Tumblr Convention "Disaster" Unfolds at Illinois' DashCon

infinity_turtles

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th3dark3rsh33p said:
Dear lord...that sounds just... awful.
It's mostly slashfics and people getting mad at anything that doesn't resemble a slashfic. Basically slightly more rabid Yaoi fangirls mostly.
 

The Material Sheep

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infinity_turtles said:
th3dark3rsh33p said:
TheIceQueen said:
Dear lord...that sounds just... awful.
It's mostly slashfics and people getting mad at anything that doesn't resemble a slashfic. Basically slightly more rabid Yaoi fangirls mostly.
Even more awful... I don't really know how to comment on that other then like I don't want to live on this planet anymore meme.
 

TheNewGuy

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BX3 said:
This is the Escapist. Feeling as though we're better than certain groups of people because of that one thing we heard that one time is basically our community's lifeblood.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who noticed that! People here have such a smug sense of superiority; it get's really annoying at times.
 

JarinArenos

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TheNewGuy said:
BX3 said:
This is the Escapist. Feeling as though we're better than certain groups of people because of that one thing we heard that one time is basically our community's lifeblood.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who noticed that! People here have such a smug sense of superiority; it get's really annoying at times.
While I'm tempted... the term "toxic" gets tossed around a lot more than it should, and I'm not sure it really applies yet, but the Escapist community seems to have gotten a lot more... outwardly hostile, lately.
 

J Tyran

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TheNewGuy said:
BX3 said:
This is the Escapist. Feeling as though we're better than certain groups of people because of that one thing we heard that one time is basically our community's lifeblood.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who noticed that! People here have such a smug sense of superiority; it get's really annoying at times.
Its not annoying, just be comfortable with the fact that no matter how superior someone else believes themselves to be you are even better and more superior than they are!
 

ForumSafari

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Sep 25, 2012
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erttheking said:
Look, I know that Tumblr is the punching bag of the internet right around now, but can we not indulge in sterotypes?
This isn't really a stereotype, this is things that actually happened. Besides, Tumblr is an opt-in activity with a certain group ethos, mocking it is just fine.
 

gridsleep

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Sep 27, 2008
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Perhaps, after the dust clears, someone could write a scholarly paper on this event that could be used in courses on just how much real Omaha Beach effort it takes to run a convention properly, what that would entail, and how to avoid anything like this in the future. Always look on the bright side of life.
 

AmrasCalmacil

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Jesus H Christ, there was a stage combat session?

Out of all the bad ideas in the world, I would rank giving tumblr users swords as a very bad one, especially when I've seen what classes as 'blunt' in the US.

It takes a lot of good humour, determination and trust to be able to do hands-on display combat. I've been doing it about 8 months now and have had a scar on my arm for the past 3 months after being caught on the wrist with a blunt hand-and-a-half sword. It's not a matter of toughness - because I'm not - it's just a matter of emotional maturity, which is something I've never seen on tumblr.
 

momijirabbit

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Nov 2, 2012
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I found an appropriate video about the whole thing.


This pretty much explains what happened in a short video.
 

Ishal

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Oct 30, 2012
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It's the funniest stuff I've read in a while. And yes, as someone said earlier, it is the punching bag of the internet right now, and it's not entirely unearned.

For many people, Tumblr doesn't mean, "cool blog site where you can share all kinds of media" anymore. But rather equates to "incredibly disturbing hole of insane causes, mentally unwell people who complain over every little non-issue, and cause of death for actual feminism and equal rights movements."

This may not be the whole site, but it's the part that is the loudest, and apparently this con was made for them, by them. It's an echo chamber worst kind, and the site itself encourages it. Sure, any site can be an echo chamber. But Tumblr's design reinforces it. The main features are Follow and Reblog. Do people think it's a coincidence that so many young naive teenagers are attracted to a place like this? I place that thrives on momentum from reblogs and allows people total control over what they choose to see an not see? This con was their reality check, and it won't be the first.
 

Arkynomicon

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Mar 25, 2011
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I was not surprised at all about this when I heard about it.

tumblr had a bunch of morons that thought they could shut down 4chan by going over there and protesting. It's like if I would fistfight a pack of lions after smearing myself in bacon grease.

These people probably struggle with putting on pants in the morning.
 

Hazy

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Hdawger said:
A WHOLE HOUR IN THE BALL PIT?! That's like way better than a whole year in Disneyland!
At least until somebody urinates in it.

Which they did.
 

Schadrach

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Felt appropriate to throw that in here.

AmrasCalmacil said:
Jesus H Christ, there was a stage combat session?

