2008 2.0 - still breakin'

[davemerrill]

From the Acen forums. This is all from one thread. Different people, one thread.

Registration. IMHO this teetered on the verge of destroying the con, and frankly, I don't think there was any excuse for it this year. Much of last year's problems were identified--again, prereg was, I thought, very well done this year--but other problems not only were not solved, they were made worse. The so-called "express registration" was anything but. The "express" line and the regular reg line merged, which basically defeated the purpose of having the express option anyway. My friend waited in line for six hours. That is completely unacceptable--and worse, it's dangerous.

my friend went out to smoke a cigarette. He was immediately accosted by an IRT member who demanded "So, what are you drinking?" He had no bottle or can anywhere near him. He replied "Nothing." She then demanded, "So what's that you're smoking?" It was fairly obvious that it was tobacco. Marijuana has a very distinctive smell (I know, I worked dorm security for three years). She then wanted to search him.

Fandom. That's everyone attending the con--you and me, fellow poster. For all my ranting on IRT, their job is made worse when we act like asshats. Why was the entire Rosemont PD at the Hyatt on Saturday night? That's ridiculous. I saw more cops in the Hyatt lobby than I did at a scene of a near-fatal stabbing in my hometown. Some of you attendees are just plain jerks, and you need to stay the f home. Grow up or get out. I'm sick of it. Most of us are sick of it. Just because you're away from Mommy and Daddy for the first time doesn't give you the right to act like a complete idiot. Your smashing of doors and trying to wreck the elevators, and yelling from the 10th floor and cursing like you're on the deck of the Cornelia Marie rather than at a public place with children present, just pretty much insures that the Hyatt will boot us out. You want to act like you have the IQ of a dung beetle, save it for your basement.

We can gripe about IRT ruining our fun, but if our "fun" is shoving people, underage drinking, screaming random cuss words, smoking (and dealing) weed, and basically being stupid, then we need to find another hobby. What's more is, on Friday night I saw a body face-down in a pool of blood. I don't know how that turned out, and I hope it wasn't as bad as it looked, but if someone got crippled or, God forbid, killed this year, that should be a giant wake-up call. The Hyatt loves our money, but having a guest die on property is the quickest way to get the boot--not to mention what it says about anime fans in general. What, are we British soccer fans now?

the stupid idiot pissing off the walkway from floor 7.


The Hyatt looked good. I was like. Whoa. Excellent stuff. But by Sunday, that place was TRASHED. I mean. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE. Clean UP after yourself. And my GOD. My neighbors--horrid. I've seen cleaner 5 year olds.

You know, I haven't been to Acen in four years, and I thought it was outgrowing the Rosemont even then. [/b]
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[Tochiro]

OK...wait...what? WHAT?

I mean, Christ, what the hell?

Pool of blood? Pissing from the 7th floor? MASSIVE POLICE CALLOUT?!

Not to mention many, many stories of 8 hour + waiting to reg.

Holy crap if that was my con I'd fold it up in shame and post public apologies all over the place.

As much as I clearly blame the fans for their various and several stupiditudes there's just no excuse for the con to have totally lost control like that, ESP. SINCE reg problems have been SOP for ACen for....what, years now? Geh, I recall 2002 was Eternal Line.

"well, staff changes and we didn't do this and we had to do that and someone had to code new printer drivers for..."

Jesus fucking Christ in a rowboat.

I think several posters (and Dave) have it right. They're still working under the idea that they're a 2000 attendee con when they're hitting 15k and over. You gotta have the mechanics in place that are bulletproof and can survive changes in staffing. You have to have continuity. Direction. The leaders have to CHECK on the people under them.

Too bad. I liked ACen back in its younger days. Now I don't think I would go even if I was paid.

"Don't judge us too harshly! It'll be better next year! We PROMISE!"

bull-fucking-shit. They didn't even clean up from '07s mess, from what I hear.

The Front Page of their site should say in great big letters "We're SORRY"...but it won't.

I rant because I love, and feel great sadness.
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My name is Steve, how ya do? I'm blogging now, look out! http://tochiro998.livejournal.com/

[davemerrill]

This is from an email on the Animecons mailing list;

I came over from Ireland for this and honestly it was extremely
unenjoyable. Much of this was out of the direct control of the organisers to
resolve. I decided to go over rather late and did not get to pre-register. I would estimate waiting time for registration on Friday at between 8 and 9
hours. No refreshments available to purchase while waiting made this
unbearable, no convenience stores within walking distance that I or anyone I attended with was aware of meant nothing could be purchased in advance either.

