Conventions, Fandom, and LiveJournal. (Oh my.)
Suffice to say, somewhere in the midst of the whirlwind of the movie release, Sectus, the book release, Prophecy, and LiveJournal becoming Hosebeast^2, I've become completely overwhelmed. Tell me, how many of you are finding yourselves unable to do almost anything but sit at the computer if you want to have ANY chance of catching up with e-mail and friends lists? I can't do it, my loves. CAN'T DO. I want to friend everyone back. I want to comment to everyone. I want to answer all my e-mail. (If I haven't replied to an e-mail or LJ comment from you, or haven't friended you back yet, please understand, I'm overwhelmed and exhausted. Remind me in a week, if I haven't replied by then, and if I'm important enough to you.) I want to talk about Sectus and Prophecy. I want to give a proper review of Deathly Hallows. I want to discuss the movie(s). I want to give my opinion of HPEF and how they handled what could have been the best convention yet. I want to sound off on LJ and their complete ass-hattery. I can't.
So, I'm going to try to give the basics here, on the most important stuff (conventions and LJ), and post comments to other people's entries when my brain is slightly recovered.
First, important info outside the LJ-cut:
I already had both JournalFen and GreatestJournal accounts, and I've just created an InsaneJournal account.
My screen name is "mijan" on JF, GJ, and IJ. So, I should be easy to find. In the meantime, I'm not officially moving yet. I've got the other three journals ready and waiting, but for now, I'm still here. For now.
I agree that I'd trust LJ as far as I can drag them on a collective choke-chain. They have no regard for fandom, and have allowed their sponsors to scare them into painting us as a bunch of child-molesting, dangerous, sociopathic criminals. Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but they're certainly painting us as pedophiles, which disgusts me on every level, and is possibly the most insulting thing I've ever experienced. So, that said, as shiny as LJ can be, we shouldn't stay.
HOWEVER, we shouldn't all jump from a burning boat into any life rafts we can find. We'll end up in different places, scattering our community, and weakening our links. I know it's really hard online to centralize, but I don't want to end up having to follow three or four journals and friends lists just to keep up with all my friends. We should have some consensus as to where we're going. At this point, regardless of whether or not you like their graphics, it seems that InsaneJournal will be the most welcoming and accomodating for fandom and slashers. Plus, it seems like it will be the most "out of the public eye". I haven't explored the site yet, and I haven't begun trying to customize my IJ, but it seems to have potential.
Sectus. Aaaah, I had the most wonderful time at Sectus. I extended my stay, and ended up staying in England for almost two weeks. Spent time with fellow slashers going around the city, saw Stonehenge, and had just the most marvelous time. Sectus was so well-run. It was the convention that came out of nothing, had everything changed on it at the last minute with the announcement of the book release, and still managed to run amazingly well. It wasn't as big or flashy as HPEF things, but it was GOOD. I enjoyed myself, and I think everyone else did, too. I was so tired by the end of it, I was almost seeing double, but it was awesome. So, kudos to the organizers for pulling off a fantastic feat of planning and fandom flexibility. It was excellent. I hope to attend Sectus II in 2009, and I'm definitely going to go back to London to see everyone again someday.
