The obligatory 2018 Bronycon recap · 8:32pm Aug 10th, 2018
I've been remiss in posting one of these, haven't I? Hell, I never even posted a pre-con blog like I usually do. But things have been more hectic than usual this year, and I'm typing this up at work instead of using what little free time exists for doing pony stuff at home right now. Thoughts after the break.
I'll get to the shout-outs first, since there aren't that many. Of course, the more years I attend, the fewer and fewer people I'll meet for the first time, since a lot of attendees are repeat customers, but there were a few.
The obvious ones first: everyone enjoyed meeting Aragon, and he's just as charming in person as you'd expect. I'd only talked to him online a few times before, but I had joked that I should get him some Aragonite. It wouldn't have even cost much to follow through and send him some, but that means getting his address, and there wouldn't be anything creepy about someone who's barely even a casual acquaintance asking where to ship you something, would there? But since I'd be able to see him in person, I bought some and was able to give it as a gift. Along with a piece of Pascoite. I did give out a few of those this year, but it was surprisingly hard to find any suitable samples over the months leading up to BC, so I didn't even have half as much as the first year I did that.
Next, I got to meet scribbler and Neighrator Pony. Shadow of Cygnus was there as well to do a panel with them (more on that in a moment), but I didn't meet him. Reverb Brony as well, and I did briefly get to say hello to him. My experience with Neighrator Pony is something I love about this fandom: He did a reading a while back of one of my favorites of my own stories. It was an absolutely wonderful job, so given the chance to see him in person, I just wanted to thank him for his effort. I left it generic, only saying that he'd read one of mine, and I really appreciated the effort. He asked which story, and when I told him "Dinkin' Donuts," his face lit up. He said it was his favorite reading he's ever done, he loved the story, and there we were both gushing about each other. There aren't too many places in this world where art forms overlap like that. Heck, I thought it was neat last year when I recognized one of the art vendors as someone who had given me permission to use a piece of her art on a story and was able to thank her in person. I love all that cross-pollination that goes on in this fandom. It's not as much as it could be—I know writers often feel like they get the short straw—but I still feel like it's better in this fandom than most. And I even got to meet Starry Flame, who'd done the voice for Dinky in my story. I'd forgotten that Neighrator Pony had also done a reading of "Method Acting," or I would have thanked him for that, too.
Then scribbler. She's done so many good readings as well, and she puts a lot of pride in her work. It was also great to be able to thank her in person for the several readings she's done of my stories. Even so, I was a little surprised, with the sheer number of them she does, that she recognized my name at all. People may tend to forget, but she's also a rather good author. She did just get featured by the Royal Canterlot Library, after all. We had a nice chat, and it was after the long line to greet her had dissipated, so I did get to talk with her longer than the quick thank-you I wanted to give her, which was nice. She's very personable, and she's just as high-energy as she sounds online. She's also very much a kindred spirit, her and Neighrator Pony both. Through the years, I've put in absolute tons of time behind the scenes reviewing stories and helping authors, and very few people know how much or that I was even the one doing it. Someone like Present Perfect does a lot as well, but there's more outward evidence in the thousands of reviews he posts. Those readers have lots of things up on their YT channels, but I don't know that their watchers know how much work behind the scenes goes into collecting the lines from the various VAs, editing it all together, adding background music and sound effects, and dressing it all up. And yes, there can be some of these things done through commissions or general support like Patreon, but on a basic level, they do these things just because they like to and they want to, and it's a great service to the fandom.
So who else did I get to meet? Apparently Bookish Delight. Everyone kept mentioning sightings of him, at previous cons as well, and I would have been glad to meet him, though I've never knowingly done so. Except now I have evidence that I might have been standing behind him in line at the end of scribbler's panel and actually talking to him as well? Even so, I hope to make a more definitive introduction next year. I spent a while with sharpspark, which was really fun. I think that's it for new people, but I've waited too long to write this, and I bet I've forgotten people.
Horse Voice continues to be far more soft-spoken and warm than I would have ever expected based on his writing.
Capt. Unstoppable was helping out at Ruirik's booth in the vendor hall, and they actually set up a Lucy van Pelt-style psychiatric help stand that the con staff endorsed, where you could tell them all about your awesome OC for around $1 a minute. They even did in the neighborhood of $150 in business. That was cool.
Super Trampoline and I collaborated on the seeds for a couple feghoots. One was more a punchline and a vague idea of how to get there, but the other got pretty fleshed out. Hopefully, you'll be seeing them soon.
Whoever paid for my dinner at the Pratt St. Ale House on Saturday, thank you very much. I wish I knew who did.
As always, Trick Question hosted a great party.
So all that sounds pretty great, huh? It's always great to see friends. But on the whole, I found the con kind of disappointing. And the main reason is the programming.
