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There was a Tumblr-Con this weekend. It ended in disaster

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A

alfredofroylan

Member
Summer is a good season for cons and every year there's at least one of them that end in disaster, honestly it's hard to believe this thing.
DashCon, a startup fandom convention that aimed to be "the largest gathering of Tumblr users to date" took place over the weekend at a hotel in Schaumburg, Illinois... and has been widely described as "a complete disaster" with social media having been flooded since Friday night (July 11th) with reports of organizational ineptitude, poor planning, chaotic crowd behavior and shady, possibly fraudulent, financial doings.

Late Friday night, blogs and videos from attendees began hitting the web describing the dissolution of committees, disorganized (or nonexistant) panels, nearly-empty event rooms and alleging that minors were being admitted to sexually-explicit 18+ events. In addition, the convention's most prominent celebrity guests, the Welcome to Night Vale podcast, canceled their appearance after discovering that DashCon's organizers were unable to pay them as had been agreed. The convention staff offered to compensate those who had reserved seats for Night Vale with entry into a raffle and "an extra hour with the ball pit."
Click to expand...
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...nvention-Disaster-Unfolds-at-Illinois-DashCon
Here's the "Ball pit"
767130.png
 
I

ivysaur12

Banned
I don't understand what a Tumblr con would be -- People sharing their favorite gifs of various Supernatural and Doctor Who characters greeting each other?
 
A

alfredofroylan

Member
ivysaur12 said:
I don't understand what a Tumblr con would be -- People sharing their favorite gifs of various Supernatural and Doctor Who characters greeting each other?
Click to expand...
It was intended as a gethering for Tumblr users, pretty much like those DeviantArt reunions they had from time to time.
 
K

Kwixotik

Member
Meanwhile, as the fundraiser debacle was unfolding, there were reports (and scattered video record) of confused/upset attendees having turned their ire on the hotel and its staff... by "protest-singing" songs from Les Miserables, flashing "Homestuck gang-signs" and throwing up the Mockingjay Salute from The Hunger Games.
Click to expand...

Wow. I've never been so glad to not be at an event.
 
D

Deleted member 102362

Unconfirmed Member
That ball pit makes the ones at McDonald's look redeeming.
 
P

Penguin

Member
ivysaur12 said:
I don't understand what a Tumblr con would be -- People sharing their favorite gifs of various Supernatural and Doctor Who characters greeting each other?
Click to expand...

And that's the problem with this convention from conception

Tumblr isn't a entertainment or recreational medium, it's a social network.

There's no unifying theme.

And from some of the... early designers that seems to have been one of the problems.

Different fandoms were expecting different things and all responsible for fund-raising..

Gah just a nightmare
 
I

Infinite

Member
This whole thing pretty much appeared to be a scam. I feel bad for those who donated in the hope of getting a actual convention.

I also heard that passed were like 65 bucks for a inaugural con which is insane.
 
H

HOMEBOY OVER HERE

Banned
good, there doesn't need to be one. the way tumblr is set up it isn't meant for stuff like this. it's meant for creating your own personal space and finding people interested in the same niches as you. it's just a medium. go to a con with things you're interested in and follow the people you meet there on tumblr.

remember those awful youtube cons that are probably still happening? yeah...
 
T

Toxi

Banned
Gotta love when the organizers for an event are complete scumbags.
ivysaur12 said:
I don't understand what a Tumblr con would be -- People sharing their favorite gifs of various Supernatural and Doctor Who characters greeting each other?
Click to expand...
Lot of content distributed on tumblr. It would really just be a generic nerdcon like many others.
 
W

Wallach

Member
An extra hour in the ball pit? Holy shit that's hilarious. Yes, I'm sure they were excited to be able to spend an entire hour in your inflatable raft. What a scam.
 
K

Kinvara

Member
There's a lot of shadiness going on with this "convention" that I'm pretty sure a serious legal case could be brought against the "organizers" of this event.
 
R

rrs

Member
I'm pretty sure the local mcdonalds in this boring suburb town I grew up in had a bigger germ pit than that
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
My idea of Tumblr users is feminist fangirls and porn power viewers (oh hai), so excuse my complete lack of surprise.

I imagine the "herd of cats" factor would be even higher than an atheist convention.
 
D

Dastardly Jerks

Banned
It deserved to end in nothing short of a complete failing disaster, and I'm glad it did.

The way they fucked over the Welcome To Night Vale team is inexcusable.
 
E

Evening Musuko

Black Korea
Ironically all the disaster stories about Dashcon is probably the most I've heard of it. I didn't even know it was a tumblr convention until someone pointed it out.

I guess the Dash was supposed to stand for dashboard, but that doesn't really tell me anything.

BattleMonkey said:
Something wrong with me? I have no idea how to read that clusterfuck of a site
Click to expand...

Here's a link directly from the source blog. That might be easier to read. Just read it top to bottom like you would a normal post.
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
This is both hilarious and depressing. I do feel bad for anyone who went to this as their first con. Hopefully they can get angry enough that it smothers the disappointment though
 
Y

Yrael

Member
It strikes me as a ridiculously silly idea in the first place. Tumblr is just a social network; there are so many diverse subgroups and niches that the idea they'd all have enough in common to justify a unifying "TumblrCon" is ludicrous.*

*I suppose in the end it ultimately did turn out to be a "con."
 
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