Prophecy. HAAAAAA. Oh, HPEF, thou art worthy of much bitch-slappery right now. Really. There are these two posts by
emmagrant01and
furiosity(respectively) that pretty much summarize my thoughts on it, too. Don't get me wrong, there were quite a few very good things at the convention. I had a great time in Toronto. The unofficial programming was great. I loved getting together with people, seeing old friends, meeting new ones. The Room of Requirement (as that alcove near the ballroom at the base of the stairs came to be called) was perfect. (I had a major sense of deja-vu in there.) The meetups were grand. Hanging out at the concert was a blast, especially with my darling Voldemort,
jaina12. (Your costume was better than ever, Voldy, dear. I love what you've done with your hair. *wink*) Being pulled into random roundtables and discussions as I'm walking by... excellent. Selling wands, fun. Shocking the hell out of people by wearing a floor-length red dress to the second half of the ball... priceless. Drabbles and drawbles and random squeeing. Hanging out in the way-too-small Wi-Fi area in the lobby... amusing. Late night take-out. Twelve-pound bags of chocolate-chip cookies. Desperation for Tim Horton's coffee. Getting tackled by people I hadn't seen in way too long. Making inappropriate wand inuendo. That's what Prophecy was all about for me. And guys, if I tried to shout-out right now, I think my brain would explode. I'll try for that in a later post. But I saw so many people, including people I've wanted to meet for ages. (ESSA! OMFG*tackleglompsqueee!*)
However, that's where my compliments for Prophecy end, because that's where HPEF begins. Oh, HPEF. What are we going to do with you? You did some things well. I'll give you that. However, from what I experienced personally, your idiocy has overshadowed your positive contributions. Other people have gone into detail, but I want to summarize my own personal experience, and a few things that others have told me that haven't made it into summaries. First, my roundtable. My own personal rant against these idiots. MY FUCKING ROUNDTABLE. It's the first venture I've ever made into formal programming, and I was SO excited about it. VERY excited. Positively squeeful. I agreed to have the time changed because HPEF messed up and booked someone else into two places at the same time. No problem, I'm flexible. They told me that there would be a flier in the programming booklet with the new time listed. That's cool. Pretty much everyone reads the flier that gives the corrections for the full schedule. But THEN, they wrote the WRONG DAY on the flier! The roundtable was Friday at 3:00, but they wrote Saturday. NOT COOL. Not just to me, but what about the people who had planned to attend, and discovered on Saturday that their regularly scheduled slash was... not scheduled? SO NOT ON. I tried to tell as many people as possible. That's the only reason I had ANYONE there. And even if they had tried to correct their incorrect correction with some new distribution of information... it FAILED TO DISTRIBUTE.
That says nothing about how they invaded
fiona_fawkes's "Shipping Harry" panel, attempting to cut it short without prior notice, and so rudely stating that they were NICE enough to let HER go over time, when she still had 15 minutes left! And she told all of her attendees that they needed to clear out! And why? Because Steve Vander Orc was next to present in that room. Get a bit of celebrity, and all of a sudden, anyone else is dirt. I'm sorry, but isn't that something that we of fandom don't condone?
It wasn't just that. Oh no. It was the condecending tone used by a couple of the head honchos when directing the masses. It was the way they treated several friends of mine, as if they were somehow superior, not simply facilitating the attendees' convention experience. It was the lack of planning for the concert and other events (such as Snape discussions) that would need a LOT of space. It was the piss-poor handling of the costume contest. It was the $600 fee to be a vendor. It was the way people, no matter how old or competent, were treated like children by the organizers. It was the attitude. It was how they threatened to revoke my registration because people had arranged to meet me at the ball to look at some of my wands. (I feel the need to point out that the Sheraton itself was not the domain of HPEF, and unless I was selling my wands INSIDE an area reserved by HPEF, I was NOT VIOLATING THE RULES. No money changed hands at the ball, where Prophecy's goonies threatened my registration -- although I will point out that the Securor who gave me the warning was actually trying to help me avoid being caught by Big Brother, but Big Brother still needs to bugger off in this case And last time I checked, they didn't reserve the lobby, the hallway, or the ladies' bathroom, which are all Fair Game as far as I'm concerned, especially considering I would have paid a vendor fee if it had been REMOTELY reasonable. Suck my nonexistant cock, bitches.) It's how HPEF seems to have forgotten that it used to be "of the fandom, by the fandom, and for the fandom". The Prophecy attendees are paying customers, but they were treated like HPEF's personal flock of sheep. And this felt more like a money-making scheme than a non-profit convention. Tell me, Oh Great Gurus of HPEF, did you use the $600 vendor fees, the increased registration fees, and everything else to pay for your own hotel rooms? Did your accountant (the same guy who initiated the threat against my registration) help you write that off as tax-deductible?
I filled out one of the comment cards on Sunday. I hope they listen. If not... well... look at how we rallied against LJ. After fandom chewed up and spit out Six Apart, HPEF would be like an after-dinner mint.
