Paying for Services
Hey all! Another noob here. This will be my first Dragon*Con, although I've been to other conventions. First, I want to thank everyone for all the great posts and good advice. Second, I've been following the debate over people sharing badges instead of buying their own. I agree that anyone going to the con should buy their own, since otherwise they're using con services and space without paying for them. But, what about people who book a double room and then crowd three or more people into it? Isn't that using hotel services without paying the hotel for them? Plus, sharing badges is just a violation of con ettiquette or policy. Adding extra, unpaid people to a room is (I think) a violation of the law and also contributes to the overcrowding at the con, since it can mean that more people are staying at a hotel than the Fire Marshall would allow. I know packing a room is an old fan tradition, but does that make it any better than sharing a badge? As far as I can tell, no one addressed this in the badge sharing posts. From my experience at other cons, it seems to me that packing a room is acceptable to a lot of fans, while badge sharing is not. Why is that?