some thoughts on why I don't think I'd visit Readercon, now

[hawkwing_lb]

So I was thinking about maybe going to Readercon next year, if it turned out that the incoming funds gave me enough leeway to fly to Boston. People had told me it was awesome.

After this?

Nope. Definitely not conventioneering. My handful of experiences with Organised Fandom En Masse in the past have proved tremendously alienating. I've no intention of coupling that with a convention whose managing board can't even be arsed to explain why it isn't following its own stated policies on harrassment. (Zero-tolerance policies have their own problems, but a two-year ban isn't even a slap on the wrist. And zero-tolerance is the policy they have. Retroactive rewriting is not good.)

Which is sad, because flights to Boston are cheap, relatively speaking, and so many lovely people who I'd like to see live in the Americas and get together for conventions.

Maybe there should be an alternate party. In protest.

Comments

[hawkwing_lb]

Ah, gods. So he's going to learn the error of his ways, is he? And all ladies should feel perfectly safe when he convinces the concom he's reformed?

In all likelihood, he's just learned to pick more vulnerable, less well-known and less assertive victims.

[anne]

...you're OK with cheapo hotels, right, they don't have to be fancy? I'm thinking however many of us show up, sitting in a room talking about books might be fun. No programming unless we feel like it?

[hawkwing_lb]

The cheaper the better, in fact. As long as it's not so cheap it has cockroaches: I draw the line somewhere. :)

The only event I have ever organised where more than three people turned up was an academic talk, so I'm easy. Book roundtable!

[anne]

That...might actually be something I could organize. Boston, or somewhere else? And when?

[hawkwing_lb]

I'd better not miss my Progress Assessement next May-June. I should know if I'll have enough money in the bank for a transAtlantic trip by the New Year. So July?

Hmm. July would work better probably, and you'd have the advantage of being able to schedule the bookroundtable around the time of Readercon - either directly opposite, or partially overlapping.

But should see who else is interested...

[anne]

More people read you, I think, though I could probably find some people from Ravelry.

[hawkwing_lb]

Mm. Yes. Maybe hang out in Boston and then catch a sleper train to Montreal? Party in two countries?

And a train?

I'll put out a call for interest when I get back from Greece. I think by then most people who are attached to Readercon will have decided how they're going to react by then.

[fadeaccompli]

I would totally fly to a mini-con of cool people in Boston over the summer, if such a thing occurred. Just saying.

[anne]

Curiosity leads me to ask: in addition to or instead of 4th St?

[fadeaccompli]

In addition to, I think; it would depend on how close the two events were to each other, and who was going to be at each, and what else was going on during that summer financially and time-wise. But "in addition to" was what I had in mind.

[anne]

That'll make a difference, then. ;-) I wonder how many other not-Readercons there are going to be...

[kore]

Aww, that sounds fun. Stupidly I live on the left coast.

[hawkwing_lb]

<--European side of the ocean. :)