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This is not a con.txt con report.
This is just me saying some things.
First and most important: at the dance on Friday, I was sitting around in the quiet area (and can I say how wonderful it was that the ballroom had a little area that was isolated enough from the music that you could hear yourself think, but close enough that you could feel like you were part of things, and had a conversation area? That was the best, and all dances should have it. The previous dance I went to I spent most of the time huddled in the cloakroom area.) Anyway, I was sitting there chatting with a bunch of people about Media Steve Rogers Would Have Been A Fan Of, and somebody said, "Steve would love the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow because he would be like, "Wow, somebody made a movie of -----"!"
Only I didn't catch the -----, and now I need to know what it was, for reasons. Reasons entirely unconnected to Steve Rogers. Anybody remember? Is the person who said that reading my journal, as an astonishing proportion of con.txt already is?
(people I am pretty sure were there, but I could be wrong, because I am terrible with names, and there were also others:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
elspethdixon, holli, viklikesfic, my_daroga, ambyr, grey_bard, lettered...)
...and on that note, if I met you at con.txt, I would love to add you on DW, because pretty much everybody at con.txt is brilliant and wonderful and I have social-awkwardness-inducing levels of intellectual crush on you all, but if I did not already know you by your badge name chances are I will not remember it, so feel free to PM me and tell me we should add each other (or I should add you back.)
..umm let's see. There were panels. I paneled a lot. I am pretty sure I babbled and was terrible (and probably misgendered people, augh) at both of the ones I moderated, as well as many of the others, and nothing anybody says will convince me otherwise, sorry, but it was still incredibly fun and I learned a lot. Also the adrenaline rush of the babbling means I don't remember enough about them to do a proper report, but there will at least be "leave your comments and links here" posts going up on![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
con_txt in the next few days.
There were several people I noticed, however, complaining that too many of the panels had a long section that was mostly making a list of recs, etc., from audience suggestions - someone spoke up at Dead Duck, but I heard similar complaints earlier - and I recognized my own panels in that, and, yes, a lot of the others I attended.
So, okay, I get the complaint, especially if the panel description implies something else. But. Given the discussion at Dead Duck especially, about how maybe getting together to make the list ahead of time would be helpful, I think I want talk about this more.
The panel format that basically goes 'intro - generate list - discuss panel topic using list - conclusion' gets used a lot, and *not* because the mods need help generating the list, okay. Believe me, I could have generated topic lists much longer and more comprehensive than the ones that were collectively generated - in fact, I had them in my notebook right beside me.
But the list-making phase serves a bunch of functions: it gives the mods a survey of their audience's interests and background on the topic, what might need more or less time in the discussion. It makes the start of the panel very interactive, creates it as a dialog rather than the mods talking at you, from the very start. (And that is a particular panel style, I know a lot of people think of something that is much more giving a presentation, less round-table, but the wide-ranging discussion has always been the most common style at con-txt, a lot of people like it.) And it's a very good way to start that dialog - it works as an icebreaker, because people who might hesitate to contribute to a deep meta discussion will be willing to shout out the name of their favorite fandom, and once they're in, they're more likely to keep speaking up. It's also a more structured start to the discussion, which makes it much easier for the mods to enforce limits and establish their enforcement style, before more serious stuff starts. And, not to leave out, a lot of people come to the con because they want to talk about their own pet fandoms/tropes/pairings/etc.: putting a space for that into the panel is fun because it lets them do that, and it means that when you start deeper discussion, people are less likely to still be boiling over with their need to talk aboutknotting That One Thing, which makes the discussion go a lot better.
Also, I'll be honest, we had good intentions about coming in with something a little more structured, but a lot of the panel planning happened *very* late this year; there were some communication issues, some info going out late, and I wasn't entirely sure until I got to registration exactly how many panels I was doing. Which makes the informal round table *very* attractive as a panel plan.
