Otakon BBS End of Life?

[DeathJester 43]

I love this place and it always fires up in activity during the summer when the Otakon crowd is rolling in... but other than archive posts is there really a reason to keep this as the official forum platform?  There is only a handful of us actually posting here which means it is no longer any very good at answering questions or disseminating relevant information to the general attendee base. 

 

Is it time to retire the BBS and make another platform the social media forum of choice?

Edited July 31, 2022 by DeathJester

[Clutch 64]

I have said this before, but I will not be joining any social media sites for Otakon content. They will need to post all updates on Otakon.com for me to see them.

Otakon does not promote the forum that I have seen, so there is no new blood. Kids now are all Tik Tok.

The old/popular posters are not posting any more. Nothing from Alabaster, Cousin Sue, Fadamoore (apologies for any misspellings)?

Edited July 31, 2022 by Clutch

[Daniel Perales 95]

13 hours ago, Clutch said:

I have said this before, but I will not be joining any social media sites for Otakon content. They will need to post all updates on Otakon.com for me to see them.

Otakon does not promote the forum that I have seen, so there is no new blood. Kids now are all Tik Tok.

The old/popular posters are not posting any more. Nothing from Alabaster, Cousin Sue, Fadamoore (apologies for any misspellings)?

I agree with Clutch here.  

BTW,  I haven't seen Cousin Sue and Alabaster at the Con Feedback panel like I do every year. 

[Aresef 113]

32 minutes ago, Daniel Perales said:

I agree with Clutch here.  

BTW,  I haven't seen Cousin Sue and Alabaster at the Con Feedback panel like I do every year. 

Maybe at least in part because they don't have the roles they used to. Sue is no longer running Gofer Ops (though she remains part of Gofer Ops and a member of the Otakorp board) and Jim is more behind the scenes in GR AFAIK.

The board isn't as active as it used to be probably because people didn't use it that much the year there ended up not being a con. And Otakon itself has tried to reach out more on various social platforms, including Instagram and Twitch. I go back far enough to remember the mailing list. Other cons still have message boards and I think there's a place for Otakon's as long as the web team sees fit to maintain it.

[DeathJester 43]

15 hours ago, Clutch said:

I have said this before, but I will not be joining any social media sites for Otakon content. They will need to post all updates on Otakon.com for me to see them.

Yeah, I'm not suggesting that they do away with the actual website since that is the primary source of information regarding the con.  The problem right now is that Otakon.com is only capable of one-way communication.  If attendees have questions or comments they are currently spread out independently among Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Discords, etc which resulted in bad information being spread like wildfire this year (See the conflicting information about the Saturday afternoon entrance queues).  It is a dangerous game of telephone when an attendee posts information they overheard from someone next to them on the line and that 3rd hand info becomes gospel on a Facebook thread.

I feel like they should pick at least one of these platforms to handle rapid updates and more importantly moderation so that we can reduce confusion in the future. 

[Ikano 17]

My two cents/my opinion:

If you need a quick/rapid/personalized answer about a certain situation/question the better way would be through Help Desk or private messaging on Facebook (when prompted), etc. The BBS was always more for shall I say..."experienced" Otakon goers discuss/help/talk with/connect with "new" Otakon goers and/or just socializing.

Unfortunately over time most of that crowd has chosen to shift to the many social platforms that are now out there so obviously seems quiet in here, though staff do use the BBS for our own behind-the-scene purposes as well...

TL;DR: Not that I have any admin/technological say but I don't see this BBS all out disappearing anytime soon.

Edited August 1, 2022 by Ikano

[rotinoma 2]

I appreciate this place and its continuing existence, if only for historical data reasons. A public forum that can be linked to is still a resource for the con and attendees.

Some staffers still read this so it's still good for me as a feedback source o/

I mean seriously I don't want to go to reddit for this info, even if things ought to be cross posted everywhere (and there are tools the otakon social team should use to do that).

[windseeker 80]

I'll miss it if it goes, but yeah its not the hive of activity it onc was.

[DeathJester 43]

3 hours ago, Ikano said:

If you need a quick/rapid/personalized answer about a certain situation/question the better way would be through Help Desk or private messaging on Facebook (when prompted), etc.

Clearly the Help Desk and Facebook messaging did not work in coordinating the Saturday entrances this year so Otakon needs a better system to rapidly address mass groups of attendees.   It was a really bad look when all the convention socials were blowing up over the long lines and the only official word out of the Otakon Twitter was a scheduled post advertising the Masquerade happening in the evening.  Having volunteers with megaphones trying to shout out up-to-date information can only go so far when everyone else is relaying unofficial info across socials.  Even something as basic as the 2022 attendance figures- I got that info from Aresef tweeting from the closing ceremonies rather than any direct Otakon source (Luckily I know he is a trustworthy source).

If another entrance wait mishap happens again next year, does staff really want to field thousands of individual Facebook messages to answer the current queue line status updates?  Also, the main Contact Us page: https://www.otakon.com/help/contact-us/ is not at all built to handle rapid at-con questions.  I just worry that if Otakon themselves don't step up on the communication front (eg "We hear you, so therefore we have opened a No Bag line at L street for rapid entrance!"), then you will have a mess of unmoderated digital voices telling people to go to the wrong place, or worst case scenario telling people were the loopholes are ("the entrance at XYZ is unlocked and you can skip the queue there!").

[Attendee7000 18]

As others have said, I hope the board sticks around, I really prefer it. Discord is basically a slow moving (sometimes fast moving) chatroom and most of the social media platforms are terrible for finding anything older than a couple weeks, or for any non-staff instigated discussion.

