Meanwhile, Back to Work

The live webcast from BayCon was working tolerably well. Video was heavily pixilated and it the connection dropped a few times, but the audio was pretty good. Sadly the same can’t be said of the accompanying chat which was pretty stupid and childish. That’s the last time I’ll be bothering to watch one of those.

7 thoughts on “Meanwhile, Back to Work

  1. Hello, Cheryl…sorry you were offended by the chat. I go there to the Virtual Fan Lounge sometimes to chat and banter with those on the list. One on the list said to you that the chat there was all meant in fun, because we do know of Kevin’s knowledge of the Hugos and the rules of order. But, you’d gone.

    The chat allows those of us without the connection to actually watch the webcast to find out what’s going on, and see what the discussion is about. You might have come in to the discussion without knowing what it was about. Give it another chance, and participate, and there can be good discussion. And there were chances to razz Chris Garcia, too. 🙂

    Lloyd

  2. Lloyd,

    If the entire purpose of having live webcasts of convention panels is to allow people to display their ignorance and direct childish insults at the panel participants I don’t see any point in having such events. And if the purpose of having chat is for the benefit or people who might not know what is going on, well, it paints fandom in a pretty poor light, doesn’t it. Grow up.

  3. Cheryl,

    As one of the folks who was yukking it up with the other Baycon Virtual Con-goers, I freely admit that we do sometimes go over-board with the silly banter. It happens; in a very strong way, it is just like a real consuite conversation: alternating between serious, silly, irreverant, then back to serious, etc., all within the span of a few minutes. I am sorry if some of the comments offended you; still, there was a lot of good discussion before, during, and after the time you were in the chatroom. One must, in these chats, sift through the chaff to find the good stuff.

    Not only that, pretty much everyone on the panel knew what sort of idiocy goes on in those live chatrooms, so they were expecting some stupid comments being made. To be honest, it is one of the major attractions of participating in these things. Like Lloyd implied in his comment above, there were some really questions and comments made back and forth in the chatroom.

    Again, I’m sorry you got such a negative impression from the live webchat of that Baycon panel. I really wish you’d give it another chance instead of dismissing it outright. At least the next time you do so you will have fore-knowledge of what kind of nuttiness you’ll run into. It really can be a lot of fun when you know what to expect.

  4. John:

    Like Lloyd you have no idea just how offensive you were being. You were not stood in the men’s urinal at a football match, nor were you in a fanzine lounge at a convention. Everything you said went out live over the Internet. Anybody could have been listening in. And indeed you knew I was there. Would you have been abusive about Kevin to my face? I doubt it.

    And I most certainly won’t be giving it another chance because I don’t see any evidence that you have learned anything from this. You’ll just carry on making it look like fandom is a bunch of drunken yahoos with no more thought in their heads that tossing stupid insults at panelists.

  5. I do admit to making a pun without thinking, but no malice was intended. For that, I truly am sorry. In my own defense I plead guilty to being silly; but again, all of us in that chatroom were indulging in clean fun, and nothing untoward was ever meant. I sincerely mean that. Personally, I promise to be more careful about Things Being Said; can’t make that promise for the rest of the gang, but I am sure everyone feels similarly.

    Some day at some con somewhere, you and I (and Kevin, too) will probably meet. At that time I am positive we can have a civil conversation. I am one always willing to make amends and move along, hopefully learning from past mistakes. I trust you are like that, too.

  6. John:

    I’m sure we will have some good conversations at conventions in the future. While I’m rather annoyed at the way you treated Kevin (and apparently other panelists too), I was just as annoyed about some of the stupid things said about the Hugos, and I’m most distressed at how bad the whole thing made fandom look. There’s no way I’m going to promote one of those live webcasts again until I have evidence that those involved are going to behave like adults.

  7. Point taken. I just posted some comments about all this under the title of chatroom etiquette in my LJ (profgeek.livejournal.com) if you’re interested.

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