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OFFICIAL CON-GUIDE STUFF



Public Etiquette

Conventions give us a chance to act in public like we've never acted before (except at other conventions), but it does not give us the right to be complete dumb-asses. Remember you ARE in public.

You SHOULD NOT be running, shoving, throwing things, hitting people with things, performing sexual acts, or become nude in a public place.

I understand that some of that is impossible, so make sure that there is absolutely NO consequence when you do whatever it is you do.



Bathing/Showering
You're human. You stink.

Make sure that you guys shower or at the very least use deodorant between hours of the con. It's not that hard to do if you're staying in a room... anywhere.

It's hot in Florida and sadly we are infamous for our smelly cons. Please don't contribute to that.



Weapons

NO GUNS!
Real guns are not allowed at ANY convention. At all.

Fake ones are okay, but they must have something that marks them as such.

Other weapons, like swords, must have a scabbard or sheath, and MUST be peace tied at all times with the exception of photo shoots. After said photo shoots, they must be peace tied again.

*At most conventions, peace ties can be issued by the security staff.



Theater/Viewing Room Etiquette

When you are in the theaters/viewing rooms turn off your cellphones and keep your talking to a minimum.

These rooms are not host (usually) to an MST3K event and staff members (like I was) are prone to throwing you out if you become a disturbance.

Also, sleeping overnight is not permitted in these rooms. This is largely because the equipment is expensive and the rooms will be locked. The only exception is if it is an overnight room... but even then sleepers still get kicked out.



Artist Alley

1.) All artwork for sale must be original to the artist selling it. Fan art of characters drawn in an original pose is fine, but a recreations of a commercial image (like an artbook image, frame of the show, page of manga, ect.) are not.

People caught selling such recreations can not only get kicked out of a convention, but also may land a hefty fine (hundreds of dollars) from the distributor's secret shoppers… who are there to make sure that bootlegs of their products are not being sold.

2.) Music, if any, must be kept at a non-offensive level.

A non-offensive level still allows people to talk to each other without having to elevate their voices.

(Shoujo-jojo's godforsaken playlist IS the definition of an OFFENSIVE level. He couldn't control it amongst other things and thus is banned from MegaCon, Jacon, and FitCon).

3.) Pornographic/adult materials must not be readily displayed on the tables, but can be sold at the conventions in a book behind the table that people must request to flip through is perfect.

4.) "Tables" are actually most often only half a table. Artists who purchased only one "table" must share their space with whomever purchased the other half.

5.) Non-paying artists MUST move when the artist that paid for that spot shows up.

*JACON's artist alley rules are by far more extensive than those of other local conventions. Please be sure to read and obey these rules before you set up! (click here to read them)

PROBLEM CHILDREN



This is a list of small, unofficial organizations or individuals that have caused problems for conventions in the past.

1.) Shoujo-jojo
A lone individual who tends to get banned from conventions for instigating others to be disruptive. He also tends to play non-family-friendly/immature shows at his computer for all to see, which does get the people involved in trouble (he also sleeps under his Arist alley table which annoys me because I ******** pay for my room.)
- Banned from MegaCon, JACON, Fitcon, AWA, and supposedly AFO.
- Is suspect of stealing other peoples artwork and merchandise from their tables.

2.) OtakuRiot
- A forums based thing mostly, but they have been known to instigate very dangerous and reckless behavior at conventions. It is believed that they were involved in the trashcan fires that almost had JACON 2004 shut down on Saturday.


* These organizations are there to promote their comics/artwork, and can be well-behaved. However, let's just say that they have earned a bad reputation for themselves over time though.

Like with around anyone else, remember to keep your common sense when around these people.

YAY~! *Love for you~!*

I should've asked before adding all that stuff, but I'm too tired now to go back and remove it [after copying to email to send to you or sommat.]

I also did very basic editing [namely fixing a few typos.]

Hope you dun mind too much.. If so well then uh.. Remind me to let you burn something of mine soon. sweatdrop

heart heart

I'm a little confused about the B.P.F.'s appearance on the problem child list. May I ask for some examples of what you mean by "damaging the work of other artists" and "traumatic stuff", because you have examples for the other two (starting a fire, stealing of artwork) but really it doesn't seem that the B.P.F. has any examples of behavior that would put them on a list with Shoujo-jojo. x.x

lol! XD good one! *high 5s*

now, i'm gonna have to go w/ Ameria on this one... every time I see them at cons, they've NEVER caused any problems. Hell, their Twister game is now infamous and ppl keep talking about how they can't wait for it. But I've never heard of them or seen them peer pressuring or damaging art seeing as it is they display their own art as well.

I'd like to see the evidence of this, if you have any b/c so far out of all your "problem children" you have no examples of events for the BPF.

Also, I think it might be a bit more polite to contact the BPF themselves before posting stuff like that.

just this little noob's 2-cents worth ^_^ not meant to sound like a flame or anything

My experience with the BPF comes from getting calls over the secutiry radio to make sure that they're not doing something that's against the conventions rules... And I got a lot of calls.

The problem with this group is that I don't think the girls in charge of the thing are being troublesome, but rather some of their fans/members.

People at tables located next to theirs would often call in saying that the girls were jumping on their tables, setting their stuff on their artwork (thus scratching and bending prints for sale), scaring off their customers, and panhandling "for their cause" whenever possible.

I have only witnessed one account of the hazing thing, which was a late-night thing at AFO 2002, in which new members had to make out with another member of their same gender. They made a few people very upset with that one.