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xiphiasAs many people have noticed, Boskone, as a convention, has a few . . . quirks.
Maybe just a touch of PTSD.
See, the moment which shaped the modern Boston science fiction convention scene was the Boskone From Hell in 1987, in which, for a number of factors which are set out pretty well in this essay/memoir, Things Blew The Fuck Up Bigtime.
Out of the shattered pieces, two new cons coalesced: in many ways,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
arisia is the real continuation of Boskone, and in many ways, Boskone is. For those who don't get the references in the name, by the way: "Boskone" is called "Boskone" because it's "Bos-Con." And because it's the bad guy civilization in the E. E. "Doc" Smith Lensmen novels.
"Arisia" is the good guy civilization.
So, the very name "Arisia" means, "Not Boskone." From the moment that Arisia existed, there was a feeling of some hostility between the two cons.
That feeling is basically gone now. I mean, hell, 1987 -- a lot of people who are now helping run cons weren't BORN back then. Me, I was just about to turn thirteen, and wouldn't be even remotely connected to fandom at ALL for at least another four years. A lot of people remember it, of course. Some of my friends were working that con. For at least one, that was his FIRST con.
And a number of people who still take it personally are still important in NESFA.
Boskone does not allow nicknames on badges.
That's not 100%, apparently. I found out that I COULD have had my badge name read, "Ian 'Xiphias' Osmond", although that would have been too long to fit on the badge.
("Wait. So you're saying that I COULD have a badge that said 'Ian Quote Xiphias Unquote Osmond', but not one that said 'Ian Osmond Carriage Return Xiphias'?" To be fair, there is ADDITIONALLY the issue that their badge printing setup won't handle two-line printing, but the impression I got was that, philosophically, that was more or less the case.)
And, of course, Hal Clement's badge said "Hal Clement", not "Harry Stubbs." I suspect that if Sting decided to buy a membership, he'd probably NOT have to have his badge read "Gordon Summner". Come to think of it, I can't remember if Phil Klass's badge says "Phil Klass", his birth name, or "William Tenn", the pen name under which he publishes the VAST majority of his science fiction.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala's badge says "Elizabeth Bear", which I am given to understand is not her birth name, which is apparently unpronounceable in any human tongue, and causes madness among any who hear it.
So, apparently, the "no nickname on your badge" rule is ONLY for people who haven't been published.
Apparently, there is basically one guy, or gal, who is influential in NESFA who has a particular problem with pseudonyms on badges. Folks who were telling us this don't want to mention who it is, which seems entirely fair to me -- it doesn't matter who it is, so why mention it? Twenty years ago, there were people who had fake names on badges, which meant that, when they caused problems, nobody could know who they were.
For me, it's not that big a deal. Yeah, I may personally think of myself as "Xiphias Gladius" inside my own head as much or more than I think of myself as "Ian Osmond", but I use both names, and most people who know me as "Xiphias Gladius" also know me as "Ian Osmond." I didn't have very many cases in which someone saw my name but didn't recognize me until someone nearby mentioned me as "Xiphias." Okay, it DID happen once, but my badge was turned around backwards and she couldn't read it, and she does know me by my real name.
Of course, I only recognized HER when she said she'scogitationitis. adrian_turtle got her first name down as "Adrian", but I had no clue what the last name on her badge meant, because it wasn't "Turtle". In all the years I've known her, I've known her as "Adrian Turtle". And shadesong's badge was 100% useless to one and all, since I'm not certain that even Elayna or yendi knows her legal name.
What is the point of a name badge?
One point is to be a ticket which states that the person wearing it has a non-transferable license to use the facilities of the convention. And the existence of pseudonymous badges in '87 apparently damaged the ability of the badges to be used for that purpose. When there are sixteen people running around with a badge name of "Gandalf", how do you tell which one was the one who sprayed the fire hose on the fifteenth floor? A badge which requires your legal name -- and, in fact, a name to which you can PROVE you are entitled to use with photo ID -- fulfills this purpose admirably.
