You are not wrong that WorldCON is fucky this year. I'm just hopeful that there will be somethng for virtual attendees who are not panelists, like myself, to DO and SEE.
I may also be a casualty to AI because Morehouse College (which ChatGPT also confused me with when I tried) has had, no surprise, a lot of scandals around race, what with it being a Black College.
What frustrates me deeply about programming is that I swear to god they had a better system that travelled from WorldCON to WorldCON. I have encountered this insanely huge program survey on and off since MidAmerica Con (2016). It asked very awkward (but useful questions) like, "Have you won any awards? If so, what are they?" with a little notation that reassured people that it's okay if the answer is none. I think it did tend to demoralize brandnew people a bit because it also asked you to list all the previous cons you attended and I could see feeling very small if the answer was none, over and over. But, it also had a huge section about "tell us what is cool about you!" which was very supportive and was like, "Fandoms??? Hobbies?? Weird hyperfocus interests? We love them! Tell us all!" and I think it really helped programming get good people who were famous, not famous, new, old, and generally interesting all together on panels about stuff they fucking LOVED.
Now, because GRRM threw a fit about having to fill it out last year, it seems to be gone. It was such a better place for people to start with, though, because you at least got to hear from people, in their own voice, about what they loved about SFF and what they thought they'd be interested in talking about.
I can't imagine having to just Google (or fucking ChatGPT) a billion and a half names.
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I may also be a casualty to AI because Morehouse College (which ChatGPT also confused me with when I tried) has had, no surprise, a lot of scandals around race, what with it being a Black College.
What frustrates me deeply about programming is that I swear to god they had a better system that travelled from WorldCON to WorldCON. I have encountered this insanely huge program survey on and off since MidAmerica Con (2016). It asked very awkward (but useful questions) like, "Have you won any awards? If so, what are they?" with a little notation that reassured people that it's okay if the answer is none. I think it did tend to demoralize brandnew people a bit because it also asked you to list all the previous cons you attended and I could see feeling very small if the answer was none, over and over. But, it also had a huge section about "tell us what is cool about you!" which was very supportive and was like, "Fandoms??? Hobbies?? Weird hyperfocus interests? We love them! Tell us all!" and I think it really helped programming get good people who were famous, not famous, new, old, and generally interesting all together on panels about stuff they fucking LOVED.
Now, because GRRM threw a fit about having to fill it out last year, it seems to be gone. It was such a better place for people to start with, though, because you at least got to hear from people, in their own voice, about what they loved about SFF and what they thought they'd be interested in talking about.
I can't imagine having to just Google (or fucking ChatGPT) a billion and a half names.