Finally, on a more personal fandom note, I think I'm going to try to get back into fan art. I used to draw, but our darling lizardspots convinced me, in the days during and following Sectus, that I should try my hand at it again. So, I'm going to attempt to get back into that. I'm also going to start paying more attention to my fics. Yes, I'll spend time writing the next chapter of Convergence. Yes, I have some shorter fics to write and finish. I'll post them after the insanity dies down. But I promise, I'll start paying more attention to fandom. The conventions just reminded me what I love about my fandom, and why you guys are so important to me.
*hugs all*
So, I'm going to try to give the basics here, on the most important stuff (conventions and LJ), and post comments to other people's entries when my brain is slightly recovered.
First, important info outside the LJ-cut:
I already had both JournalFen and GreatestJournal accounts, and I've just created an InsaneJournal account.
My screen name is "mijan" on JF, GJ, and IJ. So, I should be easy to find. In the meantime, I'm not officially moving yet. I've got the other three journals ready and waiting, but for now, I'm still here. For now.
I agree that I'd trust LJ as far as I can drag them on a collective choke-chain. They have no regard for fandom, and have allowed their sponsors to scare them into painting us as a bunch of child-molesting, dangerous, sociopathic criminals. Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but they're certainly painting us as pedophiles, which disgusts me on every level, and is possibly the most insulting thing I've ever experienced. So, that said, as shiny as LJ can be, we shouldn't stay.
HOWEVER, we shouldn't all jump from a burning boat into any life rafts we can find. We'll end up in different places, scattering our community, and weakening our links. I know it's really hard online to centralize, but I don't want to end up having to follow three or four journals and friends lists just to keep up with all my friends. We should have some consensus as to where we're going. At this point, regardless of whether or not you like their graphics, it seems that InsaneJournal will be the most welcoming and accomodating for fandom and slashers. Plus, it seems like it will be the most "out of the public eye". I haven't explored the site yet, and I haven't begun trying to customize my IJ, but it seems to have potential.
Sectus. Aaaah, I had the most wonderful time at Sectus. I extended my stay, and ended up staying in England for almost two weeks. Spent time with fellow slashers going around the city, saw Stonehenge, and had just the most marvelous time. Sectus was so well-run. It was the convention that came out of nothing, had everything changed on it at the last minute with the announcement of the book release, and still managed to run amazingly well. It wasn't as big or flashy as HPEF things, but it was GOOD. I enjoyed myself, and I think everyone else did, too. I was so tired by the end of it, I was almost seeing double, but it was awesome. So, kudos to the organizers for pulling off a fantastic feat of planning and fandom flexibility. It was excellent. I hope to attend Sectus II in 2009, and I'm definitely going to go back to London to see everyone again someday.
Prophecy. HAAAAAA. Oh, HPEF, thou art worthy of much bitch-slappery right now. Really. There are these two posts by
emmagrant01and
furiosity(respectively) that pretty much summarize my thoughts on it, too. Don't get me wrong, there were quite a few very good things at the convention. I had a great time in Toronto. The unofficial programming was great. I loved getting together with people, seeing old friends, meeting new ones. The Room of Requirement (as that alcove near the ballroom at the base of the stairs came to be called) was perfect. (I had a major sense of deja-vu in there.) The meetups were grand. Hanging out at the concert was a blast, especially with my darling Voldemort,
jaina12. (Your costume was better than ever, Voldy, dear. I love what you've done with your hair. *wink*) Being pulled into random roundtables and discussions as I'm walking by... excellent. Selling wands, fun. Shocking the hell out of people by wearing a floor-length red dress to the second half of the ball... priceless. Drabbles and drawbles and random squeeing. Hanging out in the way-too-small Wi-Fi area in the lobby... amusing. Late night take-out. Twelve-pound bags of chocolate-chip cookies. Desperation for Tim Horton's coffee. Getting tackled by people I hadn't seen in way too long. Making inappropriate wand inuendo. That's what Prophecy was all about for me. And guys, if I tried to shout-out right now, I think my brain would explode. I'll try for that in a later post. But I saw so many people, including people I've wanted to meet for ages. (ESSA! OMFG*tackleglompsqueee!*)
