> Sorry about the long rant - this has been building up a while
Gosh, I guess it HAS been building up for a while - because this thread has been quiet for weeks. And I can't help but feel like your response is triggered by more than reading the somewhat ambiguous comments here.
I usually prefer to have these sorts of one-by-one discussions in person - more dynamic, more personal, far more effective. But I've found that by moving 1700 miles away that's become a bit challenging. So I'm going to do what I almost never do, and answer your points here. This is not meant as any sort of argument or attack. I hope it can be the start of more discussion and less, um, dissing.
This particular venue is also quite small, not that mean people read my lj, and the vast majority are unlikely to be reading posts this ancient. But if I happen to say anything useful, please fell free to repeat it elsewhere.
You complain that the posts here make sweeping statements about the future of Capricon, but not a single person here said anything like that. In fact, I specifically mentioned that I knew the rules changed ever year. And only one person was mildly rude about the situation.
Name-calling (what else can I label your use of "boycotters" (or for that matter "elders")) adds heat but no light to the discussion. It helps if you are aware that most of the people responding here are interested in convention choices as a whole, but are not ideally positioned to attend Capricon itself anyway. Most-of-a-continent can put a real damper on ones travel plans.
As far as remedies go, I'll admit that I approached that potentially delicate matter in private (once I knew more, which came as a result of my first posting here), talking to several of the people in question, and concluding that if there was a good solution, it wasn't one that I would be able to help with.
It did lead to my second post here, after it had been made clear to me that, yes, indeed, books were considered to be of at most minor interest to the convention, and that the already small amount of dealers carrying them was to be cut back even farther. That is something that's personally very sad to me, and I don't think it's inappropriate to say so in my own journal. I also don't think that comes close to trashing the convention or the people who work on it.
I've chaired Capricon a few times myself, and had my own share of difficult decisions or unfortunate events. But that's now far in the past, and I don't expect that it have any impact on how things run now. And I'm not saying it should.
It's true that I felt it was particularly agravating that, if only a single new book dealer was to be chosen, they opted for the recent arrival that mostly carries the mainstream publishers instead of the long-time dealer, but from what you've said I gather that there even less information transfer from one year to another than there was in my day.
But the real source of the gripe was the down-grading of books itself. And while I'm sure that this will change, as everything does, it was an unfortunate capper to the events of my closing the bookstore, and then moving cross-continent.
Please do feel welcome to rant here. Things being discussed are almost always better than things building up. And it looks like you've been hearing a lot of things from other sources than this rather skimpy journal.
no subject
Gosh, I guess it HAS been building up for a while - because this thread has been quiet for weeks. And I can't help but feel like your response is triggered by more than reading the somewhat ambiguous comments here.
I usually prefer to have these sorts of one-by-one discussions in person - more dynamic, more personal, far more effective. But I've found that by moving 1700 miles away that's become a bit challenging. So I'm going to do what I almost never do, and answer your points here. This is not meant as any sort of argument or attack. I hope it can be the start of more discussion and less, um, dissing.
This particular venue is also quite small, not that mean people read my lj, and the vast majority are unlikely to be reading posts this ancient. But if I happen to say anything useful, please fell free to repeat it elsewhere.
You complain that the posts here make sweeping statements about the future of Capricon, but not a single person here said anything like that. In fact, I specifically mentioned that I knew the rules changed ever year. And only one person was mildly rude about the situation.
Name-calling (what else can I label your use of "boycotters" (or for that matter "elders")) adds heat but no light to the discussion. It helps if you are aware that most of the people responding here are interested in convention choices as a whole, but are not ideally positioned to attend Capricon itself anyway. Most-of-a-continent can put a real damper on ones travel plans.
As far as remedies go, I'll admit that I approached that potentially delicate matter in private (once I knew more, which came as a result of my first posting here), talking to several of the people in question, and concluding that if there was a good solution, it wasn't one that I would be able to help with.
It did lead to my second post here, after it had been made clear to me that, yes, indeed, books were considered to be of at most minor interest to the convention, and that the already small amount of dealers carrying them was to be cut back even farther. That is something that's personally very sad to me, and I don't think it's inappropriate to say so in my own journal. I also don't think that comes close to trashing the convention or the people who work on it.
I've chaired Capricon a few times myself, and had my own share of difficult decisions or unfortunate events. But that's now far in the past, and I don't expect that it have any impact on how things run now. And I'm not saying it should.
It's true that I felt it was particularly agravating that, if only a single new book dealer was to be chosen, they opted for the recent arrival that mostly carries the mainstream publishers instead of the long-time dealer, but from what you've said I gather that there even less information transfer from one year to another than there was in my day.
But the real source of the gripe was the down-grading of books itself. And while I'm sure that this will change, as everything does, it was an unfortunate capper to the events of my closing the bookstore, and then moving cross-continent.
Please do feel welcome to rant here. Things being discussed are almost always better than things building up. And it looks like you've been hearing a lot of things from other sources than this rather skimpy journal.