WorldisYours

Let’s think about this rationally for a second. If I walk by a staff member entering a panel room or autograph session wearing my badge and the staff member checks it, I can’t suddenly not have a badge once I pass them. I either have a badge or I do not. On the other hand, I can be properly wearing a mask when a staff member looks at me walking into something and then not wearing one properly five seconds after I have been “inspected”. It’s just not the same thing. Truly vigilant enforcement of masking that would actually make a difference would require people to be constantly monitoring

I am not trying to be condescending here when I say this but: if you think it is “easy” to enforce mandatory masking of 40k people throughout an entire weekend, I really don’t even know what to say to that. Yes, you can visually tell if someone is wearing a mask or not. That still requires an awful lot of staff time and manpower to enforce to any real degree, especially again when many of the people who wear masks in a situation where they are “required” do so in a completely ineffectual way (go in to a doctor’s office or a hospital lately and count how many masks you see below the nose or eve

Again, the idea that the unvaccinated and the vaccinated spread COVID-19 at the same rate is simply untrue. Here is a link to a study done during Omicron: https://www.news-medical.net/amp/news/20230103/COVID-booster-shots-cut-Omicron-transmission-in-closed-environments.aspx The relevant passage: “In adjustment analyses, the Poisson regression model estimated that index cases vaccinated with ≥1 COVID-19 vaccine dose had, on average, a 22% lower risk of transmitting infection than unvaccinated index cases. Each additional dose further reduced the risk of transmission to close contact by an

If you require vaccination then by definition you’re getting people who are more responsible and likely to keep up with their boosters. Yes, someone can technically show up with just their primary series from two years ago, but that doesn’t mean everyone would. By the way, “the vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission” is a completely false anti-vax talking point. It literally does prevent transmission, it’s just not foolproof. But it’s certainly better than walking around unvaccinated (again, assuming people are keeping up with their boosters). Ultimately I don’t feel super strongly abo

I mean, technically when the post you replied to says “20%” of people at Katsucon were not wearing masks that means most of the people at Katsu were complying as well- 80% is definitely most. The problem with having a mask mandate in 2023 isn’t that most people don’t comply, because most people follow the rules in general. The problem is that you have a significant minority who will not comply (whether they feel emboldened by the fact that masks are not required virtually anywhere else in the US or they’re just rule breakers in general) unless there is heavy enforcement, i.e. staff member

I think vax yes, mask no was the way to go and I’m more than a little disappointed that Otakon landed on no for both. I think people underestimate how hard it is for these events to tell people they have to do things that virtually nowhere else in the United States is requiring (any sports fan can tell you that you’ve been able to pack arenas and stadiums with no mask or vax requirements for quite a long time now for instance), but I think requiring the vaccine at least would have been prudent given how long we’ll all be around each other. It’s also easier to enforce than masking, since it’s b

The song is called “White Surf Style 5” by late 90s/early 00s Japanese indie rock band Supercar. Highly recommend checking out more of their discography if you enjoyed that song- they combined rock music and elements of electronic music in a really interesting and unique way.

I thought this was a pretty weak year for fan panels, honestly. As theorized in the Good, Bad and Ugly thread this may have had something to do with the very unusual (and poor) way that the panel application deadline was handled this year. I will not single any particular panels out for this criticism because frankly I saw it over and over and over again this past weekend (including in some panels that I left so fast I didn't bother putting in my specific feedback below), but here goes: I always was taught that the proper way to use Powerpoint was to create slides that feature perhaps an

Yup, this happened to me and my entire friend group. I almost always submit panels for Otakon (usually I host Japanese Indie Music most often- last year I had two different version of it and filled up two different rooms), as do some of my friends, and none of us saw any deadline announced at any point. You say here it was announced, but I honestly have no clue where- it certainly wasn't ever up on the Otakon panel application page on the website, as I remember checking only days before the sudden cut off. We even tried e-mailing them explaining that we never saw any deadline and we were still

I've definitely gotten this question from attendees before too over the years. I take it as a compliment but I don't generally share it.

Yeah, I totally forgot that there was a missing room next to Main Events and that's where it's usually held. Hopefully Otakon has access to that room next year and it can return to being aired there along with the AMV Theater screenings.

Never got around to doing my own Good/Bad/Ugly so here goes: Good: How Otakon handled COVID. I've kind of been over this already in my replies to someone else, but I think they hit the exact right mix of precautions that were reasonable and still allowed the convention to proceed as close to normal as possible. A mask mandate was absolutely the right call- even if it only reduces transmission a very small amount, it's worth the minor inconvenience. Physical/social distancing in programming rooms would have destroyed the convention experience for a benefit that was, at best, extremely

They haven't had attendance caps that were either as low as people were asking for here or a year after a convention had to be cancelled entirely, though.

Well, whether or not the con should have been capped for attendance is a different debate. I don't think it was possible if you want the convention to survive, for simple financial reasons, but I understand why people wanted it to happen. My whole point is that people who are mad that Otakon didn't enforce physical/social distancing in programming rooms once they already decided not to cap attendance, which again isn't just coming from you but was a complaint that I heard a lot throughout the convention on Twitter/at the live feedback session/during this thread, aren't really thinking through

I'm singling this post out as an example of something that's come up repeatedly in this thread already (and a couple times during the live con feedback session as well)- frankly, I do not understand how people think Otakon could/should have enforced any kind of social distancing in panel/screening rooms, ONCE THEY DECIDED NOT TO CAP ATTENDANCE. If they had decided to cap attendance at a certain level before the convention, okay, you can probably spread chairs out inside the rooms and try to enforce physical distancing (though I think people are still vastly underrating the logistics of this- i