Lines for any moderately popular event over the weekend were, again,
hours of standing. I.R.T. seemed more antagonistic than necessary over the course of the weekend, I believe the police were involved with several
incidents, I saw them quite regularily throughout the weekend. I witnessed one fight from my hotel window on Friday morning and I am under the impression that at least one attendee died some time on Friday evening, but that is second hand information.

My enduring memory of Acen will be incredibly sore feet and unbearable
lines.

I don't know what's going on here, but something seems to be really, really wrong. This is turning into Altamont.

I don't mean to single Central out here, but I'm not hearing pee stories from, say, Jacon.
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[Tochiro]

I note at the ACen boards some of the staff are getting REALLY PISSED that the name 'Linecon '08' (or Line Central) is cropping up more and more.

It also sounds like there's a problem with their security...errr...IRT people.

I suspect part of the problem is pretending they're some kind of con SWAT team when, no, no, they're just show staff, just people watching doors. anything more than that and you need REAL security.

(not disrespecting the people manning the posts, it's a top-down problem I think).

Geeze, the Dorsai Irregulars could do a better job...
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My name is Steve, how ya do? I'm blogging now, look out! http://tochiro998.livejournal.com/

[davemerrill]

I see some of the staff suggesting that everybody who had to wait in the long lines should have pre-registered - but last year was the year Acen mailed out their pre-registered badges, some of which didn't arrive until the day before the convention - thereby scaring people off from pre-registering because of fear their badges wouldn't arrive on time.

I haven't checked the board since this morning, but on the whole the staff seems to be fairly polite and handling things well, or as well as can be expected.

I don't know what the solutions are to their problems; membership cap, maybe; it doesn't seem like they can control the members we have. Obviously if walk-ins have to wait eight hours, they should not be selling walk-ins.

All I know is that I didn't start an anime con to give people a place to pee off balconies or start fights. How much longer until this shit isn't cool any more and the jerkoffs go somewhere else?
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[Tochiro]

IIRC, they bulk mail the badges in order to get a decent discount, while not said there ARE companies that do that for a fee and I would assume that's how they handle it. Of course, the more hands on the product, the more chance for things to go wrong.

Last year, again IIRC, they decided that the best day to mail out the badges was April 15th....

Yeah, ponder that for jussssst a moment.

Now, as they are so firmly fixed on doing things online and with computers and all, here's a solution. when they send out the badges (at least a month before the con) have a place on the website that says "Did you get your badge? If so, enter the special number printed on the back here" (because those stupid things have all manner of control and batch numbers and shit) and that tells the concom how successful the mailing has been, and how many badges to prep for not arrived/lost.

but of course that's more coding and I for one would try REAL HARD to get away from any 'original generated' program, as far as possible. If it's not off the shelf, I don't want it. If it's special made because there's just no choice, I want it bulletproof and robust where no fiddling with it, no adapting or updating to work with Windows Vista 1.2.23 or ANYTHING.

Man. And it happens year after year after year. part of the logjam is they want you to fill out a job application's worth of data when you reg. Crap, Address and Name is all I ever needed, take the money, here's the badge, go.
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My name is Steve, how ya do? I'm blogging now, look out! http://tochiro998.livejournal.com/

[Subatomic Brainfreeze]

[davemerrill]

Anime Evolution in Vancouver cancels its show, which was a little more than a month away!

http://animeevolution.net/index.php?topic=8263.0

Apparantly the university where they're holding the convention decided to use the space for a teacher's conference at the last minute, or something.

NOT AN ANIME CON: Jumpcon cancels its Boston show: http://www.jumpcon.com/ - this general SF media convention apparently planned or plans shows in various cities, including Atlanta. Good luck with that Jumpcon, the last outfit that tried that is lying in the ditch.

Fedcon USA in Dallas apparently got cancelled on the Saturday of the show, joining Con No Baka in the Hall Of Cons That Got Cancelled On Saturday. Yeah, because Dallas is totally under-served in the convention market! http://www.fedconusa.com/main/

Former A-Kon Staffer Tells All:

http://youshou.livejournal.com/63410.html with a more detailed rant here: http://youshou.livejournal.com/50814.html

This is a guy I've never met and have never had any contact with, but his observations and my observations from at least eight years ago match up pretty well. Overall A-Kon is a success - they haven't had the giant disaster area disasters of some other shows- but some parts of the show still seem like they're run as if it's 1993.
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[Young Freud]