I had a niggling dissatisfaction that was maybe related, though (and again, I am not the only one I heard expressing similar issues) nearly all the panels were the same kind of thing - just people sitting around and talking about fandom in a fairly unstructured way. Which is great, I am not dissing that, but there are lots of other things that could happen, even at such a small con -ellen_fremedon's Small Fandom Speed Dating was set up as a game show, and I heard a lot of people talking about how great it was (I only got there for the very end, but what I saw was really fun). And we had other stuff scheduled or proposed that was off-model - a write-in, yoga, massage, gaming, stitch-and-bitch, a fannish crafts show-and-tell - plus the annual post-vid-show competition. I heard other things proposed, too: dramatic readings of fic, collaborative writing exercises, space for filk, a vid show follow-up, etc.
The thing is, all of the non-discussion-panel-style things that ended up on the schedule, even the ones that were proposed as panels and voted in as panels, got scheduled either before 10 AM or after 10 PM when most of the con was either not entirely awake or off at room parties, etc. I suspect it was less an actual policy and more the concomm wanting to fit in as many discussion-type panels as they could, thus squeezing everything they could into other spaces, but the effect is that those non-discussion activities get low participation and low visibility, and the con gets even more meta-discussion-heavy.
...that was a lot of complaining. I loved the panels! Really I did! And whoever organized the panels on the concomm did a great job and a lot of hard work with people like me who are difficult to communicate with.
Other stuff: The Sufferer cosplay was a hit, even if there was less Homestuck familiarity among congoers than I expected. I was going to pick out the stitches and horns and return the cape to normal afterward, but it's so adorable that I'm tempted to just keep it that way. On Saturday I decided to go with "Dress as you and see how many people ask who you are," and I got three asks. (yes, I do dress that way in the Muggle world - especially the red fedora, I love that hat - which may have something to do with my inconsistent employment history, come to think of it.) On Sunday I chickened out on the antique dress because I wasn't sure what I'd be doing after the con, so I went with the less-authentic version that used a relatively modern jacket and long skirt and shirt, but everybody know who I was anyway. I think the magnifying glass helped.
The QUILTBAG sold at auction for a ridiculous amount of money! THANK YOU so much to everybody who bid on it, that was an amazing start to the last day of the con. That plus the other two things I had in the show that sold meant I covered all my food for the weekend + plus next time's pre-registration, without feeling guilty about frivolous spending, which is yay. I even remembered to take a picture of the bag five minutes before the auction started, so I have documentation that it existed, yay. (There should be an upcoming post on Stuff I Have Made Lately, pictures will be there.)
I meant to buy some raffle tickets, but never got around to it, ditto for the amazing orphan zine collection. But I pulled some fun stuff off the swap table, although nothing all that fannish (well, except the coloring book zine, because it's a coloring book!) The thing I'm most excited about is the purple wool roving, I've actually been doing some spinning and was on the verge of running out, so that was great. I didn't realize until after Dead Duck that not-taken stuff from the swap table just gets thrown out, though. I totally understand not wanting to deal with it, but if I'm commuting again next time, I might offer to take care of the swap leftovers myself - a lot of it probably was not worth doing anything else with, but the books could go to Book Thing, the new-in-box toys could go to a toy charity, the zines could surely go to a zine library or something, and a lot of the rest could be recycled.
What else, what else.
Oh! This was officially the con of people Reminding Me About All of My WIPs And How I Should Finish Them Already. I am not complaining - I don't mind people doing that politely, it is totally justified, and I will be honest with you about my plans if you do - however I still maintain that all my WIPs on the Dresden anon meme are anon, and whichever ones you might think are mine are totally some other unknown person's. PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY.
I'll also repeat what I said to somebody at the con, that the absolute best way to prod somebody you don't know very well about a possibly-abandoned WIP is to leave a comment on it (no more than every couple of months) saying, "Hey, I was just thinking about this fic again, and I still really like it!" If the author is still wanting to finish it, that by itself will be enough to prod their guilty conscience/reassure them that people still care about it. If the author is sick of it or anxious, that is least likely to poke a sore spot.
This is just me saying some things.
