Things

[secritcrush]

1. I had assumed that the waiting list for WFC would be a first on-first off affair. It's not. (Love the pretentious use of "juried." I guess they thought it sounds better than "we're cherry picking our friends and people we think are important

Comments

[despotliz]

I had assumed that the waiting list for WFC would be a first on-first off affair. It's not. (Love the pretentious use of "juried." I guess they thought it sounds better than "we're cherry picking our friends and people we think are important.")

Surely the perk of running WFC is that you get to tell your friends just before you hit the cap and make sure they get in? I would also assume a waiting list runs that way unless it was actually stated somewhere that it doesn't, and if you're going to cherry-pick I think you should be honest about it then people can decide whether they need your stinking waitlist or not.

[secritcrush]

I would also assume a waiting list runs that way unless it was actually stated somewhere that it doesn't, and if you're going to cherry-pick I think you should be honest about it then people can decide whether they need your stinking waitlist or not

I assume they haven't announced it because I expect that fewer people would be willing to return memberships and would make more of an effort to sell them on their own. (I know I would, anyway.)

[karen_w_newton]

You know, the last few WFCs have been a little bigger (1100 instead of 850). If these important folks missed the boat, it would seem to me that the con committee could just increase the membership to let them sign up without bumping folks already on the wait list. And I agree that once word gets out, it is likely that people who have to cancel will sell their memberships on their own.

In fact, I think it's worth posting that you're looking to buy a membership on any website that might have WFC members as readers.

[secritcrush]

In fact, I think it's worth posting that you're looking to buy a membership on any website that might have WFC members as readers.

Good idea, though I've actually got a membership (or rather have an agreement to buy one, though we haven't done the exchange yet.) It's funny because for the most part I don't really do programming and generally just hang out and gossip in the bar and mostly buy a membership to support the convention because I think it's the right thing to do.

[karen_w_newton]

Well, I'm glad you've got something lined up. I'm going. I knew it would sell out (San Diego, Gaiman, and Willis made that a sure thing) so my husband and I bought memberships at the last WFC in Columbus. We'll have to look each other up!

[amysisson]

When I try to follow the link about the WFC waiting list, I get a blank Twitter page that indicates "done" at the bottom but there's no actual content. Is it an official policy listed somewhere?

[secritcrush]

The twitter message says "Response from WFC: "The list is being juried." For "programming" purposes, ostensibly."(This was a response to a query asking why people who had joined the waiting list after Rae Carson (the twitterer) had already been offered a membership. Amber van Dyk had a similar response "Yeah I got my email too, said the same thing. Kind of BS. Anyway.")

The wfc website doesn't make a mention of this policy anywhere.

[sartorias]

My guess is, judging by things I heard at a San Diego con, is if you are in any way identifiable as a professional writer, you're in. They got utterly blindsided by Gaiman fans before they knew what hit them, and so the maxout was hit before the usual subjects woke up and started thinking about WFC, which usually happens about this point in the year. Or so I heard.

[sartorias]

OK. This news was in Feb--maybe things have gotten more dire since then. I do know that, as usual, most of the writers who usually go tend to sign up in summer or later, and the max was hit in February, which caught everyone by surprise. I can only imagine it's accelerated since then--like, publishers catching up and wanting their usual bunch of memberships, etc.

Anyway, the hotel itself is beautifully set up for a barcon around the pool area, and in other places.

[secritcrush]

The trouble is they aren't advertising the waiting list is (basically) only for people they recognize as industry professionals, with everyone else going to be out of luck. (Everyone I know has been on the waiting list since February.)

[barbarienne]

I will not be attending WFC, even as a barcon, alas, unless something very strange happens between now and then.

Question not for me but in general: what's the capacity of the hotel? I wonder if that would explain the lower-than-previous member cap? And if it does, would that mean barconning is difficult unless one gets their hotel reservation jiffy quick? The hotel looks to be a self-contained resort, not terribly easy to go back and forth to from a neighboring hotel.

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People keep asking me why I don't join Facebook. I keep wondering why they ask me such a stupid question.

[secritcrush]

Sorry to hear you won't be coming.

There seem to be reservations available at the hotel - it looks large, but as you say, isolated.

[barbarienne]

I was planning to go, then the thing sold out. I considered barconning, but I have at least two major events that are likely to collide with each other in October. I really need a clone.