#dashcon attendee

[rat-kingster]

my stephanie cosplay is done!!! enjoy this gif :3

[octoberspirit]

I work for this site called Anime Secrets, which reviews conventions, among other things. I went to Dashcon this weekend with the intention of writing a con report.

The point of this is, I spent three days taking an absolute shit-ton of notes. Especially once shit started hitting the fan.

I just got home--it was a lengthy drive across a couple of states--and am exhausted, so I don't think I'll get to them all tonight.

But I will type up the result of all my note-taking in the next couple of days. So stay tuned for that.

[octoberspirit]

My unofficial opinion as an attendee at Dashcon:

Some of the panels were great, and some were kind of shitty, which is normal.

The attendees are a varied group, but everyone I've interacted with has been a normal human, with normal human positives and negatives.

Most of the staff seem very nice, enthusiastic, and helpful based on personal interactions.

It seems like the problems are coming from the upper levels of con organization, but it doesn't appear malicious. It seems like they are inexperienced and bit off way more than they could chew for their first con, resulting in a lot of trouble that was mishandled and badly explained to attendees.

The hotel thing is still unclear, detail-wise.

Night Vale and Dashcon gave two completely conflicting stories. Having had more experience (through social media and live events) with Night Vale, though, I feel that they are being genuine and have legitimate reason behind their actions. I also feel that they wouldn't have left fans hanging without a good reason. They seem to genuinely regret having to make that call, and they have been professional, apologetic to the fans, and communicative through the entire day. I respect the way they handled it. WTNV is rad as hell, regardless.

The compensation to people who paid for reserved seating at the Night Vale events is pretty much a joke, yes, and the ball pit is well on its way to meme status.

There have been good panels, good interactions, great artists, and rockin' cosplays, though.

Cara McGee is here, and she's super-sweet.

Most of the con staff is not at fault, and they are clearly trying their best. The staffers have kept order and reacted to the situations to the best of their abilities.

The attendees, to their credit, are all trying to make the best of a bad situation, and we've been managing to have fun despite it all.

Most of us are here with the shittiest wifi imaginable, so our information from outside sources has been difficult to reach.

It's been a weekend of high emotion.

I dunno. It was an experience.