Of course, such a badge COULD have a pseudonym in ADDITION to a legal name without diminishing its effectiveness. And that's, I think, where the PTSD comes in. I think that the '87 Boskone, and its aftermath, was so traumatic to the people running it that, now, a full two decades later, some of them STILL can't think of it rationally. I wouldn't be surprised if there are people who still have nightmares. Actually, I'd be surprised if there AREN'T.
Because the SECOND purpose of a name badge is to identify the wearer to other people who know the person by reputation, or by text communication. That's always been a vital part of science fiction fandom -- we've always known each other by the stories we write, the APAs we write, the letters to the editor we write. Usenet, and now blogs, are simply an extension of that. We know people by the names they sign to their writings, and then want to put faces to those names -- and to those personalities. After all, we know the people, and associate the people with the name. We just don't know what face and body are attached to the people. And the name badge helps clarify that.
I think that NESFA recognizes that, to a certain extent, which is why published authors get to use the name they primarily publish SF under.
But they don't recognize that the same thing applies to the rest of us who use names not on our birth certificates. Well, NESFA doesn't recognize it, institutionally. Many of the people who make up NESFA are perfectly well aware of that.
There are plenty of simple solutions to this problem -- get little white ribbons we can write our names on. Get buttons made up, like the one Lis askedchanaleh to make for me (it's ADORABLE -- you guys are both great.) Have one of the badges ckd has, which says "ckd" on it, and has his LJ default icon.
But, to me, solving it, while probably the more important question, isn't really the more interesting question -- the interesting question is why does this happen? Why does someone have such a problem with nicknames of non-professionals on badges?
And I really think the answer is PTSD. And I do have a great deal of sympathy for that person. But I also think that he or she deserves to have some sort of therapy for it -- psychiatry is beginning to have some kind of ability to treat it, and I can't imagine that it's a pleasant feeling. Whoever this person is who has the problem with badge names must deeply care about NESFA in general and Boskone in specific, worry excessively about the problems of the '87 Boskone reoccurring, and therefore be unable to think rationally about the actual dangers, and ways to allow pseudonyms without exposing the con to the same risks.
That CAN"T be comfortable for that person.
Maybe just a touch of PTSD.
See, the moment which shaped the modern Boston science fiction convention scene was the Boskone From Hell in 1987, in which, for a number of factors which are set out pretty well in this essay/memoir, Things Blew The Fuck Up Bigtime.
Out of the shattered pieces, two new cons coalesced: in many ways,
arisia is the real continuation of Boskone, and in many ways, Boskone is. For those who don't get the references in the name, by the way: "Boskone" is called "Boskone" because it's "Bos-Con." And because it's the bad guy civilization in the E. E. "Doc" Smith Lensmen novels."Arisia" is the good guy civilization.
So, the very name "Arisia" means, "Not Boskone." From the moment that Arisia existed, there was a feeling of some hostility between the two cons.
That feeling is basically gone now. I mean, hell, 1987 -- a lot of people who are now helping run cons weren't BORN back then. Me, I was just about to turn thirteen, and wouldn't be even remotely connected to fandom at ALL for at least another four years. A lot of people remember it, of course. Some of my friends were working that con. For at least one, that was his FIRST con.
And a number of people who still take it personally are still important in NESFA.
Boskone does not allow nicknames on badges.
That's not 100%, apparently. I found out that I COULD have had my badge name read, "Ian 'Xiphias' Osmond", although that would have been too long to fit on the badge.
("Wait. So you're saying that I COULD have a badge that said 'Ian Quote Xiphias Unquote Osmond', but not one that said 'Ian Osmond Carriage Return Xiphias'?" To be fair, there is ADDITIONALLY the issue that their badge printing setup won't handle two-line printing, but the impression I got was that, philosophically, that was more or less the case.)
And, of course, Hal Clement's badge said "Hal Clement", not "Harry Stubbs." I suspect that if Sting decided to buy a membership, he'd probably NOT have to have his badge read "Gordon Summner". Come to think of it, I can't remember if Phil Klass's badge says "Phil Klass", his birth name, or "William Tenn", the pen name under which he publishes the VAST majority of his science fiction.
matociquala's badge says "Elizabeth Bear", which I am given to understand is not her birth name, which is apparently unpronounceable in any human tongue, and causes madness among any who hear it.So, apparently, the "no nickname on your badge" rule is ONLY for people who haven't been published.
