There is an issue regarding the person you link to - what they did wasn't at Swancon. That presents a serious problem, because if you're going to start banning people for things they've done outside the con, where do you stop? If someone has been done for shop-lifting, do we not allow them to come to the con?

I'm not trying to trivialise what he did by comparing it to a minor offence, I'm just trying to make the point that it's a complex issue, and it's easy for things to get out of control.

Which leads to the problem with con security - it can go to people's heads. The security can become a bigger problem than any member ever was.

Put it another way, when a female security team drags two people to a room and genuinely threatens to strip search them, not because they think they have stolen anything, but as a way to get information, you've got a problem.

This happened to me and a friend. Fortunately they had picked the worst possible people to try this on, but they didn't know that. My mate and I could have sued the con for the threat alone. We just shrugged it off. But what if we hadn't been the type to shrug it off? What if we had been litigious, or had been traumatised by the experience?

At most cons the committee do security, and that's good enough for me.