 

The 2022 board didn't open until a couple weeks ago. Hopefully Otakon gets the 2023 board up sooner than later. With the hotel block already open, we could use it *nudge nudge nudge*

[Ikano 17]

7 hours ago, DeathJester said:

Clearly the Help Desk and Facebook messaging did not work in coordinating the Saturday entrances this year so Otakon needs a better system to rapidly address mass groups of attendees.   It was a really bad look when all the convention socials were blowing up over the long lines and the only official word out of the Otakon Twitter was a scheduled post advertising the Masquerade happening in the evening.  Having volunteers with megaphones trying to shout out up-to-date information can only go so far when everyone else is relaying unofficial info across socials.  Even something as basic as the 2022 attendance figures- I got that info from Aresef tweeting from the closing ceremonies rather than any direct Otakon source (Luckily I know he is a trustworthy source).

If another entrance wait mishap happens again next year, does staff really want to field thousands of individual Facebook messages to answer the current queue line status updates?  Also, the main Contact Us page: https://www.otakon.com/help/contact-us/ is not at all built to handle rapid at-con questions.  I just worry that if Otakon themselves don't step up on the communication front (eg "We hear you, so therefore we have opened a No Bag line at L street for rapid entrance!"), then you will have a mess of unmoderated digital voices telling people to go to the wrong place, or worst case scenario telling people were the loopholes are ("the entrance at XYZ is unlocked and you can skip the queue there!").

My post/thoughts earlier was aimed more towards BBS usage the rest of the year and not during Otakon weekend itself....

But thanks for your feedback. All I can say in regards to it (because my personal role is not related to Help Desk/Online Help Desk/communications/etc) is that it will be analyzed/looked into.

[alabaster 0]

Hey guys, I am sorry I haven’t been around.  I apologize for neglecting my duties here.

I joke that I am semi-retired after 20+ years on staff (my first year on staff was when Cousin Sue was chair!), but that mostly means that I am not involved at the leadership level. There are a few reasons.  

First, the organization needs a steady influx of new blood, and I was deeply involved for more than a decade between the board and various convention roles.  I was Chair and president over 15 years ago now, and stopped heading GR before we left Baltimore, though I never stopped being involved. I’m around when needed for advice and contacts, and I like to think I am still helpful, but it’s time for others to have the big jobs. (And for me to not spend  20-40 hours a week on it.)

Second, a few years back I ended up having to spend a lot of time taking care of my grandmother (as some of you know from Facebook), and that had to be my primary focus.  She was living with me during much of the pandemic’s first year.  Then about 18 months ago, I fell down the stairs and broke both my feet pretty badly, and spent most of last year getting mobile again. It’s still a chore to do heavy walking and you may have seen me stomping around with a cane — it wasn’t cosplay.  If that wasn’t enough on my plate, I had a huge work project at my day job.  And then Covid took my grandmother (at 97), nearly took my mother on Christmas, and robbed my of my Dad — all in the space of a month. My 18-yr-old cat has also had some health issues.  So a lot of my absence this year, and here especially, has been for personal reasons. I just haven’t had the bandwidth or mental energy to put in what’s needed. 

These days I’m splitting my Otakon time between MCing panels for guests and helping run our hospitality area.  Basically my team makes sure the guests get fed and get to relax (it’s where they generally go in the evenings). It’s the most fun parts of my various jobs, because I get to actually spend time with old friends like Steve Bennet and Mile Toole and Yoshi Watanabe and Toshi Yoshida, as well as other guests and industry friends.

This year we had a few scheduling snafus internally, but myself and another former chair, Alice V, have been acting as MCs for guest panels. I started doing that years ago with Yoshiki and some of the other bands in particular, and in 2019 a did quite a few.  Not only do I really enjoy it, I have been increasingly in demand for it. Since Alice and I spent many years actively building relationships (particularly in Japan but throughout the industry), we get to spend time with friends and they get a familiar face to talk with. 

I ended up having a blast MC-ing with the Furukawas, who are every bit as delightful as they seem, for both of their big fully packed panels. And I did the Toonami panel with Steve Blum and Beau Billingslea, which was a particular treat as I hadn’t actually met Beau properly, but have known Steve and Mary Elizabeth for a long while but hadn’t seen Steve in person in eons.  I ended up having to solo it for a while because they were running behind, but we genuinely had a blast doing that one.

I usually make it to opening and closing ceremonies, but this year I needed a nap and had a ton to get done before the evening party.

[MattTheMinion 0]

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 aid and seen. That being said, the BBS will likely hang around as long as someone is willing to put some time into it. 

I know that part of the challenge this year with all of our digital interfaces was that when you have 10,000 more people than you anticipated show up at the last minute (~%50 of the folks who registered for Otakon did so in the 16 days prior to our event this year), the warm bodies we had at-con needed to focus on the crowds at the door. This means that folks who usually worked with an online interface were instead helping bodies get through registration or rotating through shifts attempting to manage the line while keeping everything else running inside.  With any luck there will be a couple of bottlenecks we can eliminate next year and we've already been discussing other ways to better manage lines and access. 

[Daniel Perales 95]

11 hours ago, alabaster said:

Stuff

I usually make it to opening and closing ceremonies, but this year I needed a nap and had a ton to get done before the evening party.

WOW! First off, I just can't think of anything to say on what you went through. I do understand, believe me, I know. God bless you for your strength.

 

[Daniel Perales 95]

46 minutes ago, MattTheMinion said:

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 aid and seen. That being said, the BBS will likely hang around as long as someone is willing to put some time into it. 

I still log into the NYAF forum (it still around), just to check. I think I'm the only live person who still post there just for fun. 

Other con forums I used to be active was from I-CON, Katsucon, and AnimeNEXT, no longer have their forums. I miss the interaction that I had with everyone else. It felt more like being part of an extended family then just being a member of a generic message board.

That's the way I kind of feel about this forum.