When Convention Committees Go Nuclear

[major_clanger]

If you read nwhyte's journal (and is there anyone left who doesn't?) you'll be aware from this post that Irish fan slovobooks has been banned at short notice from attending Octocon this weekend, seemingly on the basis of unspecified conduct or comments relating to his criticism of the current committee.

Can they do this? More importantly, should they?

Comments

[dougs]

> [...] reputation is the currency of fandom, and it takes years to build but only seconds to lose.

This. Very much so.

[dougs]

... and I hope (but do not expect) that the said loss of reputation will attach to the individuals on the committee, and not to the convention brand.

[gmh]

Unfortunately, the impression I get (whether rightly or wrongly) is that various of the current Concom have been doing the job a little too long; James' ranting on Cheryl's blog drags up a lot of stuff from the dim and distant past as to why slovobooks is a Nasty Man and has therefore been banned, but is decidedly vague on the specifics; it feels as though the Concom are stuck in self-regarding groupthink and have seized upon slovobooks's criticisms as something intolerable that must be purged.

Yes, con-running is frequently thankless, and the last thing you need sometimes is someone asking pointed questions in a scary voice, but the implicit message I'm getting in this case is "We are Octocon, and you are forbidden! We have spoken!".

And yes, that's got to stick to the brand; it's can't not.

[ms_cataclysm]

I don't read either journal and am too lazy to go to Octocon and I don't know if I know the people involved but if the committee is so dreadful, why does this fan want to go to the convention?

[la_marquise_de_]

There's a long back story. I'll tell you sometime if you're interested.

[major_clanger]

He was involved in running it for a long time; Octocon also fancies itself as the Irish National Convention (although it seems to be getting a lot of competition in that respect from P-Con these days). I get the feeling that Pádraig was disgruntled with the way Octocon has been run recently but was nonetheless planning to go along on the basis that it's a convention where he sees other Irish fans.

To be honest, the way Novacon was going the last few years I went mainly because it was a weekend fannish party, and put up with a hotel I didn't much like and a programme that seemed more insular every year. Having said that, I'm optimistic that the change of venue this year will revitalise it.

[la_marquise_de_]

All I can say is that the Octocons have had this problem before. It blew over.

[ciphergoth]

I would want to be very sure for any con that I ran that I was legally covered for banning anyone for any reason. But of course I would expect the community to judge my choices appropriately; reputation, not law, is the right court here.

[major_clanger]

I'm absolutely with you here. However, I've sometimes heard con-runners lament that they can't legally throw someone out of a convention who has paid to get in. As I hope I've explained, this isn't true - so long as they have been really unreasonable and you aren't being discriminatory, you're well within your rights to ask a disruptive member to leave. (And, I'll add, under no obligation to refund membership, although you might want to so as to emphasise that you are being reasonable.)

[secretrebel]

This thread is really interesting. I don't know any of the people involved but the committee don't appear to be covering themselves in glory with their bizarre insistence that slovobooks should absolutely under no circumstances whatsoever contact them to discuss this while declaring it's outrageous that he didn't contact them to discuss this privately.

[swisstone]

Yes, James Brophy does seem to be in some bizarre sort of denial.

[gmh]

Quite apart from all else, he makes a great point of insisting that he knows the REAL slovobooks better than a lot of us, and that we're just ignorant of his dark side (a nice way to address your audience!).

If he knows him so well, then why didn't he forsee that slovobooks would make the news public; and why didn't he see that this would cause a major fanstorm?

I mean, if you really believe that someone will play to the gallery at any opportunity, and you want to discredit their opinion, the very last thing you should give them is an opportunity like this one; it's a major tactical blunder.

[swisstone]

One of the Octocon co-chairs has now basically disowned anything James Brophy has said. Which is all very well, but now leaves Padraig in the position that the Octocon committee won't tell him why he's been banned, and he can't assume that it's for any of the reasons that James says (though it may be).