Convention Etiquette: Discussion and Advice on Do's and Don'ts

[discodiva]

Doesn't surprise me in the least these days...with the advent of Twitter etc and the actors replying to some of these fans, said fans think that they are on "BFF" terms with them and can do what they want when they meet them...I've read of fans who think it's perfectly acceptable to talk of them going to "jump Shanks" and going ahead and kissing him without asking permission etc and you only have to go on Creation's website and see the sort of ridiculous poses that the J2 are asked to do now from fans...like performing monkeys

Really irks me, as a certain J O'Neill would say


Deeds xx

[BruTak]

Perhaps convention organisers should look into hiring proper security?

[BruTak]

Well, as expected, Edinburgh Comic Con was an absolute blast. I had a really good time, and will absolutely be going again next year.

However, I posted the following on their FB page, and on the MCM Glasgow page as well. Tell me what you think, have I made my point clearly?


"Not wanting to bring anyone down after such a fab weekend, but I feel I have to get something off my chest.

Those of you whose cosplay includes a replica weapon of some description - a pistol, or a sword, or a baseball bat, whatever - please, PLEASE, for the luvva god, do NOT take the damn things out onto the street with you. Only have them within the convention area.

You and I know that your weapon isn't real, and is only a prop, but a member of the general public might not. They'd only see "Someone in strange clothes with a gun", or "a sword", or whatever.

On two separate occasions during the course of the weekend, I saw two young ladies - one in a "Suicide Squad" Harley Quinn costume (with baseball bat), and the other as Baby Doll from the movie "Sucker Punch" (with sword), blithely strolling down Lothian Road still carrying their respective weapons.

I don't want to sound like a grumpy old fart, but the days when one could wander around in public dripping with toy guns etc. are long past.

All it would take is one wee old lady with bad eyesight and a nervous disposition to call the police, and they in turn decide not to take any chances and whistle up the Armed Response Unit.

I heard of a case several years ago in Dundee, where the ARU got called to attend at a particular address because a member of the public had reported seeing "Two men fighting with swords."
The cops expected to find a couple of guys re-enacting scenes from "Highlander", instead they discovered two wee boys knocking lumps out of each other with plastic Lightsabers.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is - if your cosplay includes a weapon, and you're going outwith the convention venue for a smoke, or a bit of fresh air, or going to get something to eat or whatever, ask at the cosplay desk if it'd be okay to leave your weapons with them for half an hour, or however long you're going to be. Or if you're with friends, ask one of them to mind your stuff for a bit.

All I want, is for folks to stay safe, and enjoy themselves."

[Anja]

Unfortunately I've never been to a con but I can see clearly what you are talking about - sth similar has happened here in my country when two teens were reported carrying guns and hanging around near some shopping mall - bad things happened and they had only toy guns.
Wouldn't it be logical not to take the weapons outside when you're visiting a con?
But logic is hard to find sometimes.

[BruTak]

Yeah, my Battlesta Galactica BDU cosplay includes a replica pistol. It's a solid lump of resin with no moving parts, and the only way you could potentially hurt someone with it would be to wallop them over the head with it - and even then, it'd probably do more damage to the pistol than the person.

On the occasions I went outside, I either removed the pistol from the holster and put it in my bag, or I left my bag with my friend whose sci-fi group had a table.

A little common sense goes a long, long way.

[Falcon Horus]

Wouldn't it be logical not to take the weapons outside when you're visiting a con?
But logic is hard to find sometimes.

It is common sense not to take the replica weapons outside of the convention, or more accurately not outside the convention premises.
It's even an unwritten rule to not point your weapon at anyone, not even when people ask for a photo. Swords and daggers have to stay in their sheaths.

However, as was the case at FACTS Spring Edition last weekend in Ghent, no replica weapons were allowed (except for alien-looking ones like my Sodan staff weapon), inside or outside the convention. Of course, this was due to the recent attacks in Brussels. Even large bags weren't allowed inside the convention and everyone was triple checked through security (except on Sunday morning the guard waved me through as he remembered me from the day before -- I apparently have a trustworthy look ).

[BruTak]

Sadly, common sense seems to be in short supply with some people these day.

When I was a youngster, waay back in the dim and distant past of the 1970s, no one batted an eyelash at kids going out to play dripping with toy guns etc.

Times change, and not always for the better.

[Frostfox]

Sadly, common sense seems to be in short supply with some people these day.

When I was a youngster, waay back in the dim and distant past of the 1970s, no one batted an eyelash at kids going out to play dripping with toy guns etc.

Times change, and not always for the better.

Or bands of six foot tall vikings wandering Brighton with swords and axes*. The coppers knew we only hit each other (or the occasional suicidal football yob) - our favourite pub was opposite the rail station, the landlady would make sure we had a fight practice before Brighton FC had an away game, so her pub was full of vike having a post-practice pint when the hooligans poured off the train and through her doors.

*to be fair, we women were way, way more scary. Most of the Brighton vike were pussycats, but if Gytha or Ruth or Carol said 'Oi!' people jumped to attention.

FF

[BruTak]

A "pre-emptive strike" as it were.

But then again, Vikings and whatnot are counted as part of the "living history" crowd.

[Frostfox]

A "pre-emptive strike" as it were.

