Dragoneer has, today, made an announcement, on FA, about his vanity convention and things have fallen rather flat. Firstly, a 2012 Guest of Honour mentioned in the comments about how they were locked out of their hotel room because the convention had forgotten to book their room for Friday to Monday (instead it was Friday to Sunday) and how they were not reimbursed, as promised, for their travel costs and their e-mails were ignored:
Hey FAU, I was a GOH for 2012, while I had fun, I did had some issues (my room was for only Fri to Sun morning instead of Mon morning, and I was locked out of my room Sunday and had to explain to the hotel I was support to have my room for all of Sunday which was..stressful to say the least! While this was fixed with some talking with the hotel staff, it was rather scary when my phone, clothing and personal items where locked in a room I wasn't in control off under my own name..)
What I really want to say is, I had sent a few emails in regards to be reimbursed for travel costs back in 12', mostly that I was cool with swapping the reimbursement costs for my travel from Nashua NH, to Whippany NJ (roughly 4 hours+ NY tolls or about $88 back in 2012) for a Dealer's Table for the following year instead. However I have to this day not been replied to by anyone, I wrote this of as 'eh whatever' and simply not promoted or attended the convention since this.
If anyone would like to reply to me, and talk about this that would be nice, but not really vital, as I've long since written it off and covered the costs myself.
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http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5525902#cid:38753823And elsewhere in the comments people were not impressed:
Is there an anti-harassment policy at this convention?
Yes. We do not tolerate harassment at the convention. The goal is for everyone to have a fun time, kick back and have a relaxing weekend. Harassment is not tolerated, and we will eject anyone from the hotel who are causing problems.
Will there be any security on site that doesn't answer to FA:U staff, like hotel security or local law enforcement? To be brutally honest, I think potential sponsors should seriously consider whether FA:U-provided security can or will protect them considering the likely political pressures that may be placed on them.
The hotel provides their own security, and if an issue comes up, we will involve them or the local authorities (police) if need be. Attendee safety is paramount to any convention, and we take it very seriously. Many of our security have experience working as police or EMT.
Gonna jump in here real quick as the Sec Director-
Security Staff at FAU don't do politics. We have a strict set of guidelines and procedures that everyone is expected to abide by and enforce regardless of who they're dealing with. If they don't feel they can be objective then they are required to kick it to someone who can. If that means calling in another security staffer, myself, or even the hotel - that's what they are required to do.
I bring several years of law enforcement and private security experience to the table when leading this team; most of whom come from an emergency response, private security, or law enforcement background. I've put in place strict policies to prevent power trips, as well as an even more strict reporting system to make sure all issues hare handled correctly and to the best of our ability.
No one on my security staff have ties to site staff. Their job is specifically to aid in keeping the convention a safe place for every attendee.
If you have any questions or concerns about our ability to keep the convention safe, I encourage you to contact me directly. I can be reached by shooting an email to silver@faunited.org.
What? It's you?? Yeah, stay away, people. Stay far, far away. You are NOT in safe hands with Allstate.
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http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5525902#cid:38750430-
Def wont be going until fA gets its well deserved face-lift and lobotomy.
The con is fun, but god damn.. get your ass in gear already, tired of this shit.
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http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5525902#cid:38750550-
Fix shit and release an update, and then we'll talk.
That's our plan, actually.
Wasn't this your plan like 7 years ago when Ferrox was announced?
Phoenix is a complete reboot, and will take some time. We have some things to discuss on that, and will be making an announcement related to that soon.
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http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5525902#cid:38750613The good old "We're working on it".
See this is kind of irritating because I feel like with all the hype and shit about project firebird or whatever it was called y'all are just glazing over what needs to be done again. Why not save funds and actually put them into making the site better, skipping one year when y'all already have shit PR and lost at least 1/5th of your users due to some major slip ups is not going to kill you. Especially not if you're going to actually get into gear and start picking shit up around here.
I doubt quite a few people will even want to go with what all has happened, hell there's already comments asking about harassment policies and security. How's this going to look when hardly anyone turns up for this thing and you can't cover your major losses. You can't even cover your losses now.
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http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5525902#cid:38751118