Antheria supposedly sabotaged

[a snow pigeon]

A certain convention called http://www.antheria.org/ has *allegedly* had its booking cancelled and had to change hotels, a mere few weeks before the convention was due to occur, by someone who phoned up the hotel (the Westin LAX), pretending to Jibba Foxcoon (a friend of 2's who allegedly has and spreads aids, incidentally) and who cancelled the conventions booking.

anji-kun on FA, a "Head of fursuiting" at the convention, posted a journal to inform people about this, however he was unable to restrain himself from swearing and snapping at people questioning the competence of the staff and asking what really went on (since it's not so easy to cancel a convention booking as simply phoning up like that), so he deleted it:

http://i53.tinypic.com/mtrmp.jpg

and apologized:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1730549/

saying that he would resign from his staff position, *after* the convention was over.

One of the con-chairs, 2, posted a journal to inform people about the change of hotels/cancellation, using the words: "cancelled unavoidably" re the contract:

From the staff of Antheria...

Dear members,

We have good news and bad news.

First, the bad news. Antheria's contract with the Westin Hotel LAX has been
canceled unavoidably. We regret having to leave such a fine hotel before it
was even discovered by our members.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1730283/

Resulted in,

Empty legal threats:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1730283/#cid:14485614

convention website being very slow to update:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1730283/#cid:14485092

New hotel is quite small and this may impact on space for a dealers room etc:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1730283/#cid:14486022

Anji-kun's partner makes things worse:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1730283/#cid:14486487

Simply trying to get a registration for the convention was very hard:

"we've had to yank teeth to even get REGISTERED in the first place! We've sent emails for months and have gotten no responses to reasonable questions."

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1730283/#cid:14486735

Apparently the convention has not been very well organized to say the least. I guess it's possible that the hotel decided to tell the convention to go elsewhere seeing how disorganized and incompetent it was.

I noted from the conventions website that the "attractions" of the convention included uncle kage's story hour and a performance by 2.

[AshleyAshes]

The updates on this con in three weeks should be delicious.

[Jim Demintia]

Pretty sure the guy who posted here, who was then (apparently? It's late and I'm not exactly awake here) involved with Califur, is now involved with this Antheria thing. Not sure if anything worthwhile can be found down that road but I thought I'd mention it.

What probably happened is that whoever negotiated the contract with the hotel in the first place wasn't honest about something—maybe the adult nature of things to be sold in the dealer's room, I dunno—and the hotel found out somehow and yanked the contract. Wouldn't be the first time that's happened.

[ProvincialTwit]

Wouldn't be the first time that's happened.

It needs to happen more often.

[LordNagetiere]

So basically this is 2's pet version of Anthrocon so he could powertrip just like Kage does?

[Jim Demintia]

I got the impression this is the result of yet another person/group of people being kicked off of an existing con's staff. I was kind of surprised it got as far as it did, back when I was hearing about it seemed like something someone wanted to do, but would probably never go anywhere. I had no clue 2 was involved; I don't know why he'd need a place to power trip when he can do that all he wants as a member of Kage's little circle of fuckbuddies/ego strokers.

That Rainhopper dude is pretty much furry failure incarnate. I don't know how involved he is but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a lot.

[Jim Demintia]

It needs to happen more often.

I don't really know the formal terms and of course I am not a lawyer, but I think the basic principle is that if you grossly misrepresent something, or hide relevant information from a party you are seeking to enter a contract with, then basically that contract will be voided (and declared to have never been valid) when whatever it is you were lying about/hiding comes out.

So frankly phoning the hotel and informing them that animal shaped dildos or whatever are likely to be sold is a great way to sabotage a lot of new and inexperienced furry conventions.

[MazelTovCocktail]

Is it possible for furries to not totally fuck something up?

[Kindrift]

The current best rumor is that the event was moved because it was severely underbooked.

I called the hotel to get this answered. Asked about the event. Was told it was canceled. Two minutes later she was asking her supervisor questions I wanted answered. She dodged answering them specifically, but I got her to tell me that I'd have to reserve 19 rooms before the event rate would be honored.

It would appear to me that the disorganizers overestimated their event's popularity.  Typically when one's starting a new convention in a new market, they set a realistic goal and book a location just barely large enough to fit that.  The natural reaction is to book for more space than you expect, because OMG, what if a bunch of people want to attend?  But, that is a stupid plan, because of exactly what Antheria is doing right at this moment: scrambling to cover costs and move the convention somewhere reasonable within three weeks.  It's also very unlikely that a hotel would cancel something as large as a convention over one phone call.  That would involve a broken contract and penalties to cover the hypothetical futurebookings the hotel could have had, if it were not reserving rooms and meeting space for a band of idiots.

I really doubt it was canceled by the hotel over animal porn.  Anthrocon is hosted at the Pittsburgh Westin, which doesn't care.  The LAX Westin is not going to get cold feet and turn down good money over something that minor.  The con staff fucked it, nothing more.

[AshleyAshes]

If attendance is the issue there's gonna be some SERIOUSLY pissed off dealers possibly operating in the red who will be making their opinions known at the end of the con.