First, the overall sentiment was that the writing track kind of got screwed. There weren't many panels accepted, lots of good ideas by knowledgeable presenters got rejected, and quite a few writing panels got what I consider to be poor time slots. Late evening and night generally aren't good times to get an audience interested in fanfiction, plus I personally took a hit as one of the only pair of writing panels scheduled against each other, and the one that would clearly be the less popular of the two. This happened elsewhere, too. I don't know if they were the only two improv activities of the whole con, but two did get put against each other, so one barely got an audience at all. We also didn't have someone on staff like Applejinx was last year to wrangle the writing panels, make sure people were where they were supposed to be, coordinate before the con that presenters were prepared, and such. He was great. This year was kind of haphazard.
It was also hard to tell what a lot of the writing track panels were. So many of them had cryptic names. You'd only know they were writing panels by scouring the guidebook or word of mouth. Maybe I'm not remembering right, but I thought the schedule had been color-coded by subject matter previously. Or that there was some way to tell aside from the title alone. But there wasn't an easy way this year.
Add to that the mess with badges. When you propose a panel, you go ahead and say what co-panelists you expect to have. Those were due in early March. At the end of April, we were notified of the first round of acceptances. We'd presumably tell our co-panelists the good news at that point. And there had always been 4 comped badges available per panel. It wasn't until another week later that we were informed there would only be 2 badges per panel. So now I had to tell 2 people they weren't getting in for free anymore. I ended up falling on that sword myself, but it also cost me bats as a panelist. Yeah, that bats, who has a ton of followers and would have been a first-time attendee: exactly the kind of person con staff should want there. FanOfMostEverything offered up his badge, but the damage was already done. I made an arrangement to help out around the con some in order to get back a comped badge for myself, and though the things I was supposed to do fell through, the staff said they'd still honor their side and give me the badge anyway, because they still had a number of them that for similar reasons wouldn't be needed, so they could fill back in some panelists who'd had to go without. And that just made me mad, since they could have given bats one after all. And then I didn't even need that gesture, since they'd accidentally comped mine. I guess seeing a panel head without one threw a "does not compute" into the system.
And that reminds me: I still haven't done a write-up of my panel presentation as a blog post. I was always motivated to do so in previous years, since Chris would use them as guest posts during his vacation, but his blog has gone into hibernation mode. 
Plus I'd run the risk of the guest post and blog post becoming even more redundant when Bronycon put the panel video up on YT. Except they still have barely posted any of last year's videos.
Still, I need to get on that.
I barely participated in any of the programming. I held my panel, I attended the writing panel and flash fiction events in Quills & Sofas on Friday, and I went to the presentation they always do where Tabitha St. Germain writes an episode-style script and reads through it with some VAs. That was it. Between not being able to decipher many titles, too many of the writing panels being late at night after I had to leave, and not having that many interesting activities overall, I spent most of my time in Q&S. Which isn't a terrible thing, but events should be part of the con's attraction. For that matter, I was a bit turned off by the lack of variety in writing panel makeup. It seemed like many of the panels were a parade of the same 4 or 5 people. Qualified people, sure, but it's nice to have more diversity of opinion and just generally spread the wealth. Though if they're going to continue being stingy with the badges, this may be the only way to ensure all panelists get one. For my part, I try to get people who wouldn't otherwise be on a panel but who know what they're talking about. That goes for Dubs Rewatcher last year and FanOfMostEverything this year, plus bookplayer, who's done plenty of panels before but was on no other panels and only one other activity this year.
So, about those events in Q&S... I've heard a lot of complaints about them. Not the events themselves, but the fact that they were held in Q&S, meaning that it wasn't available as a writers' lounge during those times. Honestly, that didn't bother me, as long as they were writing-related events. The meditation activity on Saturday was a weird one for that. Morning Sun had asked for some suggestions of unofficial events in there, and we tried to get a few going, but none of them took, for various reasons. Scheduling them makes sure they do occur, and I liked the idea, so if that's what it takes, it's fine with me.
Now the buzz is all about next year being the last Bronycon. It doesn't change my attitude toward whether I'll go. It might well be my last chance ever to see some of my fandom friends. To be honest, I was losing steam with going anyway. It had been a no-brainer in past years, but this year, I considered not going, and until the announcement, I'd strongly considered not bothering anymore after this year, particularly with all the programming and badge mishaps that went on. Now I think I'm back on board enough that I'll make a serious effort to propose some panels, but just as it has every year, that's going to be the determining factor of whether I go.
I'm just not into the fandom enough to justify much of a monetary expense. The only reasons I go to BC are 1) it's close enough to be a reasonable commute, saving me the cost of a hotel and 2) I've always been able to participate in a panel, saving me the cost of admission. Whether or not it's the last BC won't change that. I also don't like the idea of going without being on a panel, because I don't feel useful if I'm not contributing like that. I don't feel that way about other people. It's hard to explain. That just being there isn't enough, that I have to justify my existence or something. In any case, I will make a serious effort to come up with interesting panel ideas.
So I hope I will be seeing a bunch of you next year!
Hope to see you next year! I’ll let you know when I get that feghoot out.
Huh, sounds like a mixed experience. That's a bummer. Of course Aragon did the hilarious blogs making it sound like an unvarnished good time... interesting to see the opposite view. Definitely sucks about the badge situation.
I hope you go next year! I'm going if at all physically possible, and it'd be awesome to get to say hi.
