never attended Darkover either, even though it was fairly close to me.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Well, *I* am an East Coast con attendee of many years, and even ran them, and I can't think of a single con that does this. Philcon? Arisia? Balticon? Darkover? Boskone? MOC? Chattacon? Fantasy Fair? Freaking Dragon*Con? I mean, I can go on, but no, that's not an "East Coast" thing. It's just stupid.

I'll bring my badge collection to the next convention

[jorhett.livejournal.com]

Stupid or not, it was a reality. I have about 6 years of con-going badges from the east coast and nearly every one of them has my picture on it.

[pnh.livejournal.com]

"I'm someone who doesn't think you should have to show government-issued photographic ID to collect your membership if you have one of the good alternatives such as your original membership receipt or convention publications received by mail or can be personally identified by a trusted convention staff member. I detest the "your papers pliz" culture that we've become."

Sustained applause!

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'd be interested in your opinion about some of the other points that people have raised in this discussion as well, should you have time to do so.

[rono-60103.livejournal.com]

For the last several years, my policy, as Registrar at DucKon, for picking up preregistered memberships has been "If the member has a confirmation post card, that is sufficient ID that they are the correct person. Otherwise, a photo ID or personal recognition by the registration staff or volunteers working the table is sufficient."[1]

I've often been slightly annoyed when people who know me have to ask for my ID before giving me my badge -- or won't let me pick up my wife's badge without her and her ID. Fortunately, I've not run into a con that won't give me my, now, ten-year-old son's badge without ID, since the only ID he has is a passport that we don't regularly carry.

I'll admit that I very briefly thought about making photo badges available at DucKon, but as a keepsake only. I rejected this quickly because of the amount of extra time it would take, and not knowing if anyone would pay $1.00 for another photo badge. I don't think I considered making it mandatory, and would have sought much council before embarking on such a policy.

[1] DucKon 16 Registration Manual, June 2007, Ronald B. Oakes

[jbriggs.livejournal.com]

Interesting article in Argentus but I have to disagree with one aspect. I thought ConJose's badge design was particularly horrible and dread encountering the system again at a future convention.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I understand your feelings, and there were others who disliked the CJ badges as well. But I also read and heard numerous compliments about the CJ pouches. Indeed, there was sufficient demand that people wanted to buy extras off of us at the end of the convention when it no longer mattered as part of the token-of-admission.

This further demonstrates that membership badge design is a no-win scenario. With 5,000 members, no matter what you do, you'll find someone who is displeased with the design.

sets off your hot buttons

[jorhett.livejournal.com]

In my opinion. photo-badges for all members sets ticket-to-admit priority to stratospheric, and everything else to insignificant. It sets off all of my hot buttons.

I absolutely believe that this is true. Not the change in priorities, but that it sets off your hot buttons. And that because your hot buttons are set off, you perceive it to be stratospheric.

In case you don't remember, I agree with you that "receipt for paid membership" was the second priority. I could even argue it as a THIRD, but then I would really confuse you since you can't seem to grasp the idea as "useful" but "not the most important thing ever".

Should you ever find yourself in a more relaxed mood regarding this issue, and willing to hear someone's thoughts as nothing more than their own experience with 20+ years of attending cons themselves, I'd enjoy discussing this with you. You've got quite a lot more experience than I do with this, and I wish the topic wasn't "too hot to touch" for you :-(

Re: sets off your hot buttons

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I believe that the only purpose of putting someone's photograph on a badge is to deter membership badge fraud. The amount of extra work necessary to do this IMO exceeds the amount of money you save in badge fraud, and in fact may lose money from another source because people who resent this action aren't coming.

If the convention organizer going to that much effort, then the only significant purpose a badge has to the organizer is as an admission token. None of the other reasons is significant. Indeed, I think in those circumstances they'd be better off using hospital wristbands anyway.

Re: sets off your hot buttons

[(Anonymous)]

Could you be a bit clearer about this, please? Is it, or is it not, true that photo ID was a requirement of admission to the convention. And if it was a requirement, how does this square with it merely being "useful" and "not the most important thing ever"? Things that are merely useful should be optional. Things that are a requirement are clearly a very high priority.

