As Others Might See Us

[coalescent]

On the Eastercon mailing list today:
I have read the draft programme for Odyssey over the weekend and am dismayed at the number of bondage workshops which appear. I feel most strongly that they give the wrong impression of the convention, have nothing to do with science fiction and have no place at an Eastercon. [...] Most people are broad-minded

Comments

[fjm]

Dunno. Right now, their programme is inaccessible.

[coalescent]

See reply to ang_grrr, I also have the pdf and will email it to you.

[ang_grrr]

Unfortunately the loss of the website means that I can't check on the number of bondage items or when they are so I can't make an informed input into the debate.

I've no problem with fringe interests being represented in conventions. Personally if people are interested enough to turn up to a panel item then I think it should be run but I think there is a limit to the amount of *programme* time devoted to a particular interest AND Jane is right that the public perception of the con could be skewed. The point I think she's making is that if it was something "weird" but relevant to SF then it would be defensible but this isn't.

[coalescent]

A quick search gives me:

Friday 4pm: Bondage workshop -- knots
Saturday 4pm: Bondage workshop -- dragonfly harness
Sunday 4pm: Bondage workshop -- hog tie

And:

Friday 3pm: Poly social gathering
Sunday 6-7pm: Poly social gathering

Interestingly, the poly gatherings specify under-18s only if accompanied by a parent or guardian, but the bondage workshops have no age restrictions.

On the comics front I spot:

Friday 11am: Comics 101
Friday 5pm: How writers and artists interact [broader than just comics]
Saturday 6pm: small press comics
Sunday 1pm: Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog: heroes or anti-heroes?

This is trickier, though, because there are some topics that can obviously include discussion of comics without necessarily being "comics panels" per se.

[coalescent]

I'm pretty sure that's fewer bondage-related programme items than 2008.

[fishlifter]

It is. In 2008 there were four workshops and a talk.
---Mark

[ang_grrr]

And I use weird as in "public perception of item" rather than a personal view on bondage, BDSM, comics etc. :)

[ninebelow]

This will be my first Eastercon and this is definitely the sort of stuff that puts me off. If you programme lots of things which are essentially "things people in fandom like" rather than anything actually to do with SF then you are aren't going to draw anyone else in and you are going to end up with a stagnant fandom.

[gaspode]

I'd look at the program

Peopel are talking about 5 or six items (which should of been (and will be) Scheduled later out of well over two hundred ....

[ninebelow]

I've seen the programme. It isn't very exciting. And yes, I can count.

[annafdd]

Frankly, it never is. Most of the panels I have found interesting are made so by the panelists and/or the public. A lot of fantastic programming turns out to be crap and boring and vice versa. Nowadays I mostly follow interesting people.

[despotliz]

There was a poly meetup at Orbital, which was organised on the spot when a group of attendees realised there was demand and asked for a room - I presume that the ones on this year's programme are just them asking well in advance so they don't have trouble finding a room on the day.

I don't mind having some non-SF-related programming at an Eastercon, and with one with as large and multi-streamed a programme as Odyssey I expect more than at a smaller convention. Generally it's fine, I just don't go to those panels, but I would not expect to see as many panels on a particular interest as there are on bondage.

[watervole]

You're correct. We were asked by several people if we'd put a poly social on the programme this time. The informal one at Orbital ended up with a lot of people squashed into a very small room.