Apparently, there is basically one guy, or gal, who is influential in NESFA who has a particular problem with pseudonyms on badges. Folks who were telling us this don't want to mention who it is, which seems entirely fair to me -- it doesn't matter who it is, so why mention it? Twenty years ago, there were people who had fake names on badges, which meant that, when they caused problems, nobody could know who they were.
For me, it's not that big a deal. Yeah, I may personally think of myself as "Xiphias Gladius" inside my own head as much or more than I think of myself as "Ian Osmond", but I use both names, and most people who know me as "Xiphias Gladius" also know me as "Ian Osmond." I didn't have very many cases in which someone saw my name but didn't recognize me until someone nearby mentioned me as "Xiphias." Okay, it DID happen once, but my badge was turned around backwards and she couldn't read it, and she does know me by my real name.
Of course, I only recognized HER when she said she's
cogitationitis. adrian_turtle got her first name down as "Adrian", but I had no clue what the last name on her badge meant, because it wasn't "Turtle". In all the years I've known her, I've known her as "Adrian Turtle". And shadesong's badge was 100% useless to one and all, since I'm not certain that even Elayna or yendi knows her legal name.What is the point of a name badge?
One point is to be a ticket which states that the person wearing it has a non-transferable license to use the facilities of the convention. And the existence of pseudonymous badges in '87 apparently damaged the ability of the badges to be used for that purpose. When there are sixteen people running around with a badge name of "Gandalf", how do you tell which one was the one who sprayed the fire hose on the fifteenth floor? A badge which requires your legal name -- and, in fact, a name to which you can PROVE you are entitled to use with photo ID -- fulfills this purpose admirably.
Of course, such a badge COULD have a pseudonym in ADDITION to a legal name without diminishing its effectiveness. And that's, I think, where the PTSD comes in. I think that the '87 Boskone, and its aftermath, was so traumatic to the people running it that, now, a full two decades later, some of them STILL can't think of it rationally. I wouldn't be surprised if there are people who still have nightmares. Actually, I'd be surprised if there AREN'T.
Because the SECOND purpose of a name badge is to identify the wearer to other people who know the person by reputation, or by text communication. That's always been a vital part of science fiction fandom -- we've always known each other by the stories we write, the APAs we write, the letters to the editor we write. Usenet, and now blogs, are simply an extension of that. We know people by the names they sign to their writings, and then want to put faces to those names -- and to those personalities. After all, we know the people, and associate the people with the name. We just don't know what face and body are attached to the people. And the name badge helps clarify that.
I think that NESFA recognizes that, to a certain extent, which is why published authors get to use the name they primarily publish SF under.
But they don't recognize that the same thing applies to the rest of us who use names not on our birth certificates. Well, NESFA doesn't recognize it, institutionally. Many of the people who make up NESFA are perfectly well aware of that.
There are plenty of simple solutions to this problem -- get little white ribbons we can write our names on. Get buttons made up, like the one Lis asked
chanaleh to make for me (it's ADORABLE -- you guys are both great.) Have one of the badges ckd has, which says "ckd" on it, and has his LJ default icon.But, to me, solving it, while probably the more important question, isn't really the more interesting question -- the interesting question is why does this happen? Why does someone have such a problem with nicknames of non-professionals on badges?
And I really think the answer is PTSD. And I do have a great deal of sympathy for that person. But I also think that he or she deserves to have some sort of therapy for it -- psychiatry is beginning to have some kind of ability to treat it, and I can't imagine that it's a pleasant feeling. Whoever this person is who has the problem with badge names must deeply care about NESFA in general and Boskone in specific, worry excessively about the problems of the '87 Boskone reoccurring, and therefore be unable to think rationally about the actual dangers, and ways to allow pseudonyms without exposing the con to the same risks.
That CAN"T be comfortable for that person.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 02:54 am (UTC)And I really think the answer is PTSD.
