Do I want to hug you? No; you're gross.
This is going to be my longest post, since I have been compiling a list for about two months of things of this nature. The topic is, as you may have gleaned from the title, is about Convention ettiquette. If you've ever been to a Convention, you have probably seen a few people that you would feel really good popping in the face a couple times. If you haven't been to a Convention, or you have been and haven't noticed anyone that annoys you, read this list and pay attention; you may be one of them.
1)About one percent of people who cosplay have the slim bodies that the characters in anime do, making the rest of them gigantic ham-beasts in mini-skirts. Now, not to suggest that sometimes ham-beasts can't look good in costumes, if they are correctly tailored and fitted and if they take care in how they present themselves. I once heard someone say "Different Cosplays are like roads, most of them have weight limits that should be respected for the safety of everyone. This means that if you are a larger girl or boy in a skimpier costume, please, for the love of god, watch how you are posing and how you are acting. You are not sexy, you are not seductive, we are afraid you are looking at us like you look at biscuits.
2)Be conscious of other people's costumes. I can't find a quote now, or even where I heard it, but probably a couple years ago I heard a horror story involving thousands of dollars, a Chii cosplayer, and some idiot in a Naruto Headband. A girl had spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours to hand stich beadwork onto a large dress (Imagine this: http://fashioncos.com/onlineshop/images/ChobitsChiiWhiteDress.jpg but covered in hand stiched beads). She had also spent over one thousand dollars, all the way up to two thousand five hundred. It was her first day at that paticular con, and she was very popular, couldn't really even move before she was stopped for the next picture. A witness who was watching this go down described in detail the loud screech of "CHIIII!" As some idiot fan ran full blast across the room and slammed her into a flying tackle hug, and she fell with him on top of her. Her bruises were nothing compared to what happened next, HER DRESS EXPLODED, and the beads (which numbered in the thousands) flew everywhere, all of her work lost in a single instant. And to make the moment even worse, the idiot tried to blame it's damage on shoddy craftsmanship. He was quickly booted from the con.
3) Which leads straight into number three. Glomping. For the unenlightened, a glomp is a flying tackle hug, usually delivered from somebody with no costume (or a terrible one) who doesn't know how damn annoying it is, to a person with an awesome costume who would rather not have to hold up the weight of three-hundred pound stinky thing that is the Glomper. I haven't glomped since my very first convention, and it will stay that way. If for some reason glomping is a ESSENTIAL part of the con experience, ask before you glomp, for the love of God! It is not nice to be going about your own dang-durn business, and get bearhugged out of the blue. RESPECT PEOPLE'S PRIVACY. Just because you are at an anime convention doesn't mean that social rules are out the window, you don't attack strangers with hugs anywhere else, don't do it at a Con.
4) A big one, ASK BEFORE YOU TAKE A PICTURE; especially if you plan on posting them online. Serious cosplayers work for hours on their posing and demeanor in pictures, and you taking a candid snapshot of one of these professionals when they are not "in character" per se, is a huge slap in the face. Especially because critiquers of cosplay take the absolute WORST pictures and critique them. It sucks when the most spread around picture of you is when where you are slouching and letting your stomach hang out for that half second. Be respectful and make sure that people know you are taking a picture of them
On another note of the same nature, please don't ask for pictures while people are eating. It is VERY annoying.
5)Dumb signs, don't do them. The second most annoying people at a con (other than people who do not pay attention to hygiene) are those people who stand near the bottom of escalators with dumb little circle of paper on a popsicle stick that says something dumb like "HUG ME." Nobody thinks they are cool, except for your other little dumb friends who are also holding signs. You're attention whores. Stop it.
6) If you are cosplaying and you are (or you think are) better than other cosplayers, don't show it openly. By reading this blog, it may seem like I am a huge bitch who walks around a con pointing out people's costume and behavioral flaws, but I don't. Actually, I do point out behavior flaws, but for the terrible costumes, I rarely ever say anything (other than to my very close friends behind my hand in a Gossip Girl-ish tone) out loud. If I do, it is always constructive and helpful. I don't tell someone that they are terrible, I ask their methods, and then question them until it is apparent I am confused as to why they do it that way. You don't have to follow my mehtod, but don't bring other people down. You're a jerk if you walk around like an elitists, and you're about as popular as a Pornstar at the end of the night: You're pretty on the outside, but inside you are rotting. And you're also probably stupid.
7)If you enter the cosplay contest, be sportsmanlike. I have seen so many people who deserved to win and didn't, and terrible costumes that got first prize. I always feel bad for the people that should have won, and when they hold themselves well they are remembered more than the actual winner. However, when they bitch about it the rest of the con, when they whine, when they just won't LET IT GO, you are remembered, but in the bad way. Everybody will remember your asshattery.
8) If your costume(s) is(are) terrible, don't act like the hottest shit since flaming bags of dog crap. Nobody thinks you are, and even those people who are just as terrible as you know it. They know it. There is such a thing as confidence and there is such a thing as asshattery. If you are an asshat about your crappy costume, people won't be nice. I sure as hell won't be nice.
9) Showers exist. Use them.
10) Don't be hyperactive ALL the time. We are all going to be a little hyper due to our excitement, but there is a limit. When you are acting like a Bush Baby on crack, it isn't funny, it isn't cute, and your unlimited "Desu" screams doesn't help.
