OH. DRAMA.

[ang_rosin]

[Poll #1467311]

I've been to Octocon. I was lucky to get there in 2006 and meet Frank Darcy who I'd only really known online before then. It was an interesting experience and one that I'd like to repeat, but possibly not right at this moment.

Badly Done, as they say.

EDIT: Auntie Ang says: Remember, you can't kill everyone.

EDIT2: I'm linking to the joint statement published on slovobooks blog about the matter here for completeness. What I will say that this poll was always about confirming how I believed most fans I knew would behave in similar circumstances.

Comments

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I particularly love the way the committee are saying "huh, why'd he have to moan on the internet, he could have written to us", when the letter they sent him explicitly told him they wouldn't discuss it. Oops.

Plus also, it's unbelievably lame to take someone's money for a supporting membership, and then months later, when he decides he can get to the con to see old friends after all, decide to ban him. That's actively revolting behaviour.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

In fairness, the person saying that he should have written to the committee was talking out of a part of his anatomy not usually associated with verbal communication, and the Octocon co-chair has disassociated herself and the Octocon committee from that.

That doesn't excuse her failure to provide a reason for the ban, or here naivety in assuming that it could be kept quiet.

[sneerpout.livejournal.com]

If anything, it's made it worse. The first person you are referring to didn't clarify matters at all, made some serious allegations, and then backtracked swiftly.

The committee member who followed up on Person 1's comments gave the impression, to me, of throwing Person 1 to the wolves.

Gary Farber gave them some great advice - eat humble pie, move on, and in six months it's the punchline to a bad joke and, in a year, it's forgotten. And he's someone who's been on the receiving end of a very rough ride from fandom, so he knows what he's talking about.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Yes. But the person in question has only *just* resigned from the committee, presumably over this. Not a happy committee or convention.