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Yeah, an update would be reaaally nice.  Also, some word on whether that back projection screen mentioned in a different thread is going to be a thing, and what our video specs should be for that.  After talking with the hubby, we think that's a preferable way of doing what I want to do, but I'm not starting a video until I know that's coming.

Question for folks who've competed recently (this is my first Masq since 2012, but I did compete in 2008-10 as well). Does reg still fill up as fast as it used to?  I know the constant refreshing was pretty much required before, is that still the case?

I've been participating in Masquerade consistently since 2009, but starting in 2013 when the management changed (which you just barely missed) online registration hasn't been successfully set up at all and all correspondence has taken place via email or forums, but mostly the forums. Both of the last two years I had to email the Masq. heads directly to register. I sure wish this wasn't becoming such a pattern, at this point I'm almost expecting the announcement that we'll have to do it via email anyway, which to be honest is preferable to nothing.

Would we at least be able to do a backup plan like the form we were able to fill out last year via email, or even a Google form? A lot of us have been stalking the forums for days and would rather not be worrying about this. I'm going out of town for a few days and won't be able to check back, and if registration went up and filled up when I was away when it should've been up a week or so earlier, it would be really disappointing.

I understand the situation is difficult and this also relies heavily on the web people, but having a backup plan would save many of us a lot of heartache.

Is there any word on whether it will be launched tonight (and a time) so that we don't have to refresh the forums like madmen to find out?

Was there a particular time and date it was supposed to be up by, and is it basically set to go up ASAP at this point?

Is registration open? How do we access it? If not, when will it be open? Where is this information on the website? The only place I see any information about the event is on the forums.

I'm a little confused--this thread says the gathering is on Saturday but in the gathering schedule thread, it says it's at 3:30 on Friday. Can anyone confirm which it is?

Yeah, I find it really unprofessional that this year (and last year) almost all Masquerade business has been conducted over the forums rather than updating the participants directly about what was going on. I had hoped that because last year was such a wreck, staff would be more on top of their game this year and better prepared.

If I don't hear back within a week or so, my group will probably have to drop because our skit is just so prop heavy and we don't want to have to crunch and stress over something that's supposed to be fun, but we don't want to start on prop work until we know we're in.

I've yet to receive anything either. I originally sent the information at midnight on March 29th (1 AM March 29th, late March 28th, whatever you will), and Erik responded saying he had touched down in London, but I haven't heard from him since and have no confirmation of whether or not I'm actually registered when I've followed up twice in the last week and some days. I'd really like to know if I made it through before I set to serious work on props/set and whatnot for the event. I understand things are busy right now, but this is kind of dropping the ball....

Thanks for your reply! I just wanted to make sure.

If our group has won an award at Fanime before (which hasn't based awards on skill level in the past), does that qualify as us winning an award in the "open" category at a convention before? By most standards I'd consider us journeyman.

Do you know what time on the 29th registration should be opening? Usually it opens at midnight on a certain day. I just want to make sure that if I tried to register in the morning on the 29th the spots wouldn't all be filled.

It seems like almost every single thread for con discussions that is in an area largely involving complaints about the con has been locked. I'm well aware that if you want a con to listen to your concerns, you should complain directly to them (which I certainly plain to), but it is so embarrassingly unprofessional that these threads are being locked without any good reason.

This is supposed to be a place for us to discuss our concerns and to give others a chance to contribute and share their related experiences. There will always be criticism involved. Locking all these threads just makes me feel like the staff doesn't know how to take said criticisms and is trying to shut down any threads in an attempt to keep us from talking poorly about them openly on the Internet, and to be honest, it just makes the whole of the staff look worse. There will always be Tumblr. People will find ways to voice their concerns and spread them like wildfire. Locking threads on the con forums isn't going to stop that.

A professional con staff would listen to the concerns being posted here and take them into consideration and just try to better themselves the next year--not try to silence attendees and force them to keep their complaints entirely private. It's only adding to my distrust that the con will improve next year, if I can be frank.

[@ bisouspapillon]

@ bisouspapillon – Strobe lights should never have gotten through the civic doors because there are strict rules about having lights especially rotating lights on cosplay. Someone should have have caught them before they got inside. HOWEVER, I think this is where the "loop" in the ruling comes in. Lights cannot be turned on/used/working on the cosplay if its ON THE CONVENTION FLOOR and since the civic technically isn't the convention itself, I guess this is where the miscommunication comes in. I think we need to make this rule more clear but I'm sure this rule was in effect SINCE before this year. Past years, I remember being advised about lights over and over again prior to Fanime. The rules were always clear on the website. For this year, if it was part of their CS cosplay, it should have been mentioned in that group's email that lights were going to be on their cosplay and it should have been caught by staff months prior to Fanime so the group can adjust. I don't work on staff or anything but I apologize for that experience. Again, some staffers will catch it, some won't. That's normal.

