flanvention wanked

[rivendellrose]

In which I am reminded of the umpteen-billionth reason why I don't do cons any more. And am also made to feel smug because I totally knew this was going to turn up on F_W the instant I saw the announcement on fireflyfans.

Hopefully the fact that I haven't seen any enraged personal posts means that no one on my f-list has been burned by this whole mess? Those are some true bastards who did the organizing on this thing. *Shakes head*

In other news, I really need to get out of this horrible winter slump I'm in. I think it's a mild seasonal depression coupled with not having anything scheduled that I need to do... it's been a nightmare trying to get myself out of bed the last week. Once I'm up I'm mostly okay, but until then... yeck. Oh, and sinus joy, of course, on top of that. 'Cause having a cold really helps me feel like I can attack whatever this is with my full vigor, you know. :P At this point, I'm just praying for the solstice to come so that I can know deep in my belly that the worst is over and the sun is on it's way back.

Comments

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

Oh god. People are talking about suing?!? Maybe I don't know enough about the situation, but are people really wanking about criminal charges and civil courts? How about being slightly annoyed but at least taken care of with a refund?

*is confused*

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

... or are they not offering refunds? Maybe that's where people are getting the idea.

*is STILL confused*

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

As I understand it (with little to no business acumen and about an hour of reading through threads on Whedonesque and such), the company is not offering refunds, and gave less than a day's notice of cancellation. It sounds like quite the hellish mess. Beyond that, I'm kind of lost...

be_victims (referring to the company name, BE, not to the verb 'to be'... that confused me a bit at first) or the thread at Whedonesque are probably your best bets for figuring out what's up, if you're interested.

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

OUCH. What a mess.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah. This is one biiiiiiiig shit-pile, as near as I can tell. I'll be interested to see where it all ends up...

[spazzychic.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The current word is that since the company hosting the con has no money, people aren't getting refunds. People without refunds are very very angry. Fans who are denied their Firefly fix are especially so.

On a side note, serious props to Adam (the man they call Jayne) who showed up anyway. :)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

As pretty much everyone has been agreeing, Adam Baldwin is one fabulously classy gentleman. And I'm hearing words that him and Nathan both are setting up a shindig for the fans, in cooperation wtih the local Browncoats group, so... despite the disaster, I have a feeling people will at least have their fun at the event.

[spazzychic.livejournal.com]

That is just AWFUL. I hope they explain themselves thoroughly and soon. But then, I'd have trouble plopping down a lifetime membership for a con that has no history. Heck, I don't tend to pay for Norwescon until I'm at the reg table.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I know. And the company, from what I've read, is saying that they won't issue a statement until 10 days from now, by which time the general consensus is that they'll have declared bankruptcy and dissolved the company in an effort to avoid giving people refunds. Bastards.

Exactly - me either. But I guess the idea is that BE held a lot of conventions for various fandoms (not sure on that last bit, but that's the impression I was getting?), and the 'lifetime memberships' were for all their conventions, not just this one or Firefly-related. Still... wacky. I can't even work up the gumption to get to Norwescon usually, for crying out loud. $60 or whatever seems like a hell of a lot to pay to hang out with other geeks, when I could just... go to dinner with my friends or something. But I'm a lazy fan. ;)

[windrose.livejournal.com]

This makes me very, very glad that the con sponsoring SeaTrek has been doing these cruises for over a decade.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

No kidding. People have been kind of up in arms about how this supposedly shows that fans should support the fan-run conventions, but... honestly, the two that I've heard about going under big-time like this have been either fan-run or a fan-run company. I'm sure there are lots of fan-run cons that go over great, but there's something to be said for the security of a major company with a lot of history.

[stormkpr.livejournal.com]

I feel so bad for anyone who bought tickets, made arrangements, etc.

I've never gone to any sort of con that was out of town. So I guess first thing I'd need to investigate, if I ever did this, is how stable the group putting on the con appears to be. I wonder, though, where one even goes to find this out.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Me too. Some of the local Seattle Browncoats group are down there, but they all sound like they're doing okay, at least.

That's an interesting question... I guess doing research via fan-groups would be the best way? The internet version of word-of-mouth, to find out whether there've been problems like this, whether people have been refunded for problems, etc. I've never really thought about it - I usually end up deciding that even the local, well-established cons are too much money for what they offer, so I never considered long-distancing it.