[tobesv.livejournal.com]

Well that one of the downsides of living in a paranoid near-fascist society thats antithetical to everything thats good about fandom.


Just kidding. I hope.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Just kidding. I hope.

I hope so, too. But I worry sometimes. I particularly worry about the creeping erosion of resistance to near-facist tactics. Lisa is even more frantic about it than I am. I don't think I'm part of the tinfoil-hat crowd, but bar-code tattoos or more likely RFID impanted chips are steps further down the current lubricated incline.

[johnnyeponymous.livejournal.com]

I kinda like it from the point of view that it can make for a fun badge. Yeah, it'll slow down fraud (but there are always ways says the guy who made his living ghosting Boston industry conventions and trade shows in the 1990s) but it can't be stopped. Now, you can make for some pretty badges if you enable a picture to be added.
Still, one of my all-time favourite badges was a leadership thingee I went to when I was in High School where they took a Polaroid, punched a hole in each corner and ran a string through it and then wrote your name in the white area. They managed to make those things for 3k+ attendees. It was really neat!
Chris

exactly.

[jorhett.livejournal.com]

Now, you can make for some pretty badges if you enable a picture to be added.

Exactly. I started keeping my badges from east coast conventions because they looked nice and were good memories. I've recently considered tossing all of my west coast badges because a piece of paper with my name on it isn't much of a memory-grabber as the costume I was wearing at the particular event.

[lauriemann.livejournal.com]

I've been to many different East Coast cons since 1975 and have never run into photos on standard convention badges.

But, let's pretend someone is playing "telephone." I know one procedure encouraged at many conventions is "you may need a photo ID to pick up your badge." It almost sounds like someone took this common East Coast custom and twisted it.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

It appears that is not the case. jorhett was pretty clear about this for the conventions he attended.

The funny thing is that I don't object to a photo ID for pickup requirement as long as it's not the only requirement and that any of the other sensible ones, particularly "personally known to the person doing registration," are in place.

The purpose of requiring photo ID is not to require photo ID for its own sake. It is to establish your right to collect your membership credentials. Anything that does this in a reasonable way is good. Seems to me a lot of people lose sight of this.

[epawtows.livejournal.com]

This was asked about on the SMOFs list, so I'll put in the same answer here that I did there:

I went to a lot of EveCons and CastleCons (Washington DC area) in the late 80's through mid 90's, and photo ID con badges were considered routine. The only other large east-coast con I went to in those days was Balticon, which did not. Have not gone to a con in that area in ~10 years.

I worked security/door guard, and I was supposed to check the face on the badge against the face on the person. The utility of this was highly irregular, as you can probably guess.

I also worked registration making the badges. There were typically 2 or 3 photo stations. Each had 4 chairs, two high, two low. People sat in the chairs. A photo was taken with a polaroid on a tripod. A square punch was used to punch out each face. The photo was stuck to a square in the center of the badge blank (badges printed at reg) and laminated. Since it was a polaroid, there were no negatives, so the con did not end up with pictures of the attendees.

My understanding is that this was SOP at government/DOD/big corps that needed photo ID's in the pre-digital days. The gear (camera, tripod, punch, laminator) were all government surplus. Most of the con staff and many of the attendees worked in places that required badges like this (presumably non-SF convention organizations would take more than one photo and keep the extras). Nobody really thought much of it, it was pretty much taken for granted.

Have not seen photo badges used anyplace else. I do not remember if fen had to put their real names on the badge or not, nor do I recall what sort of ID was required to pick up a badge.

[jorhett.livejournal.com]

Have not seen photo badges used anyplace else. I do not remember if fen had to put their real names on the badge or not, nor do I recall what sort of ID was required to pick up a badge.

None. Bruce routinely told people who had privacy concerns that he really didn't care what name they wrote down.

Remember that in the 80s "walker IDs" were not common, and a large amount of the incoming cyberpunk crowd didn't drive cars yet ;-)

[nolly.livejournal.com]

The only photo con badges I've had were staff/committee badges, and even then, I got the sense it was more a "we have the gadgets to do this; let's have fun!" than an actual security procedure.

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

My photograph was taken for a committee "access badge" at one large convention...then the photos were never used. I'm glad, because it was a rather foolish bit of "extra security"...that wouldn't make anything secure.