Either that or the person making the decision is just a controlling ass. Never discount basic human cussedness.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 02:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 03:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 03:36 am (UTC)Interestingly, my badge had my name "printed" on it using a Ptouch type label (black printing on white tape). If I wanted to disguise my identity, it would have been trivial for me to fetch my Ptouch and print out a new label. Perhaps most troublemakers aren't that ambitious or organized?
I find myself wondering what problem NESFA is looking to solve by requiring "real names" on badges. Perhaps it's an attempt to reinforce Boskone's image as a "Serious literary con"?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 04:09 am (UTC)also, how do you tell the difference between the second trogdor and the second (yes, i'm from minnesota) john johnson? that's work that needs to be done by eyeballing it, i think, and people make mistakes.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 04:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 04:28 am (UTC)why should the badge name HAVE to be unique? can't the record itself be stored under a unique identifier? otherwise what do you do when you have two people with the same legal name? are you just gonna tell the second john johnson he can't use his real name? of course not.
i can't express just how tired i am with such shenanigans. they don't exist because of real needs, but because some people have set their minds on one thing and are stubborn about it way beyond reason.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 04:36 am (UTC)here in minnesota, we solve this via badge number, all of which are unique.
my own personal preference is that if i holler the thing that it says on your badge, you'll turn around to see why i'm hollering at you. lo back these many years ago, i used to put my bbs handle on my badge, because those were the people i was going to cons to see. now that i have met more people face to face than i met online, my badge tends to say betsy (and possibly my last name) instead of kallisti or annelise, because that's the name more people know me by. (at apc's, where everyone there i met online? you bet your sweet bippy my badge will say "fairest one/kallisti".)
la la la. must stop smoffing and go to bed.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 05:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 05:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 05:25 am (UTC)The badge thing resulted in me actually being introduced to people as Shira (not my legal name yet, but close enough that they let me use it), which startled me every single time...
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 06:15 am (UTC)It wasn't that they would put pseudonyms on your badge.
It was that they let you write your own badge. IIRC, you got a badge holder, a piece of card with a not-readable-enough number in one corner, and plenty of room to write whatever you wanted to as your name. (It's been 20 years, at least four moves, and many clean-outs since then; while it's theoretically possible that the badge is still somewhere among my possessions, it's not the way to bet, and even if so it's unfindable.) This may have been different for pre-reg folks, but those of us who bought at-the-door memberships had plenty of leeway. I wrote my name, but given how bad my handwriting is I suspect it probably did look like it read "trogdor the burninator".
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 07:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 07:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 08:13 am (UTC)Anybody who said that "Ian 'Xiphias' Osmond" was "too long" for a badge name had obviously forgotten (or never known), about, among others, "Patrick Nielsen Hayden" and "Teresa Nielsen Hayden", both of whose names regularly appear on Boskone badges. "Too long" is a bogus reason for rejecting a badge name.
And yes, it is possible to force a carriage return at a particular place in a name badge (certainly in the pre-reg set-up but also, I believe, if somebody's using a p-touch to create a label. I never break "Nielsen Hayden" across two lines, for example, if I can help it on a badge.
Phil Klass's badges tend to say "William Tenn", but his wife's tend to say "Fruma Klass". Hell, Wen Spencer's badge says "Wen Spencer", and that's not her legal name either.
Sometimes the issue hasn't been "Do you publish under this name?", but "Do I recognize that this whole aspect of your life is referenced to the name 'X'?" And therein lies much of the rub, since the "I" in my preceding sentence is mostly limited to the people who are inclined towards the "thou shalt use thy legal name and no other names before it" mode of thought. In those instances where you're pre-registering and wanting a non-obvious badge name, having somebody who already knows you or about you associated with the committee can be a big win.
And I wish it were only a one-person-related PTSD that's behind this topic, but it's not. Depending on who's running pre-reg and who's running at-con reg, the chances of being able to influence the presentation of how you spell/pronounce/define your call name will vary. I know some of the ways I've attempted to phrase the requests for a "special" badge name over the years -- and the trick really is to get your name instantiated in the database as you'd prefer it to appear at least once. That said, I still rejected my fair share of badge name of the "Vlad the Impaler" variety. I also rejected badge names that weren't tied to a real person in some way I could verify.