First and most important: at the dance on Friday, I was sitting around in the quiet area (and can I say how wonderful it was that the ballroom had a little area that was isolated enough from the music that you could hear yourself think, but close enough that you could feel like you were part of things, and had a conversation area? That was the best, and all dances should have it. The previous dance I went to I spent most of the time huddled in the cloakroom area.) Anyway, I was sitting there chatting with a bunch of people about Media Steve Rogers Would Have Been A Fan Of, and somebody said, "Steve would love the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow because he would be like, "Wow, somebody made a movie of -----"!"
Only I didn't catch the -----, and now I need to know what it was, for reasons. Reasons entirely unconnected to Steve Rogers. Anybody remember? Is the person who said that reading my journal, as an astonishing proportion of con.txt already is?
(people I am pretty sure were there, but I could be wrong, because I am terrible with names, and there were also others:
elspethdixon, holli, viklikesfic, my_daroga, ambyr, grey_bard, lettered...)...and on that note, if I met you at con.txt, I would love to add you on DW, because pretty much everybody at con.txt is brilliant and wonderful and I have social-awkwardness-inducing levels of intellectual crush on you all, but if I did not already know you by your badge name chances are I will not remember it, so feel free to PM me and tell me we should add each other (or I should add you back.)
..umm let's see. There were panels. I paneled a lot. I am pretty sure I babbled and was terrible (and probably misgendered people, augh) at both of the ones I moderated, as well as many of the others, and nothing anybody says will convince me otherwise, sorry, but it was still incredibly fun and I learned a lot. Also the adrenaline rush of the babbling means I don't remember enough about them to do a proper report, but there will at least be "leave your comments and links here" posts going up on
con_txt in the next few days.There were several people I noticed, however, complaining that too many of the panels had a long section that was mostly making a list of recs, etc., from audience suggestions - someone spoke up at Dead Duck, but I heard similar complaints earlier - and I recognized my own panels in that, and, yes, a lot of the others I attended.
So, okay, I get the complaint, especially if the panel description implies something else. But. Given the discussion at Dead Duck especially, about how maybe getting together to make the list ahead of time would be helpful, I think I want talk about this more.
The panel format that basically goes 'intro - generate list - discuss panel topic using list - conclusion' gets used a lot, and *not* because the mods need help generating the list, okay. Believe me, I could have generated topic lists much longer and more comprehensive than the ones that were collectively generated - in fact, I had them in my notebook right beside me.
But the list-making phase serves a bunch of functions: it gives the mods a survey of their audience's interests and background on the topic, what might need more or less time in the discussion. It makes the start of the panel very interactive, creates it as a dialog rather than the mods talking at you, from the very start. (And that is a particular panel style, I know a lot of people think of something that is much more giving a presentation, less round-table, but the wide-ranging discussion has always been the most common style at con-txt, a lot of people like it.) And it's a very good way to start that dialog - it works as an icebreaker, because people who might hesitate to contribute to a deep meta discussion will be willing to shout out the name of their favorite fandom, and once they're in, they're more likely to keep speaking up. It's also a more structured start to the discussion, which makes it much easier for the mods to enforce limits and establish their enforcement style, before more serious stuff starts. And, not to leave out, a lot of people come to the con because they want to talk about their own pet fandoms/tropes/pairings/etc.: putting a space for that into the panel is fun because it lets them do that, and it means that when you start deeper discussion, people are less likely to still be boiling over with their need to talk about
Also, I'll be honest, we had good intentions about coming in with something a little more structured, but a lot of the panel planning happened *very* late this year; there were some communication issues, some info going out late, and I wasn't entirely sure until I got to registration exactly how many panels I was doing. Which makes the informal round table *very* attractive as a panel plan.
