Messageboard tweaks
 "Silly Kanga-rabbit or Dumb Bunny-roo?" Location: Melbourne area, Florida
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Of course, I and a lot of other people had a blast at the con, but I was noticing a few things that were making the messageboard perhaps a little harder to read. I know it's pretty much a tradition at any con to put silly messages up there without any real purpose but to be funny, but it makes the board so messy and takes a longer time to hunt and find real notes and such. Seeing how the main purpose of the board is to just be a "I'm here..." or "Here's a party" or "Please help" type of thing, is there a possibility of having two separate boards instead of one? I think there should be a smaller secondary board that's just for silly things, or fake requests and such. I think it should be say something the size of one or two large science fair boards, instead of the pink wall of death. Anyone else think that'd be a good idea? Additionally, there might need to be a flyer or a note in the con packet about usage. I've seen way too many times people posting on the wrong letter for an "I'm here" message. Going back to the party/requests thing, I'd recommend adding or rearranging the board so there's a dedicated area to just party notes and requests, but I don't think that would be feasible. |
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Next year, more tacks. I stopped in twice, once late on Friday, once on Sunday and both times, all the tacks were in use. I managed to jury rig a small note on by sharing a tack with another note, but that's really not ideal. No tacks sitting in front of the board, no empty ones stuck in it.
Pencils and paper there was plenty of, but all the tacks had vanished or were already in use. There were people who had taken the golf pencils and used them to pin things to the board instead.
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permalinkLocation: Melbourne area, Florida
That always happens. It looks so bad when people use the pencils to add like that. There also should be a bin or something for the tacks, they were just on the table in piles from what I saw, and of course, flyers getting shifted around broke the piles and made a mess.
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permalinkLocation: Syracuse, NY
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Again... as with any problems at the con, tell Operations! If they were out of bins and tacks, I had some at the Art Show I could spare.
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PeterCat
Anthrocon Art Show Director
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No, Operations had a gigantic bin of tacks, and we were waiting for someone to come in and tell us, "Hey, you need more tacks." We do not have the manpower to send someone out every 10 minutes to report on tack-usage on the message boards; that manpower is better spent elsewhere.
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Stupid idea, but how about, for next year, attaching to the top of the message board panels by the letters a printed note saying "out of supplies? Please tell con-ops!" It could just be added as a small line under the letters attached to top.
I was running between events both times with only about 5 minutes free, so taking the detour to con-ops never even crossed my mind and I've been to the con several years in row. Dollars to donuts says first timers never thought about it either.
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Another stupid idea: why not leave the entire bin of tacks by the MB?
Ron
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permalinkLocation: UK
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Just try imagining the tack bin getting pushed over, and the Health & Safety implications of hundreds of tacs on the floor in an area where furrsuiters and others walk by.
A static note saying 'More tacs available in ConOps' would perhaps suffice.
Darkclaw T Wolf Esq.
AC Staffer 9 Years
Internet Room
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permalinkLocation: Chicagoland
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Or moreso, imagine a group of extremely bored individuals being provided a stash of small, sharp bits to fiddle about with...
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permalinkLocation: 12 scenic miles from Hell
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Sad to say, it will disappear within minutes. And not by people putting up signs. Voice of experience, ya-da, ya-da.
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permalinkLocation: Ardmore, PA
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Works for me.
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My LiveJournal - My Website - See what I'm doing on Twitter
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permalinkSpeaking of things like that, didn't I see a large sign posted on the back of a pizza box put atop the message board? I didn't read it, I was in a hurry at the time.
-There is no truth
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permalinkI was thinking of something along the lines of a virtual message board. People could post messages and you could look through them by date, category (i.e: room party, room share, meetup, person posted, etc). This would also allow a more comprehensive posting of schedule changes and general announcements.
Something like the forums, but running only the duration of the con.
All this is a bit out of my league, but just a thought.
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permalinkLocation: UK
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The possibility of a web-based message/contact system is being thought about, which may be in with registration, as a option to allow contact etc etc, but nothing has yet been decided, and I am certainly not going to give any date or confirmation on this.
Darkclaw T Wolf Esq.
AC Staffer 9 Years
Internet Room
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permalinkLocation: Syracuse, NY
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The thing with a web-based message board, only a limited number of people can check for messages at a given time, depending on how many terminals are available. With a paper-based board, many more people can look at it at once.
We've considered a voodoo message board but determined it's not practical for furry fandom, given the variability (and similarity) of names, and the reluctance of a fair number of people to let their presence be publicized.
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That actually sounds like a really cool and great idea to leave messages for people! But I agree, it'd probably never work for a furry convention.
1) Most people probably wouldn't want their REAL names to be listed on such a listing.
2) Most people probably don't even KNOW their friends' real names, I go the whole con calling people by their nicknames for the most part, myself. And everyone just calls me Artie.
As such, badge names would be the only feasible option for such a listing, however I think we all know how many people there are with the badge name "Fox" or "Wolf", etc. So it would be hard to leave a message for a friend with a generic name that 5 other people also have.
But if everyone actually used unique names then such an idea, listed by badge name would actually probably work pretty nicely. At least in theory. I know how that can translate into reality at times though.
I just thought I'd ramble on with a response to this, don't mind me. :B
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permalinkLocation: Philadelphia area, PA
I guess the voodoo board would only work if you expanded the registration for to ask:
--Yes! I want my name listed on the voodoo board, so others know that i'm here [checkbox]
--i want to be listed by my(choose one): [ ]badge name, if there aren't any others using it [ ]badge name, if there aren't any others using it, or real name if someone else shares my badge name [ ]real name
But that would add just one more layer of complication for folks to get confused about, so i can see why the powers that be are reluctant to go in that direction.
On a related note, a couple of other art show staffers and i were walking by the message board friday night, when we noticed the proliferation of "i'm here!" notes. We decided that this was furries' way of scent-marking the con.
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permalinkActually I had been thinking of the same thing since someone first mentioned the "Voodoo board" on another thread. Giza said something about discretion and not everyone wanting to be known.
So I thought, "Well why not just add it to the pre-reg internet page?" Have it as an op-in as you suggested, and just hit a check-box for being included in the board. This would only work though for those who pre-reg, especially since that board is usually up Thursday and thus too early for anyone regging at the con.
In theory, checking that box would electronically submit your [badge name or real name] to a database that could easily be printed out just before the con staff post the message board.
But you'd have to modify and complicate the programming that deals with registering on this site. And keep in mind that Giza is a volunteer
...and I was one of those who marked "I am here!"
-There is no truth
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