The cosplayers didn't bring them in. They were on the ceiling. I'm pretty sure they were requested from the tech crew and I was unimpressed and caught off guard by that decision because i have never seen strobes at this event as long as I have been attending Fanime

I agree with all of this. I was EXTREMELY upset with the fact that the times for tech/onstage rehearsals were changed after the website had said that they would last from 1 to 4 on Sunday, which is standard for Fanime Masq. I had a shoot I had been planning for a YEAR with friends from out of state with costumes that are extremely difficult to get in and out of on Sunday morning, and because I found out SATURDAY NIGHT that tech rehearsals apparently had to be done by 1:30, which did not seem like the case anyway as people were on the stage until at least two or two thirty when we went out into the hallway to practice on our own, I was not able to be a part of that shoot. Which is a personal problem, I know, but I think it was extremely inconsiderate of the staff to NOT have established times for these things that they stuck to. Given that nothing even started until 5:30 and the audience wasn't even brought in until 5:15, there is no reason why tech rehearsals COULDN'T have lasted until four.

In preparation for the con, I was never added to the mailing list of skit participants (and neither were a few other groups I know), and I only got updates because one of my skit members religiously checked the thread on the forums, so I wasn't receiving the proper information. I didn't know where masq check in was, and when I emailed Jack to ask WHEN and WHERE they were, he just said, "Yes, you can check in today." I ended up asking the info desk where it was, and they had to call about ten people to figure out where it was. On the first day, I was told we did not need backstage passes, but the next day one of my friends told me their friends' group was given backstage passes, so when we went back Saturday afternoon, we were told that they had "changed their mind," and they gave us stickers to put on our badges and told me that I had to personally walk in every member of our skit (which wasn't possible given how late it was at that point) because EVERY TIME I HAD ASKED if they wanted a list of the names of the skit members, they had said no and that I should just show up with everybody in the skit as their representative. I asked about three times, and was reassured time and time again that it would not be necessary (which I knew was going to be a mess, but whatever).

In the end, badges and backstage passes were not even checked on the way in to the Masq hall or backstage, and it was a huge hassle for no reason whatsoever. We also forgot to turn in a permission slip for one of the younger members of our skit on the way backstage after we were told to bring it to the actual event, and we realised in hindsight they didn't even ask for it. They were not enforcing any of their own rules this year, I felt like.

And can I just say how ANNOYING it was that absolutely no one had any clue when Masquerade started? We were in there from 12:30 until 10:00 with a half hour break to get food and bring it back to eat. We did NOTHING ELSE the entire day. Every single staff member told us something different, but the general consensus from most people seemed to be 5:15, so that's what we were assuming. We were practicing in the hallway after our tech rehearsal at about three when someone came out and told us we had to go in the auditorium because it was call time because Masq started at four thirty. At that point we were so fed up with everything we left to get food and came straight back to eat it in our seats. When we got back, half of the skits weren't even there--I'm assuming because absolutely no one bothered to be clear about when the event started, which I think is the most unprofessional failure in the entire event. It is not difficult to decide on a time for the event to begin and be perfectly clear on your website, con schedule, and with all your staff.

No one came out to tell our group when we were supposed to go backstage--we were the third performance skit, so after half of the walk-ons had gone on, we went backstage ourselves to ask if we should be backstage because normally you miss about five to ten skits standing backstage. They told us they didn't know. The photo people were really behind because we kept having to get rushed backstage since no one knew what they were doing.

This is also a minor detail, but since we were not allowed/made to go through the front doors this year, we didn't know about the strobe lights that were used in one of the skits. I am epileptic, and so was one of the cosplayers in the group I was sitting next to. I have NEVER seen strobes used in a Fanime Masq. performance. Those strobes were REALLY bright and really bad. We both were complaining that they could have warned us, and when we were told there were signs on the front doors, we said that we weren't allowed to come in through the front doors so we wouldn't have seen that. A staff member told me, "Well, how likely is it that the performers are going to have a problem with it?" Note that two of us happened to be sitting RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER. A big coincidence, I guess, but it's likely enough that it's worth pointing out.

Then when we went to collect our prize money like we were told to, we were told that the money was handed off to someone else and that it would be mailed to us instead.

Overall Masq had me running around almost the entire convention like a chicken with my head cut off. I participate in this event every year and if this is going to happen again, I'm not sure I want to next year.

Oh. Well, I know when we were getting confirmation emails a week or two ago, I hadn't received one, so I emailed about it and was basically told I should have received a mass email, but I'm apparently not on this mailing list--neither were several of my friends who are participating but we all were confirmed? And I guess Jack or whoever else never mad any attempt to fix this, which is still pretty disappointing.

I find it really unprofessional that rules and guidelines are being posted on the forum thread and not being sent to the contestants via email. If someone in my group hadn't been stalking this thread, we would have no clue about any of this. A couple of our members didn't even know there WERE forums before she started linking us to updates.

The staff should be emailing the skit groups to ensure they receive the information they need and not posting them here where only half the contestants will see them. I have been doing masquerades at Fanime for a long time but if this gets much worse I may not bother entering next year.

Hey, it's tuesdayromantic from Tumblr. I'll be attending as Elliot, and my friends will be there as grown Gilbert, Vincent, and Leo.

My friend and I will be there as Kanon and Shannon~

My friend and I will be there as default!Rin and Len.

I'll be going as Gokudera.