Three Gray Fandoms

[ursulav]

So a lot of conversation is going on at the moment, post-Worldcon, about just how weird the demographics were, and that leads to “I’m tired of all this ageism” and while I am arguably not the most interesting or insightful on that matter, nor do I have a lot of experience with Worldcons, but hey, it’s the Internet, and when did that ever stop

Comments

[txtriffidranch]

Oh, if you think that's good, you should have tried to become a vendor. The reason why the dealer's room was full of the same old stuff was very deliberate. When vendor spaces opened up, I very seriously considered getting a space. In fact, the price for each space was very reasonable. Problem was, all vendors had to be approved by a jury, and that was only after certifying that everyone at that table or booth had full paid memberships. It was an incredible incentive not to offer competition to the Fan GoH's used book business, as well as a very sneaky way to goose attendance numbers. "Sorry, but we don't find that your products suit our convention. You're now out $600, but at least you can vote for the Hugos. See you st the show, suckers."

Now, I can't even see this as deliberate. Riddell's Law states that "any sufficiently developed incompetence is indistinguishable from conspiracy. I also know that a lot of the people involved with WorldCon this year are also involved with Armadillocon, which went from being an excellent literary con to being a private party for Austn's excuses for SMOFs where the few newbies who attend pay for the beer. I also have stories about the former head of the dealer's room, when I asked him about the number of people forced to choose between WorldCon and DragonCon, literally sneered at me "Well, that only affects maybe 250 people at most." One way or another, I was completely honest about my feelings about Little Limp Willie's Wankfest: "If I wanted to waste a perfectly good birthday weekend and a few thousand dolllars to listen to a herd of humor-impaired seventysomething white xenophobes cry impotently about the world changing without their written permission, I'd go to a family reunion."