As Admin I've been monitoring the discussions on the board and in e.mail about the rules for the Alley, as well as other shenanigans, and rather than jump
from thread to thread making people feel singled out, I'm going to address what I can here and now, so this will all be stopped. Here and Now.
First - Stop The Inflammatory Language. Scam? Rip-off? Libel? If you don't have any proof, you don't make melodramatic accusations. It just makes you look sad and wanky and irritates the sane people who have to wade through that drivel to find what they need to know.
Second - STOP HARASSING THE STAFF Stupid insults and accusations don't make people want to change rules to suit you more, amazingly enough. Most of us knew that by the time we graduated the Terrible Twos. Some apparently still need to learn the lesson. Luckily, we're prepared to teach it.
Third - There's a Difference Between Asking Questions and Quibbling. People who ask questions listen to the answers. People who quibble are trying to undermine the discussion by pick-pick-picking away at the other person like a crow on an elephant carcass in order to wear them down so they'll give in just to be done with it. Some of you have come way too close to crossing the line from honest debate to quibbling, and since quibbling is indeed a form of arguing with the mods, it's a bannable offense if you keep it up. Everyone consider that a blanket warning for all the threads.
Finally - What is the Real Purpose of the Artists Alley - since this seems to be confusing and freaking out so many people let me lay it out to you from the organizational viewpoint.
It's all about The Experience.
Everything a con-goers sees , does, chooses, is involved in, remembers, experiences. In every meeting room, show hall, lobby. Every square foot of "public" space at a convention is alloted to something that is part of The Experience.
There's no anime convention governing body that dictates what AN does or doesn't do with our space. We could fill every available inch of space with dealers tables or video rooms or gaming or just charge you to come to a big empty room and watch cosplayers pose all weekend if we wanted.
So when we make decisions about what to do with the space, we base them on what something adds to or takes away from the congoer's enjoyment. Nothing but dealers? What it adds - money from table sales to rent a better hall. What it takes away - what do they do when their money is all gone?
And so on and so forth for every single square foot of space. Everything is weighed, not just for how it helps or hurts us financially but what it adds to ... the Experience.
So basically, the breakdown of space/use/purpose for those parts of the con related to Art looks roughly like this -
Where---------------------Who--------------------------------What
Corporate Area-----Companies and Guest Artists------ Promote commercial properties and talent, no sales
Dealers Room-------Retailers---------------------------Sell "mass produced" merchandise
Art Room-----------Artists------------------------------Sell or Display "limited edition" art and crafts
Artist Alley----------Artists and Artisans-----------------Sell limited edition art, create commissioned art / interactive, informal activities (congoers watch artists drawing, talk to them)
Workshops (hotel)--Guest Artists------------------------Formal demos, interactive art lessons
Art Panels (hotel)---Guest Artists------------------------Q&A with artists, more talk, less hands-on work
Everything is related, they overlap but they don't duplicate each other's role and all together they give the congoer a much wider choice of activities than just dealer, or just workshops, or just anything else alone would.
So if you take that framework, a "professional" artist who is successful enough to be printing mass quantities of stuff and autographing it should be selling it in the dealers room because that's their niche. One thing that may be causing confusion is the Corporate Area and Trade Tables are next to Artists Alley without a barrier between them, so some of the tables that caused head-scratching may have been in those areas and operating under different rules.
There is also the issue of the price difference between dealers and alley tables. Alley artists are getting a HUGE discount on a table we could have sold to a dealer instead, in exchange for working the table all weekend, drawing, creating a good mood and entertaining congoers. If people who should and can afford to be in the dealers room manage to get the alley tables instead, then it defeats the purpose of having an alley in the first place.
Sadly, the antics and ill will on the part of a very few problem children has brought this to the attention of the exec, and we WILL be watching how it plays out at the con and deciding if we need to change the structure to eliminate the totally unfair and unnecessary stress that alley staffers have been under of late.