This is the top then things that annoy me at cons, although there is a lot more tomfoolery that happens at cons; some Toms that should not be fooled. If you have any more for the list, feel free to post them, I would love to hear what you think.
What else do you guys have to say on the matter? Get your friends onto this blog, have them post their thoughts on Con Ettiquette.
1)About one percent of people who cosplay have the slim bodies that the characters in anime do, making the rest of them gigantic ham-beasts in mini-skirts. Now, not to suggest that sometimes ham-beasts can't look good in costumes, if they are correctly tailored and fitted and if they take care in how they present themselves. I once heard someone say "Different Cosplays are like roads, most of them have weight limits that should be respected for the safety of everyone. This means that if you are a larger girl or boy in a skimpier costume, please, for the love of god, watch how you are posing and how you are acting. You are not sexy, you are not seductive, we are afraid you are looking at us like you look at biscuits.
2)Be conscious of other people's costumes. I can't find a quote now, or even where I heard it, but probably a couple years ago I heard a horror story involving thousands of dollars, a Chii cosplayer, and some idiot in a Naruto Headband. A girl had spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours to hand stich beadwork onto a large dress (Imagine this: http://fashioncos.com/onlineshop/images/ChobitsChiiWhiteDress.jpg but covered in hand stiched beads). She had also spent over one thousand dollars, all the way up to two thousand five hundred. It was her first day at that paticular con, and she was very popular, couldn't really even move before she was stopped for the next picture. A witness who was watching this go down described in detail the loud screech of "CHIIII!" As some idiot fan ran full blast across the room and slammed her into a flying tackle hug, and she fell with him on top of her. Her bruises were nothing compared to what happened next, HER DRESS EXPLODED, and the beads (which numbered in the thousands) flew everywhere, all of her work lost in a single instant. And to make the moment even worse, the idiot tried to blame it's damage on shoddy craftsmanship. He was quickly booted from the con.
3) Which leads straight into number three. Glomping. For the unenlightened, a glomp is a flying tackle hug, usually delivered from somebody with no costume (or a terrible one) who doesn't know how damn annoying it is, to a person with an awesome costume who would rather not have to hold up the weight of three-hundred pound stinky thing that is the Glomper. I haven't glomped since my very first convention, and it will stay that way. If for some reason glomping is a ESSENTIAL part of the con experience, ask before you glomp, for the love of God! It is not nice to be going about your own dang-durn business, and get bearhugged out of the blue. RESPECT PEOPLE'S PRIVACY. Just because you are at an anime convention doesn't mean that social rules are out the window, you don't attack strangers with hugs anywhere else, don't do it at a Con.
4) A big one, ASK BEFORE YOU TAKE A PICTURE; especially if you plan on posting them online. Serious cosplayers work for hours on their posing and demeanor in pictures, and you taking a candid snapshot of one of these professionals when they are not "in character" per se, is a huge slap in the face. Especially because critiquers of cosplay take the absolute WORST pictures and critique them. It sucks when the most spread around picture of you is when where you are slouching and letting your stomach hang out for that half second. Be respectful and make sure that people know you are taking a picture of them
On another note of the same nature, please don't ask for pictures while people are eating. It is VERY annoying.
5)Dumb signs, don't do them. The second most annoying people at a con (other than people who do not pay attention to hygiene) are those people who stand near the bottom of escalators with dumb little circle of paper on a popsicle stick that says something dumb like "HUG ME." Nobody thinks they are cool, except for your other little dumb friends who are also holding signs. You're attention whores. Stop it.
6) If you are cosplaying and you are (or you think are) better than other cosplayers, don't show it openly. By reading this blog, it may seem like I am a huge bitch who walks around a con pointing out people's costume and behavioral flaws, but I don't. Actually, I do point out behavior flaws, but for the terrible costumes, I rarely ever say anything (other than to my very close friends behind my hand in a Gossip Girl-ish tone) out loud. If I do, it is always constructive and helpful. I don't tell someone that they are terrible, I ask their methods, and then question them until it is apparent I am confused as to why they do it that way. You don't have to follow my mehtod, but don't bring other people down. You're a jerk if you walk around like an elitists, and you're about as popular as a Pornstar at the end of the night: You're pretty on the outside, but inside you are rotting. And you're also probably stupid.
7)If you enter the cosplay contest, be sportsmanlike. I have seen so many people who deserved to win and didn't, and terrible costumes that got first prize. I always feel bad for the people that should have won, and when they hold themselves well they are remembered more than the actual winner. However, when they bitch about it the rest of the con, when they whine, when they just won't LET IT GO, you are remembered, but in the bad way. Everybody will remember your asshattery.
8) If your costume(s) is(are) terrible, don't act like the hottest shit since flaming bags of dog crap. Nobody thinks you are, and even those people who are just as terrible as you know it. They know it. There is such a thing as confidence and there is such a thing as asshattery. If you are an asshat about your crappy costume, people won't be nice. I sure as hell won't be nice.
9) Showers exist. Use them.
10) Don't be hyperactive ALL the time. We are all going to be a little hyper due to our excitement, but there is a limit. When you are acting like a Bush Baby on crack, it isn't funny, it isn't cute, and your unlimited "Desu" screams doesn't help.
This is the top then things that annoy me at cons, although there is a lot more tomfoolery that happens at cons; some Toms that should not be fooled. If you have any more for the list, feel free to post them, I would love to hear what you think.
What else do you guys have to say on the matter? Get your friends onto this blog, have them post their thoughts on Con Ettiquette.