Fan Guests

[dalekboy]

I'm not going to have much 'net access for the next few days, so before I vanish I want to ask another question.

Fan Guests, what do you think?

I really want to hear mostly from the people who don't like/understand having Fan Guests. And I want any replies from people to those folks to be respectful of their points-of-view and not rude or pushy, or I will delete them at the first opportunity.

If we want to encourage new people to join in, we have to allow them to voice their opinions without being shouted down.

Comments

[crankynick.livejournal.com]

Depends on whether you see them as a recognition thing or as a 'guest' in the way that professional guests are chosen - as an attraction, essentially.

I support them as recognition for people who've contributed substantially to a local fan community - the people who do a bunch of work at the fan, and are there to talk about their experiences of that etc.

I'd be utterly opposed to moving to invite interstate and overseas 'fan' guests as a norm.

The expansion of fandom online has brought enough wank around BNFs and their activities without adding a local level to it.

It would, IMO, make things more cliquish, rather than less: you'd be effectively giving one group of fans or another the opportunity to bring one of their mates in from elsewhere in the world at the expense of the rest of the con goers - and I can't see that going well at all.

You get enough bitching about the relative merits of this guest or that guest at SwanCon as it is (media vs lit, for example), without adding another layer of complexity of achievements that are more easily disputed or challenged.