Out of all the bad ideas in the world, I would rank giving tumblr users swords as a very bad one, especially when I've seen what classes as 'blunt' in the US.

It takes a lot of good humour, determination and trust to be able to do hands-on display combat. I've been doing it about 8 months now and have had a scar on my arm for the past 3 months after being caught on the wrist with a blunt hand-and-a-half sword. It's not a matter of toughness - because I'm not - it's just a matter of emotional maturity, which is something I've never seen on tumblr.
You could always give them foam swords? Then they'd at least have to try to do more than sting. =p
 

NemotheElvenPanda

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Aug 29, 2012
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"Meanwhile, as the fundraiser debacle was unfolding, there were reports (and scattered video record) of confused/upset attendees having turned their ire on the hotel and its staff... by "protest-singing" songs from Les Miserables, flashing "Homestuck gang-signs" and throwing up the Mockingjay Salute from The Hunger Games."

And people wonder why no one takes Tumblr seriously, that and the reputation for a sizable number of users who have persecution complexes and covert narcissism that makes DeviantArt look tame. Thank goodness I just use it for porn, art, archeological and scientific news. I do genuinely sympathize will all the people who went there spending time and money expecting a good time and business. However, this incident is pretty much a real life manifestation and allegory of everything that's wrong with Tumblr.
 

Spearmaster

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Mar 10, 2010
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All this unfolding has reaffirmed my suspicion that all the skill and bravado someone has in their digital life means absolutely nothing when it comes to real life and makes the gap between the quality of digital life and real life that much harder to bridge. I'm sure it was quite a culture shock and I'm sure certain internet egos were quite deflated by this. Also the term "paper tiger" keeps echoing in my head for some reason.

All that said, I do feel pity for those involved or attending the event and hope that they learned some real life lessons from their experience.
 

Korolev

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Jul 4, 2008
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So there's two likely possibilities:

1) Fraud
2) This was organized by teenagers who had absolutely no prior experience in organizing any meeting, ever. Or by incompetent adults who have no experience in organizing anything, ever.

Actually, a third possibility is:

3) Fraudsters manipulated a group of teenagers/incompetent adults into organizing a mess of an event so that they could get money.

Either way, it's sad that people are having a bad time. I'm not with the "Tumblr crowd" (if there is such a thing, I'm still coming to grips with what a "tumblr" even is - some sort of blog thingamajig? But most of the posts are just of other work that they've seen?) but I don't like it when people are upset.

Hopefully whoever spent money will be refunded and whoever organized this event has learned a lesson: DON'T ORGANIZE AN EVENT UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
 

Saetha

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Ishal said:
It's the funniest stuff I've read in a while. And yes, as someone said earlier, it is the punching bag of the internet right now, and it's not entirely unearned.

For many people, Tumblr doesn't mean, "cool blog site where you can share all kinds of media" anymore. But rather equates to "incredibly disturbing hole of insane causes, mentally unwell people who complain over every little non-issue, and cause of death for actual feminism and equal rights movements."

This may not be the whole site, but it's the part that is the loudest, and apparently this con was made for them, by them. It's an echo chamber worst kind, and the site itself encourages it. Sure, any site can be an echo chamber. But Tumblr's design reinforces it. The main features are Follow and Reblog. Do people think it's a coincidence that so many young naive teenagers are attracted to a place like this? I place that thrives on momentum from reblogs and allows people total control over what they choose to see an not see? This con was their reality check, and it won't be the first.
Actually, the SJW part of Tumblr didn't have a hand in this Tumblr controversy (So there's something new) Rather, DashCon was made by SuperWhoLocks (Who lied and said it's for all fandoms) for SuperWhoLocks (Who believed the lie that it was for all fandoms)

Really, the fandom part of Tumblr's just as crazy, obsessive, and toxic as the SJW part. Luckily, however, they're not as self-righteous or nosy. They tend to stick to their circles, and you really only have to worry about getting attacked by them if you barge into one. That being said, they've definitely got the issue of being in an echo chamber, and any dissenting opinion (such as "I prefer John stay with his wife rather than end up with Sherlock" or basically any criticism of the *shudder* Omegaverse)) is likely to make them just as bad, sometimes even worse, as SJWs. They're also equally deluded, if this whole mess is any indication.
 

Ten Foot Bunny

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Tyranicus said:
Whut? All understood is that a bunch of random people showed up and made a mess of a hotel.
And yet, they still didn't do as thorough a job as Keith Moon... proving that the convention failed at everything.

http://st-james.hubpages.com/hub/The-Legend-of-Keith-MoonHis-1967-Birthday-Party