did I miss a memo?

[lagilman]

So, it being December, I am making my plans for 2010 conventions (Pcon in Dublin, daytripping Lunacon, Balticon, pending DragonCon, all others uncertain at this point*) and I come to a sticking point.

WFC apparently is refusing to do any on-line registration. You have to download a pdf form, fill it out, write them a check/credit card #, and send it via USPS.

Guys, I know WFC marches to the beat of its own bagpipe, but WTF? It's 2010. Most of us do things on-line whenever possible -- yes, really. We enter in the credit card and we hit "send" and we don't print out fiddly bits of paper and mail them and then wait to hear if it's been received or not.

Or am I missing some great backlash against on-line commerce?


There are also no hotel rates listed. Hopefully that will be remedied in the next few months, so I can deal with Budget Issues...




*I'm not doing Readercon because I'll be teaching @ Odyssey the week prior and fully expect to be exhausted. WorldCon is yet to be decided -- have to see a) how the finances work, and b) if I can really afford to take the time off, when I'll then have to turn around and head to France for two weeks the next month. The cats would kill me. Although I am willing to hear arguments....

Comments

[lagilman]

Oh, brilliant. I'd hoped it was all just a late start convention chaos thing.

If they don't think "coastal elites" bring anything to the WFC party, then why should we bother going? It's a choice not an obligation to attend, after all, and if they're going to make it intentionally difficult to sign up... I can only imagine what the overseas (potential) membership feels about being given all those restrictions...

*facepalm*

[mcurry.livejournal.com]

The problem here would be taking something that was probably said in an offhand manner by one member of the con committee and making it the opinion of everyone working on the convention.

Since 90% of a successful WFC seems to usually involve just having a nice hotel with a big enough bar, I think boycotting WFC just because of the reported attitude of one member of the committee would be a bit....excessive. Especially since there are probably going to be fine people attending from the Midwest who don't deserve a lesser WFC just because of a con chair they didn't have any hand in choosing.

[lagilman]

?? I never suggested a boycott, just wondering why they're making it so damn difficult/unfriendly as per your reporting of the comment made by the Chair of said conference, and specifically the restrictions it puts on the overseas members.

[mcurry.livejournal.com]

This is the problem with having to pick a place in a comment thread to drop a general reply. *wry look* I didn't mean to suggest that you were in any way trying to organize a boycott, I just was starting to become concerned that a comment that I posted when I should have already been asleep was going to actually be a deciding factor for some people about whether or not they were going to WFC, especially since it was second- or third-hand.

[lagilman]

Ah. Je comprendes.