In other words, despite the efforts of a number of people over the years, at Boskone the norm still extends towards a legalistically-inclined definition of "real name". It's not about duplicates -- it really is an attempt to ensure that badge names reflect a name that the person wearing it respects and will respond to if there are problems -- but that is also hard to legislate.
On the other hand, there is hope. Hobbit is known as Hobbit even in nesfa-dom.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 09:15 am (UTC)If the apology ever came, I never got it. I laughed for days when Arisia announced, and I still have a piece of artwork somewhere where someone stands in front of BOSKONE signs screaming, "Where is everybody?!?"
I've recently wondered if 20 years if long enough to carry on an admittedly low-grade feud/boyott and perhaps reconsider my decision.
Nope. Skipping Boskone until the rectocranial infarction is resolved remains the way to go.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 11:48 am (UTC)I'd hardly call the name I use in daily life a "pseudonym" though it falls under the name-badge definition of it: I use my baptismal first name (which is different from my legal first name) and my married surname (occasionally with, but mostly without my maiden surname). Having my legal name instead of my use-name on my badge would be not only useless, but actively bad, because I'd have to explain to each and every person who I actually was. If I met you at a con and read "Ian Osmond" on your badge, I'd think "rings a bell...", peer myopically at you, and realise eventually "oh yes, that's Xiphias" but nobody likely to meet me at a con would be able to do that with my legal name. (Also, I don't go to cons, but that's irrelevant for the argument.)
Another thing is that I don't react (and usually don't even notice) when called by my legal first name, because it's no longer a name I parse as referring to me.
(And I have so many nicknames that I'd be stumped if I had to choose only one for my badge)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 12:58 pm (UTC)But that still privileges the known over the newbies.
[I was snarking that Boskone held a panel on the fan-pro rift, calling it damaging and widening and wondering how it can be reversed. Isn't allowing pseudonyms to pros, but not to fen just another example of this?]
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 01:49 pm (UTC)Look at my "name" as shown on this comment. LJ cheerfully re-substitutes every time people change it, so it may look as though I've been using "Victory of Roses" for years rather than only since
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 02:00 pm (UTC)I agree both with the goal, and with your statement that it's difficult to force. When I was going to Orycon (I've skipped the last few), they had a very relaxed attitude toward badge names, to a point that made it a hassle for at-con registration staff: we seemed to be spending as much time on "hi, I preregistered, my badge says Deathmaster Five, can you print me a new one that says Zaphod Beeblebrox" as on actual new memberships. That seemed to be mostly playing around rather than trying to conceal anything, but people doing that weren't likely to realize that "Zaphod" meant them, if spoken by someone they didn't already know.
Also, there are places where requiring a "real" name can cause rather than solve the problem: if someone has been going by "Mike" all his life, will he answer to "John", the name on his legal ID? (Hobbit probably has some experience of being called by another name, if only by his parents.)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 02:08 pm (UTC)My original idea (before thinking of the LJ Profile page) was to have 3 printouts from 3 different months in 3 different contexts showing you using that name. Could be one page from your LJ, and two comments left in other people's journals, but over a timespan that shows it's not fly-by-night.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 02:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 02:16 pm (UTC)And it was obvious, why, as soon as the topic began to change to "why aren't we attracting young fans". Some people even tried to mention it. The whole Boskone-Arisia mess.
As long as Boskone has the reputation of being unfriendly to young fans, they aren't going to come to it. The pros aren't interacting with young fans because they have no young fans to interact with; and, after seeing the appallingly obnoxious behavior of some of the older fans at the gripe session (in particular, the group that walked out), I'm not surprised that pros don't want to interact with them.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 02:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 02:48 pm (UTC)I got to the gripe session about 20 minutes late; when was the walk-out and over which issue?
Particularly in contrast with the Arisia gripe session, I was struck by the defensiveness of Boskone's session. Yes, I understand the logic of why one might want a "swing" door to connect the bathrooms. But the point is, it should be locked for the con, when both bathrooms are in use!
Re: young fans, yeesh! Didn't they already burn that bridge during David Brin's celebrated GOH speech? I know *I* blogged about it back then -- two times...