"This is a colossal load of horseshit."
Courtesy of the anons on wank_report, I present to you:

The Woeful Tale of VividCon's Silencing and Shaming of its Members; or How niqaeli the Special Snowflake Was Epically Disingenuous



Background: At VividCon, there is a panel/program/segment called Vid Review, in which attendees publicly review vids (I've never been to VVC, so I may be leaving details out, but this is what I'm getting from what I read). Last year, some attendees decided to play Vid Review Bingo, in which bingo cards were made, and every time someone used a word/phrase during Vid Review ... well, you all know how bingo is played. Other attendees saw this game being played, and were uncomfortable and insulted and felt silenced and afraid to speak up. The Concom was not aware of Vid Review Bingo until after the fact, and recently learned that another group of people were planning to play it again this year, so they privately contacted the bingo organizer and asked her to cease and desist.

BAD MOVE, COMCON! Let jmtorres (a past and possibly potential bingo player? who knows?) tell you why:

Official policy statements should be public and not transmitted via private message as if in an attempt to silence members. When official policy statements are made public I will respond publicly; until then, I will 1) not regard non-public policy as official and 2) just express my utter frustration and bewilderment that policy theoretically being shaped with feedback from the membership is being declared privately and categorically rather than posted publicly for response. I mean, gosh, if you're going to have secret rules, and you only notify people you think likely to break them, what happens if someone doesn't mention their activities where you notice and doesn't get a memo about the secret rule they're breaking?

She's got a point: those fascists running VVC shouldn't sneak around shaming and silencing their members by telling them in private not to publicly be assholes. Call them out in public and let everyone know who the assholes are!

In response to jmtorres call of silencing, VVC makes it official policy that people shouldn't play Vid Review Bingo:

We firmly consider "vid review bingo" to be a violation of our stated policy of critiquing vids, not people. Respect for our members is a core value of Vividcon.

...

"Vid review bingo" is a way of mocking other attendees, violates stated con policy, and is counter to the intended spirit of the convention. Anyone found playing it will be told to leave the room. This policy is not open for debate.

They get lots of "thank you" comments and people voicing how Vid Review Bingo made them feel bad in response. jmtorres doesn't really think it's clear enough though - I mean, you can critique vids, but you can't be a jerk to people? How does THAT work? And then niqaeli comments, outing herself as the bingo organizer and asking if she can take mean notes:

As a person who was initially contacted via email to be made aware of this policy, I would like to state upfront: as an attendee of VividCon, I will comply with the policies and requests of the concom to the best of my ability.

In this context, I am not interested in discussing the policy nor will I discuss why I had intended to play vid review bingo -- it's not relevant and, obviously, I do believe the concom has the right to set whatever policies they wish.

However, I do believe I have the right to request some clarification: what qualifies as bingo in the concom's eyes? Is it only printed bingo cards that are mocking and disrespectful? Or will note-taking of comments suffice? If I, as someone who will obviously be under suspicion, attend Vid Review and do anything other than sit quietly and listen, will I be asked to leave? I do not ask this flippantly -- I need to know so I can make an informed decision about whether I will attend Vid Review.

The reason I am asking for this clarification publicly is for the same reason that I would have asked you to post it publicly had I had the opportunity to respond before you posted this entry. I am not aware of anyone else who was planning similar, but I believe all attendees have the right to know what policies the concom is setting. I came to the attention of the concom but the possibility exists that other attendees who intended similar may not have, and it is fair that they know how the concom feels and what the policy is upfront.

Oh, VVC. Can't you see you've frightened her? She needs to make an informed decision about whether or not she can write bingo-ish phrases in her notes! Will your jackbooted thugs be standing over her shoulder, carefully scrutinizing each thing she jots down, ready to confiscate the notes and physically escort her out, if they even see so much as a "bin.." on her notepad? She has the right to know just how far her assholery can go!

elynross, speaking for VVC, replies, but this is not clear enough for niqaeli. She then makes her own post, explaining why her soul cries out to play Vid Review Bingo, how this is a valid form of critique for someone like herself who is just so bored and disgusted with the repetitive comments of the Vid Review, and how she herself if the victim of hurt, disrespect, silence and shame! You guys, she has to sit through Vid Review every year! She has to hear the same comments all the time! Why can't anyone understand how much she has suffered?! She didn't voice her complaints or make any attempt to change it, because, gosh, who would have listened? CAN'T YOU SEE BINGO WAS HER ONLY OPTION?

Also, she explains her problem with this initially being communicated privately to her:

To start, this was a private communication to a single person declaring policies that will affect all attendees. I cannot and will not be held accountable for enforcing any other attendees’ behaviour than my own for both personal ethical reasons and for practical reasons. You see, I am unable to know if anyone else intended to play Vid Review bingo, lacking psychic powers. And if anyone else had intended to play it, lacking psychic powers, they would not have known that it was verboten until they got to the con and quite possibly until they were found playing it and removed from Vid Review. This is why, had I had the opportunity to reply to their missive before they had posted a public policy, I would have requested that they do so

but merryish calls bullshit on this:

Normally I would never reveal anything to any one that I read under access lock, but since you're flat out lying here, let me say:

You know for a fact that you posted a call for people to play Vid Review Bingo about a week ago; that you asked for suggestions for the cards; and that several people who I will not name (because they have an expectation of privacy under your access lock) responded to your post.

So you do in fact know that other people intended to play. You're just lying about it so you can pretend the VVC is oppressing you. And if you continue to pretend you didn't do this in public, so you look like more of a victim, I'll have absolutely no compunction about speaking up in other places about it.

Pretty much all her comments are calling her out, but we do have grey_bard attempting to play devil's advocate.

Perhaps VVC needs to adopt FW's handy Rule 8? We're happy to share it, VVC!

ETA: The anons over at fail_fandomanon seem to have figured out a reason for bingo playing!



Bonus wank: echan seems to want VVC to be regulated by OSHA; and nora_charles needs a specific list of ways to behave, so she knows how not to be an asshole before she can even think of attending VVC.