Or is it?
I actually had 3 different people from press talk to me about this as it was brought up at my panel (by a guy I couldn't understand).
The major question was "how do you feel about glomp me signs and the such being banned? Do you think cons are trying to kill fun for its attendees"?
A lot of people the past year have been complaining that conventions are trying to ruin the fun of the attendees by being stricter on its rules. To be honest, Fanime is one of the more lax'ed con when you compare with other cons banning signs completely, not allowing any kind of weapon or anything that remotely can be considered a weapon on the con floor.
Now the basis of this is that, attendees feel that their freedoms are being taken away to enjoy themselves, but what they don't realize(or attempt to even think about) is why conventions have had to put up rules and be more strict in enforcing them... Don't quote me on any of this as I may be slightly off(but I have a pretty basic grasp).
Convention centers are being harsher on the cons that are taking place there. Things like underaged drinking, sexual harassment, even sexual abuse/molestation cases have been springing up at conventions. There was an incident at fanime last year involving sexual harassment(and more) that was kept pretty under wraps. Numerous cases of attendees puking and passing out on convention floors from alcohol/drugs and the such, many of them underaged. Numerous cases of people passing out due to exhaustion, lack of food, and many other things.
People running away from home to attend conventions across country, with little to no money, no hotel room, and no way home.
Malicious attacks on conventions by attendees(HI ACEN!). Attendees harassing other attendees to extreme levels(blocking off entrances, taking up elevators and not leaving them, barging into hotel rooms).
Many of these seem like extreme cases, but they are a lot more common place than most think. I advocately faught to get "glomp me" signs banned, and my reasoning was that I've been harassed many times by people with these signs, and I've seen people disgusted, and even worse, hurt by people. Holding a sign is not an excuse to glomp someone else walking by.
Cons are cracking down harder, and it isn't to ruin fun. Fanime especially doesn't want to limit or restrict it's attendees (as staff argued with me quite about on the subject), but they did have to give in to some things...
TO PROTECT THE ATTENDEES.
Conventions cannot control everything the attendees do, and the rules that are made, usually, exist because something bad happened from the action that the rule prohibits. The rules do not limit people to an extreme, they're still free to have fun and enjoy themselves, they just need a little more basic understanding and self-control.
I went to a lot of Fanime meetings this year, and friends from other conventions talk to me all the time about the state of their conventions.
Glomp me signs are banned... so what? Doesn't mean you can't do it, just do it responsibly. A bunch of people ruined carrying signs for people, don't be one that ruins something else for others.
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Topic: The con is ruining our fun! (Read 58470 times)