Readercon's failure to abide by its own policy on harrassment

Jul 28, 2012 21:52

Previously mentioned in this community was an incident of harassment at Readercon that was reported to the board. Note that they have a zero-tolerance policy wherein harassers are life-banned from the con.

Well, there is a follow-up post regarding what the board decided to do about it. Unlike previous incidents that went according to their policy ( Read more... )

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Comments 19

spitphyre July 29 2012, 01:58:20 UTC
The theory is that the guy was allowed back because he's a local big name in the fan community and the head of another con's committee. Awesome, right?

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spitphyre July 29 2012, 02:34:46 UTC
NM, that's already been said :P I should read the links first.

Anyway, I wanted to add that wouldn't someone knowing they did something wrong be worse than someone who was clueless? I've been wondering that since the whole thing came out a week ago and I still just don't understand them.

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benndragon July 29 2012, 02:39:38 UTC
More specifically, Rene Walling's curricula vitae includes Arisia's Guest of Honor in 2011, co-chair of Worldcon 2009, chair of the Hugo Awards Marketing Committee, blogger at Tor.com, and head of a small Canadian SF publisher.

Apparently no one told the Readercon board that harassers and abusers like to gain positions of authority so they can get away with their harassment and/or abuse, or that they're always really sorry when someone catches them and generally sufficiently convincing that people do stupid things like send them to another place with the same position of authority. Maybe they don't read the papers or something.

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spitphyre July 29 2012, 02:46:55 UTC
Wait, what? You mean people who abuse others are manipulative?! (I absolutely hate that this is a fact that so many people can't seem to grasp)

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seiberwing July 29 2012, 02:37:00 UTC
Wow. That wasn't even subtle, they came out and said "he seemed sorry, so we let him off easy".

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thatwordgrrl July 29 2012, 03:05:01 UTC
The incident at ReaderCon prompted (well, OK, shoved) me to reinstate the Backup Ribbon Project. Were I not on the other side of the country and completely broke, guess which con I would target?

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(The comment has been removed)

thatwordgrrl July 29 2012, 04:36:42 UTC
I cannot speak for the entire project. But if there is any way to have Backup Ribbons at next year's con, they WILL be there.

Were I not broke and on the other side of the country, I'd be there in person to hand them out. At the con.

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benndragon July 29 2012, 13:25:49 UTC
I suspect you might find some assistance in bringing the Bakcup Project to Readercon if you talk to rosefox.

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thatwordgrrl July 29 2012, 19:30:05 UTC
rosefox is very much involved in the Backup Project as a whole. I was the one who started the ribbon part of the Project. I will drop her a note to figure out how to incorporate the ribbon part of the Project for next year.

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rmd July 29 2012, 11:14:05 UTC
Yeah, in spite of living in the area, I've never actually gotten around to going to a Readercon. Guess I won't be going now, unless they seriously unfuck this situation, which I find unlikely.

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maladaptive July 29 2012, 13:14:41 UTC
The lack of mod response in the readercon comm is pretty telling, given that the comments are largely unanimous. Which I found AWESOME, since all over Tumblr there's a lot of apologia.

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benndragon July 29 2012, 13:22:32 UTC
Would you mind sharing those Tumblrs? Everything I've read in LJ and Dreamwidth and various blogs have been pretty solidly condemning, even from people who like Rene, which made me hopeful but also made me wonder where the roaches were hiding - and maybe you found them. . .

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maladaptive July 29 2012, 13:25:39 UTC
I'm afraid I don't remember, they were largely reblogs from people going "wtf is wrong with you." It was a lot of "but he apologized, you need to understand, be more tolerant, stop being so mean, what else do you want from him!"

But that's the nature of tumblr. The only place with more profoundly dumb/contrary/mean people I've found is Youtube.

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