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thebratqueenOkay, I realize that I haven't totally caught up on the sleep I lost during the fun and frolic of this past weekend, and that lack of sleep is apt to make me both slow on the uptake and, more importantly, very cranky. So if I come off as having a tone on this I'm going to apologize in advance and say that honestly right now I'm just asking a question:
What's up with the cons raising money via things that are supposed to be non-profit?
Seriously. No snark attached. I'm honestly bewildered. Because I'm seeing two cons - Vividcon and Writercon - that are raising con money via the selling of vids, fanfic, and vid and fanfic related activities and isn't this exactly the kind of thing we haul individual fans over hot coals for, let alone mock them so hard that fandom_wank goes through an entire carton of cigarettes so it can enjoy the afterglow?
Now possibly I'm out of the loop here, so I invite anybody who knows more than I do about all this to please give the 411. Especially since I'm seeing these things be endorsed by those who would normally slam anyone who does for-profit fannish activities. So my first conclusion here is that I'm missing something crucial, and if so please fill me in. Because what I am seeing is fanfic being auctioned off for money (Writercon), fanfic quotes being put on mugs for money with no clear sign on whether or not they'll even bother asking the writers of the fic if they care to be quoted (Writercon again), and the creation of vids being auctioned off for money (Vividcon).
Now I get that Writercon is trying to raise scholarship funds where people who normally couldn't afford to go to the con can have their way paid for them. That's very nice. It's still profit. Why can't they have a bake sale? Or ask everyone going to throw in an extra dollar? Or anything that doesn't involve the selling of fanfic?
And Vividcon, to my understanding, is trying to keep con costs down via the vidding auction because Vividcon is a small and cheap con and everybody likes that. Okay fine. Lower the con costs otherwise. Pimp supporting memberships. Or again I'm back on bake sale.
Plus I'm given to understand the Vid auction was semi-sorta-kinda okay because it was auctioning the action of vidding, not the vids themselves. Is this not a really fine hair to split? Don't we rip Agent With Style six ways from Sunday for trying to use the excuse "I don't profit from the zines, I profit from the action of agenting the zines"? (Granted, Mysti gets ripped for other things too and I'm not trying to start that flamewar again, I'm just saying it's a handy example for why this is confusing me.)
Seriously, I just don't get it. I get that the con committees are trying to use the money for good and they're not trying to go off and buy sports cars with it or anything, but it's still making money off of something none of us are supposed to be making money off of. I mean I'm sure we'd all love to sell fanfic and vids to raise money to cure cancer too, but TPTB might get a little cranky about that considering it's their copyright to pimp for cash, not ours.
But like I say, there's tons of you on my friends list who seem to not only be fine with this but happy and eager. So - what am I missing?
What's up with the cons raising money via things that are supposed to be non-profit?
Seriously. No snark attached. I'm honestly bewildered. Because I'm seeing two cons - Vividcon and Writercon - that are raising con money via the selling of vids, fanfic, and vid and fanfic related activities and isn't this exactly the kind of thing we haul individual fans over hot coals for, let alone mock them so hard that fandom_wank goes through an entire carton of cigarettes so it can enjoy the afterglow?
Now possibly I'm out of the loop here, so I invite anybody who knows more than I do about all this to please give the 411. Especially since I'm seeing these things be endorsed by those who would normally slam anyone who does for-profit fannish activities. So my first conclusion here is that I'm missing something crucial, and if so please fill me in. Because what I am seeing is fanfic being auctioned off for money (Writercon), fanfic quotes being put on mugs for money with no clear sign on whether or not they'll even bother asking the writers of the fic if they care to be quoted (Writercon again), and the creation of vids being auctioned off for money (Vividcon).
Now I get that Writercon is trying to raise scholarship funds where people who normally couldn't afford to go to the con can have their way paid for them. That's very nice. It's still profit. Why can't they have a bake sale? Or ask everyone going to throw in an extra dollar? Or anything that doesn't involve the selling of fanfic?
And Vividcon, to my understanding, is trying to keep con costs down via the vidding auction because Vividcon is a small and cheap con and everybody likes that. Okay fine. Lower the con costs otherwise. Pimp supporting memberships. Or again I'm back on bake sale.
Plus I'm given to understand the Vid auction was semi-sorta-kinda okay because it was auctioning the action of vidding, not the vids themselves. Is this not a really fine hair to split? Don't we rip Agent With Style six ways from Sunday for trying to use the excuse "I don't profit from the zines, I profit from the action of agenting the zines"? (Granted, Mysti gets ripped for other things too and I'm not trying to start that flamewar again, I'm just saying it's a handy example for why this is confusing me.)
Seriously, I just don't get it. I get that the con committees are trying to use the money for good and they're not trying to go off and buy sports cars with it or anything, but it's still making money off of something none of us are supposed to be making money off of. I mean I'm sure we'd all love to sell fanfic and vids to raise money to cure cancer too, but TPTB might get a little cranky about that considering it's their copyright to pimp for cash, not ours.
But like I say, there's tons of you on my friends list who seem to not only be fine with this but happy and eager. So - what am I missing?