[(Anonymous)]

I've been attending science fiction conventions since 1969. And just on the east coast that would be: Disclave, Balticon, Philcon, Lunacon, Boskone. Plus assorted smaller ones and one shots.

Perhaps my memory is not what it should be after nearly 4 decades of con going, but I have never encountered photo ID badges for those conventions.

Comic cons, Star Trek, and other media cons I can not speak on.

Feel free to quote me on your LJ ...

Michael Walsh
[Posted from an e-mail]

[howeird]

Let me put a different spin on the photo badge thing. I think it's pretty neat that my picture is on it too, in case it drops off my costume and needs to be returned to me. I think it's really neat that they can put my photo on my debit card, for the same reason. Not that my debit card will be on my costume, but you get the idea.

My fan name is on my badge, that's as much of a "papers plz" as a photo, IMHO. A true anonymous badge is just a theater ticket. Anything on the badge which identifies the owner is "papers plz". Photo ID has not been around all that long, it used to be a thumb print instead which was used.

You use your photo in your LJ icons all the time, so I know you're not objecting to letting fandom know what you look like. I'm curious why the photo trips your trigger. What is it about a photo which takes and already-personalized ID to a stratospheric level?

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I don't mind it as an option. Making it a requirement is egregious. That's the distinction.

[jbadger.livejournal.com]

Never required at a convention I was at.
Boskone, Lunacon, JersetDevilCon, Arisia etc etc

I have seen this at some cons for costumers though, photo in costume.

And also as said above artist badges.

I think the topic is dead at this point.

Done.

[jorhett.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I'm done. Kevin, you and yours can find someone else to attack. Just because you aren't standing in front of me gives any of you the right to be as rude as you've been. And almost every bit of this is because of not what I said, but because of how Kevin has misquoted me and misinterpretted my statements due to his own self-admitted hot-button.

The vast majority of you need to take a step back and chill out.

I won't be discussing anything serious with any of you, anytime in the future.

Re: Done.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I'm saying exactly the same things I said to you in person at BASFA last night, and I mean them, and I'll say them again whether in person or in print. The forum is not important. I quoted what it sounded like you were saying to me. When I saw the most obvious misinterpretation (that you were working on those conventions), I attempted to correct it. Indeed, if you want to give me the exact quote of your words you think you said, I'll correct them and say I did so.

Now you appear to have taken the attitude that everyone who disagrees with you has to "chill out." Perhaps the depth of emotion on this subject ought to tell you something about how strongly people feel about it. It's one of the few things that nearly everyone here seems to be able to agree upon. And if you've been reading my LJ very long, you may notice that sycophantic agreement with me isn't really a common thread here.

If you think such a procedure was justified, you should justify it. If you don't think it was justified, then why did you speak up for groups that did such a stupid thing?

[(Anonymous)]

I do remember the idea of photo badges coming up on RASFF during discussions about security at some point but other than Evecon and Castlecon I don't know of any that did. Offhand I don't know why they used them, perhaps Bruce and Cheryl were, like a lot of folks in the area, government workers and accustomed to wearing photo IDs? I didn't attend those but there were some crossover members between them and Disclave.

Both were run for all their years by the same couple and to the best of my recollection there wasn't a lot of membership overlap; I don't think that Bruce and Cheryl even went to other cons in the years I knew about them. IIRC these were promoted as being a place where people could connect as 'family' rather than being misfits elsewhere and had pretty much their own culture. (Despite the way that sounds they weren't actually a cross between Charles Manson and an animated Christmas special.)

While not exactly SF conventions they are/were closely related just with the emphasis being on being a social group. I recall that Bruce and Cheryl also had regular gatherings at their home, Movie Night, Lego party, etc. I think that they were mostly fan run but have no real idea.

Elspeth Kovar
[Posted by e-mail through Kevin due to LJ being wonky]

[divinarthelost.livejournal.com]

I got my photo badge at Con-x-treme. I don't care much, as they let me take the photo wearing my full Klingon uniform.

I really don't see much point in the badges EXCEPT to prove who paid and who didn't. I conceal mine so it doesn't get photographed, showing it when needed. I don't collect ribbons. And I usually put my Klingon name on the badge, if possible.