Your votes for "Worst Cons/Most Impressive Con Disasters" Of All Time

[xiphias]

After making the claim that Dashcon doesn't even hit the top ten disastrous cons, I was effectively challenged to put together a list of "The Five Worst Cons of All Time" to submit to Cracked.com.

Which, of course, makes me paralyzed with fear that I'd get it wrong. I'm certain that I'd start with Disclave 41 as number 5; nothing in the Disclave Flood was Disclave's fault, but it resulted in significant physical destruction of the hotel, the end of a con in its fifth decade, and warnings printed on hotel sprinkler systems ever since.

Number 1 would have to be Boskone 24. The conrunners had PTSD symptoms for decades, cons were banned from the entire city of Boston for a couple years, and The Letter managed to offend geeks all over the world.

But I'd like YOUR suggestions for the other three. Ideally, I'd get three other representative failures. Maybe not the other three ABSOLUTE WORST -- but three other failure modes.

I'd like to mention the 2006 Flanvention as a convention disaster that resulted in true menschlike behavior from pros -- that was the one where the conrunners for a Firefly convention vanished with the money and cancelled the thing after people already showed up -- but the cast of Firefly showed up anyway, without being paid, and hung out with fans. But other genuine scams might be nice to mention: Shane Senter's Jumpcon scam might be worth mentioning.

What other convention disasters can you think of that would be worth talking about? What are some of the other ones which most impressed you? Seems to me that convention disasters happen because of fraud and dishonesty, incompetence, or bad luck -- any stories which include a perfect confluence of all three?

Comments

[tylik.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if the 1995 Dreamcon would make the list, and most of what I know about it is somewhat hearsay, though it will always loom large in my mind as it involved a drug raid by police and my 15 year old sister jumping through a window without opening it first. (Fortunately for everyone, a first story window.) I could probably collect more anecdotes, as apparently this was just the crowning disaster of a fairly fucked up con.

This was the last Dreamcon.

[yendi]

You could always call the article "Five Cons that were worse than DashCon" to avoid concerns about getting it wrong.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*hunkers down with some popcorn*

[ron_newman]

Save some for me! This will be fun.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Tentmoot, which isn't actually that big a deal but is connected to the ongoing scam that is the life of Amy Player/Victoria Bitter/Andy Blake/Thanfiction.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-623931.html, http://fanlore.org/wiki/Thanfiction

(He's trans. And a con artist. But it takes no effort to be polite about his transness and not misgender him.)


Also, I'm fond of the Disclave disaster (I mean -- as a horrible event), but I don't know where it ranks in terms of Bad Cons.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Tentmoot would definitely be in there. If nothing else for the fact that at least one or two LOTR pros actually ended up basically stranded in the US as it fell apart.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

and there's an entire book about it.

http://fanlore.org/wiki/When_a_Fan_Hits_the_Shit

[tavella.livejournal.com]

The con actually came off, if hobbled, no one got arrested, there were no serious injuries, and the hotel didn't sustain significant physical damage, so that puts it out of the top ten at least, I'd say!

[erik-j-meyer.livejournal.com]

After reading the the DashCon report on the website I am left thinking that they were newbies that had great ideas and no real world experience. http://www.dashcon.org/ Also that the speed level of communication these days leads to as much miscommunication and hyperbole as unverifiable reports from cons of yore.

I was at Boskone 24. I was actually on staff. I realize that it was a 'Bad Thing(tm)' and all, but at the time I had a heck of a good time.

I am not sure of any con that could have all three. It would be great to have this as a list / article. Maybe even have it as a Fannish Life panel at a con for all the "no sh*t, there I was..." stories that could be added to an archive.

[wolfdancer.livejournal.com]

Tor con. canada. best thing that happened to me was that the tickets I got were not valled, just votting. I can have fun no matter . Disclave floof con was bragging rights.

[sovay]

Seems to me that convention disasters happen because of fraud and dishonesty, incompetence, or bad luck -- any stories which include a perfect confluence of all three?

Would you classify the events surrounding Pacificon II—the Breendoggle—as a con disaster, or just a fandom disaster centered on/triggered by a con?