Why Publish?

[bovil]

I've read a few questions and comments about publishing disqualification notices.

In the notice, I stated:
"So much of masquerade operations relies on the honor system."

I've lost count of the times, after any major cosplay competition, that serious accusations of favoritism on the part of judges and directors were made. I'm not going to go into all the factionalism and infighting that has followed them.

There is no hidden cabal that controls cosplay or costume competitions. There is no secret order of masquerade directors that maintains blacklists (and if there is, I don't want to be part of it). What we do is all based on the honor system.

Our only recourse after a violation is to publish the evidence and our decision in the same communities and forums where the masquerade awards were published. It's up to the readers, whether they be conrunners or other cosplayers, to review the evidence and decide how bad they believe the infraction is.

Comments

[kproche.livejournal.com]

One more thing to add:

We published the awards via a number of channels (LiveJournals, bbs, and email lists).

It was appropriate to publish the disqualification via exactly the same channels.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

edited

[ladyaxum.livejournal.com]

I definatly agree and I think you both handdle the situation approriatly.

ps I hope you dont mind if I friend you, this is Mea (lindsay's friend) from ALA

[bovil.livejournal.com]

saw that, and friended you.

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, you two did what needed to be done and acted appropriately.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

The point of this post (if I post it to the ALA community) is that a lot of people really don't understand what happens behind the scenes. We've actually got very little push-back on the disqualification, and only a little bit on the posting.

on a tangential subject

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

I know there's not general authority covering masquerades, but if I remember correctly there are generally agreed upon rules concerning the classes and such. Is this correct? What I remember are things like "novices can't have won a Master..." but is that generally agreed upon or is it up to each con?

Is there a general form of suggested rules somewhere, or does each con make it up from scratch (essentially, not literally, I know they look and lift)? I'm thinking for example Baycon to Balticon rather than Baycon 23 to Baycon 25.

No, I'm not proposing - I'm only asking for information.

Re: on a tangential subject

[bovil.livejournal.com]

The ICG Guidelines: Ensuring Fair Competition (http://www.costume.org/documents/fairness-26-05-2006.html) is a collection of advice for masquerade directors, mostly the collected knowledge and experience of Worldcon and Costume-Con masquerade directors from the last few decades.

The original version was adopted in 1992, and I was principal editor for this revision.

Re: on a tangential subject

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Re: on a tangential subject

[jeff-morris.livejournal.com]

And you did a fantastic job on it.

Re: on a tangential subject

[kproche.livejournal.com]

and I helped a bit, and several other people made significant contributions.