'Twas an awesome time, indeed.
For the record, getting to meet you in person was really cool. I've still got the Pascoite on my bookshelf, which is the place where i tend to showcase the cool stuff i've picked up throughout life (in addition to actual books, of course.)
Although we did not get a chance to chat again, it was nice to see you there working with Super Trampoline. From what I saw, you had a great big smile on your face. It indeed must be a feghoot in the making.
We'll do our darnedest. Perhaps if you are just a regular old attendee you can enjoy it a bit more. I think you've done more that your part in the past.
4917981
Getting to meet you was cool, too, but we first met last year. I think it was at Trick's party.
4917985
Feghoots are sure a love/hate thing. I find them very fun. I don't actually mind doing work for the con. Last year's was the first time I actually headed a panel, and the year before that we kind of split up the material for the advanced writing panel, so I've only had to prepare a presentation 3 times. It is a fair amount of work, but it's a short-term thing. The more unknown-to-the-public stuff I spend a lot of time on is pre-reading. I've probably averaged 2-3 hours a day for 6 years.
4917948
To be fair, Aragon could probably have a good time in an abandoned quarry with a rabid wolverine. And he certainly could write an amusing blog post about it!
4918065
Okay, do you remember how i was both exhausted as heck and also drunk at her 2017? Because you might remember me as the guy who fell asleep in a corner. Brasta made fun of me for that one, and I totally deserved it.
It's not much of a defense, but "I have the alcohol tolerance of a baby" is at least an explanation.
Still deeply flattered you invited me to the panel. Even with all the scheduling snafus, this was a fun con. Hopefully they get their act together as much as possible for the last one.
4917948
4918070
Hey, I definitely had a good time. Mind you, it was my first Bronycon, and I was suddenly meeting seven hundred million people I wanted to meet at the same time -- so I guess that the constant adrenaline and the simple hype of, y'know, being in America, kinda made up for it. Shame to hear not everybody had as great a time as I did, but then again, from the blogs I'm seeing around, apparently in person I'm a mixture between a charming 8-year-old and a corgi high on cocaine. You can't expect everybody to have that same energy at all times.
(Also, I barely attended any panels, except the ones where I made a fool of myself in public, so I wasn't really aware of how Bronycon worked. I just looked at everything with wide eyes and tried not to piss myself.)
Pascoite -- sucks to hear that you thought Bronycon was kind of disappointed, or that you thought of not going there. But on the other hand, hey, next year is the last, so might as well, no? I don't know if I'll manage to get there next time (this one was just for the GoFundMe, and I doubt it's going to fly a second time now that people realize I am not actually worth that kind of money) but I'll certainly try. Would be great to meet up again, all the Fimfic folk, and have one big blast of a party to say bye to the convention, dang it.
It's always a pleasure to see you man, I hope we can meet again at some point even before the next BC or something. Could always happen, right?
Was cool to say hi to you, even if we didn't get to talk. Need to find a good place for the cool rock you got me. Sorry to hear the panel situation was even worse than I suspected from the outside.
"Wow, that was Pascoite, the Pascoite, wow! I wonder if I should have mentioned that I did 'Method Acting' as well...ah, he's probably forgotten about by now."
Pasco, you have a pretty good job last I heard, and con registration is $70 for 4 days. That's less than $2 per waking hour. Just do it.
4918652
It's more complicated than that. It's not that I can't afford it. It's whether that much is worth it to me. (It isn't.) Also that all my credit cards are joint accounts with my wife, and I don't want that showing up on the bill. And as I said, I feel like a fifth wheel unless I'm contributing something.
4918621
I should have remembered about "Method Acting." That was a really good one, too. I've gone back and listened to it several times.
4918761
Oh for fudge's sake man.
Here, do a panel with me on the differences between writing shorts versus longfics. I did that with Vivid Syntax at Ciderfest 2017; he'll (hopefully) vouch for me. You get the comp ticket if there's only one.
What say you, darling?
4919654
That's actually a panel I was probably going to submit with Wanderer D...
4919666
Then perhaps a panel on writing specific trope-y personality types, e.g. Tsundere, such that you can get the most mileage out of the trope but without the trope becoming overly burdensome?
N...not that I care whether we get you to the very last BC by hook or by crook.
B...baka
4919683
I'll definitely try to go. And by try, I mean I'll definitely be submitting some panel ideas. So far, that's never been a problem. But if for some reason it doesn't work out that way next year, I won't be going.
What I didn't like about it was that it simply wasn't spacious enough. The panels/events were super packed, and hearing was difficult if you weren't near the front. I enjoyed the speed fic contest. I'd be fine with more events like that. It makes sense to do writing in the writing lounge.
I was also considering not attending next year. Untillll the announcement. I'll admit, it's got me a bit down, but mostly because, coupled with the end of gen4, it's in my face how much time I've wasted not being involved in the community. C'est la vie.
If you don't get any panels accepted (which I doubt), then I'll buy your ticket and you can just pay me back in cash at the con. Easy peasy.
Anyhoo, it was great seeing you there ^.^