[ProvincialTwit]

I'm sure that quote from Kindrift means that they were 19 rooms short of the hotel's quota for the block rate, but I like to think it means they needed to hit 19 rooms -period- and failed to do so.  Because that'd just be astoundingly funny.

[Sechs]

Wow, they're having trouble booking nineteen rooms? That's... yeah. If they're expecting to have any difficulty whatsoever with that, or did have difficulty with it, then from the sounds of it there aren't going to be that many dealers to be pissed off. After all, what causes dealers to operate in the red is most often the travel expense and the (dun-duh-duh-daaaaah) room expense. Unless a shitload of dealers lived very locally, they should have been able to fill all or most of those nineteen rooms with dealers who, at the least, would need somewhere to store their stuff when it wasn't on display.

(Of course maybe I'm overestimating the size of a furry convention dealer room... I've only ever attended anime cons, where even the smallest ones had at least several dozen tables in the dealer's room and artist's alley areas. Or, yeah, as pointed out, maybe they needed nineteen more rooms and they already had a decent number booked, which I guess seems more likely. But then why would that be the deal breaker for actually having the con there? Wouldn't that just mean people would be informed they couldn't actually get the con rate or something, while still actually using the space?)

So it sounds like the low attendance is compounded on themselves. If they can't even get double-digits of big name furry dealers, that means those dealers aren't saying "Hey, I'm going to Antheria", which means none of their fans are saying "Hey, I'm going to Antheria", which means none of those guys' friends is wanting to go to Antheria... which seems fairly likely. This is the first time I've even heard the name, I haven't seen one journal or thread or anything of anyone trying to get an attendance roll call for this con.

... Oh god... Oh god, you don't think... you don't think 2 actually thought that he personally was such a big draw that he could draw in a crowd and get the ball rolling all by himself, do you? You don't think he could have that overinflated an ego... could he?

[AshleyAshes]

... Oh god... Oh god, you don't think... you don't think 2 actually thought that he personally was such a big draw that he could draw in a crowd and get the ball rolling all by himself, do you? You don't think he could have that overinflated an ego... could he?

It's possible that he thought his name would be an attraction.  Maybe he forgot to account that with him being present at so many OTHER furry cons, showing up at one small one wouldn't really attract attendees in droves.  Why would a fan go to the small new con for 2 if you can see his show at Anthrocon and do all the other 'big furry con' stuff there at the same time.  If one still has to travel cross country and all that the cost to go to either con is similar but Anthrocon would give more bank for their buck.

[Kindrift]

I'm quite certain that Antheria staff canceled this themselves, it's literally impossible to break this sort of contract over the phone.  And now, 2's sort of responded to the allegations against his buddy-friend and Antheria staffer Jibba.

Almost as soon as Antheria was officially announced, there were haters waiting to yell and complain about it. People began to start boycott groups against it. And it's plain to see why that's happening. I've heard most of the rumors myself. "Antheria is trying to run out the other California conventions!" "Jibba's on staff and he AIDS rapes people!" "Uncle Kage started Antheria as a West Coast Anthrocon because he wants to take over the fandom!"

Hey, drama happens. It is, after all, much less work to get attention by posting some retarded accusations than to actually work to create something that will affect people positively. That's not a mystery and certainly nothing that would surprise or puzzle me.

Two of those rumors are fake.  One of them is actually going around, with anecdotal evidence.  It's rather precious and completely disgusting to throw allegations of rape in with clearly lunatic claims of conspiracy, but I suppose there's good precedent.

…[T]he UFO thing—it’s often used as a “cover” for the crazy shit that the CIA or intel ops like that get involved in, those weird human experiments that they’ve done over the years. They conflate it a lot with UFO stuff to automatically discredit the real shit that’s going on–dosing unwitting people with psychedelics to “peel open their minds” and induce amnesia and control behavior and all that. So that when journalists or investigators get on the trail, they’re also on the trail of UFO hunters, and then they make fools of themselves. Actually quite a clever cover.

Because otherwise, he'd have to seriously explain...

A few years ago, a woman claimed that Jibba had raped her husband when he was drunk at a party, and that the result of this was that he, and, because theirs is not a sexless marriage, she, had both contracted HIV. I forget why they didn't think about transmission to her, but this was also the thing that got the word out to everyone that, "HEY! JIBBA HAS TEH AIDS," so they might not have been aware it was a realistic concern. Anyway, not only did 2 start flinging fanboys like feces, but he also went into her public LJ post and bitched her out. His essential "point" was that it was all her fault, because she was a stupid woman who trusted (i.e., had condomless sex with) her husband, and people who trust other people deserve fatal illnesses irrespective of whether the trusted party is, say, a spouse. Of course, she was just trying to slander Jibba, because, in 2's world, when people want to make uninvolved person's lives miserable, they totally make public LJ posts advertising to the world that they're HIV+. A simple negative test result from Jibba could have killed that drama pretty quick, but, of course, that's impossible for him to provide. Then, 2 deleted all his comments after people suggested that he was a foaming retard.

