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  • Balticon code of conduct

    From Gary McGath@21:1/5 to All on Tue May 6 11:40:58 2025
    XPost: rec.music.filk

    With Balticon coming around again, I took another look at their code of conduct. It still has some disturbing features, and I'm not going,
    although it's within a day's driving distance and will likely have a
    good filk program.

    https://www.balticon.org/policies

    There is a blanket prohibition on "Slurs and derogatory comments about a person, group, or category of people." That presumably includes, just to
    come up with some examples, the Chengdu con chair, the Republican Party,
    the Democratic Party, the Russian Army, Elon Musk, Neil Gaiman, and
    whoever becomes the next Pope. It will be one dull convention if no one
    can say anything bad about any of those people!

    No one seems to know precisely what Stephanie Burke was accused of, but
    I get the sense that it was making a derogatory remark about someone.
    She was let off because she was talking about her own experiences, but
    there's no exception for that in the code. The rule can be used to
    punish somebody whom somebody doesn't like, and that appears to be what happened. With the rule still in place, it can happen again.

    Another curious rule: "Further, we ask that people not presume to speak
    for groups of which they are not members." What does "speaking for"
    mean? It's common for distant conventions to recruit local supporters to
    staff their fan tables. Is the rule intended to prohibit that? Why?

    Does it mean people can't advocate for groups they don't belong to? That
    would make things even duller. It might mean that people can't claim to
    belong to groups that they don't belong to, which is more reasonable,
    but even that could cause problems. Is the concom going to accuse people
    of not _really_ being black or trans or whatever?

    Given Balticon's rules and its past use of them, I'm staying clear.
    --
    Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

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  • From Keith F. Lynch@21:1/5 to Gary McGath on Tue May 6 22:43:48 2025
    XPost: rec.music.filk

    Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:
    With Balticon coming around again, I took another look at their code
    of conduct. It still has some disturbing features, and I'm not
    going, although it's within a day's driving distance and will likely
    have a good filk program.

    I too no longer attend Balticon. Partly for the same two reasons as
    you, their rule against ever criticizing any person or group and their unprovoked attack on Stephanie Burke. And partly because of their
    having secret rules and secret interpretations of their non-secret
    rules. For instance it's the only con I know of for which it's
    considered harassment for you to politely ask someone to please leave
    you alone.

    Also, many of the people I went there to see no longer go there.

    Also, the increasing cost of living is causing me to be much more
    selective as to which events I attend. I used to average five or
    six cons each year. Now it's more often just one or two.

    At a fannish event last July, two BSFS board member were talking about
    recent Balticons being unable to get volunteers or staff members.
    (BSFS is the organization that runs Balticon.) A couple hours later,
    there was a conversation about a proposal to ban Worldcons from
    totalitarian countries such as China. One fan, a lawyer, suggested
    that it would be difficult to define "totalitarian" rigorously.
    Someone suggested that it should be defined as, if someone denounces
    the nation's ruler during opening ceremonies, they would go to jail.
    Someone objected that lots of cons have rules against criticizing
    people. Only then did I speak up, and say that cons can't jail you,
    but can only kick you out -- and that I wasn't aware of any cons that
    had any such rule, except Balticon, at which point I looked directly
    at the two BSFS board members. They stared back at me with looks of
    utter hatred. I think I also mentioned that, so long as the con makes
    no secret of that rule, that people can simply choose not to attend,
    as many, including me, have done with Balticon.

    In short, I think Balticon is slowly dying due to dysfunctional
    management.

    For the record, I attended 23 Balticons, followed by two virtual
    Balticons during the pandemic. I volunteered at all of them, often
    arriving a day early and leaving a day late so as to held with setup
    and teardown, and with loading and unloading.
    --
    Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
    Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

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  • From Gary McGath@21:1/5 to Keith F. Lynch on Wed May 7 06:00:23 2025
    XPost: rec.music.filk

    On 5/6/25 6:43 PM, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
    Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:

    Someone objected that lots of cons have rules against criticizing
    people. Only then did I speak up, and say that cons can't jail you,
    but can only kick you out -- and that I wasn't aware of any cons that
    had any such rule, except Balticon, at which point I looked directly
    at the two BSFS board members.

    Just checking my old blog posts, Readercon has or once had a similar
    rule. I'm sure I've seen it elsewhere. For some cons, it's probably
    boilerplate they stick in without thinking about the consequences, but
    Balticon has actively and arbitrarily used the rule.

    For the record, I attended 23 Balticons, followed by two virtual
    Balticons during the pandemic. I volunteered at all of them, often
    arriving a day early and leaving a day late so as to held with setup
    and teardown, and with loading and unloading.

    I used to go to Balticon semi-regularly, since a lot of filkers went
    there. I have good memories of those cons.

    --
    Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

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  • From Keith F. Lynch@21:1/5 to Gary McGath on Wed May 7 12:56:42 2025
    XPost: rec.music.filk

    Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:
    I used to go to Balticon semi-regularly, since a lot of filkers went
    there. I have good memories of those cons.

    As do I. But that was when Ellen Caswell, Jack Chalker, Hal Clement,
    Martin Deutsch, Jeannie Dunnington, Dick Eney, Marty and Bobby Gear,
    Erica Ginter, Hal Haag, Dan Hoey, Irv Koch, Yoji Kondo, Keith Marshall,
    Joe Mayhew, Mark Owings, Paul and Aly Parsons, Don Sakers, Peggy Rae
    Sapienza, Charles Sheffield, Ellen Vartanoff, And Martin Morse Wooster
    were still alive.

    Many of the above-mentioned fans and pros worked hard to create,
    maintain, and improve BSFS, Balticon, and the BSFS clubhouse. They're
    lucky they didn't live to see the actions of the current crew.

    Several people have noticed that the current board's wrath seems to
    be strongest against those who do the most work and against those who
    attract the most fans. On theory is that they're confused about how non-profits work, and think that if they can get everyone else to
    drop out, they can divide the clubhouse and other club assets among
    themselves.
    --
    Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
    Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

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