So, bottom line - be nice to the artists alley staff, they're the ones controlling your fate ( I suggest bribing them with Pocky. Much Pocky)
Admin
First - Stop The Inflammatory Language. Scam? Rip-off? Libel? If you don't have any proof, you don't make melodramatic accusations. It just makes you look sad and wanky and irritates the sane people who have to wade through that drivel to find what they need to know.
Second - STOP HARASSING THE STAFF Stupid insults and accusations don't make people want to change rules to suit you more, amazingly enough. Most of us knew that by the time we graduated the Terrible Twos. Some apparently still need to learn the lesson. Luckily, we're prepared to teach it.
Third - There's a Difference Between Asking Questions and Quibbling. People who ask questions listen to the answers. People who quibble are trying to undermine the discussion by pick-pick-picking away at the other person like a crow on an elephant carcass in order to wear them down so they'll give in just to be done with it. Some of you have come way too close to crossing the line from honest debate to quibbling, and since quibbling is indeed a form of arguing with the mods, it's a bannable offense if you keep it up. Everyone consider that a blanket warning for all the threads.
Finally - What is the Real Purpose of the Artists Alley - since this seems to be confusing and freaking out so many people let me lay it out to you from the organizational viewpoint.
It's all about The Experience.
Everything a con-goers sees , does, chooses, is involved in, remembers, experiences. In every meeting room, show hall, lobby. Every square foot of "public" space at a convention is alloted to something that is part of The Experience.
There's no anime convention governing body that dictates what AN does or doesn't do with our space. We could fill every available inch of space with dealers tables or video rooms or gaming or just charge you to come to a big empty room and watch cosplayers pose all weekend if we wanted.
So when we make decisions about what to do with the space, we base them on what something adds to or takes away from the congoer's enjoyment. Nothing but dealers? What it adds - money from table sales to rent a better hall. What it takes away - what do they do when their money is all gone?
And so on and so forth for every single square foot of space. Everything is weighed, not just for how it helps or hurts us financially but what it adds to ... the Experience.
So basically, the breakdown of space/use/purpose for those parts of the con related to Art looks roughly like this -
Where---------------------Who--------------------------------What
Corporate Area-----Companies and Guest Artists------ Promote commercial properties and talent, no sales
Dealers Room-------Retailers---------------------------Sell "mass produced" merchandise
Art Room-----------Artists------------------------------Sell or Display "limited edition" art and crafts
Artist Alley----------Artists and Artisans-----------------Sell limited edition art, create commissioned art / interactive, informal activities (congoers watch artists drawing, talk to them)
Workshops (hotel)--Guest Artists------------------------Formal demos, interactive art lessons
Art Panels (hotel)---Guest Artists------------------------Q&A with artists, more talk, less hands-on work
Everything is related, they overlap but they don't duplicate each other's role and all together they give the congoer a much wider choice of activities than just dealer, or just workshops, or just anything else alone would.
So if you take that framework, a "professional" artist who is successful enough to be printing mass quantities of stuff and autographing it should be selling it in the dealers room because that's their niche. One thing that may be causing confusion is the Corporate Area and Trade Tables are next to Artists Alley without a barrier between them, so some of the tables that caused head-scratching may have been in those areas and operating under different rules.
There is also the issue of the price difference between dealers and alley tables. Alley artists are getting a HUGE discount on a table we could have sold to a dealer instead, in exchange for working the table all weekend, drawing, creating a good mood and entertaining congoers. If people who should and can afford to be in the dealers room manage to get the alley tables instead, then it defeats the purpose of having an alley in the first place.
Sadly, the antics and ill will on the part of a very few problem children has brought this to the attention of the exec, and we WILL be watching how it plays out at the con and deciding if we need to change the structure to eliminate the totally unfair and unnecessary stress that alley staffers have been under of late.
So, bottom line - be nice to the artists alley staff, they're the ones controlling your fate ( I suggest bribing them with Pocky. Much Pocky)
Admin
