Worldcon

[quietann]

Here now. I didn't go to Legoland on account of still feeling not so great; I had lunch with a friend up here instead. My throat isn't sore unless I talk too much, so I'm mostly hiding out in the room. Doesn't help that I'm having my usual "These people are so weird!" squick that I always have at the start of a con. And that got jumpstarted by the huge, unkempt, oblivious guy who crammed himself into the elevator when I first got here, and kicked some luggage into another person to make himself fit. He had that "no one is here but me!" attitude, like the other people in the elevator were nothing but luggage themselves. I should have yelled at him.

I don't remember fandom, almost 10 years ago when I first got involved, having quite this many dysfunctional people. Or maybe it's just that the functional ones have migrated to events like Burning Man, so the proportion of dysfunctional ones is higher.

Tomorrow will be better.

Comments

[n5red.livejournal.com]

You should have called me. I may be wierd, but I'm also very polite.

And don't forget that I'm gorgeous and witty as well...

[quietann.livejournal.com]

You aren't that weird. And politeness goes a long way with me.

We should hang out, yes.

[n5red.livejournal.com]

I'm still awake, you're welcome to stop by.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

**yawn**

I was on my way to sleep when I said that. We're in Hilton room 7423; I am spending a fair amount of time here since I seem to be slow in getting over this little cold bug or whatever it is.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh fandom had /plenty/ of disfunctional people back 10 years ago. I remember 'em well.

And Burning Man hasn't stolen /all/ of the functional people. Just, y'know, some.

[sichling.livejournal.com]

Try to enjoy Worldcon - it'll get better. And if it doesn't, we're a mere 6-8 hour car ride away.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

yes, well, I'll adjust eventually. Probably Saturday night, when the con is done on Sunday, as per usual.

I'd love to come see you, but not this trip. I'm still crossing my fingers that you can figure out a way to move back to Boston.

[sichling.livejournal.com]

Well, hopefully it'll be before Saturday night - after all this is a lot longer of a con.

We'd like to get back to Boston too - but details of that are still in the hazy wish state. After the baby and maternity leave, we shall see & perhaps focus a bit more.

[goddessfarmer.livejournal.com]

hope it gets better. Here is missing various folks that are there, and you can pass that message along :-)

[marmota.livejournal.com]

Or maybe it's just that the functional ones have migrated to events like Burning Man, so the proportion of dysfunctional ones is higher

Eh, rude people stood out just as much when I first started going to cons as they do now. I'd agree that the overall demographic, and expectations, have shifted considerably downward, though.

Fandom was a useful catch-all tribal identifier back when 'networking' meant a slow and somewhat labor intensive hand-collated APA. Now that the internet and other resources have made it easy for like-minded people to communicate en masse and almost instantly, it has both diversified and balkanized, and yes, I'd say the net effect is growth in numbers and a decrease in social graces as competent, motivated, well-socialized people who would have been at home in sf fandom twenty years ago wouldn't go near it today.

The main reasons I have anything to do with even the one con I do go to anymore is that it's local, I want to give some help back to something that was good for me back when I needed it, the competency and socalization level of it is high enough that I don't get that "Oh, look. The short bus just arrived." feeling I get at other cons, and to keep an eye on fandom to see if it's ever going to turn back into something I could feel a part of again.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

I think you're being a tad superior here.

Of course, I am a relative newbie. What bothers me are just plain rude people... I have a very un-PC view of this, basically folks with Asperger's (of whom there are many in fandom) now saying, "Oh, I can't help being clueless; I have this *condition*" rather than even trying.

I do think there are still young people coming into fandom, many of them very bright and competent, but I don't think they are coming into literary fandom that much. Anime is huge now, and that's where the young 'uns seem to be flocking.

[marmota.livejournal.com]

I think you're being a tad superior here.
Maybe. I certainly try not to be, and it took a few years of me wondering if I was being too harsh before at the very least deciding that harsh or not, my opinion wasn't changing.

Yeah, the culture of victimhood thing is certainly part of it (the observation of which, by the way, could be considered a bit superior on your part). SF Fandom has a culture of very broad acceptance, so broad it pretty much invented the "five geek social fallacies assumptions*" list, and acceptance crosses over into enablement far too often. I never had much patience for that, and have even less these days. *shrug*

[altaego.livejournal.com]

What are you a fan of?

[quietann.livejournal.com]

science fiction and fantasy, broadly defined. But I am less of a fan than a person who is friends with a lot of fans, and my husband is a SMOF (Secret Master of Fandom, one of those people who makes the conventions happen...)

[rmd.livejournal.com]

heh. 10 years ago at LAcon, i actually scolded someone who was graffitti-ing on the hotel signage (some kind of elevator-related sign). come *on*, people.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

well, is that just common vandalism, or fannish stupidity?

[rmd.livejournal.com]

eh, it was a certain level of "ha ha ha i'm doing this thing that i think is funny. ha ha ha" that i think of as being particularly fannish stupidity.

iirc, that was also the con that had the circlet genderflex book release party. i ended up improvising boy-drag, complete with a weaselly moustache, so i looked like a weaselly fat fanboy. i had the perverse urge to go try to pick up chicks badly.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

OMG! And I bet that you *impersonating* a fat weasely fanboy would have been more successful than your average *real* fat weasely fanboy... (For some reason I am thinking of that guy who goes to Arisia, the one referred to as "The Shambling Mound." He has not yet learned that when one has been rejected by multiple women, getting more drunk, rather than *taking a shower*, will not improve one's chances of success.)

[flyingwolf.livejournal.com]

lol. Some people never learn that lesson.

and there were PLENTY of rude, clueless people in fandom 10 years ago too.