However, that's where my compliments for Prophecy end, because that's where HPEF begins. Oh, HPEF. What are we going to do with you? You did some things well. I'll give you that. However, from what I experienced personally, your idiocy has overshadowed your positive contributions. Other people have gone into detail, but I want to summarize my own personal experience, and a few things that others have told me that haven't made it into summaries. First, my roundtable. My own personal rant against these idiots. MY FUCKING ROUNDTABLE. It's the first venture I've ever made into formal programming, and I was SO excited about it. VERY excited. Positively squeeful. I agreed to have the time changed because HPEF messed up and booked someone else into two places at the same time. No problem, I'm flexible. They told me that there would be a flier in the programming booklet with the new time listed. That's cool. Pretty much everyone reads the flier that gives the corrections for the full schedule. But THEN, they wrote the WRONG DAY on the flier! The roundtable was Friday at 3:00, but they wrote Saturday. NOT COOL. Not just to me, but what about the people who had planned to attend, and discovered on Saturday that their regularly scheduled slash was... not scheduled? SO NOT ON. I tried to tell as many people as possible. That's the only reason I had ANYONE there. And even if they had tried to correct their incorrect correction with some new distribution of information... it FAILED TO DISTRIBUTE.
That says nothing about how they invaded
fiona_fawkes's "Shipping Harry" panel, attempting to cut it short without prior notice, and so rudely stating that they were NICE enough to let HER go over time, when she still had 15 minutes left! And she told all of her attendees that they needed to clear out! And why? Because Steve Vander Orc was next to present in that room. Get a bit of celebrity, and all of a sudden, anyone else is dirt. I'm sorry, but isn't that something that we of fandom don't condone?
It wasn't just that. Oh no. It was the condecending tone used by a couple of the head honchos when directing the masses. It was the way they treated several friends of mine, as if they were somehow superior, not simply facilitating the attendees' convention experience. It was the lack of planning for the concert and other events (such as Snape discussions) that would need a LOT of space. It was the piss-poor handling of the costume contest. It was the $600 fee to be a vendor. It was the way people, no matter how old or competent, were treated like children by the organizers. It was the attitude. It was how they threatened to revoke my registration because people had arranged to meet me at the ball to look at some of my wands. (I feel the need to point out that the Sheraton itself was not the domain of HPEF, and unless I was selling my wands INSIDE an area reserved by HPEF, I was NOT VIOLATING THE RULES. No money changed hands at the ball, where Prophecy's goonies threatened my registration -- although I will point out that the Securor who gave me the warning was actually trying to help me avoid being caught by Big Brother, but Big Brother still needs to bugger off in this case And last time I checked, they didn't reserve the lobby, the hallway, or the ladies' bathroom, which are all Fair Game as far as I'm concerned, especially considering I would have paid a vendor fee if it had been REMOTELY reasonable. Suck my nonexistant cock, bitches.) It's how HPEF seems to have forgotten that it used to be "of the fandom, by the fandom, and for the fandom". The Prophecy attendees are paying customers, but they were treated like HPEF's personal flock of sheep. And this felt more like a money-making scheme than a non-profit convention. Tell me, Oh Great Gurus of HPEF, did you use the $600 vendor fees, the increased registration fees, and everything else to pay for your own hotel rooms? Did your accountant (the same guy who initiated the threat against my registration) help you write that off as tax-deductible?
I filled out one of the comment cards on Sunday. I hope they listen. If not... well... look at how we rallied against LJ. After fandom chewed up and spit out Six Apart, HPEF would be like an after-dinner mint.
Finally, on a more personal fandom note, I think I'm going to try to get back into fan art. I used to draw, but our darling lizardspots convinced me, in the days during and following Sectus, that I should try my hand at it again. So, I'm going to attempt to get back into that. I'm also going to start paying more attention to my fics. Yes, I'll spend time writing the next chapter of Convergence. Yes, I have some shorter fics to write and finish. I'll post them after the insanity dies down. But I promise, I'll start paying more attention to fandom. The conventions just reminded me what I love about my fandom, and why you guys are so important to me.
*hugs all*