MattTheMinion

To be honest there isn't much we can do when it's slow other than reboot the virtual server it sits on in AWS-land and hope that it starts behaving again. There is a software update coming out soon, so perhaps that will help?

Yeah I thought I got 2021 in there sometime in the last year, but apparently I did not. Things are in progress, but also I have about 100 other things to do post-con that take priority. Paying bills is never really "fun", and for that matter neither is filling out sales/use tax returns. As for this year, it will likely be early September based on other deadlines.

As probably one of the oldest semi-active account holders on the BBS (going back to the before times when it was just for gofers) it's true that the BBS has lost its luster as a social media platform. While it does have several advantages such as being fully under our control vs. something like Facebook, it requires a notably larger time and support investment than just using someone else's product that nearly everyone already happens to be part of. The cost of course being that these other products and platforms have built in limits on what you can and can't do and who controls what can be a

Yeah, it's never been free. I don't think there is a way to realistically make it free. Even if we could coordinate all the labor as volunteer work we'd still have to pay for shipping, tracking, and packaging materials and honestly that's where most of the cost lies.

Yes, it is $15. I believe it's the same price as it was last year. The price is computed based on what it costs us on average to have a package of 1-8 badges put together and shipped.

Legacy information is being handled a little differently now. In theory if your registration information remains similar enough it should automatically be complied when you re-register.

In a word the thing(s) holding it up are.... contracts. Adjustments needed to be made for a post-covid world.

We are aware of it, and are looking into pinning down whether the source is the database or a software thing.

To keep it brief there are a lot of logistical and practical considerations and trade offs that had to be considered in terms of holding a convention. And if we're being honest, there is nothing we could have done that would satisfy everyone. For example, social distancing. If you spaced out seats in the programming rooms to distance folks, the seating capacity of each room would be roughly 15% of what it was this year. It's not worth having a video room with a max capacity of 23 people, or limiting main events to a couple hundred attendees. Once you do that you have thousands of people c

Hello, There was a printer error on some of the mailed badges. While the bar codes on the back are correct, the printed numbers are not. You can just distribute these amongst your group at this point.

Yes you can head to badge services in registration (don't wait in the pre-reg pickup line). Bring your confirmation ID, tracking number, and ID and they will help you out.

Badge pickup is at the convention center from 3PM-10PM Thursday. Follow the lines through the front doors.

Yeah, the only option for parking at the Marquis is valet parking. It is an underground lot, but basically you don't get access to your car until they bring it back up.

Send a message to Registration here: https://www.otakon.com/help/contact-us/

Since we are not planning on using any space in the hotel for programming this year, the mask rule begins at the entrances to the convention center. This would be the end of the tunnel where it opens into the convention center. Of course we would encourage you to wear your masks in the tunnel as well. As for the bag check, the details are still being hammered out but I would expect it to be around in some form. I do not know if we are going to have 'mask stations' setup at all the entrances, although it has been something we've been discussing the logistics of.