But then again, Vikings and whatnot are counted as part of the "living history" crowd.

We used to moonlight as The 42nd Squadron, space mercs for hire, at conventions in the 80s, many a fire alarm set off by our pyrotechnics (despite the hotels saying they wouldn't or that they had turned them off for the show).

And the English Civil War Society are just as likely to take down local yobbery with pike or musket (hit with, rather than shot by) as the Vike were axes and swords.

Carol and Lenny's pagan hand fasting at the pub was interrupted when a very sheepish, lone copper came in the bar. The landlady went over to him, he had been sent (on his own, this is A Clue) by the cop shop as someone had called them to say there was a mad axe man in the pub.
1. it was his first day on the job, so this was kinda 'go get some left handed chalk, lad' by the other coppers
2. the coppers knew this was 'our' pub and they wouldn't have sent him alone if they thought there was any threat
3. Yeah, Square Bear carrying a big axe did look a bit intimidating, but he was a teddy bear, really.
We invited him to stay and watch and the landlady sat with him.
We used sparklers for the happy couple to jump over, as the landlady wouldn't let us have a fire in the first floor room we hired, so we had to get the officiant, Geoff the Whale, if I recall, to hurry up with the service before the sparklers ran out!

They had a Christian marriage the next week in a tiny little Sussex church (Carol was Christian, Lenny, pagan, this didn't seem to get in the way of their relationship.

FF

[BruTak]

Funny you should mention the Sealed Knot guys, I was once told a tale about some of their guys and their encounter with the cops.

Their "thing" was they were a Parliamentarian artillery section, and as such they travelled to and from events in a Transit van with their gear (including the cannon) in the back.

The story goes, there was a bunch of them on their way home from re-fighting the Battle of Naseby, just trundling along nicely, keeping to the speed limit, not bothering anyone.

Out of the blue, some halfwit in a Porsche takes it into his head to tailgate them, beeping his horn then drawing back, and tailgating again etc.

After this had gone on for a while, our heroes had decided they'd had enough.

They waited until the Porsche drew up again, then, on the count of three, the back doors of the Transit are flung open and the driver of the Porsche suddenly finds himself staring down the muzzle of a rather large cannon...

There's the screech of brakes, the Porsche does a u-turn and disappears in a cloud of exhaust fumes.

The lads continue on their way for a few more miles, when suddenly they get the ol' flashing blue lights in their rearview mirror.

They get pulled over to the side of the road, and two members of the local constabulary proceed to interrogate them.
Being members of a recognised re-enactment group, with all the necessary paperwork and permits etc. the cops fortunately saw the funny side of things and let them go with an admonition to behave and not do it again.

[Frostfox]

Funny you should mention the Sealed Knot guys, I was once told a tale about some of their guys and their encounter with the cops.

Their "thing" was they were a Parliamentarian artillery section, and as such they travelled to and from events in a Transit van with their gear (including the cannon) in the back.

The story goes, there was a bunch of them on their way home from re-fighting the Battle of Naseby, just trundling along nicely, keeping to the speed limit, not bothering anyone.

I've heard this tale for the ECWS too (never the twain shall meet - the English Civil War Society and the Sealed Knot, think of the People's Front of Judea sketch in Life of Brian). Knowing nutters on both sides, I believe it. I was a trollop camp follower for Brights Regiment in the ECWS.

With the Brighton Vike, we traveled around the south of England in the back of various beat up old *******s and hire vans, some of them very beat up indeed, most of them not really roadworthy I remember us singing many, many (lewd) verses of 'Tie me kangaroo down' to keep the driver awake on the long, dark drive back from deepest, darkest Kent.
And we drank like fish, of course.
Not quite sure how I survived the 1980s...

FF

[BruTak]

Again, strangely enough (and please excuse the off topic digression) I was having a conversation about something similar with a friend t'other day.

Some of the things I played with as a kid in the 70s, would give the Health and Safety brigade of today nightmares.

Chief among them being a replica 25lb field artillery piece for my Action Man, which fired rubber/plastic bullets.

I also remember Airfix doing kid sized working replicas of a Thompson sub-machine gun, and the FN-FAL rifle - and again they fired little plastic bullets.

[Frostfox]

Not sure how any of us survived the 70's/80's.
We would build a huge bonfire for Guy Fawkes Night on the waste ground behind our terraces. There was always a den and the parents always warned us we would all burn to death if someone set fire to it prematurely. One year the kids from over the other side of the railway (literally, on the wrong side of the tracks), DID set fire to ours on a Sunday night (while we were watching Sunday Night at the London Palladium) and the fire brigade had to come and put it out. Fortunately, no one was in the den at the time...
We each got exactly one box of Standard Fireworks per household and our collective Dads would take turns setting each box off, one at a time, so we could all see each others. Except the Catherine wheels, which they would let off all at the same time at the end, singing the garages they were pinned to. We played with sparklers and Mums various doled out parkin and treacle toffee. It was communal, cheap and great fun (and I'm tearing up a bit, Mum is still with us but Dad had a devastating stroke when I was 14 and died when I was 21, a long time ago, I'm 53 this year, but I still miss him and all the 'Dad' things he did).

FF

[BruTak]

I can understand that, there's not a day goes by that I don't miss my dad.

Yesterday was the third anniversary of his passing.