I had a niggling dissatisfaction that was maybe related, though (and again, I am not the only one I heard expressing similar issues) nearly all the panels were the same kind of thing - just people sitting around and talking about fandom in a fairly unstructured way. Which is great, I am not dissing that, but there are lots of other things that could happen, even at such a small con -
ellen_fremedon's Small Fandom Speed Dating was set up as a game show, and I heard a lot of people talking about how great it was (I only got there for the very end, but what I saw was really fun). And we had other stuff scheduled or proposed that was off-model - a write-in, yoga, massage, gaming, stitch-and-bitch, a fannish crafts show-and-tell - plus the annual post-vid-show competition. I heard other things proposed, too: dramatic readings of fic, collaborative writing exercises, space for filk, a vid show follow-up, etc.The thing is, all of the non-discussion-panel-style things that ended up on the schedule, even the ones that were proposed as panels and voted in as panels, got scheduled either before 10 AM or after 10 PM when most of the con was either not entirely awake or off at room parties, etc. I suspect it was less an actual policy and more the concomm wanting to fit in as many discussion-type panels as they could, thus squeezing everything they could into other spaces, but the effect is that those non-discussion activities get low participation and low visibility, and the con gets even more meta-discussion-heavy.
...that was a lot of complaining. I loved the panels! Really I did! And whoever organized the panels on the concomm did a great job and a lot of hard work with people like me who are difficult to communicate with.
Other stuff: The Sufferer cosplay was a hit, even if there was less Homestuck familiarity among congoers than I expected. I was going to pick out the stitches and horns and return the cape to normal afterward, but it's so adorable that I'm tempted to just keep it that way. On Saturday I decided to go with "Dress as you and see how many people ask who you are," and I got three asks. (yes, I do dress that way in the Muggle world - especially the red fedora, I love that hat - which may have something to do with my inconsistent employment history, come to think of it.) On Sunday I chickened out on the antique dress because I wasn't sure what I'd be doing after the con, so I went with the less-authentic version that used a relatively modern jacket and long skirt and shirt, but everybody know who I was anyway. I think the magnifying glass helped.
The QUILTBAG sold at auction for a ridiculous amount of money! THANK YOU so much to everybody who bid on it, that was an amazing start to the last day of the con. That plus the other two things I had in the show that sold meant I covered all my food for the weekend + plus next time's pre-registration, without feeling guilty about frivolous spending, which is yay. I even remembered to take a picture of the bag five minutes before the auction started, so I have documentation that it existed, yay. (There should be an upcoming post on Stuff I Have Made Lately, pictures will be there.)
I meant to buy some raffle tickets, but never got around to it, ditto for the amazing orphan zine collection. But I pulled some fun stuff off the swap table, although nothing all that fannish (well, except the coloring book zine, because it's a coloring book!) The thing I'm most excited about is the purple wool roving, I've actually been doing some spinning and was on the verge of running out, so that was great. I didn't realize until after Dead Duck that not-taken stuff from the swap table just gets thrown out, though. I totally understand not wanting to deal with it, but if I'm commuting again next time, I might offer to take care of the swap leftovers myself - a lot of it probably was not worth doing anything else with, but the books could go to Book Thing, the new-in-box toys could go to a toy charity, the zines could surely go to a zine library or something, and a lot of the rest could be recycled.
What else, what else.
Oh! This was officially the con of people Reminding Me About All of My WIPs And How I Should Finish Them Already. I am not complaining - I don't mind people doing that politely, it is totally justified, and I will be honest with you about my plans if you do - however I still maintain that all my WIPs on the Dresden anon meme are anon, and whichever ones you might think are mine are totally some other unknown person's. PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY.
I'll also repeat what I said to somebody at the con, that the absolute best way to prod somebody you don't know very well about a possibly-abandoned WIP is to leave a comment on it (no more than every couple of months) saying, "Hey, I was just thinking about this fic again, and I still really like it!" If the author is still wanting to finish it, that by itself will be enough to prod their guilty conscience/reassure them that people still care about it. If the author is sick of it or anxious, that is least likely to poke a sore spot.
no subject
I don't think there were too many actual published zines thrown out, though - the majority of what was on the swap table was, I think, fic printed from the web and bound by the fan - if that makes you feel any better.