[Jim Demintia]

Two of those rumors are fake.  One of them is actually going around, with anecdotal evidence.  It's rather precious and completely disgusting to throw allegations of rape in with clearly lunatic claims of conspiracy, but I suppose there's good precedent.

Dragoneer does the same thing with the various rumors that fly around about FA.

[a snow pigeon]

re Jibba's AIDS, 2 responded to someone's query about it on that journal:

I think that if the people involved would come out an state, plainly and clearly, their stance to disarm the drama, that would help quite a bit. I honestly don't want to believe the rumors.

I honestly want a straight up answer concerning Jibba and his HIV status. That's all.

Fair enough!

Jibba went public with this a long time ago. He's always been honest about it.

Jibba does have HIV. He got it from someone who was unaware they had it -- the same way most people get it. He discovered his condition about six months after he caught it and since then, has not infected a single person.

He has never withheld his condition from anyone in order to have sex with them. He has never gone around purposely infecting people. He has never done anything sexual with someone who was unwilling. He's a victim of an unfortunate situation that resulted in a virus that has affected a great many people and he handled it as responsibly as I've ever seen anyone do it.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1738047/#cid:14546316

Makes his statement about Jibba aids rumour in the journal look even more disingenuous.

More direct:

What about the time you tried to defame the people that were victims of Jibba's barebacking habits, to the point of calling them whores? Do they count as "trolls" as well?

Very creative use of wording. "Defame", for instance. First time I've heard that in reference to telling someone they were full of shit on LiveJournal. I also loved the way they used the word "victim" in reference to unprotected sex. Like the other person had no alternative than to let a person have condomless sex with them. And then "barebacking". I guess it helps a troll's "case" to invent a sinister sounding word to refer to a natural act that people have been doing since the dawn of time.

Trolls make shit up and spread it or just try to spread made up shit, just like they were. They didn't know the truth. They didn't *want* to know the truth. They weren't interested in resolving any issues. Their singular goal was to spread bullshit. They were pissing and whining for the entertainment value.

I mean, are there really people out there who've never met Jibba, but still actually believe they know whether or not he uses a condom and when? Not one of these people was actually a "victim" of the dreaded JibbaFuck they were whining about. They'd just heard it from someone who heard it from someone and so on.

I'm certain that if there are people out there who have concerns about Jibba and want to be taken seriously, they'll contact him and talk.

Sorry. I'll express it more seriously.

I did not defame anyone who was a victim of what you call "Jibba's barebacking habits" because no one there WAS a victim of any such thing.

And yes, I count them as trolls.

Are you sure? Your altercation a few years ago on hulex 's livejournal says otherwise. http://ziggy-san.livejournal.com/133648.html

To the point you even alienated a friend of yours. http://ziggy-san.livejournal.com/133648.html?thread=353552#t353552

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1738047/#cid:14546677

Hulex questions 2, says that his friend is now HIV positive, and again 2 dodges the issue and declares him to be nothing more than a troll, refuses to respond any further:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1738047/#cid:14547822

[ProvincialTwit]

I'm quite certain that Antheria staff canceled this themselves, it's literally impossible to break this sort of contract over the phone.  And now, 2's sort of responded to the allegations against his buddy-friend and Antheria staffer Jibba.

Almost as soon as Antheria was officially announced, there were haters waiting to yell and complain about it. People began to start boycott groups against it. And it's plain to see why that's happening. I've heard most of the rumors myself. "Antheria is trying to run out the other California conventions!" "Jibba's on staff and he AIDS rapes people!" "Uncle Kage started Antheria as a West Coast Anthrocon because he wants to take over the fandom!"

Hey, drama happens. It is, after all, much less work to get attention by posting some retarded accusations than to actually work to create something that will affect people positively. That's not a mystery and certainly nothing that would surprise or puzzle me.

Isn't this pretty much the same excuse those idiots out in Eastern Washington/Idaho gave when their 'convention' fell through?  "Oh no people are spreading rumors and they ruined it!"

[LordNagetiere]

Also they don't seem to know how to scedule. The dealers can only deal for three hours on one day...

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1751937/

Maybe too much buying of stuff would distract from 2's shows?

[Sechs]

Also they don't seem to know how to scedule. The dealers can only deal for three hours on one day...

... Wow. That... wow. What, are the dealers just supposed to feel grateful to show up and partake?

I know that furry cons are primarily social events, and that the panels and such are also popular, but... to treat the dealer's room like an afterthought?

Maybe too much buying of stuff would distract from 2's shows?

I'm guessing their reasoning was something like "It will prevent a lot of other scheduling problems with our staff, minimize the amount of staff that have to sit there and check badges (and thus not have fun), people will buy things immediately instead of just milling around and waiting until the last day, we want to be a more social con", and other stupid bullshit like that.

Either subconscious or simply unvoiced was probably "If we leave them with less to do they're more likely to do the things we want the most people at, like going to 2's shows."

[Jim Demintia]

Either subconscious or simply unvoiced was probably "If we leave them with less to do they're more likely to do the things we want the most people at, like going to 2's shows."

So exactly how prominent is/was he in the programming offered?