One thought on “Wow”

1. I liked the suggestion somebody made, that anyone else who had a programming slot at Wiscon request not to be put into the same programming as Ms. Moon. This makes chaos for the concom, gets the point across that one isn’t happy with their deciding to keep on their GoH under these circumstances, and isolates her within the context of the convention even if one can’t get her removed. It’s possible to hold the convention around, but not with, her.

   I think this kind of thing is some of why I avoid SF cons and stick to filkcons, though. Mostly, because of the smaller size of the community, reputation is a fast-hitting and effective weapon against misbehavior in filk, and someone who offends too many people will find that they can keep showing up at conventions, but they will sooner or later either need to make reparations or deal with the fact that they have no access to anything except public programming, and may be left feeling a little uncomfortable when they show up to that. They don’t get GoH invites, they don’t get concert slots, they don’t get requests in song circle, they don’t get asked to join the dinner group. I’ve never seen a case where someone in that position didn’t clue up and start making apologies pretty fast. (Whether it works or not is a different matter; reputation is a slow-moving beast, and once lost can take time to get back. I’ve had to work on that myself at times.)

   Result: a community that’s easier to self-police than SF fandom, where you have thousands of people with different agendas, many of whom weren’t there for any one guest and could care less about her. I don’t have the allergy to SF cons that I used to; the old traumas have largely worn off by now, though there are still a few specific cons in the northeastern US that I Will Not Attend, not ever. But I won’t ever like them much, I don’t think; they are just too darn big.

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